work. Fifteen years ago it was necessary to be critically careful in the distribution of directors as auspices of an assembly, even more so in the selection of preach

ers to address the audiences. The Assembly tent

population was strongly committed to the evangelical method and was shy of pulpit reasoning not along the line of traditional thought and method. And while Methodists and Presbyterians are today the most in

evidence in these forest audiences, the distrust is broken down. Fathers Cleary, Vaughn, and Nugent, and occasionally a Catholic bishop, appear on these forums, though the Catholic summer school mainly meets the needs of this denomination. With this qualification it is an open field for the faiths, though gospel folks are most in evidence.

There is in the Chautauqua business not a little catering to some of the American love of the marvelous that Barnum discovered. But it is pardonable. Curiosity is no vice; properly directed, it may prove a ladder to knowledge.

And it requires excellent business capacity to make a success of a summer assembly. Wisdom and good fortune are essential to financial success.

Talent must be secured which will attract the people. Too many" able lectures" and too few diversions in the way of music and fun have ruined many an assembly prospect. The receipts are only partially from the permanent tenting or cottage population; it is the twenty-five-cent admission from eight or ten thousand people to hear or see some notable, that ekes out the

CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLE AUDITORIUM, GLADSTONE, OREGON. budget. One or two rainy days will turn a handsome prospective surplus into a pathetic deficit. Ability to detect features that will attract audiences is the mark of a successful program-maker. Such features are expensive. The problem is to group the few high-priced stars with cheaper talent so as to make the program of ten days or two weeks continually attractive.

Assemblies owe their origin to some one of a number of reasons. Some of the newer ones have grown out of a real estate movement. Others are developed by traction companies in order to promote traffic. But most of them are purely on an entertainment and quasiphilanthropic basis, confining the effort to giving a program. Where there is a deficit the hope is to recoup during the following summer. Where there is a surplus, it goes into betterment of plant.

The assemblies have been responsible in no small degree for emphasis upon rational outof-door life, which is a healthy sign of our times. Rev. George W. Adams has recently called attention to the mere money-making interests which are antagonistic to the true spirit which has made the assemblies a real force for reform. Mr. Adams says, in part:

During these years the summer outing, which had been regarded as the prerogative of the wealthy and leisure classes, grew more general and all classes became infused with the spirit of summer restlessness; excursions to all kinds of resorts became popular, and Sabbath desecration increased with alarming rapidity.

This popular trend was accelerated by increased facilities of travel furnished by the railroads, and later by the extension of the trolley system, thus making easy of access the many beautiful and attractive places with which our land is so highly favored.

The assemblies have builded better than they knew, in that they have secured so many beautiful locations and are holding them in trust for the best interests of the youth of our land, and are also blessing many communities by keeping out, or at least holding in check, these despoilers of morality and virtue.

Had the assembly done no more than to act as a check on this other movement, by securing possession of these attractive and desirable grounds, and establishing thereon entertainments with a pure moral tone, it would merit the patronage and support of all who stand for God and home and native land.

I believe the time is not far distant when moneyed men philanthropists will get a complete view of the work being done by the assembly, and will come to the support of this great reform movement.

I would not have less money given to the endowment of permanent schools, but I would that more should be invested to maintain, strengthen, and perpetuate this great bulwark against summer dissipation, Sabbath desecration, and intemperance.

Among the best of the Chautauqua assemblies, typical programs are made up of sermons, religious and ethical addresses, university extension addresses, popular lectures, dramatic readings and interpretations of plays, and stereopticon lectures and entertainments in great variety, arranged in such proportions as to give unity and positive

has been erected, and a hall of philosophy, woman's building and dining hall are expected to be ready when the season opens. The Assembly this year meets from June 22 to July 2, inclusive. Recognition Day comes on Monday, June 30, Dean Wright, speaker. The C. L. S. C. department and Round Tables will be conducted by Mrs. Charles E. Risser, of Des Moines. Dean Wright will conduct the Bible school; W. C. T. U. State President Belle C. Kimball will have charge of the Woman's Council. Program talent includes Thos. Dixon, Jr., DeWitt Miller, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, Thos. McClary, Vernon P. Squires, Johnson Swiss Bell Ringers, and Aseteram Trio, Wesleyan Quartet, Edison Entertainers, Light Guard Band.

The present management is Robt. T. Stickney, president, H. G. Fitzer, secretary, and three other directors, forming an executive committee.

COLFAX, IOWA.

The seventh annual session of the Iowa State Epworth League Assembly will be held at Colfax, Iowa, July 24-August 3, 1902. Extensive improvements on the beautiful grounds are already in progress. A complete sanitary system will be put into the park and the tenting area enlarged.

An excellent program is planned for this summer. Dr. A. W. Patten, of Northwestern University, will have charge of the Bible work. Among the lectures are one on liquid air and one on wireless telegraphy. Such names as Dr. Frank Crane, Bishop Joyce, Colonel Bain, Dr. Stuntz, and President Haucher are on the program, and the African Boy Choir will be present three days.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO. The National Chautauqua Association, incorporated in 1900 under the laws of Colorado, is probably the latest addition to the numerous progeny of the parent institution in New York. Its directors are a half-dozen representative business and professional men of Colorado Springs, with the present mayor of the city, Dr. John R. Robinson, at their

head, and its Advisory Board includes among its out-of-town members Hamilton Mabie, Francis E. Clark, Congressman McCall, Professor Dunning, of Columbia, and Professor Wright, of Harvard. The association owns one hundred and thirty acres of land situated near the south entrance of the famous Garden of the Gods and within a few steps of the electric line connecting Colorado Springs and Manitou. The grounds have an elevation above sea level of something over six thousand feet, and command a magnificent view of the peaks of the Rampart range which tower from four to eight thousand feet higher.

The "Garden of the Gods" Assembly and Summer School, which picturesque title is naturally derived from the location of the Chautauqua grounds, will hold its initial sessions this year, the summer school from July 23 to August 20, and the assembly from August 6 to August 20. In the school instruction will be given in pedagogy and psychology, history, economics, English and American literature, botany, geology, German, French, Spanish, mathematics, drawing, music, calisthenics, and primary methods, the aim being to provide both courses of general culture and courses suited to the needs of teachers. The school's faculty will be drawn from ten states of the Union and fifteen of our leading colleges and universities. At least four of its instructors hold first rank in this country in their respective departments of learning, viz., Professor Wyckoff, of Princeton; Professor Turner, of Wisconsin; Professor Crosby of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Professor Bessey, of the University of Nebraska. In the assembly program there will be heard Jacob Riis, Professor Wyckoff, Professor Turner, Dr. Thos. E. Green, Dr. A. C. Hirst, Dr. J. P. D. John, W. Hinton White, besides several of the best musical and entertainment companies now engaged in Chautauqua work. The Garden of the Gods Magazine, a monthly publication, has been founded to serve as the official journal of the assembly and summer school. Its first issue appeared May 1.