The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1955-09-16
STATES OLDEST
TOWN TO OBSERVE
Il 250th BIRTHDAY
Bath Celebration To Be Prime
! Event During First Four
Days of October

Bath.-This $50 year-old town,
once a colonial capital and hide
4way of the Pirate Blackboard, is
busily preparing for its birthday
party.
The celebration, four-day
event, is slated for the first four
days in October.
Local residents-all 381 of them
Ehave been making costumes of
the early Eighteenth Century, re-
hearsing for the big three-day
pageant scheduled during the cele-
bration, and putting a special
polish on their coastal community.
Bath is located Oh a point between
two creeks, about Is miles east of
Washington, N. c.
The town was North Carolina's
colonial capital, and descendants
Of many of the original settlers
will take part in the pageant. The
drama Queen Anne's Bell'', which
author Edmund H. Harding calls
an allegory portraying the found
ing and development of Bath, will
include several hundred people in
the cast, many of them in roles of
special significance because of
hneat descendance or present
status.
North Cardinals Cover nor
Luther H. Hodges and Mrs. Hodges
will portray Governor and Mrs.
Eden; Attorney General William B.
Rodman will be Christopher Gale,
first chief justice in the colony;
Lindsay Warren, former Comptrol-
Ter General of the United Staes
and a native of this area, will be
John Harvey, financier of the
period, etc.
The infamous Edward Teach,
more commonly known as "Black-
beard the Pirate, will come to
life in the portrayal by Norman
Gordon of Chapel Hill, N. c., and
former baritone with the Metro
politan Opera Company, where he
starred in such operas as "The
Damnation of Faust. A very
large man physically, Mr.. Cor
don's characterization will include
musical as we'll as spoken lines.
One of North Carolina's best
known citizens is the person who
has been more nearly responsible
for this celebration, which other
wise would be impossible for so
small a community. He is Edmund
H. Harding of Washington, N. c.,
known as "The Tar Heel Humor-
ist'. As a professional humorist
and lecturer, he travels about
100000 miles a year and his face
and voice are familiar to thousands
of civic clubs and conventioners
throughout the United States.
In the Bath celebration, however,
he has changed his identity some
what. AS the chairman of the COM
appointed by the Governor
to handle the event, he was unable
to find a pageant script at a time
and price to fit the prescribed bud
get, so he wrote the script HIM
self handled the casting, cos
and is general chairman
of the entire event.
In the pageant, he will be seen
as the Town Crier, narrating the
events of Baths founding, and the
of its history to the
present. The pageant's theme deals
with the donation of a bell by
Queen Anne to the village shortly
after its founding, which was
placed in st. Thomas Episcopal
Church, where it remains today.
The huge bell is rung at all i'm
portant events, and its stentorian
tones will be heard during the
Bath of today is sleepy little
coastal village, it's population hard
ly any larger than it was more
than 200 years ago, but come early
October it will be busy place, as
The founding of Bath-and the be-
ginnings of North Carolina ere
ra-created To 1.-Two again. two and a