The Story of Chautauqua Part 5

[Ill.u.s.tration: Rustic Bridge over Ravine]

After the Scientific Conference came a Temperance Congress, on July 29th and 30th. A new star had arisen in the firmament. Out of a little meeting at Chautauqua in 1874, had grown the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, already in 1876 organized in every State and in pretty nearly every town. Its founders had chosen for President of the Union a young woman who combined in one personality the consummate orator and the wise executive, Miss Frances Elizabeth Willard of Evanston, Illinois, who resigned her post as Dean of the Woman's Department of the Northwestern University to enter upon an arduous, a lifelong and world-wide warfare to prohibit intoxicants, and as a means to that end, to obtain the suffrage for women. Frances Willard died in 1898, but if she could have lived until 1920 she would have seen both her aims accomplished in the eighteenth and nineteenth amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States; one forbidding the manufacture and sale of all alcoholic liquors, the other opening the door of the voting-booth to every woman in the land. In Statuary Hall, Was.h.i.+ngton, the only woman standing in marble is Frances E. Willard (there will be others later), and her figure is there among the statesmen and warriors of the nation's history, by vote of the Legislature of the State of Illinois.

At every step in the progress of Chautauqua the two Founders held frequent consultations. Both of them belonged to the progressive school of thought, but on some details they differed, and woman's sphere was one of their points of disagreement. Miller favored women on the Fair Point platform, but Vincent was in doubt on the subject. Of course some gifted women came as teachers of teachers in the primary department of the Sunday School, but on the program their appearance was styled a "Reception to Primary Teachers by Mrs. or Miss So-and-So." Dr. Vincent knew Frances E. Willard, admired her, believed honestly that she was one of the very small number of women called to speak in public, and he consented to her coming to Chautauqua in the Temperance Congress of 1876. From the hour of her first appearance there was never after any doubt as to her enthusiastic welcome at Chautauqua. No orator drew larger audiences or bound them under a stronger spell by eloquent words than did Frances Elizabeth Willard. Frances Willard was the first but by no means the last woman to lecture on the Chautauqua platform. Mrs. Mary A. Livermore soon followed her, and before many summers had pa.s.sed, Dr.

Vincent was introducing to the Chautauqua const.i.tuency women as freely as men, to speak on the questions of the time.

Another innovation began on this centennial season--_The Chautauqua a.s.sembly Herald_. For two years the a.s.sembly had been dependent upon reports by newspaper correspondents, who came to the ground as strangers, with no share in the Chautauqua spirit, knowing very little of Chautauqua's aims, and eager for striking paragraphs rather than accurate records. A lecturer who is wise never reads the report of his speech in the current newspapers; for he is apt to tear his hair in anguish at the tale of his utterances. Chautauqua needed an organ, and Dr. Theodore L. Flood, from the first a staunch friend of the movement, undertook to establish a daily paper for the season. The first number of the _Herald_ appeared on June 29, 1876, with Dr. Flood as editor, and Mr. Milton Bailey of Jamestown as publisher. The opening number was published in advance of the a.s.sembly and sent to Chautauquans everywhere; but the regular issue began on July 29th with the Scientific Conference, and was continued daily (except Sunday) until the close of the a.s.sembly. Every morning sleepers (who ought to have arisen earlier in time for morning prayers at 6:40) were awakened by the shrill voices of boys calling out "_Daily a.s.sembly Herald_!" The _Daily_ was a success from the start, for it contained accurate and complete reports of the most important lectures, outlines of the Normal lessons, and the items of information needed by everybody. All over the land people who could not come to Chautauqua kept in touch with its life through the _Herald_.

More than one distinguished journalist began his editorial career in the humble quarters of _The Chautauqua Daily a.s.sembly Herald_. For two seasons the _Daily_ was printed in Mayville, though edited on the ground. In 1878 a printing plant was established at the a.s.sembly and later became the Chautauqua Press. Almost a generation after its establishment, its name was changed to _The Chautauquan Daily_, which throughout the year is continued as _The Chautauquan Weekly_, with news of the Chautauqua movement at home and abroad.

