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

In the old glass like u former denizer
Of the old house.
All this had been done By the won
en-; but us the date Of the performance
drew near, the men Of our district
went into action as eompetently AZ
though the problem had been the
familiar one of getting out logs from
a steep ravine on the mountain. The
owner of local saw-mill contributed
load or two of long pine slabs with
all the rough bark on; and in the
afternoon before the entertainment
was to be given our men went down
the valley TO the Town Hall, armed
with saws and hammers and nails
aloft on wagons piled with the mos,
extraordinary combination of articles
ever seen even by the long experienced
valley road.
And now, if you please, you are TO
stop peeping behind the scenes and
take your place in the audience gath
cred in the Town Hall on the night Of
the great performance. You will be
lucky if you get seat, for every one
from far and near has come fiocking to
see what the North District people are
up to, and how there can be play
in which thirty-five men, women and
children take part, most Of whom have
never been on any sort of a stage be-
fore. You will hear from that audience
many laughing, slightly malicious pre-
dictions of stage-fright and failure;
but when the curtain goes up, you will
observe that they forget everything
except to exclaim.
They are looking into little log
cabin, such as their own ancestors
built and occupied when, in the middle
Of the eighteenth century, they came
up from Connecticut to settle in the
wolf and bear-infested forests Of
Vermont. Against the log-walls hang
old muzzle- loading muskets, beaver
traps, wildcat-skins, deer's-heads.
From the low ceiling are suspended
big lunches of drying herbs, flitches
Of bacon, strings of dried apple and
pumpkins. A tall clock ticks peace
ably in one corner. At one side is a
big fireplace before which are suspend
ed three roasting turkeys, twirling on
cord, tended and basted by a little old,
old woman in close cap, with corn
cob pipe in one corner Of her toothless
mouth and a crutch under one arm.
The room is filled with bright, soft
radiance from innumerable candles in
jack-o' Lanterns, and in pewter candle-
sticks, lining the two long, bare wood
en- tables, over which, setting on pew
ter plates and steel knives and forks,
bend two charming figures in full
looped panniers and bright bodices.
Near them sits powerful middle
aged man, his strong, broad body clad
in lowered waistcoat and flowing coat.
In the middle of the stage, by spin
ming wheel, stands matronly woman,
a plain white fichu folded over her
ample bosom, white cap framing her
calm, serene face, apparently quite un-
conscious of all the hundred eyes fixed
on her as she twirls her white wool
into thread and, stepping to and fro
beside the rapidly revolving spokes,
sends out into the audience that SOM
nolent sound, heard for the first time
by most Of them, the soft-whir-r-r of
the spinning wheel.
The twenty-odd "authors" of the
North District play had provided for
no conversation just at first, and they
were quite right. After one long look
at that quiet scene from out their own
past, the skeptical audience of our
cousins and neighbors and friends and
enemies breaks over the dour noun
tain tradition which forbids as inde-
.orous the open expression of approval,
and the Town Hall is filled with the
sound Of clapping hands.
On the stage the talk began, such
talk as would make a professional
iramatist throw up his hands. Not a
word of that strainingly "well-con-
,tructed" conversation which always
opens sophisticated plays, which is ev-
IDENTITY uttered by the actors not be-
,ause that is what they would say
lnder the circumstances, but because
'orest, squabbled amicably about
hey say in order to give the audience
Information about the plot. Having
10 plot, we wandered care-free and at !
,ase in the conversation of real
people; and apparently our heterodox
audience approved it, for all those
'ows Of doubters listened with silent,
,ager attention while the family of a
entury and quarter ago chatted and
,ossiped Of its own affairs, speculated
bout who would be coming to the
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