New-York tribune., 1907-08-20
EE AVIS

."Tbe Spriny1eld Republican" makes the in
teresting suggestion that if the ProvincetoWn
exercises were to be held In England or cele-
brated as the English celebrate similar events
fbev wouId present a goodly historical pageant,
in which a representation Of the MaynoWer
would come up to the shore and company OF
Pilgrims historically costumed would make their
wav to land according to the accepted tradition
jamestown. too, instead Of worrying TO conduct
an exposition through with a minimum of deficit
would have had a handsome pageant Of several
days' duration picturing the early landing, the
Indians Captain John Smith, Pocahontas and
some Colonial and Revolutionary scenes James
town and ProvincetOwn are uncommonly rlch
for American places in historical associations
and would probably lend themselves more read
ilv than most to celebration in pageants such as
are now the delight, almost the craze. in Eng
land Few American towns have a history suf-
ficiently rich in material for pageantry. They
are too new. Their past fails to fire the imag-
ination, or where it does 1t is chiefly on the
material side The thing that strikes us about
orr cities is mainly their marvellous growth In
wealth and population Their history is string
Of census reports 1t lacks the plcturesqueness
that is the essence Of pageant The Industrial
fairs that are so common, but are becoming so
doubtfully successful in this country. are In g.
sense pageqnts of progress and prosperity. but
for other paSeanJry we nave 10 luIH W our
amusement parks, where historical scenes Of
other lands and thrilling incidents or modern
life are reproduced in show
That the historical pageant In England is be-
coming almost an institution is remarked by the
dramatic critic, Mr.. William Archer, who thinks
il important to art and sees In 1t q promise or
i own literature. like the old ballad plays,
moralities and mysteries that grew up III the
Middle Ages. There is plenty OF latent artistic
capacity Of all sorts in an English countryside"
he says, "and it should be the great aim of this
movement to develop it" For its better devel-
onment he thinks, the -4ngdom should be d.
vided off into ten pageant areas and to each
area should be allotted pageant every two
wears SO that there should be no more than
five Of these great folk plays annually; other
wise 1--WE are likely to have debauch OF pag-
"eantry followed by a loathing Of the very
name"
In the pageant by which Liverpool celebrated
its tooth birthday four thousand persons took
part. Twelve periods Of the history of the old
town were pictured, beginning with the early
conflicts of the Britons with the Saxons and the
Norsemen and ranging through the wars of the
Tudors to- the present day. A pageant on the
Isle of Wight actually began with the landing
of Casar's legions in Britain. Jute dancing
maidens, William the Conqueror, the Armada,
the overthrow of the Stuarts and other pictu-
rescue incidents of English history were repre-
sented Our country's history lacks such
wealth of picturesQueness and even its remoter
periods touch us too nearly, perhaps. to pro-
duce the impression in pageant that Englands
Older story does but still it is not without its
possibilities and the popularity Of open air
spectacles here easily explains the great hold