Visitors to Chautauqua in the centennial year beheld for the first time a structure which won fame from its inhabitants if not from its architecture. This was the Guest House, standing originally on the lake sh.o.r.e near the site of the present Men's Club building; though n.o.body remembers it by its official name, for it soon became known as "The Ark." No, gentle reader, the report is without foundation that this was the original vessel in which Noah traveled with his menagerie, and that after reposing on Mount Ararat it went adrift on Lake Chautauqua. "The Ark" was built to provide a comfortable home for the speakers and workers at the a.s.sembly who for two years had been lodged in tents, like the Israelites in the Wilderness. It was a frame building of two stories, s.h.i.+ngle-roofed, with external walls and internal part.i.tions of tent-cloth. Each room opened upon a balcony, the stairs to the upper floor being on the outside and the entire front of each cell a curtain, which under a strong wind was wont to break loose, regardless of the condition of the people inside. After a few years a part.i.tion between two rooms at one end was taken down, a chimney and fireplace built, and the result was a living room where the arkites a.s.sembled around a fire and told stories. Ah, those _noctes ambrosianae_ when Edward Everett Hale and Charles Barnard and Sherwin and the Beards narrated yarns and cracked jokes! Through the thin part.i.tions of the bedrooms, every sneeze could be heard. The building was soon dubbed Noah's Ark, then "Knowers'

Ark," from the varied learning of its indwellers; and sometimes from the reverberations sounding at night, "Snorers' Ark." Frank Beard was a little deaf, and was wont to sit at these _conversazioni_ in the parlor of the Ark with his hand held like an ear-trumpet. Mrs. Beard used to say that whenever she wished to hold a private conversation with him, they hired a boat and rowed out at least a mile from the sh.o.r.e. When the a.s.sembly enlarged its boundaries by a purchase of land, the Ark was moved up to higher ground in the forest near where the Normal Hall now stands, and there served almost a generation of Chautauqua workers, until its frail materials were in danger of collapse, and it was taken down. Less famous buildings have been kept in memory by tablets and monuments; but it would require no small slab of marble to contain the names of the famous men and women who dwelt in that old Guest House; and what a book might have been made if some Boswell had kept the record of its stories and sayings! After spending two nights in the Ark, the Rev.

Alfred Taylor's poetic muse was aroused to sing of the place and its occupants after this fas.h.i.+on:

This structure of timber and muslin contained Of preachers and teachers some two or three score; Of editors, parsons a dozen or more.

There were Methodists, Baptists, and 'Piscopals, too And grave Presbyterians, a handful or two.

There were lawyers, and doctors and various folks, All full of their wisdom, and full of their jokes.

There were writers of lessons, and makers of songs, And shrewd commentators with wonderful tongues; And all of these busy, industrious men Found it hard to stop talking at just half-past ten.

They talked, and they joked, and they kept such a clatter That neighboring folks wondered what was the matter But weary at last, they extinguished the light, And went to their beds for the rest of the night.

The formal opening of the a.s.sembly in 1876 took place after the Scientific and Temperance gatherings, on Tuesday evening, August 1st, in the leaf-roofed Auditorium, but the benches were now provided with backs for the comfort of the thousands. The platform had been enlarged to make room for a choir, under the leaders.h.i.+p in turn of W. F. Sherwin and Philip P. Bliss, whose gospel songs are still sung around the world.

Only a few months later, that voice was hushed forever on earth, when the train bearing the singer and his wife crashed through a broken bridge at Ashtabula, Ohio. The record of that evening shows that fifteen speakers gave greetings, supposedly five minutes in length, although occasionally the flow of language overpa.s.sed the limit. Among the speakers we read the names of Dr. Henry M. Sanders of New York, Mr.

John D. Wattles of the _Sunday School Times_, Dr. Henry W. Warren of Philadelphia, soon to become a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. C. F. Burr, the author of _Ecce Coelum_, a book of astronomy ministering to religion, famous in that day, though almost forgotten in our time; Dr. Lyman Abbott, who came before the audience holding up his pocket-Bible, with the words, "I am here to-night, because here this book is held in honor," Dr. Warren Randolph, the head of Sunday School work among the Baptist churches, and Mr. A. O. Van Lennep, in Syrian costume and fez-cap. He made two speeches, one in Arabic, the other in English.

Normal work for Sunday School teachers was kept well in the foreground.

