A CANADIAN GHAUTAQUA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 2

A CANADIAN GHAUTAQUA.

(By a Woman Settler.) I had been only a few weeks in the little Western prairie town, and, in a new life, had not begun to miss outside entertainments, so 1 was astonished by the excitement caused by the prospect of chatauqua weeks and weeks before it arrived. "What is chatauqua?" I asked. "A travelling show?" "No, no, my dear." replied m\ neighbor. "It's nothing private, but an effort of the community to provide everyone, even those in the most isolated districts, with opportunities to hear good music and' lectures on topical subjects by experts. A central committee engages the artists and undertakes to send chatauqua to any place at which 40 of the residents are prepared to guarantee a sum of 900 dollars for expenses. Your husband and mine are-among the guarantors, but they are in no danger of losing money, as all patronise chatauqua." "Chatauqua? What an odd name." "It's Indian, I guess, but that doesn't matter, as it's merely the name of the town in the States where the idea originated. In a fortnight we shall 1 have our Dominion chatauqua here, and until then we shall be busy cooking and washing apd cleaning so as to have as little to do as possible when it comes." Before we could turn round' it was ■on us, and T being new, with no ties yet, could have attended every entertainment with, my husband if T had not given a party one afternoon for all the tiny tots of my acquaintance, in order that their mothers might be free to go instead. The intimacy of western life affords many chances for kindnesses of this nature. I had a two-dollar season ticket for the three days' chatauqua, which was* all our small township could aspire to. a week being the usual period' for larger places. One entertainment began in the afternoon at 3. and a second followed in the evening at 7, and all were varied 1 and excellent. We had lectures on "Democracy" by a Canadian philosopher, and on "British Statesmen I have known" by an overseas M.P., also' a fine string orchestra. some charming singers and instrumentalists, and of course the inevitably negro quartet, amusements quite beyond our reach had it not been for the chatauqua idtea. Being new, I was as keenly interested in the audience as the jierformers. Everyone who could was taking a holiday. Farmers had brought in their families from the country, either in ears or in the older buggies. This was the one chance in the laborious year of seeing and hearing anything from outside, for the nearest big town with a. "movie" show was lf>D miles from us. and as our little place had only a bi-weekly train service We could not go there without spending a couple of days from home—to most of us quite impossible. My neighbor had lived here eight years, and had never been in a train since her arrival. All the men were so nicely shaved and well' dressed, it might have been Saturday night. Canadian girls, in spite of difficulties, are always smart, hut even the most burdened housewife had put on her "glad rags" and was feeling a brighter being in consequence. The crowds of children, in clean, pretty raiment, looked thoroughly happy, perhaps being better off in having little and enjoying much than their overseas contemporaries who have much and enjoy little. So chatauqua passed over for another year, leaving us with something to talk of. and something to imitate, too. in our amateur entertainments.

For a. long time past the advantages of a shin canal from the Forth to the Clyde, diave been realised. The late Lord Fisher stated in his memoir* that when he was at the Admiralty he was strongly in favor of such a canal. The project has now been revived, and has been actively brought to the front as a profitable work of national importance and a. useful means of providing; employment. The British Government! is being urged to obtain, as a preliminary, an engineering report on the practicability of the scheme.