The Liberty Girl

by Rena I. Halsey

  CHAPTER V

  THE LIBERTY PAGEANT

  Nathalie was sure that she would never forget those tense, anxiousmoments as she stared with strained eyes, trying to catch the firstglimpse of the coming show, while listening with alert ears to theoncoming tread of many feet, the noise and bustle of moving equipages,and the buzz and hum from the excited voices of the paraders and theonlookers. High above the tumult floated snatches of patriotic song, assung by the Liberty Girls, and the loud outbursts of applause from thevillagers, who lined the street.

  Ah, there it was! The girl's heart leaped in wild bounds, she bentforward eagerly, and then she was sitting with nervously clasped hands,gazing with wide-open eyes at the slowly passing floats of the LibertyPageant. It was heralded by a procession of small maidens costumed asGreek goddesses, who, while moving and swaying rhythmically, and holdingfestoons of white flowers high above their heads, were singing ThomasPaine's "Liberty Tree." As they burst out with the old familiar words:

  "In a chariot of light from the regions of day, The Goddess of Liberty came;"

  Nathalie was forcibly reminded of the time when she had last heard thatsong. Yes, it was almost a year ago, on Mrs. Van Vorst's lawn, when theGirl Pioneers had held their little playlet of "Liberty Banners."

  But her thoughts were again on the series of living pictures, and shesmiled with her neighbors at the two small boys, one gowned as a doctorof the law, and the other as a brass-buttoned, blue-coated guardian ofthe peace, mounted on small horses caparisoned in white, whose trappingswere marked in gold with the words "Law" and "Order." As the diminutivedoctor removed a pen from behind his ear, and peered learnedly throughhis goggles at a ponderous volume of law resting on a rack in front ofhim, while his companion on the neighboring flower-bedecked steedflourished a somewhat formidable-looking club, in token of the duties ofhis office, roars of laughter broke from the spectators.

  But as their eyes wandered on to the snowy chariot, where the Spirit ofLiberty stood with outstretched hands, one holding a branch ofevergreen, and the other a lighted torch, their laughter ceased, and astrange hush stilled their noisy clamor. For this beautiful maiden inloosely flowing garments, with eyes as bright and shining as the starrychaplet that wreathed her golden, unbound hair, was the little hunchbackof the big gray house, Nita Van Vorst!

  High above the "angel face," as Nathalie heard some one designate thegirl's countenance, beautiful in its inspiration of happiness andpatriotism--her deformity hidden by her white wings--was a large bannerinscribed with the words:

  "Enter at Freedom's porch,[1] For you I lift my torch, For you my coronet Is rayed with stars My name is Liberty, My throne is Law."

  Guarding the Spirit of Liberty, while holding the streamers that floatedfrom the banners above, were three more white-robed figures,representing the three great principles for which the world wasstriving. The unbound tresses of each were banded with white, and thefirst bore the word, "Democracy," the girl holding a white dove on herhand. The second was Humanity,--who cuddled a little Belgian refugee inher arms; and the third was Justice, who held aloft a pair of scales.

  Nathalie's eyes radiated with gladness as she heard her neighbors voicetheir commendations in praises of the snowy chariot, the symbol offreedom, man's divine heritage from God. She began to feel that the manyhours that she and Helen had spent in devising and planning the detailsof this float and its mates, after all, might be appreciated.

  The second picture was a marriage scene, a float marked "Virginia,1607," and bore the famous words of its well-known orator, "Give meliberty, or give me death." It was decorated with white flowers in honorof the bride, Pocahontas,--impersonated by a Camp Fire girl in an Indiandeerskin robe wondrously embroidered, and gay with many-coloredbeads,--who stood by the flower-decked pulpit amid a bower of green,being united in the holy bands of matrimony to John Rolfe.

  The pose of the Indian maiden, the sweet seriousness of her tawny-dyedface and melting black eyes, the dignified pose of the Virginia planter,so vividly portrayed the romantic episode of the first American colony,that the many onlookers broke forth into shouts of approval. Thequaintly attired figures of the Jamestown settlers in the foreground,and the group of Indian warriors with their war-plumes and dabs of paintwere backed by a miniature tower. Some one inquired if it was amonument, much to the young president's disgust, as she considered it anoble work of art, which had been laboriously built of old bricks by theGirl Pioneers to represent the ruined tower of Jamestown.

  "My name is Liberty, My throne is Law."--Page 75.]

  Massachusetts was identified by the words, "The Founders of Liberty,"and a simulated boulder, which Blue Robin watched with great trepidationfor fear the blithesome Mary Chilton, who stood victorious on thisForefathers' Rock, in too zealous jubilation would shake it too much.But the sprightly Pilgrim maiden, in gray cape and bonnet--it was theSport--remembered the perilous foundations, and her scorn was discreetlytempered with caution as she gazed at the somewhat crestfallen John, whostood with one foot on the rock, and the other in a miniature shallop,where the Pilgrim Fathers stood dismally regarding this forerunner ofthe progressive American girl.

