The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1919-05-22
Children of Kenosha Schools
and Prominent Citizens To
Present Pageant On
June Sixteenth.
"SIGNING THE DECLARE ton
The Stirring Scene of Liberty Hall In
'76 To Be Recalled By Pageant
Part of Program for Naturalization
Day In Circuit Court.


Liberty bell will ring again. in
Kenosha on the afternoon and evening
of June 10th. On that day when scores
of foreign born Americans will take
the oath of citizenship in the Kenosha
county court, there viii also be staged
at the Armory for their special benefit
pageant which will depict the story
of liberty in this country from the time
that John Hancock signed his name
| to the Declaration of Independence in
letters large enough that the king of
England could see it without putting
on his spectacles,' through the scene
when by a single stroke of the pen Lin
coin broke the shackles that bound
| thousands Of slaves to the day when
four million Americans in the latest
war rose in their might and defended
the nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal. =
| The pageant, a part of the nation
wide program for Americanization Day,
will have in its cast of characters hun
dreds Of the children of the Kenosha
schools. The principal roles such as
those playing the parts of George Wash
ington, John Hancock, Abraham Lin
coin, President Wilson and others will
be taken by prominent citizens of Ke-
nosha. All the children of the schools
and the public viii be invited to attend
the performance but the guests Of hon
or will be those citizens who have on
that day pledged their allegiance to the
"stars and stripes" and taken the oath
of allegiance to this nation.
The play will be under the direction
of Miss Heating while the general ar
rangements for the program is being
cared for by Prof. E. F. Randall of the
Kenosha Vocational schools and head Of
the Americanization work in Kenosha..
Parts for the play have not been cast
in their entirety and announcement of
this will be made later. The pageants
will include folk dances by various
groups of children and work has al
ready started on these in several schools
of the city.
The patriotic pageant which will be
presented on the afternoon and evening
of June 10th portrays many of the in
teresting scenes of American history.
The opening scene will present pro-
logue who introduces liberty leading a
procession of American citizens of for
eign birth, each dressed in the costume
of his native land and bearing the flag
Of the land Of his birth. Liberty then
brings before them several of the i'm
mortal scenes Of American history.
The first of these is a tableau rep
resenting the scene in Independence
hall when the signers Of the Declaration
of Independence pledged their lives,
their fortunes and their sacred honor"
to the cause of liberty. Thomas JEFF
ferson, who like all the other leading
characters in the play will be repre-
sented by some prominent citizen of
Kenosha, reads the document and the
members of the congress sign their
names while bell rings out the birth
story of freedom. The supplement to
this scene follows when group of
colonial mothers will be seen in a great
tableau around a picture Of the birth
place of the American nation
Other scenes will depict with as much
detail the scene when Washington de-
livered his famous Farewell Adj
Dress the time when Lincoln deliver
ed the Gettysburg address and scene
showing President Wilson giving his
welcome to newly obligated citizens at
Philadelphia in May, 1915. The pageant
is closed when liberty again at the
head of the procession of foreign born
citidens, all represented by children of
the schools, secures from them the same
pledge that Americans have made and
have kept in the defense of the Star
Spangled Banner"
interviewer in the pageant will be pa
triotic music which will emphasize the
spirit of the famous scenes. Plans for
the day have not been arranged com
pletely yet but it is probable that prior
to the program at the Armory the citi-
zens who have just secured their see
ond papers will be addressed by some
prominent speaker at the Court House,
who viii explain in detail how much
honor and duty is attached to the vows
which they have taken.