The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-01
DARlEN TO HAVE
 HISTORIC PAGEANT
WOMEN REVIVE ROMANCE AND
 DRAMA OF THE TOWN.
Spectacular Three Days Event in Late August Planned For-Descendants
 of First Settlers to Take Part.

League and aided by all Of the clIl- | zens of the town, Darien, that little colonial village settled in 1641 and set off from Stamford in May, 1920. is l to have a pageant-a pageant com memorating many historic scenes. The history is to be given by the citizens on August 29, 80 and September and nearly everybod in the peaceful town has a part in it. F. Dana Marsh, l writing in the New York Herald,
 deals interestingly with the coming l event, saying in part:
 -.F'or more than a century Darien 1 has had it's yesterdays of historic and sentimental interest, but, like many i other communities in this somewhat imperfect terrestrial organization, it has been too busy with other concerns to appraise them at their real value to home and country and humanity.
 ''The medium which has kind1ed the fires of eivic pride and has brought together Darien's old residents and
 newcomers in a chain of arnity Is the Woman's Civic League While the women were casting about for
 scheme of town improvement that
 promised something more than a blue-
 print or map, one of them, who had just come from a stay in a town
 where a pageant was in progress, made the lively suggestion that such
 spectacle would be fine thing for Darien. All the other women said
 DFOpOSa1,
 patronage and guidance of the Wom-
 ans Civic League. the project of the pageant about which all Darien has been talking for weeks was born
 "At their own expense the women
 brought to Darfen William Chauncey
 Langdon. of the Sage Memorials, who is to stage the pageant "a has told
 the people how their towns history could be dramatized. His auditors learned much about interesting and instructive subjects of Darien's his tory not covered by their knowledge or the encyclopedias His story was a. challenge to home pride, of which the recitals of histories are devoid. and it produced a profound impression In the mirror which he held up Darien's heroes of Revolutionary days ceased 1 to be mere historiua1 figures.
 'sOne after another townsfoIk and summer soJourners laid aside their cynocjsm, and, more to the point, punctuated their pecuniary reticence with contributions The latent love for the town asserted itself in unmis- 1 ta1kabIy tangible terms. To-day more
 than enough money has been sub scribed to carry out the pageant on a magnificent scale. illuIninatingly H. 1ustratfve Of the scope, significance and diversity Of the dramatic events, l. episodes and incidents that crowd the history of Darfen. and have lost not a | 6AESQ tic clutches of materialistic age. In
 fact, so rapidly has the money rolled l in that 1t has been decided to give the prospective surplus to charity. The women have been aided by increas- ingly large corps of strong, sturdy and shrewd men workers, and the sustain ed striving together of all classes of | people for the artistic success of the pageant has called out expressions of I undisguised astonishment from even the oldest head shakers.
 ssMr. Langdon, Tn writing the book for the pageant, has found the colon
 laI chapters Of Darien's history so richly strewn with dramatic ideas that 1t has taxed his ingenuity to tell where to make decisions, but. all essential details have been preserved with min Kute care but without proltxity. As sisting him in arranging the subject l matter of his creation for it's great I open-ai exposition are such classic I co-workers as Edwin Milton RoyIe, the author Of The Squaw Man. and 4 other pIayss Leo Dftr1chstein, actor I and aIthora of The Concert and Richard LaGaIIienne. poet, all resi- dents of Darfen. The music has been
 written by Arthur Farwell, supervisor
 of municipal xmusic Tn New York.
 While the Darien pageant is ad- -niral in conception and prospective1y sf excellent in execution, Improvement in
  ordinary splendor and peculiar appr4 ) priateness of the ground selected f6I the reproduction of the towns notable
 historical events The ground, com l prising tract of six acres on Good | wives River, near Rings End Landing at Collenders Point, is a source o1
 instant interest from the circumstance , that it was the scene of Revolution. l ary exploit which is to be the centra.
 dramatic idea of the pageant. The
 descendant of one of the actors 1T that thrilling drama, Miss Caroline
 Gorham, has donated the ground
 which is part of the estate her fam. fly has held continuously since 1740 :. '.Darien contributed its quota to tn,
 American cause in the Revolution, bu ? in common with other localities or z Long Island Sound it was infested f with Tories. Rev. pr. Moses Math
 CT, the pastor of the Congregations :. Church, was such jealous patrio ? that in effect he was recruiting office : for Washington's army. Early in tn
 war he was taken prisoner by tn, a British, but he soon escaped and re
 sumed his patriotic pleas in his pulpit He and his congregations were a r worship on Sunday, July 22, 1781 $ when a British force crossed tn Q Sound from Long Island, and, aug It rnented by Tories, who had arrange n the foray, surrounded the church 2 Most of the younger members of tn r congregation escaped, but, fghtin
 hard, the belligerent pastor and lift d men were made prisoners tied tw g to two,' and taken to Lloyds Necl Is Long Island Forty horses beIongin
 l to members of the congregation als ?, were captured From LIoyd's Nee e the pastor and his flock were marche e to New York and thrown into Provos
 Prison, which was such vile den ths a many died before they could be e1 If changed. pr. Mather, upon being e1
 changed, returned to Darien to preac
 patriotism, but he was not mo1este h again, British dominion in the co d onies ending soon afterward. In tn l. attack on the church two of the Bri