Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-16
LITTLE TRAVERSE BAY
Lake Resort for People of the
Middle West.
PERFORMANCE OF HIAWATHA
Background of Birch Trees for the
Actors.
INDIANS INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
Girls Taught the Domestic Sciences
and the Boys Useful Trades.
Modern Ghost Story.
PERFORMANCE OF HIAWATHA
INDIANS INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald. q:

Record Herald.
W. wEQUETONSING, Mich,
September 10. 1907. i
o. Little Traverse bay, which lies on the
Michigan coast forty miles south of the
Straits of Mackinac, is quite as lovely as
any of the italian lakes. although the sur
rounding hills are not so high and they are
not covered with castellated chateaux and
villas But the water is just as transparent,
and you can count the boulders on the bot
tom at depth of thirty or forty feet The
Bay of Naples Is not more brilliant in Its
coloring and the smoke from the factories
of Petoskey and the long streamers of SCOT
from the stacks of passing vessels brood
over the water and the hills like those from
Vesuvius The ocean has a grandeur to
which fresh-water lakes cannot aspire. The
inland seas are not stirred by tides and
have no surf, but if you will sit where the
sand and the waters meet and have any
imagination you can hear ceaseless song
as sweet as the murmurs of the wind
among the leaves. and the lake can be very
angry when Its temper Is aroused. Willis
Rice of Chicago has cottage perched upon
| the top of a tall sand dune overlooking
Lake Michigan, and when a Northwestern
| blows, the shore below his piazza is beaten
with a fury that the pillows of the North
Atlantic cannot excel Lake storms are
shorter but quite as disagreeable and de-
| structve as those of the sea- and that is
one reason why the big passenger steamers
shorten the tourist season from June % to
September 7. When the bay is at peace 1t
| is like FURNISHED mirror. The water is
as pure and transparent crystal when
you look straight down into it's depths, and
| has many lights and colors opal
when you watch its changes from the shore
Little Traverse bay Is formed by a point
| OF land which stretches across the entrance
| and is called Harbor Point. 1t is covered
with fine old trees. a clubhouse and casino
! and comfortable cottages, where during the
summer months many prominent citizens
| of Chicago. st. Louis and other western
| cities come to rest. At the opposite side
| Of the bay Is Petoshey. public and popu-
| lar resort, with a dozen more hotels
which are well patronized Adjoining Petos-
| key is a chautauqua and summer school
founded a dozen years ago by Mr.. Hitch
cock of Detroit 1t is one of the most pros
| porous and successful institutions of the
| kind In the country. Several thousand peo-
| pie come there every year for rest and
| study and entertainment, and the cottages
and hotels cover a large area. A little far
| Their along is Menonaqua, an imaginary
| town at the western end of old Indian
canoe trail by which Father Marquette and
the earlY voyagers followed the aborigines
| across the state of Michigan from one lake
| to the other. There is a short portage from
the beach of Traverse bay through a nat
| ural forest to Crooked lake. then through
| a river of that name to Burt lake then
| through Indian river to Mullet lake, and
| through Cheboygan river to the city Of that
| name on Lake Huron. Those who desire to
| spend a pleasant day can make an excur-
| sion on a small tiny steamer the entire dis
| lance.
Performance of Hiawatha.
| On Crooked lake for several years the
members of band of OJibway Indians un-
der the direction of Mr.. L. o. Armstrong of
the Canadian Pacific railway have been CIV
| 1pu q r,6a fat nf
ranged for them by Miss Alice Lonsrellow.
a daughter of the poet. The audience sits
| on side of narrow lagoon; the &C.
| tors occupy the other shore with a back
| ground Of birch trees and a council house
| built of poles and birch bark as the stage
setting. The Indians have no dramatic
| talent or training: they attempt no theatre
| cal displays; they go through the Incl
| dents OF the story In a natural and I'M
concerned manner, repeating the dialogue
Longfellow s poem are read distinctly by
| man and megaphone concealed in the
bushes:
should you ask me whence these stories?
| Whence these legends and traditions
With the odors Of the forest.
With the dew s,,s and damp Of meadows.
With the rushing Of great waters,
should answer should tell you.
| From the forests and the praires,
From the Great Lakes of the Northland,
From the land of the ojibways."
The play is charming because of its ex.
| treme simplicity. If the Indians pretended
| to act If they were trained ambitious
or If they did more than to appear per-
| fectly natural and go about their busl.
ness unconscious Of the spectators 1t would
! environment give II a realism and a charm
that cannot be resisted. A spectator who
at the end of the first act Is inclined to
sneer and accuse himself of wasting his