The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-07-24


ed barriers between the generations
melting away till our ordinary modern
lives were sho, through and through
with that sense, somehow so steadying
Of the continuity Of human existence
Of the essential sameness Of the prob.
lens faced by all the race Of men
Once and for all history people
ceased being paragraphs in a book to
US, and came to life.
At rehearsals lof which, BY the way
we did not need many we merely sc,
those resurrected spirits TO talking TO-
gether, and jotted down what they
said. We made the very children Gre
ate their own roles. What shall we
do, what shall we say, when We come
on the stage" they asked, clustering
anxiously about US. "Well, let's see,
Violet, what would you do II you went
to see your grandfather for visit p
Violet produces shyly, little afraid
of being laughed at; "Why, guess I'D
run up to him and grab his hand and
say, oh. Gran'pa, We got new calf
in our barn"
"very well, that's fine-couldn't be
better. Now, Eddie wha would you
do 2"
Eddie, heartened by his sisters sue
cess, brings out: "I'd show him my
new knife and tell him about how !
got let to drive the new horse to
town"
And so it went, each one more or
less making up his own part. The
only requirement was that he should
say it just the same way, so that those
who came after him should know when
their cues came. The grown-ups put
their heads together in the same way.
The pathological side Of the histor-
ical instinct" too, came into our lives
as simply as though it had not such a
formidable scientific name. Somebody
reported that his grandfather had al
ways said that things went "all kim
kan" instead Of "all twisted" and in
to our play went the colorful old
phrase and many more like it, until
our great-grandparents were speaking
their own language as nearly as we
could manage it.
Then we set to work to clothe these
visitors from the past in the garb
which was familiar to them, and to
rive them fitting background. We
looked in old books, and We went to
the bottom Of old trunks and to the
dark corners Of old attics and wood
shed d-chambers, and we used on these
new problems the Yankee wits sharp
ened in incessant skirmishes with a
harsh climate and an infertile soil.
Wigs, for instance. OF course all the
men and boys must have long hair tied
back in a pig-tail. A cheerful visitor
from the city said, "Oh, you can't do
anything eighteenth century, because
the wigs cost so much to rent--two-
fifty an evening for every one, and
you would need fifteen at least" We
brushed her by, and went up into the
attics to the pasteboard boxes where
our aunt's chignons and waterfalls had
been kept. We added to those o cor
onet braid or two out Of the relic
trunk, we combed them out and sewed
them on coarse new foundations, each
woman making the wigs for the men
Of her own family, so that the work
was not too much for anyone. For a
few days all the prosaic manding-
baskets Of the North District contain
ed, in place Of the usual sock to be
darned, a wig or two in process Of con-
struction. And then we smiled pity
ingly on the visitor from the city.
The costumes were achieved in the
same informal manner. Most of us
make our own clothes anyhow, and it
was no harder to make our great
grandfathers'. We "met around oc-
casionally, we North District women,
for sociable afternoon with needle
and thread, putting our heads together
over the old picture of panniered and
looped skirt, and helping each other
arrange the falls Of fichu or the
droop Of a cap-rutfle. For two excel
lent reasons everything was made OF
old and inexpensive material; first, we
had no money to buy costly stuffs, and
secondly, our grandfathers had had no
more money than we. And on the
evening Of the performance, we were
rewarded for this consistency by hay
ing the costumes look very grand in
deed By footlights.
And OH how becoming those cos
tunes were, Not woman there but
put OF her fowered looped panniers
and frilly cap with sigh! And al
though the men preserved a stark
masculine preteuke Of indifference to
. ~