The mirror., 1923-10-18
PIERIAN CHAUTAUOUA CIRCLE

Once upon a time, on the 7th day OF
October in the year of Grace 1923, to be
exact, there met together in a certain
school room in midwestern city too well
remembered to bear repetition here, group
of men known collectively as the Circle.
These men had formed the habit of meet
ing amongst themselves every fortnight
for the purpose of assisting one another in
the ways of science, literature, and art.
And since, in the past, they had occupied
themselves almost solely with the matter of
earning living, as was the custom in
those days, it was no easy task for them
rhythm, and form. In fact, having dealt
for so long with that which is visible and
external in life, they could only approach
the problems of their new studies through
their individual experiences. Yet even
with such handicap they succeeded in
doing rather well; for it should be re-
membered that not until considerable
amount of water had flown under the
bridge from the time l am writing of did
men come to view these subjects in
clearer light.
There were fourteen of these men who
had come together on this day. To be
sure, there should have been fifteen present,
but one of their number who held the
office of Circle critic, had unwittingly
locked himself in. 1t should be recorded
here that the community in which these
men lived was not unlike those monastic
colonies which preceded the Renaissance,
each man living in a cell by himself, and
thus a mental absorption and absent
mindedness was not unnatural. Obvious
ly this Critic does not enter into our mar
rative There were also among those
present two men who had never before
attended these meetings; the one, student
of economics, whom we will call Mr.. J.
NJ. L.; the other, known as Mr.. H. j., an
authority in the higher mathematics. And
to round out the assemblage, the guest of
the day was a certain Deputy Welch, an
honorary member.
As is pertinent to all associations, this
Circle had officers and a system of pro-
cedure involving a modicum of routine
which fell mostly upon its Secretary. So
he read report of the preceding meeting,
issued books, pamphlets, and catalogues
from the private library, and fell to fun
bling over his papers as is the custom of
all secretaries And the while he was
thus occupied the President Mr.. o. NJ,
reapportioned the members into classes,
without rank or grade, beftting demo-
cratic academy
Now there was certain member Mr..
H. c. H. for want of clearer title, who
was possessed of faculty for seeing the
good that is in others. And it had come
= to him that THE MIRROR, a weekly periodi-
cal published in the neighborhood, was do
ing great work amongst its subscribers
and was likewise cooperating most kind
ly with the Circle. So he had prepared,
in the secusion of his cell, as befitted
true cenobite, resolution of appreciation
of the efforts of the Editor and Staff of
The MIRROR. To his resolution the Vice
President, Mr.. F. T. p, offered an amend
ment which was accepted, and the whole
was then unanimously passed upon by the
procedure known as rising vote. A COPY
of this resolution may be seen in the files
of THE MIRROR for the 18th of October
of the year in which this meetings oc-
Cured.
At the time of this story there was
man, farmer and patriot who later at
tanned to considerable prominence as
statesman, and this man had been elected
to seat in the Senate at Washington.
Now Washington and Mr.. Magnus John
son, for such was the name of this man,
are far and away from the point, should
there be one, to our narrative. What con-
Germs u.s. or rather what concerned the
men of this Circle at the time, was the
possible acquisition of further knowledge
of the laws of economics. For at that hour
OF our industrial history a not inconsider-
able confusion of opinions existed, and
the future had not yet become, as our
specialists have since proved, that which
history itself has shown it to be.
So it came about that one of the men,
bers, Mr.. R. ]. T. who was by way of
h..