State Summer-Evening Open-Air Schools

THE CONTRIBUTORS’ CLUB.

IN time of peace prepare for war ; in winter make ready for summer ; and so in this wintry weather we may begin to speculate over our next summer pleasures and duties. What objection is there to roping off, on summer evenings, one or two spaces in the parks or open squares of our great cities, as is sometimes done for music in Hyde Park, London, and giving a stereopticon entertainment, instructive in character, and sometimes, perhaps, illustrated with music ? The programme of each evening might be divided into portions with short intermissions between, allowing for the exit and entrance of any of the audience who did not wish to sit out a whole evening. Each portion could be devoted to a single subject; or a varied programme could be given, embracing musical works, views of travel, scientific instruction, and the like. As in concert programmes, the same work could be presented either once or oftener, as found advisable. Instruction in the arts of industry, which is one of the chief services rendered by World’s Fairs, could thus also be quickly given.

Just as the stereopticon and its modifications allow of presenting text, diagrams, pictures, etc., on a scale so large that they can be perfectly seen at distances far beyond the reach of the human voice in speech, so the combined voices of ordinary singers can be heard at distances far beyond the reach of the human voice indistinct speech. Thus, not only concerted vocal music, but passages written for solos can, by ordinary voices singing in unison, be rendered, so that the melody can be heard distinctly at great distances. By having the words which are being snug thrown conspicuously on a screen or wall by the stereopticon and synchronously with the music, both words and music will be fully apprehended by persons beyond the reach of the human voice in speech, or of a single voice in song. Such assemblages are too numerous for most buildings ; but, in summer evenings, in the open air, such assemblages can, at no expense for rent, hear and see, as in the open-air entertainments of the ancients, and later in Italy and Spain, and now, in a modified form, in Paris and throughout Germany.

By the use of the stereopticon, electric light, scroll - played musical instruments, and combined ordinary voices, these audiences may be made to see the text and pictorial illustrations, and hear the music of all classical and modern works ; and the size of the audiences may be indefinitely increased without material additional expense.

The subjects suited to such instruction and entertainment are limited only by the limits of human knowledge ; we see this in the use of the stereopticon in the lecture rooms of our colleges, for purposes of scientific demonstration and illustration. Thus is taught and illustrated : astronomy, geology, etc., by the Academies of Science ; geography by the Geographical Societies ; natural history by lectures at the Natural History Museums; architecture and archæology and the history of the fine arts by the schools of architecture and by popular lecturers. Thus, too, may be taught musical notation, thematic analysis of musical works, and the history of music. This last can embrace, at small cost, most of the vocal and much of the instrumental music of our time, and most of the similar works once famous, but now known only to certain skilled musicians. And so, also, a trial hearing can be given inexpensively to new operas and scenic cantatas and other vocal and instrumental works that lend themselves to illustration.

The inexpensiveness of singing by large bodies of ordinary singers is shown by the fact that the members of most of our Choral Societies are not paid to sing, but pay for the privilege of singing ; and skilled singers out of employment are often glad to singfor a mere pittance. Again, by a use of the stereopticon the cost of books for the singers can, when desirable, be obviated. Their music, whether the ordinary notation, or the tonic sol fa, or any other notation, can be thrown on the same or a separate screen.

Stereopticon slides used in one place one evening can be used in another place another evening ; and, being in themselves so small, at small expense for carriage. The one or two men who work the stereopticon can, if desirable, go with the slides, so that all mistakes or delays in the working of the lanterns can be avoided.

As an illustration of the teaching of hygiene by stereopticon, we may take some diagrams given in a recent magazine. One diagram shows two parallelograms, one seven times larger than the other. The large one shows the proportion of the deaths from typhoid fever where isolation and disinfection are neglected ; the small one shows the proportion of deaths from typhoid fever where isolation and disinfection are enforced. Such diagrams, if thrown on a screen forty feet high, and fully understood by a vast assembly, would be ineffaceably remembered and heeded by large numbers.

