But the greatest help that lecturers can contribute is not information but inspiration-inspiration to learn more and to do more. In almost every part of the United States during the summer months Chautauqua lectures are given for several weeks, a small price being charged for the course. The companies giving these lectures travel from center to center and in Through pageants given by communities and organizations both the actors and the observers learn about customs and events of early days the course of a single season often cover several states. In a recent year 8351 communities had Chautauqua assemblies with an attendance of 10,456,500. 25. The Drama and Pageant are Helps to an Education. Many plays and pageants are intended only to entertain, not to instruct, but many are a combination of history, geography, manners, and art. Any play that deals with the past, if given by a good company, will faithfully reproduce the costumes, manners, and events of those times. That is why to see the plays of Shakespeare is a combined lesson in history and literature. The plays dealing with the life of Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, and the prominent men of other countries are vivid chapters in biography that help brighten up the printed pages of the books on our shelves. In the motion-picture theaters we can sit comfortably in a hall near our homes and travel swiftly and fascinatingly to every possession of the United States, to Africa, and the capitals of Europe. We can see not only what real travelers in these countries can see, but much that only a fortunate few ever see-the interior of the houses, the side streets, and the bits of real life that only the camera men find. 26. One Important Reason why After-School Education is Necessary. Winning the kind of education that we have been describing is what makes an intelligent nation. There is no other, easier way. The schoolhouse is only a step in the neverending process. The library, the museum, the lecture hall, the theater, the church, the places of meeting, talking, and working, -these are the means by which each person grows, step by step. It is on this after-school education that we depend for the curing of all the kinds of ignorance that darken so large a part of the world. In the preceding chapter we have spoken of the ignorance that is due to illiteracy. But merely knowing how to read and write does not eliminate ignorance. Almost every form of ignorance can still be found somewhere within the forty-eight states. 27. Examples of Ignorance in the United States. In the year that this book was written an Italian was murdered in a town near New York City. He was suspected by other Italians of having sold himself to the devil and hence could summon the evil one to do his bidding whenever he chose. His acquaintances, therefore, wished to get rid of him, but bullets, poison, and blows were supposed to have no effect on a person owned by the devil, so they drowned him. Of course we may say that these Italians were not really Americans, but even if we ruled out all the ignorant things done by the foreign-born, we should still find ignorance here. One of the commonest forms of ignorance in America shows itself in the consulting-rooms and the mail of astrologers, mediums, palmists, and others who claim to foretell the future. Advertisements like the following appear daily in our newspapers of every section of the United States: GREAT CLAIRVOYANT! MME. STUART, THE SEVENTH DAUGHTER OF THE LIFE SEVENTH DAUGHTER HAS READ CARDS SINCE SHE WAS ELEVEN YEARS OLD For a fee, sometimes large, sometimes small, these fortunetellers advise one man to sell his stock, another to search in a field for a hidden treasure, another to leave his present employer. To the rooms of one of these New York revealers of the future come people from all parts of the country. But there are only heartaches and disappointments for those who pay their money. The way in which Americans eagerly invest their money in wild enterprises is an illustration of another kind of ignorance that is common in every country. Recently in Korea, on the lonely mountain of Keiyong, suddenly appeared men, women, and children, eager to buy a bit of land and make their homes there, all because someone had "said that a Korean prophet had said" that this mountain would one day become the capital and metropolis of Korea. Ignoring the fact that the barest kind of living could be made on the mountain, they sold their homes and risked their future. In the United States people risk their homes and their savings just as recklessly as these Koreans. Every year men invest their savings in silver and gold mines that exist nowhere except on paper, in house lots that are "somewhere," but not where the buyer expects, in farms with worn-out soil. A reputable American bank once tried an amusing experiment to find out how foolish people could be. It inserted in one of its windows a placard, a part of which read as follows: GLORIOUS OPPORTUNITY TO GET RICH QUICK INVEST IN THE CALIFORNIA RANCHING COMPANY Now being organized to start a cat ranch in California We are starting a cat ranch in California with 100,000 cats. Each cat will average 12 kittens a year. The cat skins will sell for 30 cents each. One hundred men can skin 5000 cats a day. We figure a daily net profit of over $10,000. Shares are selling at 5 cents each, but the price will go up soon. INVEST WHILE OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS AT YOUR DOOR Some gullible people will try to buy this stock. It is a foolish fake, of course, but no more foolish than many "wildcat" schemes being promoted today. Investigate before investing. Don't hand your money over to any unknown, glib-tongued salesman. Although the last paragraph was a part of the placard, in smaller type than the rest of it, many men and women came into the bank to inquire how they could invest in this novel get-rich-quick scheme. 28. How this Kind of Ignorance can be Cured. Most of the people guilty of these forms of ignorance had studied many years in school. But none of them had studied long enough. As we have seen, the schools are only starting-places and helpers-out. The greater part of a person's education must be obtained after he leaves school, from many sources and in many ways. There is enough wisdom in the United States today to prevent any person from making such terrible mistakes as drowning another because he is a friend of the devil, or giving money to the "seventh daughter of the seventh daughter." This wisdom is available to anyone who can read, write, talk, and think. The library, the magazine and newspaper, the church, the lecture hall, and people- these are the means of continuing one's education, which is never finished. 29. The Deadliest Form of Ignorance. Troublesome and dangerous as are the forms of ignorance just mentioned, there is one that is far more destructive and terrible. This we call In America as well as in Japan women and men consult fortune tellers to learn of the future instead of studying out the ways to win success hate. Hate is the deadliest foe that any person or nation can have-not the hate that others have for him, but the hate that he turns toward others. It is hate that starts wars, kills innocent persons, destroys property, and does all manner of violence. The man who hates destroys his own happiness and his usefulness. The hater can never become an inventor, a successful merchant, or a truly useful person in any activity. If there were no cure for hatred, then nations might well be filled with dismay. But there is a cure, and it can be described in the words of an inscription that appears at the right of the main entrance of the New York Public Library: "Above |