The subjects of the course were divided into departments, each under a director, who chose his a.s.sistants. Four simultaneous lessons were given in the section tents, reviewed later in the day by the directors at a meeting of all the cla.s.ses in the pavilion. In addition, Dr. Vincent held four public platform reviews, covering the entire course. The record states that about five hundred students were present daily in the Normal department. About one hundred undertook the final examinations for members.h.i.+p in the Normal Alumni a.s.sociation. The writer of these pages well remembers those hours in the pavilion, for he was one of those examined, and Frank Beard was another. The first question on the paper was, "What is your name and address?" Mr. Beard remarked audibly, that he was glad he could answer at least one of the questions. To dispel the doubts of our readers, we remark that both of us pa.s.sed, and were duly enrolled among the Normal Alumni.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Amphitheater Audience On the Lake By the Lake Tennis Courts In the Lake]

The list of the lecturers and their subjects show that Bible study and Bible teaching still stood at the fore. The program contained with many others the following names: Dr. W. E. Knox on "The Old Testament Severities," Dr. Lyman Abbott, "Bible Interpretation," Dr. R. K.

Hargrove of Tennessee, later a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, "Childhood and the Sunday School Work," Dr. George P. Hays, then President of Was.h.i.+ngton and Jefferson College, "How to Reason," Frank Beard, a caricature lecture with crayon on "Our School," showing types of teachers and scholars, Dr. George W. Woodruff, a most entertaining lecture on "Bright Days in Foreign Lands," Dr. A. J. Baird of Tennessee, "Going Fis.h.i.+ng with Peter," Rev. J. A. Worden, "What a Presbyterian Thinks of John Wesley,"--a response to Rev. J. L. Hurlbut's lecture in 1875 on "What a Methodist Thinks of John Knox,"--Prof. L. T.

Townsend, "Paul's Cloak Left at Troas"; also Dr. Richard Newton, M. C.

Hazard, editor of the _National Sunday School Teacher_, Rev. Thomas K.

Beecher of Elmira, and Bishop Jesse T. Peck. These are a few samples of the repast spread on the lecture platform of the a.s.sembly.

The Centennial of American Independence was duly commemorated on Sat.u.r.day, August 5th. Bishop Simpson had been engaged to deliver the oration, but was kept at home by illness and the hour was filled with addresses by different speakers, one of whom, Mr. W. Aver Duncan of London, presented the congratulations of Old England to her daughter across the sea. A children's centennial was held in the afternoon, at which the writer of this story spoke, and Frank Beard drew funny pictures. We will not tell, though we know, which of the two orators pleased the children most. At the sunset hour an impressive Bible service was held on the sh.o.r.e of the lake by Professor Sherwin, followed in the Auditorium by a concert of slave-songs from "The North Carolinians," a troupe of negro college students. Late in the evening came a gorgeous display on the lake, the Illuminated Fleet. Every steam vessel plying Chautauqua waters marched in line, led by the old three-decker _Jamestown_ all hung with Chinese lanterns, and making the sky brilliant with fireworks. A week later there was a commemorative tree-planting on the little park in the angle between the present Post Office building and the Colonnade. President Lewis Miller, Dr. C. H.

Payne, President of Ohio Wesleyan University, Drs. Vail and Strong, teachers of Hebrew and Greek at the a.s.sembly, Drs. O. H. Tiffany, T. K.

Beecher, Richard Newton, J. A. Worden, Beard and Sherwin, Dr. Wythe, builder of Palestine Park and Director of Recreations at the a.s.sembly, and Prof. P. P. Bliss were some, but not all of those who planted trees.

Afterward each tree was marked by a sign bearing the name of its planter. These signs were lost in the process of the years, and not all the trees are now living. I think that I can identify the tree planted by Frank Beard, but am not sure of any other in the little group remaining at the present time.

A noteworthy event at the a.s.sembly of 1876 was the establishment of the Children's Meeting as a daily feature. Meetings for the younger people had been held from time to time in '74 and '75 but this year Frank Beard suggested a regular "Children's Hour," and the meetings were at first conducted by him, mingling religion and humor. Underneath his fun, Mr.

Beard had a serious soul. He read strong books, talked with his friends on serious subjects, always sought to give at least one ill.u.s.trated Bible reading during the a.s.sembly, and resented the popular expectation that he should be merely the funny man on the program. He was a.s.sisted in his children's meeting by the Rev. Bethuel T. Vincent, a brother of the Founder, who was one of the most remarkable teachers of children and young people whom I have ever known. He could arrange the facts of Bible knowledge in outline, could present them in a striking manner, and drill them into the minds of the boys and girls in an enduring way that few instructors could equal and none surpa.s.s. Before many sessions, Mr.