The instruction now given by the State is not limited as to subjects taught, except by custom, nor is there a limit to the age of those taught in our evening schools ; nor need instruction be confined only to rooms or to certain months. Man never need stop learning. Nor is knowledge acquired by whatever means, or in whatever locality, and at whatever age, ever lost to the State. It is passed on, consciously or unconsciously, from each learner to those about him. No man can be uplifted by knowledge without more or less influencing, and so uplifting others.

Summer-evening out-door teaching may be done by private folk ; but not so well as by the State, because private folk cannot so readily get the use of portions of parks and public places, nor so certainly avoid partisan or sectarian teaching and bias, nor so inexpensively command such facilities for gathering and presenting teaching matter, nor reach such large bodies of learners.

Our parks are established for the benefit of the public ; nor, so long as they are preserved in their beauty and for their present uses uninjured, need their use be confined to the band concerts, games, swings, merrygo-rounds, refreshment places, riding, driving, and walking, and other uses to which they are now put. The assembling of a large body of people, standing, or seated in chairs, on the grass, would not injure the grass, provided it be covered, for the time, with cheap cocoa-matting. This would, as experience has shown, effectually prevent the cutting of the roots of the grass by the heels of those assembled, or by the logs of their chairs. The weight of the audience would then, like the weight of a lawn roller, do the grass good. The chairs could be folded and removed, in a few moments, at the close of each evening’s session, as is now often done at evening entertainments ; and the matting could then be rolled up and removed as quickly. The grass would thus be covered by the matting only two or three hours out of twenty-four, and only on fair evenings, and only during the summer months.

In our country vast numbers spend the greater part of their evenings in reading, either for entertainment or for instruction. One can read in warmed and lighted rooms with comfort on most winter evenings. But on summer evenings the glare and heat of lighted rooms in houses or flats and tenements is often a discomfort. One must then either put up with this discomfort or give up the pleasure and profit of reading. Then, if one seeks in a city to spend an evening in the open air, he must either walk the streets, or sit idle on some doorstep or in the parks, or attend concerts in roof gardens or beer gardens which may suit neither his taste nor his purse. Especially is this hard on women and elderly people of both sexes, and it bears most hardly on those who possess refinement and a certain education, however limited they may be in purse.

Let any one imagine himself in such a case on a warm evening in July ; and then imagine some one offering him a comfortable seat in the open air amid agreeable surroundings. And let him then imagine rising before him and those quietly seated about him the text and scenes of Siegfried, while is heard at the same time its wonderful music, though sung only by combined ordinary voices and to less than the full orchestral accompaniment. He may leave between the acts, if he choose, and return home. Or, if he prefer, he may go to some other square, where he may see, for instance, how as in an orrery the stars in their courses revolve around the sun, and may read the accompanying text that tells of the wonders of the revolving orbs. In different parts of the city, or at different points in the larger parks, such state teaching may be devoted, perhaps, here to music, there to science, or travel, or art ; or elsewhere again devoted to all these combined. People can then seek the entertainment or instruction most agreeable and profitable to them. There is no subject so prosaic and none so poetic, none so useful and none so elevating and beautiful, that it cannot be presented, in some measure, and often with a high degree of completeness, and inexpensively, in this way; and thus, through the conditions of the method, reach myriads of people. Let any one observe the throngs that stand watching-the advertisements, varied by comic pictures, thrown upon the screen now in public squares, and it will be readily seen how this device can be made very serviceable to attract large crowds.

A small charge for entrance, such as in Paris and on the Continent is paid for the nse of chairs in parks, would limit the audience to those who came to see and hear, and came prepared to remain through at least one act or division of the programme. A nickel-in-the-slot turnstile, at the entrance to a roped - off, matted, and seated inclosure, and three or four policemen to insure order and silence, would be the only expenses outside of the apparatus of instruction. This would consist of the usual stereoptieon screen, lantern, light, slides, and operator ; with, in some cases, singers and accompanists.

The matter of state summer-evening open-air stereopticon-taught assemblages is brought before the readers of The Atlantic to elicit objections, with a view to weigh them, prove their value, profit by them, and thus help to get the subject into shape to be advantageously laid before those having, now and in the future, charge of state schools and state teaching.