The Assembly at Lake de Funiak, Florida, will be in session when this number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN is on its way to our subscribers. The opening takes place on February 18. It is the first attempt at planting the Chautauqua Idea so far south, but after its fashion it is sure to take root. The preparations made by Mr. Gillet and his associates give promise of a good program. We expect an account of the meeting for the April number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. * * * * * Two big schemes to attract patronage have of late come before the country. At the time the New Orleans Exposition seemed to stagger under its load of expense, and money was absolutely necessary, the Louisiana Lottery tried to get control of the Exposition. General Grant’s embarrassment was seized upon by the incorrigible Barnum, who proposed buying the invaluable curiosities and relics of the General, to display in his summer pilgrimages through the country. It makes a person of taste blush to think of this impudence, to remember that there is a very large class of people who are willing to drag into advertising the most dignified and sacred institutions in the country. * * * * * The commercial side of Chautauqua Lake does not often reveal itself in the educational work which finds its center there. The beautiful country which forms the setting for the fair lake has, however, more than one most interesting industry. Just now ice cutting is at its height. There is a transit company which packs dressed meats, eggs, butter, and other perishable articles, at Chicago. When these refrigerator cars start from that city, ice is placed in the cars, which is expected and found to keep the stores in fresh condition, as far as Salamanca; here the cars must be replenished, and it is to these storehouses that the ice which is now being cut from the lake is sent. The company employs men and teams near the lake to cut the ice, and the process is a very interesting one. * * * * * Mr. Edmund Yates, the editor of the London _World_, has been committed to prison for four months for allowing in his columns a bit of gossip connecting in an injurious statement the name of a young woman with that of a young nobleman. It is a refreshing sign of the times. Popular sentiment has tolerated an immense amount of personality, of curiosity, and of absolute impudence in the social columns of newspapers. Mr. Yates’s punishment will emphasize the fact that the public is not so depraved as editors often consider it. By the way, how like is this affair to that earlier one of Mr. Yates’s, when he was turned out of the Garrick Club for publishing a disrespectful paragraph about Thackeray, a fellow-member. It is to be hoped that Mr. Yates will soon learn that it is a mean thing to make one’s bread by selling a friend’s peculiarities or a neighbor’s mistakes and sins. * * * * *