Brooklyn Life from Brooklyn, New York • Page 8

18 BROOKLYN LIFE. of Colonel Frank H. Norton assisted by Captain Herbert Wheaton Congdon and Lieutenants Eugene Kelly and Floyd L. Stevens. The repulse of the Red Coats, their rally the subsequent withdrawal of the Americans, the hand to hand conflicts, and the men falling dead were all accomplished with as potent an effect of reality as would be possible in a stage presentation.

The opening of the Civil War came next with Henry Ward Beecher in the person of the Rev. Dr. James M. Farrar addressing the Fourteenth Regiment just called to the front and was followed by the second interlude symbolizing the triumph of the Spirit of Liberty in the statuesque person of Miss Mae L. Town-shend, whose attendants make short work of the spirits of Bondage, Misery, Torture, Calamity and Woe.

All the characters of the preceding episodes appeared in review in this scene. The next episode brought the famous Calico Ball held in the old Academy of Music in Montague Street. The Honorable Stephen M. Griswold as Mayor Alfred M. Wood opened the ball in which an enormous company under the direction of Mr.

William Pitt Rivers went through the evolutions of the quadrille with a director calling the figures after the manner of the day. The closing episode was a very effective symbolic representation of the Greater New York, the principal figures in which were: Father Knickerbocker, Mr. William Kingsbury Lane; Brooklyn, Mrs. Joseph Duke Harrison; Manhattan, Mrs. Inez Milholland Bossevain; Bronx, Mrs.

Daniel Appleton Palmer; Queens, Miss Edna Louise Beringer, and Richmond, Miss Katherine M. Holt. The Berkeley Institute furnished the attendants and Miss Kathryn Tewksbury directed the episode. Berkeley students took part in the "River Dance" which was a remarkable performance, distinguished by the unusual grace of the attractive dancers. A postlude, "The Future," brought this brilliant production to a close.

In this the Spirit of Progress, Miss Julia Ring with her inevitable attendants; Commerce, Industry, the Arts and so forth appeared. Some ladies of the Woman's Suffrage Party carrying a banner inscribed with their no longer strange device also lined up with Progress, but one looked in vain for the Antis even among the followers of the Spirit of Bondage. Neither were the Socialist or Prohibition parties represented nor were there any personifications of those great progressive principles, the Initiative, Referendum and Recall. The Great Pageant of Last Week. The Brooklyn Historical Pageant certainly measured up to the most sanguine expectations and probably far exceeded those of the majority who saw it.

It was unquestionably the biggest and most elaborate undertaking of the kind ever carried out in Brooklyn and perhaps anywhere in the country and those connected with it can justly plume themselves upon a great achievement, even though exceptionally bad weather and the very large expenses resulted in disappointing expectations as to receipts. To the prime movers who bore the burden and the heat of the day, namely Mr. Eugene W. Harter, Mrs. Don Mrs.

Joseph Duke Harrison, Mr. Frank H. Tyler, Mr. Jacob C. Klinck, Mr.

Herbert F. Gunnison, Mr. J. Herbert Low and Mr. Edward J.

A. Zeiner must go the lion's share of the credit, however. The most remarkable thing about it was the absence of any suggestion of amateurishness in the handling of so enormous a spectacle. The whole thing was run off like clockwork and if Kultur means efficiency the best German exponents of it have nothing on the management of the pageant. The author, Mr.

Martin H. Weyrauch, deserves a lot of credit for the libretto which in spite of its great scope and the long periods of time elapsing between the episodes represented, lacked nothing in unity. This coherency was cleverly achieved by the introduction of interludes which were remajrkable for their symbolic appropriateness, and their spectacular and poetic beauty. It would be difficult to say which of the scenes, whether symbolic or episodic, was the most effective as a spectacle; but certainly the seventh episode in which the return of the Brooklyn Phalanx from the Civil War was represented and in which about, a score of veterans, survivors of the Fighting Fourteenth or "red legged devils" in their original uniforms appeared on the stage together with the survivors of other Civil War regiments made the most potent appeal to patriotic emotion and called forth the most sustained and spontaneous applause from the immense audiences. In idyllic beauty and charm nothing surpassed the prologue in which the Spirit of Nature with a multitude of sprites, nymphs, fairies and elves danced with marvelous grace and abandon to indicate the as yet uncontested rule of Nature in the primeval wilderness.

Miss Marion Thompson as the Spirit of Nature was a vision of grace, litheness and youthful beauty. The Packer Alumnae furnished the sprites of the woods and the waters; the Brooklyn Heights Seminary the sprites of the winds led by Miss Irma Steele while the little elves, fairies, nymphs and animals led by Miss Alpha Erato Johnson came from the Froebel Academy. The dancing of the entire corps testified to the most perfect coaching. The first two episodes representing respectively the Canarsie Indians encamped and listening to the prophesy by their medicine man of the arrival of the pale faces and the appearance of Henry Hudson, Mr. David Porter, and his crew on the shores of Coney Island were masterpieces of picturesque realism in which absolute historic accuracy appears to have been realized both in the costuming and in the Indian dances.

