The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-05-13
NOTABLE EVENT
ON ISLAND TODAY
Two Steamers to Take Down Dis
tinguishcd Party-Program
Of Exercises.
OF Exercises.

The jamestown Island of to-day is
but memory of the struggling hamlet
wherein the tenacious Anglo Saxon
gained his first foothold on New World
sofia beginning that was destined to
attain the wonderful fruitlon or -.
day, when hundred million and more
of frecmen inhabit this continent. The
history of that continuous struggle
for existence, with the menace Of tho
hostile nborigines, the rigors or an uri
accustomed winter climate, and gaunt
famine stalking through the stockade:
the dauntless fortitudc and courage
of the Englishmen and or the English
women. who came later TO populate a
continent; tho romantic story of the
Indian princess, whose love and hero ,
ism more than once saved the colony
from determination and illun,ines tho
page Of our history--all this and more
are familiar history. The subsequent
career of Jamestown. tho revolution Of
Nathaniel Bacon and his devoted fol-
lowers against tyranny. the parta'
destruction of the town by fire in tina.
struggle, and the part played by tho
first settlement in later Colonial and
revolutionary history, are recorded,
and vet are all too little known to tho
world ut large.
1t is to celebrates ana remind tho
world of the historical significance of
this first foothold upon tho continent
that Americans and repres sentative
Britons VIII gather to-day amid the
ruins Of Jamestown. Tho old city has
been excavated from the sepulchre in
which time and change inferred It, and
is being piously preserved by reverent
men and women who recognize in 1t
the shrine of Americans, the beginning
Of all that is to-day and all that is
to come In the unrenliZed destinies OF
this nation. No eye has the prescience
to perceive what another century will
make the nation sprung from this be-
ginning.
The celebration to-day will be under
the auspices of the Association for the
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. a
society to whose members the nation
owes its gratitude for preserving what
time has left of such sacred spot and
all that remains to-day at jamestown.
a distinguished gathering OF mcln-
bers of this society and many others
will go down the river to-day by the
steamers Brandon and Pocahontns to
the cradle of tho nation, and there,
amid the ruins of the past and the
memorials of those times recently
reared by revercnt hands. Will recall
AHc 5 W. " N''N 49, 49,
daughter country. The Right Hon
James Bryce, litteratcur, statesman and
diplomatist. now representing Great
Britain at the capital of the United
States, will speak for the mother coun-
try, and His l1xcelency. Claude A.
Swanson, Governor Of Virginia. will
speak for the Commonwealth sprung
from the royal colony and named for
England's great sixteenth century
Queen The memorable event will BIO
recalled in verse by Mr.. Benjamin G.
N1oomaw, a singer sprung from the
soil of Virginia. Patriotic men and
women will reverently kneel In prayers
of Thanksgiving to God for this land
ing and for all that it has meant to
the world. and will sing hymns of
praise and of patriotism at the shrine
of liberty and constitutional govern
ment tT7 F.=7s