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
assembly 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 fellowship.

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 institution 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 Assembly 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
lasses 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 c