The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1920-10-18
STRATF0RD IS
PLACE OF PEACE.
Shakespeare's Old Home Casts
Softening Spell Over Its
ThrongS of Visitors.
RESTFULNESS IS ITS LURE
Voices of Strangers Are Not Lifted
in Hilarity-viIIagers Enjoy and
Appreciate Shakespeare-Many
Americans There.

Stratford-on-Avon. = The poet O
Shropshire has given his high metrica
authority to the statement that tn,
quietest places under the sun are IL
that county but he refers to place.
only, and obviously is not thinking o.
towns, of which the quietest under
the sun is surely StratfOrd-on-Avon. L
assimilates its visitors without noise
much as Shakespeare himself compre
hends the heights and depths of human
life easily as to the manner born.
There are plenty of strangers here
this summer, but they do not make 8
crowd and their voices are not lifted
in hilarity. Perhaps they are under the
softening spell of genius. The nearest
approach to merriment | have yet no
ticed however, was in front Of the
birthplace. 1t. was already full OF
sightseers, and little throng awaited
entrance on the pavement. Among them
was not one "in the learned way" as
Boswell puts 1t. but the whole com
pany bore the plain, sturdy, bucolic
| stamp Dressed in their customary
Sunday suits of solemn black they re-
vered the immortal memory with
contrasted cheerfulness.
In the train from London French
man on holiday asked me for advice
Oh motor travelling between StratfOrd
and bennington. Having just four
hours TO spend in Stratford he was pro-
ali +h. e,;<r +e 20 Oft
the summer festival matinee of las
You Like It. in the Memorial theater.
and to catch a glimpse of Warwick on
his way back to the railway. Evidently
Americans are not the only folk who
can hustle. He might have been reaS-
sured on the motor question. Such is
the enterprise in this direction that ii
is calculated that sixty char-a-bancs
and the like stay in Stratford every
day They take their passengers to
the many delightful towns and VII
lagos in the neighborhood and bring
in the inhabitants of spots which
would otherwise be remote.
Villagers Enjoy Shakespeare.
A large proportion of the audiences
of the summer festival are villagers.
who have learned to rely on the motor
as means of conveyance, and they
do, am assured really appreciate
Shakespeare, Not only that. but they
possess an Unborn aptitude for Old
English dances and pageantry. The
stories one hears of Maypole and
Morris dancing in some of the villages
suggest either that Shakespeare's
England has never died. or has been
revived By the agencies that aim at
the drama In the coun- !
tryside But it should not be conclud- !
ed tina; these village festivals are |
by artistic labor. On |
the contrary. they are described as the |
sports Of the young in |
which the old are not afraid to join
Stratford itself has more than one
open place to which Maypole would
seem no alien addition. From time TO !
time mich has been said and written
IF its comnercializariOn. With some
The memory Of Shakespeare may have
become a trade. like aluminium or any
1llIig tlSe OlileIS nave SuOWu uON
little they fear the intrusion of a fac
Dry Yet the town remains a very
vestige Of that In which
was born. The spirit Of
he Elizabethan village still broods
'ver it's timbered houses and spacious
streets, and the business in mementoes
las not succeeded In destroying their
meaning. No town can get peace for
he asking. and it is peace which
Stafford has secured by some semi
ivine right and retains in spite of
very provocation TO barter the posses
ion.
Many Americans There. Too.
The Warwickshire meadows are as
mooth end green as ever. There the
liver glides at its own sweet will with
f their tlullness. one wonders wheth
r It is only for Shakespeare that the
hole world comes to Stratford or
neither some part of the comRusiOn
not that desire for retreat which he
as expressed in many remembered
lssage.
BE he attraction what ii may the
st0rs this very year form a kind of
,nSpectus of Stratford's universal at
action. II need hardly be said that
ere have been many small parties
Americans. From various registers
nv he gathered an idea Of their rep
sentati-e character. for Denver fol-
ws Boston and New York is next
,or to Colorado in those undeniable
ges. South America is there, too
lstralia stands high In the list of
,minion visitors. and after Australia
mes South Africa.