  New York's contribution to the cause of freedom was a float brilliantlyrampant with the Stars and Stripes, and a little white flag with a blackbeaver on it, the State's emblem. This float, which bore the words, "TheSons of Liberty," was in commemoration of the brave lovers of freedom onthe little isle of Manhattan, who, in February, 1770, raised the firstLiberty Pole in America at what is now known as City Hall Park. To besure, it was cut down twice, but Liberty was afire, and it was finallyhooped with iron and set up the third time, this time to stay.

  "Liberty Hall," the name of the home of a one-time governor of NewJersey, was conspicuously seen on the next float. The girls had had somedifficulty in getting an appropriate design for this little garden Statethat could be conveniently staged on a small-sized platform. But theyhad evidently succeeded, for the quaintly gowned young maiden who actedher role in pantomime was loudly applauded as she flew to an improvisedwindow, only to exhibit wild alarm, and then in frenzied haste scurriedto an old-time escritoire. Here she rummaged a moment or so, and thenextracted a bundle of letters, which she hurriedly secreted behind aloosened brick beside a simulated fireplace. In explanation of thissilent drama Nathalie told that the young girl was Susannah, thedaughter of William Livingston, the governor, who, when she saw theredcoats marching towards the house in her father's absence, quicklyremembered his valuable papers and hid them for safety.

  Five girls in homespun gowns, sewing on a United States flag, composedthe New Hampshire float, which flew the State emblem, with its motto ofLiberty inscribed on its side. The flag-makers, out of their best silkgowns, were making, in accordance with the description in the resolutionjust passed by Congress, June 14, 1777, the first Stars and Stripes thatfloated from the _Ranger_, to which Captain Paul Jones had just beencommissioned, and which became known as "the unconquered and unstrickenflag."

  The Connecticut float bore the words, "The Liberty Charter," while aLiberty Girl, in a good impersonation of Ruth Wyllis, stood by a ladderresting against a somewhat strange simulation of the Charter Oak,handing the supposed charter to the redoubtable Captain Wadsworth, whoquickly secreted it in the hollow of the tree.

  Terra Marie, the land of Mary, not only blazoned the words, "The Rightsof Liberty," but portrayed Margaret Brent, the first woman suffragist,as she stood before the Maryland Assembly and pleaded with thoseworthies, with masculine energy, for her right to a say in the affairsof the little State, the State noted for its Toleration Act of 1649.Surely the good woman, as the representative of the deceased GovernorCalvert, who had given his all to her with the words, "Take all, andgive all," had a right to demand that she be heard.

  The "Daugh
ters of Liberty" made a brilliant showing in big letters onthe little Rhody float, to honor the seventeen young girls who, in 1766,met at the home of good old Deacon Bowen, in Providence, and not onlyvoiced their disapproval of the Colonies' tax on tea and on clothmanufactured in England, but formed the first patriotic organizationknown in America. It was the same inspiration of liberty that impelledtheir emulators to adopt their name, and to plan and push through thedemonstration of which every one was so proud. As these Liberty maidenssat and spun at their looms, or whetted their distaffs on the floatbefore the gaping crowd, they were guarded by two impersonations,--onethe father of toleration, Roger Williams, who looked benignantly downupon these devotees of freedom, and the other, America's firstclub-woman, the learned and martyred Anne Hutchinson.

  Ah, but who is this riding astride a horse of sable blackness, curvetingand prancing with chafing irritation at the tightened rein of its rider,who

  "Burly and big, and bold and bluff, In his three-cornered hat and coat of snuff, A foe to King George and the English state, Was Caesar Rodney, the delegate."[2]

  Of course there were a few who were not familiar with this littleincident in the history of Delaware, and how the aforesaid Rodney, amember of the Continental Congress, spurred his horse from Dover toPhiladelphia, a distance of eighty-one miles, to reach Independence Hallbefore night, in order to cast the vote of Delaware for freedom andindependence. It was, indeed, a great ride, and the townspeople musthave appreciated it, for the horse and rider were heartily cheered asthey read the words on the banner: "It is Liberty's stress; it isFreedom's need."

  North Carolina proved most interesting, with the inscription, "The FirstLiberty Bell of America," on a big hand-bell resting in the center ofthe float. The inscription and the bell aroused so much curiosity as towhy it should take precedence of the old Liberty Bell at Philadelphia,that Nathalie was called upon by a group of friends sitting near, toexplain that it really was the first Liberty Bell used in the ThirteenColonies, having sounded its peal for liberty when rung by the patriotsof that State in 1771.

