no longer get on well without our printed programs.” Along with the plans and suggestions come cheery reports of how the circles everywhere are growing and spreading. Mrs. Fields, the secretary of the Pacific coast C. L. S. C., writes us: “It has been quite negligent in the secretary of this branch not to have reported long ere this the growing interest and increased numbers of Chautauquans on this coast, and especially in California. Perhaps one reason of this remissness has been the very fact that every mail has brought to the aforesaid secretary letters of inquiry concerning C. L. S. C., which must be answered sometimes quite at length; or applications for membership, which must be acknowledged, registered and forwarded to headquarters; or letters from faithful old members with words of cheer and renewal of fees, all of which certainly should be replied to in the secretary’s most cordial style. We have five hundred and forty new members this year and two hundred old members have renewed their allegiance. If, as is generally the case, the old members continue to renew to the very end of the year, we may hope for a list of nearly a thousand names before next July, as the record of this year’s students.” The circle at =Knoxville, Tenn.=, Monteagle Assembly, in which we all became so interested by their rousing letter in THE CHAUTAUQUAN of November last, has written us a characteristic bit of experience, which we quote: “The dark, rainy nights of January are rather discouraging, but we keep at work. One rainy night, on our arrival at the parlors we found no light, and out of a membership of thirty-three but three were present. We had one visitor, whose words I quote: ‘I had no idea they would hold a meeting, but they were not at all disconcerted. The whole program, prayer, minutes, lesson and music, was carried out as though the number present was fifty instead of three.’ The result? The _visitor_ became a _member_, saying, ‘that’s the kind of society I wish to join.’ I wish to state, however, that so small an attendance is quite exceptional.”