Vincent's lesson became the major feature and Beard's pictures the entertainment of the meeting. The grown-ups came to the meetings in such numbers as threatened to crowd out the children, until the rule was made that adults must take the rear seats,--no exception being made even for the row of ear-trumpets--leaving the front to the little people.

Following the custom of the Normal Cla.s.s, an examination in writing that would tax the brains of many ministers was held at the close, limited to all below a certain age, and prizes were awarded to the best papers presented. As after forty years I read the list of graduates in those early cla.s.ses, I find the names of men and women who have distinguished themselves as ministers and missionaries in the churches.

Early in the a.s.sembly season, on August 7, 1876, a momentous step was taken in the appointment by the instructors and students of the Normal Cla.s.s, of a committee to prepare a course of study for the preparation of Sunday School teachers. Eleven men, present at Chautauqua, representing ten different denominations, were chosen as the committee, and their report const.i.tuted the first attempt at a _union_ normal course. Hitherto each church had worked out its own independent course of study, and the lines laid down were exceedingly divergent. This new course prescribed forty lessons, a year's work divided between the study of the Bible, the Sunday School, the pupil, and the principles of teaching. Comparing it with the official course now adopted by the International Sunday School a.s.sociation, we find it for a year's study remarkably complete and adapted to the teacher's needs. For years it stood as the basis of the teacher-training work at Chautauqua, was followed in the preparation of text-books and pursued by many cla.s.ses in the United States and Canada.

The Centennial Year marked a note of progress in the music at the a.s.sembly. Up to this time scarcely any music had been attempted outside of the church and Sunday School hymnals. This year the choir was larger than before, perhaps as many as forty voices--think of that in contrast with the three hundred now a.s.sembled in the choir-gallery of the Amphitheater! Some anthems had been attempted, but no oratorios, and no songs of the secular character. It was Professor C. C. Case who ventured with the doubtful permission of Dr. Vincent to introduce at a concert some selections from standard music outside the realm of religion.

n.o.body objected, perhaps because n.o.body recognized the significance of the step taken; and it was not long before the whole world of music was open to Chautauquans.

This writer remembers, however, that when at an evening lecture, Dr.

Vincent announced as a prelude "Invitation to the Dance," sung by a quartette of ladies, he received next day a letter of protest against so immoral a song at a religious gathering. If it had been sung without announcement of its t.i.tle, no one would have objected. On the following evening, Dr. Vincent actually offered a mild apology for the t.i.tle.

Since that time, the same t.i.tle has been printed on the Chautauqua program, and the song encored by five thousand people. Surely, "the world do move!"

Another step in the advancement of Chautauqua was the incorporation of the a.s.sembly. Up to this year, 1876, the old charter of the Erie Conference Camp Meeting a.s.sociation had const.i.tuted the legal organization. On April 28, 1876, new articles of incorporation were signed at Mayville, the county seat, providing for twenty-four trustees of the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School a.s.sembly. In the charter the object was stated "to hold stated public meetings from year to year upon the grounds at Fair Point in the County of Chautauqua for the furtherance of Sunday School interests and any other moral and religious purpose not inconsistent therewith." We note that the old name Fair Point was still used to designate the place of the a.s.sembly. But it was for the last time; with the next year's program a new name will appear.

One of the first acts of the new Board was to purchase a large addition to the camp-meeting ground on its eastern border, and to lay out streets upon it. This section included the campus and site of the buildings that now adorn the College Hill. Some readers may inquire how the streets of the a.s.sembly received their names. During the Camp Meeting period, the streets were named after Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church--Simpson Avenue, Janes Avenue, Merrill Avenue, and so on. Under the a.s.sembly regime a few more bishops were thus remembered; the road winding around from Palestine Park to the land-gate on the public highway was called Palestine Avenue; Vincent Avenue ran straight up the hill past the old Dining Hall, Miller Avenue parallel with it on the west; and other streets later were named after prominent Chautauqua leaders. Wythe the first Secretary, Root, the first Vice-President, Ma.s.sey, a family from Canada making liberal contributions, Miss Kimball, the efficient Executive Secretary of the Reading Circle, and a few other names in Chautauqua's annals. The visitor to the present-day Chautauqua smiles as he reads one of the earliest enactments of the new Board, a resolution to instruct the Superintendent of Grounds "to warn the person selling tobacco on the grounds that he is engaged in an unlawful occupation." We hasten to add that this anti-tobacco regulation is no longer in operation.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Old Palace Hotel Oriental Group Lake-Sh.o.r.e The Ark Tent-Life Old Dining Hall N. E. Kitchen Group of Workers Woodland Path]