  "These patriots," went on the young Liberty Girl, "were the farmers andyeomanry of that State, who, in a vigorous protest against the tyrannousacts, misrule, and extortion during the administration of GovernorTryon, banded themselves into a company known as the Regulators. Thisbell was used to call them together in their struggle to maintain therights of the people. These Regulators were not only hounded,persecuted, and sometimes executed as if they were rebels, but many oftheir number were killed at the battle of the Alamance,--so namedbecause it took place on a field near that beautiful river,--when calledupon to defend themselves, when fired upon by the governor and a companyof the king's troops. This battle has been called by some the firstbattle of the Revolution," continued the young girl, "and reallyinspired the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, the forerunner ofthe noted Declaration signed at Philadelphia. Some historians claim that'God made the flower of freedom grow out of the turf that covered thesemen's graves.'"

  After this little story, the inscription,

  "And well these men maintained the right; They kept the faith and fought the fight; Till Might and Reason both Fled fast before the oath Which brought the God of Freedom's battles down To place on patriot's brow the victor's crown!"[3]

  on the float was eagerly read and doubly appreciated. By the bell stooda tiny maid in the long skirt of the days of colonial childhood, wearinga long white apron. With the crossed kerchief and two bright eyespeeping from beneath the golden curls that strayed from below the littleone's Puritan cap, she looked so sweet and demure that murmurs ofadmiration surged through the crowd, as they recognized that thisdiminutive lady represented the first white child born in America,little Virginia Dare.

  Perhaps only a few knew that the white fawn that she was holding by herside featured the legend of the white doe that was said to haunt theisle of Roanoke for many years after the return of John White, who foundonly the word _Croatan_ to tell him that his dear little granddaughterhad disappeared, never to be found. The legend was so suggestive of theromance of North Carolina that the girls could not forbear giving itprominence on the float. They had had some trouble to find a white doe,but they had succeeded, and as Nathalie gazed at it she was againreminded of how the legend told that it used to stand mournfully gazingout to sea, on a hill of the little isle. The Indians, traditionasserted, had failed to kill it, until one day it was shot and killed bya silver bullet from the hand of an Indian chieftain, who claimed thatthe bullet had been given to him by Queen Elizabeth to kill witches,when a captive in England. As the beautiful doe sank upon the greensward and expired it was said to have murmured, "Virginia Dare! VirginiaDare!"

  South Carolina, glaringly conspicuous with red and blue bunting, wasmarked "Liberty" in honor of one of the most famous flags used in theRevolutionary War. It was an ensign of blue with a white crescent in onecorner, said to have been designed by Colonel Moultrie, of Carolinafame, and was declared to have been the first flag raised for liberty inthe South.

  In the center of the float a miniature trench had been raised, on theparapet of which stood a young lad waving this little blue flag, inhonor of that gallant hero, Sergeant Jasper, who, when the flag was shotdown during the bombardment of Fort Moultrie, June 28, 1776, leapedfearlessly to the top of the ramparts, received the colors, and heldthem in his hand until another staff was found.

  "Lo! the fullness of time has come, And over all the exiles' Western home From sea to sea the flowers of Freedom bloom."

  This little quotation was an apt one, from the Poet Whittier, but it wasnot necessary to make known to those gazing at it, that it stood for thestrongest and proudest of the sisterhood of States, the home of freemenand heroes, of Robert Morris, Dr. Franklin and our good brother, WilliamPenn.

  This promoter of tolerance, independence, and the equal rights of menwas fittingly portrayed by a Boy Scout. Benignant of face, mild of eye,with long hair falling from beneath his broad-brimmed hat, this friendof the friendless stood surrounded by a group of Indian warriors,resplendent in all the trappings of their tribes, making one of thenumerous peace treaties.

  But the Georgia float, buried in white to represent bolls of cotton, inmemory of Eli Whitney, aroused such loud and long cries of admirationthat Nathalie feared that after her hard labor the other floats had notreceived their due mead of appreciation. But no, it was the rousingmelody of "Marching through Georgia," with its telling lines of,

  "So we made a thoroughfare for Freedom and her train, Sixty miles in latitude--three hundred to the main;"

  and the inspiration that always comes to every Northern heart when theythink of that gallant Son of Liberty, Sherman, and his triumphant marchto the sea, that had created the sudden tumult.

  The few men in regimentals of the Union army,--in real life, boys inbrown from Camp Mills,--who were playing fifes and bugles on the float,and the straggling darkies in the rear, who were shouting with verve andgusto, as they followed in the wake of "Massa Sherman," intensified theappeal.

