Excerpt from A Pageant for Independence Day This Pageant was written at the suggestion of the Sane Fourth Association of Chicago, and first produced under its auspices, assisted by the Chicago Woman's Club, at Jackson Park, Chicago, the evening of July 4, 1911. The performance was free to the public, and the audience was officially estimated at twenty thousand persons. The Pageant is now published in the belief that it may provide or suggest to progressive communities a more logical method of celebration than that against which the Sane Fourth Associations are in active protest, being an attempt to show in dramatic form some of the conditions which led to the American Revolution; to explain the situation of the Continental Congress previous to its Declaration of Independence; and to make plain the effect of this Declaration upon the position of Washington as commander of the American army. The Pageant in the form here given is not designed for presentation on a very great scale. It may be played by a hundred participants; or the number may be augmented to four or five hundred where funds for extensive costuming are available. It is intended for outdoor evening production, with simple profile scenery such as may be constructed and painted anywhere. The scenes are arranged for rehearsal as units, so that the number of general rehearsals may be re-reduced to a minimum. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.