Culture

An hour by train from Buffalo, a promontory, fair in Summer, cuts the waters of Lake Chautauqua. It is a piece of land almost totally covered with cottages and tents.

Fifty years ago Bishop John H. Vincent, from Lewisburg, Pa., and Lewis Miller, from Akron, founded there a school for Sunday school teachers. Gradually their course of instruction was broadened to include all respectable culture. Others than school teachers came to fill the tents and cottages. And before the 19th Century ended, the spot became one of the wonders of America. It was Chautauqua.

The pleasures of Chautauqua include baseball, swimming, croquet, evangelistic meetings, minstrel shows, lectures on science, orations by W. J. Bryan and other candidates, symphony orchestras, glorious sunsets, wholesome food, culture.

Its 50th anniversary will be celebrated this June, July, August. There are now nearly 300 Chautauquas in the land. Their essential idea is to raise culture by popular education, tempered with religion.