The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-09-12
STOCKBRlDGE'S FESTIVAL.
Tie Ice Glen Procession Is First Among
American Festival Pageants.

American Festival Pageants.
In point of seniority the ice glen
procession at Stockbridge, Mass,
and the tub parade at Lenox should
be awarded first place among the
festival pageants of our country un-
dertaken and carried out by the Gull
tivated class Of society.
That the Stockbridge affair dates
back to long ago we were pleasantly
reminded by a reference in Mrs.
Hawthorne's letters published in
The Century for November, 1894. 1t
appealed first to my sense of the
beautiful and picturesque in the
summer of 1874. We drove over to
that "loveliest village of the plain
from Lenox, her rival loveliest viii
lage of the hills, to rendezvous at
nightfall with a gay party of people
in fancy costume, in an open grassy
space at the entrance of the glen,
amid an amphitheater of hills pur-
pied with twilight and lighted by q
youthful moon. The host of jewellers
was marshaled, I remember, by a
fair leader clad in the bravery of
stars and stripes, wearing liberty
cap and carrying a long alpenstock
tipped with another American flag.
recall but one other costume-the
filmy draping of an East Indian wo-
man, through which family cleaned
silver bangles and native ornaments.
But in no ballroom, under no gas or
lamp or candlestick, could have been
produced the effect of that group of
fantastic torch bearing figures
among the scattered powders at the
mouth of the glen, where in chill re-
cesses ice can be found, it is said,
even at midsummer.
A procession being formed, led by
band of musicians, we penetrated
the forest gloom, to follow steep,
messy path through brake, through
brier, F" the length of the glen, emerg-
ing finally in a meadow path at the
farther end. AS the fairies black,
gray, green and white" the moon
shine jewellers and shades of night"
fled between the black tree boles,
the tender green of moss and leaves
in the arcade turning to vivid emer-
aid in the glare of the torches, the
scene was wonderfully fine.
On another occasion drove away
from the meet of the masqueraders
to point in the village whence we
had view of the procession as it
came out of the glen to wind like a
fiery serpent over the meadow ON its
return. Once year the placid little
Housatonic river, which beneath the
elms of Stockbridge meadows con-
torts itself Enthusiastically into the IA
nous Ok Bow bend-a bit of Amer
lean rural scenery that awoke en-
thusiasm in the gentle soul of Dean
Stanley-is bright with a charming
procession of decorated boats. Track
ing the mirrorlike bosom of its mar
row way hardly more than would a
swan in its imperial progress, the
fowery chain of boats glides be-
tween sheets of verdure sown with
wild flowers and dotted with grazing
cattle. To see it come and go and
finally vanish beneath low hanging
boughs of willow is to sigh for the
briefness of this glimpse of Already.
During recent season Stockbridge
added to the annual attraction of the
ice glen procession an outdoor play
the 'Masque of Comus''- given
upon the lawn of a dwelling in the
village. The play, revised for the use
of modern amateurs and accompa-
MED by music, part of which was
from an original manuscript of 1854
lent by Harvard university for the
occasion, is said to have furnished a
picture of ideal beauty. - American
Rural Festivals" by Mrs. Burton
Harrison, in Century.