Omaha daily bee., 1910-06-16

The open air performance OF AS You
Like IT. on the White House grounds in
washington will mark another great step
In the revival OF pageantry. This enter
tainment, given under the patronage of
Mrs. Taft, will attract special attention to
out-of-doors festivals because 1t will be
the first performance ever given within
the limits Of the White House grounds at
night. The remarkable revival of pagesn-
try, both in England and America, is one
of the most interesting evolutons of en-
tertainment In modern times. This ancient
form Of procession, tableau and symbolic
depletion of historical and religious events
has dropped into almost entire dlsuse UNI
III within the last five years.
When the little village OF Sherborn, Eng
land, decided in 1905 to enact its eleven
centuries OF growth the idea was looked
upon more with derision than interest, but
the entirely creditable manner in which
that ootnmunity's 800 townspeople enacted
the whole history of England from the
time OF Alfred the Great caused the
Britishers TO awaken suddenly to the fact
that here was a form Of education and
patriotic entertainment which had been
allowed to fall into disuse without reason,
Immediately there was a great revival.
The town of oxford followed the example
of Sherborn with a great pageant which
lasted six days, the chief events naturally
being in connection with the history of
the university. Then the ancient town of
Bury st. Edmunds presented Its past In a
procession In which 1000 performers took
part, and more than 1900 years passed in
review before the spectators in two and a
half hours of Kaleidoscope color The
great celebration is remembered by all
IL Nl,AIa.
Naturally one would expect to find that
| the revival of pageantry had taken a
stronger hold upon the British than upon
| the American mind, because our history
| is so recent as to preclude any very ex-
| tended parades. But such Is not the case.
Indeed America may be said to have set
| the pace for England.
| The first great pageant on the American
continent was that given in Boston, Mass
June and s. 1908, when the history OF
| education was depicted in a most remark
able series of tabeeux and professions In
| which hundreds of performers took part
The pictures OF the different epochs in the
| history of the advance of civilization wert
| presented with brilliancy of color anc
accuracy of detail which set a STANDARD
for the world.
Closely following this came the greR
tercentenary celebration of the founding
Of the city of Quebec. The pageants tool
place on the historic heights Of the city
where many of the most stirring episodes
in the history of the American continen
have taken place, Then Evanston, ILL.,, cam
forward with a pageant Of the grea
middle west. Philadelphia told the his
tory of the American people in tn
, pornp and panoply of pagentry when it
s25th anniversary was celebrated with 500
| people taking part. And last fail New
) York celebrated the anniversary of Fultol
and Hudson in a similarly elaborat
, fashion.
| AS a sort Of forerunner to the popula
pageants of the day there was held il
Cornish, New Hampshire, in the summer o
1905 a celebration which in point OF artist
merit perhaps eclipsed anything OF tn
kind ever undertaken before or since il
the United States, 1t was a masque givei
In honor of the great sculptor, Augusta
Saint Gaudens, in which some seventy
prominent artists took part, The masqu
was given one June evening in the grow
on the estate of the sculptor, A symptom
orchestra was hidden behind a pine thicket
Two giant pine trees marked the limits O
stage and served to hold the great gree
curtain In place. The masque represents
the determination of Jupiter to resign a
I ruler of Olympus, and when he announce
his intention to the assembled lesser god
great bowl was presented to him and h
drew from 1t the name of Augustus Saint
Gaudens, who was thereupon presente
with the token and given command owe
, the assembled gods Of the world. Fror
, one of the current accounts Of the oele
I brations is taken this vivid recital of tn
procession of the gods and goddesses:
First, came Pluto in black and gol
and purple; then Neptune and Amphitrit'
q with their attendant nereids in sea-gree
r and blue; Venus and her bodyguard 1
0 varying shades of tender rose; Diana an
her nymphs in white and silver and pal
blue; the Wood-Gods in green and dun an
yellow; Apollo and the MUSES. in white an
: gold grouping themselves about the alta
of Ceres, who was clad in yellow an
\ crowned with corn; Pan gilded all over an
exactly initiating an archaic Greek statue
Mars gigantic figure in blood red draI
cries and armor, and last, Chiron, the cer
taur, frankly comic at the head OF a ban
of wildly sportive children half clad, rel
q resenting fauns and satyrs and sprites {
- the earth and air."
o Last summer the old England town