  Ah, but now comes another edition of Liberty; this time no less apersonage than Lillie Bell, who, in the old costume worn over a year agoon the lawn of the big gray house, was standing on a chariot, an oldfarm wagon ablaze with the colors of Freedom, driven by four soldiers,representing France, England, Belgium, and America. The young goddesswith sad and tragic eyes shining from beneath her helmet, gazed straightbefore her as she held a drawn sword clasped closely to her breast, in agraceful pose beneath the colors of the Allies floating gayly above herhead.

  Yes, there was no doubt, as Helen had often said, Lillie was born forstellar roles, for somehow she had the happy faculty of always fallinginto the desired attitude and mood of the part she was to portray. Asudden silence gripped the line of people standing on the curb, as theysaw this fam
iliar figure of Liberty, in a new and strange role. On abeflagged chair of state good old Uncle Sam was seated, drivingAmerica's symbol of Freedom with reins of roses. Yes, roses to typifythat the good protector of the United States' joys and interests was onthe job,--as the Sport expressed it,--but doing it with the silken reinsof love.

  In the rear of this float a very small one appeared, but it was largeenough to display a cannon and a pile of cannon-balls, and also a memberof the United States Marines' crack quartet of machine-gunners. As hewas the genuine article, as one of the girls declared,--being one of thetown's boys home on a leave of absence, and held a Lewis gun, he wasreceived with wild cheers. A Jackie was perched on what was supposed tobe a conning-tower, apparently on the watch for a submarine, whileanother soldier of the seas was ramming an old cannon, which createdmuch laughter.

  It wasn't much of a naval display, Nathalie thought regretfully, but itwas the best they could do with their poor equipment, for theseDaughters of Freedom were resolved to give due honor to these braveguardians of the sea.

  A contingent of husky young chaps from Camp Mills were lionized as soonas their khaki-clad figures were sighted on the next float, which wasmarked, "Liberty Boys." A somewhat crude representation of a trench,piled with sand-bags, with a few boys in tin hats, with guns in theirhands, clambering over it, represented to the spectators an "Over theTop" scene. In the rear of the trench a few soldiers were grouped arounda camp-fire, presumably in a rest _billet_, having "eats." Every momentor so a soldier on this float would break forth into some war-song,which was quickly taken up by his comrades, and which helped to make thescene very realistic.

  A small float with the Red Cross insignia, bearing the words, "The Crossof Liberty," with a few nurses seated around a table making bandages,now appeared. A white cot, with a soldier boy in it, suddenly silencedthe cheers,--it was so suggestive of what every heart held in silentdread and fear, ever since the United States had buckled to the fray.

  But the sudden quiet was broken as the next, and last, float hove insight. It was so artistically gotten up as a Liberty Garden, andrepresented so much freshness and beauty with its Liberty Girls, eachone dressed to represent either a fruit or a vegetable, that it waswildly cheered. Masses of fruit piled up here and there peeped frombowers of green leaves, or hung in festoons across the float. Potatoes,green and red peppers, onions, cucumbers, and many other products of thegarden were lavishly in evidence. Carol, the Tike, was arrayed as apumpkin, a row of yellow leaves standing above a bunch of green ones.Carrots, cucumbers, turnips, even beans, beets, and strawberries wereingeniously represented by crepe paper.

  But the love of every heart were the Morrow twins, standing in the frontof the float in blue overalls, wide-brimmed hats, and blue shirts, withrakes and hoes in their hands, as farmerettes, each one vigorouslywaving a flag. This float completed the series of pictures that Nathalienow felt had been duly admired, and she smiled happily at the manyplaudits that again burst forth. But when the farmerettes and theseliving representations of fruits and vegetables broke into[4]

  "Yes, we'll rally round the farm, boys, We'll rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of 'Feed 'em.' We've got the ships and money And the best of fighting men, Shouting the battle cry of 'Feed 'em.'

  "The Onion forever, the beans and the corn, Down with the tater--it's up the next morn-- While we rally round the plow, boys, And take the hoe again, Shouting the battle cry of 'Feed 'em!'"

  it captured every heart present, and such prolonged applause rent theair that Nathalie was duly satisfied.

  As she turned to leave the grand-stand it seemed to the tired girl as ifevery one in town stopped to shake hands, and to congratulate her on thehuge success of the Liberty Pageant. When she finally arrived home, itwas some hours before she reached her couch, for she found the familyunduly excited, all eagerly talking; no, not about the pageant, butabout a rather strange letter that had been received by Mrs. Page thatafternoon.

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  Footnote 1:

  "Liberty Enlightening the World," E. C. Stedman.

  Footnote 2:

  "Rodney's Ride." Poems of American History. B. C. Stevenson.

  Footnote 3:

  "The Mecklenburg Declaration," Wm. C. Elam.

  Footnote 4:

  "Patriotic Toasts," Emerson Brooks.