* * * * *

At last, while the throng cheers, one bird-man has attained it.  He brings back his message that the gift is an image, covered loosely with a wrapping that seems to be of spun gold.  Now the many aviators whirl round the descending wonder, like seagulls playing about a ship’s mast.  Soon, amid an awestruck throng, the image is on the hillock.  The golden chains, and the giant children holding them there above, have melted into threads of mist and nothingness.  The shining wrapping falls away.  The people look upon a seated statue of marble and gold.  There is a branch of wrought-gold maple leaves in her hands.  Then beside the image is a fluttering transfigured presence of which the image seems to be a representation.  This spirit, carrying a living maple branch in her hand, says to the people:  “Men and Women of Springfield, this carving is the Lady Springfield sent by your Lord from Heaven.  Build no canopy over her.  Let her ever be under the prairie-sky.  Do her perpetual honor.”  The messenger, who is the soul and voice of Springfield, fades into the crowd, to emerge on great and terrible occasions.

This is only one story.  Round this public event let the photoplay romancer weave what tales of private fortune he will, narratives bound up with the events of that October day, as the story of Nathan and Naomi is woven into Judith of Bethulia.

Henceforth the city officers are secular priests of Our Lady Springfield.  Their failure in duty is a profanation of her name.  A yearly pledge of the first voters is taken in her presence like the old Athenian oath of citizenship.  The seasonal pageants march to the statue’s feet, scattering flowers.  The important outdoor festivals are given on the edge of her hill.  All the roads lead to her footstool.  Pilgrims come from the Seven Seas to look upon her face that is carved by Invisible Powers.  Moreover, the living messenger that is her actual soul appears in dreams, or visions of the open day, when the days are dark for the city, when her patriots are irresolute, and her children are put to shame.  This spirit with the maple branch rallies them, leads them to victories like those that were won of old in the name of Jeanne d’Arc or Pallas Athena herself.

CHAPTER XII

THIRTY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PHOTOPLAYS AND THE STAGE

The stage is dependent upon three lines of tradition:  first, that of Greece and Rome that came down through the French.  Second, the English style, ripened from the miracle play and the Shakespearian stage.  And third, the Ibsen precedent from Norway, now so firmly established it is classic.  These methods are obscured by the commercialized dramas, but they are behind them all.  Let us discuss for illustration the Ibsen tradition.