The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-01-31
THE DRAMA OF POCAH0NTAS.
The Sentiment and Artistic Triumph
Of Jamestown Exposition.

CT Jamestown EXP0Sltlon.
Where is the man asks the New
York World" who shall write
serious literary drama of high
character around the period of the
settlement of English speaking
America?
The answer is here. The drama
has been written.
The legendary romance and the
poetical sentiment of American
history is almost exclusively in
volved in the history of the Ameri
can Indian, and nowhere have
these singularly interesting people
played a more important part than
in the events which the forthc ON
ing Jamestown Exposition is de-
signed to honor and memorabilia.
Peculiarly appropriate, therefore,
to the sentiment of the occasion is
any feature giving place or promi-
nence to the American Indian, and
in the elegant and pretentious dra-
ma of 'Pocahontas" written by
George F. Welt, of Norfolk, and
designed especially for presenta-
ton during the period of the great
celebration, the promoters believe,
and with the best of reasons to
support their belief, that they will
present to the American public
Americas greatest drama. That
it will prove the artistic triumph
OF the Jamestown Exposition is
conceded by all who have read the
manuscript, for the work has been
written with a view to establish
ing a permanent and artistic sue
cess in the dramatic world, and is
not of the ephemeral burlesque or
der designed solely to gather the
pitiful pennies of festival period.
This great historical play en-
bodies the scenes and covers the
events and incidents of the settle
ment at Jamestown, reviving upon
the stage the characters and the
doings ofthat cventful and stirring
epoch in manner beyond ques-
ton the most unique and original
ever presented. From a literary
viewpoint there has certainly been
no drama yet written on this side
that will approach it. From the
dramatic standpoint it possesses all
the power and impressiveness that
the incidents of a striking and TO-
mantle period afford.
Tragic, dramatic and striking
beyond compare. signalling as it
does the birth of a great Nation,
the settlement of Virginia by the
English in 1907 sets forth a great
historic panorama that must for
ever stand eminently apart in sol
itary grandeur among the pictures
of time. The muse of dramatic
poetry has yet to glorify this
theme, and to this grateful task
the labors of the present dramatist
have been devoted. There was
but one Jamestown and there is
but one America, and to do honor
and justice to both, to revive the
heroic figures and the splendid
pictures of a splendid age, to sig
nalize with living glory the just
renown of the mother country, and
to clothe with the mantle of ideal
ism that which is truly romantic
is the purpose of the play of "Po-
cahontas. Considered solely
from a spectacular standpoint, this
drama properly could be equaled
by few of the great stage spectacles
heretofore presented and excelled
by none. 1t has for its setting a
double background of seventeenth
century civilized magnifcence and
the savage solemnity of new
worlds Businesses, the latter ami
mated by the figures of barbaric,
but as interesting and peculiar a
people as the muse of history ever
looked upon. In this splendid
framing a great world drama was
enacted. To attempt to handle so
grand, so inspiring and so lofty a
subject through the medium of an
extravaganza or comic opera, as
was at one time proposed, would