, a
study of the rural problem, and a contribution toward the effort to make
the country town fulfil its ideal as a place to live. In this effort the
pageant has been a success; it has proved a molding, unifying and
inspiring influence; it has quickened into life the slumbering
energies of the people. By awakening pride in the characteristics of the
town and the region, interest in the history of their past, and hopes
for the better things of the future, it has created a shoulder to
shoulder feeling and a vivification of energy that have brought new
ideas to life and given courage to try them.

In the pageant reality may be mingled with symbolism--the latter for
passages not susceptible of representation on so large a stage as the
village green, or for certain elements of village life that could not be
put into direct dramatic form. For instance, after some scenes from the
early history of a town have been shown, the conditions of modern times
may be symbolized by embodying the new life in a character to be called
the Spirit of Pageantry or the Spirit of Putting Joy into Work. She will
be radiant with hope and joy, and her motions will be stately and
ritualistic. Prone upon the ground before her may lie a character
representing the Village of Time Past, clothed in a dingy dress and
expressing melancholy in her whole appearance. The Spirit of Pageantry
may lift her up and give her encouraging words. Following this a figure
on a white horse who represents America may enter and the pageant may
close with the orchestra and chorus singing "O say can you see by the
dawn's early light?" Something a little like this was done at Thetford,
Vermont.

The pageant at St. Johnsbury had an advantage in that its name suggested
knightliness and gave opportunity for armor, processions of knights, and
chivalric poems. They had also the Fairbanks' Scales as a motive
suggesting an interesting symbol for their historic treatment. In
Meriden, Vermont, Education for the New Country Life was taken as a
theme and the founding of their Academy was the central feature. The
individuality of every town may be expressed in its pageant. No two
would ever be alike.

How a pageant idea may be used to illuminate a sacred or ecclesiastical
subject may be seen in a masque that was written for the dedication of
a chapel. The plan is very simple. One character represents the church
as a whole, and another, a younger woman, stands for the Spirit of the
Ch