The reader of this chapter perceives that the centennial year marked notable advancements at Chautauqua: a lengthened and broadened program, the establis.h.i.+ng of a newspaper, the beginning of the daily Children's Meeting with a course of Bible study for the young, the organizing of a definite course for the training of Sunday School teachers, the incorporation of the a.s.sembly with a full Board of Trustees, with the transfer of the property from the former camp-meeting proprietors.h.i.+p, and a purchase of ground doubling the extent of its territory.

Chautauqua, only three years old is already, in Scripture phrase, lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes.

CHAPTER VII

A NEW NAME AND NEW FACES

THE fourth session of the a.s.sembly opened in 1877 with a new name, _Chautauqua_ taking the place of old Fair Point. The former t.i.tle had caused some confusion. Fair Point was often misread "Fairport," and letters wandered to distant places of similar names. There was a Chautauqua Lake station on the Erie Railway, and a Chautauqua Point encampment across the lake from Fair Point, but the name "Chautauqua"

had not been appropriated, and by vote of the trustees it was adopted; the government was requested to change the name of the Post Office, and the railroads and steamboats to place Chautauqua upon their announcements. Fair Point disappeared from the record, and is now remembered only by the decreasing group of the oldest Chautauquans.

Every season brings its own anxieties, and as the a.s.sembly of 1877 drew near, a new fear came to the leaders of Chautauqua. A few will remember, and others have heard, that in 1877 took place the most extensive railway strike in the annals of the nation. The large station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Pittsburgh was burned by a mob, and for weeks at a time, no trains ran either into or out of many important centers. Fortunately the strike was adjusted and called off before the a.s.sembly opened, and on the first day four thousand people entered the gates, a far greater number than at any former opening.

On that year the menace of denominational rivalry threatened to confront Chautauqua. Across the lake, two miles from the a.s.sembly, another point reaches westward, facing the a.s.sembly ground. This tract was purchased by an enterprising company belonging to Baptist churches, and named Point Chautauqua. Its founders disclaimed any intention of becoming compet.i.tors with the a.s.sembly. Their purpose, as announced, was to supply sites for summer homes, especially to members and friends of their own denomination. They began by building an expensive hotel at a time when the a.s.sembly was contented with small boarding houses; and they soon followed the hotel with a large lecture-hall far more comfortable than either the out-door auditorium or the tent-pavilion at Chautauqua. To attract visitors they soon provided a program of speakers, with occasional concerts. Thus on opposite sh.o.r.es of the lake two inst.i.tutions were rising, in danger of becoming rivals in the near future. Nor was Chautauqua Point the only rival in prospect. A year or two later a tent was erected near Lakewood for the holding of an a.s.sembly upon a "liberal" platform, where speakers of more advanced views of religion and the Bible could obtain a hearing. This gathering favored an open Sunday, and welcomed the steamers and railroad excursions on the day when the gates of Chautauqua were kept tightly closed. In those days the fear was expressed that Chautauqua Lake, instead of being a center for Christians of every name might furnish sites for separate conventions of different sects, and thus minister to dissension rather than to fellows.h.i.+p.

But these fears proved to be groundless. The "liberal" convocation down the lake held but one session, and left its promoters with debts to be paid. The founders of the Baptist inst.i.tution made the mistake of beginning on too great a scale. The hotel and lecture-hall involved the corporation of Point Chautauqua in heavy debt, they were sold, and the place became a village, like other hamlets around the lake. The hotel was continued for some years, and the lecture-hall became a dancing pavilion, tempting the young people to cross the lake from Chautauqua where dancing was under a strict taboo. Perhaps it was an advantage to the thousands at the a.s.sembly to find only two miles away a place where the rules were relaxed.

