e
help. He became a well-read and, in the end, a
successful business man. As soon as he heard of
the Chautauqua Circle, he began to read its books
and was made President of a local circle. That
table is filled with the members of his circle and
he sits at the head of it.

I wish that I could write down a story as it was told me by Dr. Duryea,
at Chautauqua. It was of a man who sat at his table in the Hotel and was
always in a hurry, never finishing his meals in his haste to get to
lectures and classes. The Doctor got him to talking and he forgot to
drink his coffee while telling his story. He said that he kept a country
store in a village in Arkansas, where the young men used to come in the
evenings and tell stories together. He felt that he was leading a rather
narrow life and needed intelligence, but did not know where to obtain
it. There were books enough in the world, but how could he choose the
right ones? A newspaper fell under his notice containing some mention of
the C. L. S. C.; he sent his fee to the office, obtained the books for
the year, and began to read in the intervals of time between customers
in his store. For retirement he fixed up a desk and shelf of books in
the rear of the shop. Some of his evening callers said, "What have you
got back there?" and he showed his books, telling them of the C. L. S.
C. A number of them at once decided to join, and soon he found himself
the conductor of a Chautauqua Circle with twenty members. They fixed up
a meeting place in a store-room in a garret under the eaves, talked over
the topics, and read papers. When the text-book on electricity was
before them, they made experiments with home-made batteries and ran
wires all around the room. The man said, "Those fellows look to me to
answer all sorts of questions, and I find that I am getting beyond my
depth. I have come to Chautauqua to fill up and I'm doing it. But the
difficulty is that too many things come at the same time; here's a
lecture on American authors and one on biology, and one on history, all
at once, and I never know which to attend. But Chautauqua is a great
place, isn't it?"

A servant in a family, while waiting at the table, heard the lady and
her daughters talking of the Circle which was being formed. The girl
asked her mistress if she would be permitted to join. With some
hesitation, the lady said, "Why, yes, if you really wish to read the