l
with Dr. Vincent, dating back to the Galena pastorate of 1860 and '61,
but also through the influence and activity of the Rev. Dr. Theodore L.
Flood, who though a successful Methodist minister was also somewhat of a
politician. The President and his party came up from Jamestown on a
steamer-yacht, and at Fair Point were lodged in the tent beside the
Lewis Miller cottage. True to his rule while General and President,
Grant made no speech in public, not even when a handsomely bound Bagster
Bible was presented to him in behalf of the assembly. Those were the
palmy days of "Teachers' Bibles," with all sorts of helps and tables as
appendices; and at that time the Bagster and the American Tract Society
were rivals for the Sunday School constituency. Not to be outdone by
their competitors, the Tract Society's representative at Chautauqua also
presented one of his Bibles to the President. One can scarcely have too
many Bibles, and the General may have found use for both of them. He
received them with a nod but never a word. Yet those who met him at
dinners and in social life said that in private he was a delightful
talker and by no means reticent. The tents and cottages on the
Chautauqua of those days were taxed to almost bursting capacity to house
the multitude over the Sunday of the President's visit. As many more
would have come on that day, if the rules concerning Sabbath observance
had been relaxed, as some had expected. But the authorities were firm,
the gates by lake and land were kept closed, and that Sunday was like
all other Sundays at Chautauqua.

[Illustration: Spouting Tree and Oriental House]

At the close of the Assembly, the normal examinations were given to 190
students; some left the tent in terror after reading over the questions,
but 130 struggled to the end and handed in their papers, of which 123
were above the passing grade. There were now two classes of graduates,
and the Chautauqua Normal Alumni Association was organized. Mr. Otis F.
Presbrey of Washington, D. C. (the man who on a certain occasion "looked
like sixty"), was its first president. The secretary chosen was the Rev.
J. A. Worden, a Presbyterian pastor at Steubenville, Ohio, and one of
the normal teachers at Chautauqua; who afterward, and for many years,
was general secretary and superintendent of Sabbath School work in the
Presbyterian Church.

At the Assembly of 1875, a quiet, unassuming little lady was present,
who was already famous,