recover.  Their motions are cramped, and they lose all sweep and freedom.  There should be understudies for all the principal parts, and there must be at least one full-dress rehearsal.  The ages of the young people taking part in the pageant should be from eight to eighteen.  The principal parts will, of course, be intrusted to the older boys and girls where the occasion demands.  John Smith, Powhatan, and others need a certain amount of height and dignity.

The number of young people taking part in The Pageant of Patriotism will be determined by circumstances.  From two hundred to five hundred young people may take part in it.

It should be kept in mind that a Children’s or Young People’s pageant differs widely from a pageant given by older actors.  It should have about it an atmosphere of entire simplicity.  There should be no striving for effect.  Naivete is to be desired rather than ornateness.  Scenes filled with crowds of young players should alternate with scenes where solitary little figures appeal by their quaint remoteness, their suggestion of innocence and candor.  The Pageant of Patriots is not only a pageant of country but of life’s springtime, and interwoven with its episodes should be the glamor of the youth of the world.

THE PAGEANT OF PATRIOTS (Indoor)

THE PAGEANT OF PATRIOTS

(Arrangement of Indoor Episodes)

1.  PROLOGUE BY THE SPIRIT OF PATRIOTISM 2.  DRAMATIC SILHOUETTE:  LORDS OF THE FOREST 3.  THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN (Tableau) 4.  PRINCESS POCAHONTAS 5.  PRISCILLA MULLINS (Tableau) 6.  BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, JOURNEYMAN 7.  GEORGE WASHINGTON’S FORTUNE 8.  THE BOSTON TEA PARTY 9.  DRAMATIC SILHOUETTE:  THE SPIRIT OF ’76 10.  ABRAHAM LINCOLN:  RAIL-SPLITTER 11.  FINAL TABLEAU 12.  PROCESSION OF PLAYERS

PROLOGUE Spoken by The Spirit of Patriotism

People of --------, ye who come to see
Enacted here some hours of Pageantry,
Lend us your patience for each simple truth,
And see portrayed for you the Nation’s Youth. 
Into times dim and far I bid you gaze,
Down the long vista of departed days,
Of hope and aspiration, woe and weal,
Famine and hardship, strife and patriot zeal. 
Back further still our march of years shall go
To times primeval:  The first scene will show
In shadow silhouette the sagamore,
The braves and chieftains of the days of yore,
Lords of the forest, kings of stream and hill,
Of trail and wigwam:  masters of the kill! 
The white man’s coming next—­while curiously
A youthful Indian, pausing, peers to see
What strangers tread the shores that he calls home,
What white-winged ships have braved the wild sea-foam. 
Prows of the Norsemen, etched against the blue! 
Helmets agleam!  Faces of wind-bronzed hue! 
On roll the years, and in a forest green
The Princess Pocahontas next is seen;
And then in prim white cap and somber gown