unknown river. Over the old pier at Fair Point
was the sign, "National S. S. Assembly," and beneath it I stepped ashore
on what seemed almost a holy ground, for my first walk was through
Palestine Park. On Friday, August 6th, I gave a normal lesson, the first
in my life, with fear and trembling. It was on "the city of Jerusalem,"
and I had practiced on the map until I thought that I could draw it
without a copy. But, alas, one of the class must needs come to the
blackboard and set my askew diagram in the right relations. Twenty years
afterward, at an assembly in Kansas, an old lady spoke to me after a
lesson, "I saw you teach your first lesson at Chautauqua. You said that
you had never taught a normal class before, and I thought it was the
solemn truth. You've improved since then!"

Some new features had been added to the grounds since the first
Assembly. Near Palestine Park was standing a fine model of modern
Jerusalem and its surrounding hills, so exact in its reproduction that
one day a bishop pointed out the identical building wherein he had
lodged when visiting the city--the same hostel, by the way, where this
writer stayed afterward in 1897, and from whose roof he took his first
view of the holy places. Near Palestine Park, an oriental house had been
constructed, with rooms in two stories around an open court. These rooms
were filled with oriental and archaeological curiosities, making it a
museum; and every day Dr. A. O. Von Lennep, a Syrian by birth, stood on
its roof and gave in Arabic the Mohammedan call to prayer. I failed to
observe, however, the people at Chautauqua prostrating themselves at the
summons. Indeed, some of them actually mocked the make-believe muezzin
before his face. On the hill, near the Dining Hall, stood a sectional
model of the great pyramid, done in lath and plaster, as if sliced in
two from the top downward, half of it being shown, and the room inside
of it indicated. Also there was a model of the Tabernacle in the
Wilderness, covered with its three curtains, and containing within an
altar, table, and candlestick. Daily lectures were given before it by
the Rev. J. S. Ostrander, wearing the miter, robe, and breastplate of
the high priest.

The evolution of the Chautauqua Idea made some progress at the second
Assembly. Instead of eight sessions of the Normal Class, two were held
daily. The program report says that fifty normal sessions were held;
regularly two each day, one at 8 o'clock