WOMEN, SHE SAYS.
SECRETARY'S REASON FOR THE
CHAUTAQUA CLOSING.
SNAKE SHOW SCARED SOME.
BUT THE WYANDOT ASSOCIATION
IS NOT DAUNTED.
Will Try to Bring the National Con-
vention to Kansas City -- To
Apply for Membership
in the Big Organ-
ization.
"We would have finished our assembly if it had not been for the interference of certain women's organizations which boycotted us and stirred up sentiment against us," said Miss Chloe Matteson, secretary of the Wyandot Chautauqua, last night, while President H. G. Pert nodded assent, at Fairmount park last night.
"We have had a most pleasant ten days here. We knew before we came they sold beer and had a snake show and an opium smokers' show here. Our gratitude to the management of the park is not one whit less because things did not turn out well for us. We could not foresee that certain women who were supposed to be our friends would 'act up' the way they have.
"Fairmount park, with its lake, its theater, its sound shell, its cool tenting ground and all, is an ideal place for a Chautauqua. We will not break up our camp of tents until the regular closing time, July 30."
"Although we were forced to close the assembly this summer with the programme only half completed," Miss Matteson continued, "we accomplished a great deal by running it for ten days. By its continuance for that length of time we are eligible, on account of the high class of talent which we engaged, to membership in the National Chautauqua Alliance. This organization is the highest of its kind in the world. Out of the 400 and more Chautauquas in the United States only thirty are eligible for membership in the alliance. We have applied for membership and will receive it.
"Not only that, but we will make a strong bid to bring the the annual meeting of the International Lyceum Association to Kansas City in 1908. Kansas City is practically the center of the Chautauqua movement, there being very few Chautauquas with a high-class programme in the East, and most of the talent favor this city for the annual meeting. We could have had it here this fall if there had been a Chautauqua association in Kansas City last summer of a grade high enough to enter the alliance.
"The annual meeting will bring 10,000 people to this city. It is always held indoors. At it all of the candidates for jobs under the various lyceum bureaus throughout the country rehearse their 'stunts' before the bureau managers and an audience of other 'talent' waiting its turn to try out or having just been put through its paces. It brings as high a grade of people to a city as a national teachers' convention, and it brings as high a grade of people to the city as a national teachers' convention., and it brings more of them. If the annual meeting comes to Kansas City it will be held in Convention hall."
"The Wyandot Chautauqua Association has nothing but kind words for the Fairmount park management," President Pert put in, "despite the fact that we were forced to discontinue this summer's programme on account of being boycotted by certain of our friends because beer is sold and a snake show is given in the park. We are the park's guests and we will never regret that we came here nor forget that our stay has been a pleasant one."
"And you can say for me," interrupted Miss Matteson, "that I am just as strong a 'white ribboner' as any of my friends in the certain temperance organizations who found fault for bringing the Chautauqua to Fairmount. I don't have to drink beer just because I am in the park. This is an ideal location for a Chautauqua."
It is possible that the performance of the local talent part of the assembly programme may be given shortly. The performers in the Telephone Girls' chorus and other numbers have rehearsed faithfully and are entitled, President Pert thinks, to give a public exhibition.
The Wyandot Chautauqua will hold an assembly next summer. The location has not yet been decided upon.