One story of a later season may be told in this connection, for it was without doubt typical. There are staid fathers and mothers attending lectures on sociology and civics in the Hall of Philosophy who could narrate similar experiences if only they would. A youth and two young la.s.ses went out at the pier-gate for a sail across the lake. They landed at Point Chautauqua, refreshed their constrained bodies by a good dance, and then sailed home again. But it was late, the gate was closed, and it was of no avail to rattle the portals, for the gate-keepers were asleep in their homes far up the hill. The girls were somewhat alarmed, but the young man piloted them through the forest over a well-worn path to a place where some pickets of the fence were loose and could be shoved aside. They squeezed through and soon were safely at their homes.

But their troubles were not over. Their tickets had been punched to go out of the grounds, but not to come in again. Technically, in the eyes of the Chautauqua government they were still outside the camp. This young man, however, was not lacking in resources. He knew all the officials from His Whiskers, the supreme chief of police, down the list.

Making choice of one gateman whose nature was somewhat social he called upon him in his box, talked in a free and easy way, picked up his punch and began making holes in paper and cards. When the gatekeeper's back was turned, he quickly brought out the three tickets, punched them for coming into the grounds, and then laid down the nippers. The girls, now officially within the grounds, were grateful to their friend, and to manifest their regard wrought for him a sofa-pillow which decorated his room in college.

Something should be said just here concerning the ticket-system of Chautauqua. It was devised by the genius of Lewis Miller, to whom invention was instinctive, and was improved to meet every possible attempt at evasion. There were one-day tickets, good for only one admission, three-day tickets, week-tickets, and season-tickets, all providing no admission on Sundays. They were not transferable, and all except the one-day variety bore the purchaser's name. Two or three times during the season officers visited every house and every lecture and cla.s.s, even stopping everybody on the streets to see that no single-day tickets were kept for longer periods. Provision was made for exchanging at the office short-stop tickets for the longer time desired.

If one wished to go outside the gate on an errand, or for a sail on the lake, he must leave his ticket, unless he was known to the gate-keeper, in order to prevent more than one person from using the same ticket.

When one left the a.s.sembly for good, he gave up his ticket. Every ticket had its number by which it could be identified if lost or found; and the bulletin-board contained plenty of notices of lost tickets.

It is said that one careful visitor carried his ticket everywhere for a day or two, at each lecture-hall and tent looking vainly for a window where it might be shown. As it did not seem to be needed, he left it in his room, only to find when he wished to take out a boat, that he must go home and get his ticket. When the day arrived for him to leave Chautauqua, he placed his ticket in the bottom of his trunk, as it would be needed no longer, intending to take it home as a souvenir for his memory-book. But, alas, at the gate, departing, he found that ticket an absolute necessity. Without it, apparently he must stay forever inside the walls of Chautauqua. So once more he overhauled his trunk, dug up his ticket from its lowest strata, and departed in peace.

One departure from camp-meeting customs at once wrought a change in the aspect of Chautauqua and greatly promoted its growth. We have noted the fact that in the earlier years no householder or tent-dweller was to receive boarders, and all except those who cooked at home ate in a common dining-hall. After the third a.s.sembly, this restriction was removed and anyone could provide rooms and board upon paying a certain percentage of receipts to the management. The visitors who came in 1877 missed, but not in sorrow, the dingy old Dining-Hall, which had been torn down. But everywhere boarding houses had sprung up as by magic, and cottages had suddenly bulged out with new additions, while signs of "Rooms and Board" greeted the visitants everywhere. In fact, so eager were the landlords for their prey, that runners thronged the wharf to inform new arrivals of desirable homes, and one met these agents even at the station in Mayville. There was an announcement of the Palace Hotel, the abode of luxurious aristocracy. The seeker after its lordly accommodations found a frame building, tent-covered and tent-part.i.tioned into small rooms for guests. But even this was an improvement upon the rows of cots in the big second story of the old lodging house, where fifty people slept in one room, sometimes with the rain dripping upon them through a leaky roof. Year by year the boarding cottages grew in number, in size, and in comfort. Fain would we name some of these hostelries, whose patrons return to them season after season, but we dare not begin the catalogue, lest by an omission we should offend some beloved landlady and her guests. In a few years the Palace Hotel, half-house and half-tent, gave place to the Hotel Athenaeum, on the same site, whose wide balcony looks out upon the lake, and whose tower has been a home for some choice spirits. The writer knows this for he has dwelt beside them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old Hall of Philosophy]