The Indians were from the Manual Training High School and were under the direction of Mr. Clarence W. Vail, while Miss Agnes W. Wilson directed the splendidly executed Indian dances. The first interlude, which followed, was similar to the prologue except that the dancing symbolized the dethroning of the Spirit of Nature.

Then came the founding of the village of Brooklyn, introducing a number of historic characters and other villagers in the colorful Dutch costumes of the period. Among the leading characters were Gerretse Van Kouwenhoven of Flatlands, impersonated by Mr. W. H. Kouwenhoven; Lady Deborah Moody, founder of Graves-end, impersonated by Miss Helen McCaldin, the Rev.

Johan-nes'Megapolensis, minister of Flatbush; by Lawrence R. Hill and Cornelius Dircksen, taken by Mr. Jack Greason. Colonel Charles I. De Bevoise of Squadron and Miss Ada Moseley directed this episode.

A very gay and romantically impressive scene came next in "The Romance of Melrose Hall." Exactly what historical sanction there is for this story of a conspiracy on the part of the British to kidnap George Washington, the writer does not know, but it was made very good use of in giving dramatic flavor to the pageant. Mr. Eugene W. Harter, the director of this episode, is entitled to credit for putting through one of the most picturesque and stately scenes of the pageant. The minuet danced to Mozart's music under the direction of Mrs.

Frank D. Edgell was fascinating and the song "Britannia" composed by Mr. Harter himself was stirring. Dr. William L.

Felter, principal of the Girls' High School, impersonated the Father of his Country with considerable verisimilitude and Miss Marita Oelkers was a very winning Betsy Shipton. Miss Florence B. Chinnock was the dramatic director of this episode and Erasmus Hall High School furnished the numerous subordinate figures. It is to be doubted if a more thrilling or realistic representation of a battle scene has been given on any stage than that of the Battle of Brooklyn, or Long Island, which constituted the fifth episode of the pageant and was given by members of the Twenty-third Regiment under the direction Notes of Interest on the Pageant. The Packer girls, headed by Miss Marion Thompson who so gracefully and so ably portrayed the role of the Spirit of Nature in the Brooklyn Historical Pageant presented Miss Virginia Tanner with a bunch of American beauty roses at the Saturday afternoon production.

Dr. Henry Clifford Green of 228 Cumberland Street who represented the man with the fife in the "Spirit of 76," is a grandson of one of the men taken prisoner in the Battle of Lake Erie. The very small children in the pageant did particularly well. One of the favorites was little Henry Clay Ditmas of 168 East Seventeenth Street, who, dressed in the Zouave uniform, was the mascot of the Fourteenth Regiment. Master Ditmas, who is the nephew of Mrs.

Bentley Hasell Stevenson, is the only one of his generation who bears the name of Ditmas. He is named for his grandfather, the late Henry Clay Ditmas, and is the son of Mary Adele Turtle and Alonzo Richard Ditmas. To Mrs. Benjamin Drake French is credited the splendid work of having designed the costumes for this truly great Brooklyn Pageant. The New England Society Dinner.

The New England Society Dinner of last week was a brilliant affair. Mr. Thomas L. Leeming was in charge of the musical program and it was unusually artistic. Among those present were Mr.

and Mrs. Charles Peabody, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sniffen, Mr. and Mrs.

John Van Buren Thayer, Mis9 Elizabeth. Thayer, Mr. and Mrs. Omri Ford Hibbard, Mr. and Mrs.

Frank Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Leeming, Judge Hiram S. Steele, Mr. Porter Steele, Mr.

and Mrs. Herbert K. Twitchell, Mr. and Mrs. John Hill Morgan, Mr.

and Mrs. James L. Morgan, Mrs. Henri Werlemann and the Rev. and Mrs.

Newell Dwight Hillis. This was the Spring Meeting and Judge Augustus Van Wyck, the president, presided at the dinner. At Forest Hills. There is to be a remarkable "Community" celebration on the Fourth of July at Forest Hills. This has all been planned out by the representative people and will be of great interest to everybody there, both residents and guests.

A baseball team has been put in the field at Forest Hills and a good season is anticipated by the residents. They play Richmond Hill today, Saturday. Bridge for the Congregational Home for the Aged. At the residence of Mrs. Samuel B.

Balcom, 1720 Dorchester Road, Flatbush, on Wednesday afternoon, the ladies of the Flatbush Congregational Church, with Mrs. F. B. De Berard as chairman of the committee, gave a large bridge for the benefit of the Congregational Home for the Aged..