Слике страница
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small]

paratory work. Several things may be cited as contributing to this final result, not the least of which was the educational campaign initiated by the Newark Public Library, through its efficient head, Mr. John Cotton Dana. The interest in all things pertaining to the city, which was stimulated by this institution was still further conserved when the library authorities prevailed upon Mr. Frank Urquhardt, of the "Newark Call," to prepare two pamphlets covering Newark's entire history (1904, 1906). These were written in such a way as to interest the boys and girls of the public schools. The Board of Education was now prevailed upon to introduce the study of Newark into the schools. A course was therefore arranged covering its geography, industries, history and government a comparatively easy task in view of the previous activity of the Library in gathering material. This was put in permanent form by the school authorities in a volume entitled, "Newark Study." A course was also prepared for the high schools; this took the form of a study of municipal problems, and was based upon a series of pamphlets dealing with the police system, city cleaning, city planning, etc., etc.; in fact, the city of Newark may be counted as one

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood

of the pioneers in this field among the great cities of the East. About this time, 1910, a city planning commission was appointed. Although it was unable to point to any considerable achievement aside from the publication of a report, it directed a more general attention to the city and its problems. The following year, 1911, the Schoolmen's Club of the city erected the first of a series of tablets commemorating the more striking episodes in Newark's history. This movement would not have aroused the interest which it did, had it not been for an arrangement which the club made with the Board of Education, by which the boys and girls in the schools were given the opportunity of contributing to a penny fund for the erection of these tablets. A special day had by this time been set apart in the schools for emphasizing the significance of Newark (1909), and "Newark Day," as it was called, was selected for the erection of the tablet and the collection of the pennies. These tablets have cost on an average $150 apiece, and in each case the bulk of the expense has been borne by the children. As was perhaps appropriate for the first venture of this kind, they succeeded to mark the home of John Catlin, the first schoolmaster in Newark. They have

[ocr errors]

since marked the original lot which his fellow-citizens set apart for Robert Treat, and the home of Moses Combs, a revolutionary patriot, and the founder of the leather industry.

Within this same period, thanks to the generosity of Amos Van Horn, a successful business man who sought to give back to the city some of the wealth which it had helped to create, two handsome statues were erected, the one representing Washington as he was about to take leave of his army at Rocky Hill near Princeton, and the other of Lincoln, the work of Gustave Borglum, the well-known sculptor. With the work launched by the Schoolmen's Club, the city was already in a fair way to fix for all time the great episodes connected with its past.

To re-enforce these efforts, the Newark Public Library began the publication in 1912 of a monthly journal known as the "Newarker," and its staff devoted themselves heart and soul to the exploitation of the city. It may, therefore, fairly be said that the ground had been thoroughly prepared for the crowning efforts of the past year to fittingly celebrate the rounding out of two centuries and a half of civic life. Little difficulty was experienced in securing the needed funds, the citizens contributing $250,000, $1,000 for each year of its history, in addition to the $1,500,000 to be spent on the memorial building. Several citizens were stimulated to do something on their own account-a spirit which was shared by many societies who vied with each other in honoring themselves and their city.

A celebration of this character arouses interest and functions primarily in connection with those incidents which center about its past. It is from them that the

community draws its deepest inspiration, and it is to them that it looks for results of an abiding character. This was realized at the very outset when the judges in the poster contest awarded the prize of $1,000 to the now familiar poster of Robert Treat setting foot upon the shores of the Passaic at the head of his little band of pilgrims. The episode was made famous throughout the country by the issue of thousands of poster stamps.

THE EPHEMERAL VS. THE PERMANENT FEATURES OF THE CELEBRATION.

essentially ephemeral in character; there were others which will always remain to convey their lesson of patriotic endeavor, and to serve as incentives to future ings, festivals and parades, the industrial exhibit, the citizens. To the first group belong the various meetschool exhibit and the great pageant; to the latter, the numerous tablets, and statues and the proposed memorial building for which the city bonded itself to the amount of $1,500,000.

There were features of this celebration which were

The city was enriched during the course of the celebration by at least five commemorative tablets, three famous equestrian statue by Verocchio of the Congroups of statuary and a magnificent replica of the

dottiere Bartolommeo Colleoni.

THE ERECTION OF TABLETS.

On May 10 the Congregational Conference of New Jersey meeting in Newark, unveiled a tablet to the memory of the founders of the community who were of the Congregational faith. This same date witnessed the dedication of three monuments made possible by the generosity of the entire citizen body acting

[graphic][merged small]

NEWARK PAGEANT-ROBERT TREAT ADDRESSING HIS FOLLOWERS AT THE FOUNDING OF NEWARK, 1666

through their Committee of One Hundred. One of these marks the actual landing place of Robert Treat and his followers, and stands in the neighborhood of the Park Place Terminal-the Jersey outlet of the great McAdoo tunnel system. It is a monolith showing the two founders in low relief on the southern face, gazing down at a spring of water, which bubbles up to sate the weary traveler. At the top is a scene of the landing carved in relief and extending about all four sides. The other face carried the inscription, and gives the names of the sixty-four signers of the Fundamental Agreements the founders. The second of these marks the site of the town's market place, and commemorates the bridging of the rivers. It is in the form of an isle of safety with large electroliers, and is located near the Newark Library. On the east face a Puritan is carved in relief; on the west, and facing the mountains, is an Indian. The inscriptions run as follows:

East Face.

The bridging of the rivers eastward and the rude road built across the marsh was an enterprise of patriotic citizens, an epoch-making event. It awoke the industries and made the present city possible.

West Face.

The founders set aside the park nearby as the town's market place. Never has it been put to any use other than for the common good. To the north and westward the Indians lingered, as if reluctant to depart.

The third of these monuments, that on Branford Place, marks four interesting episodes in the city's history as the inscriptions indicate. These run as follows:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic]

THE NEWARK PAGEANT-ARRIVAL OF GENERAL WASHINGTON Copyright by Underwood & Underwood

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

FRONT ELEVATION OF THE NEWARK MEMORIAL BUILDING Copyright by The Committee of One Hundred

eral organization of the school and partly by a voluntary collection, bears the following inscription:

"Before the coming of the white man this hill and the nearby stream marked the boundary between the lands of the Hackensack and the Raritan tribes of the Lenni-Lenape. May 20, 1668, representatives of Newark and Elizabeth gathered here and fixed the same boundary to separate the two young settlements. The stream called by the Indians, Weequahic, was thereafter known as Bound Creek, and this eminence was named Divident Hill."

The Daughters of the American Revolution took advantage of the celebration to mark the cite of the training place established in 1669, "and used for the purpose at city call to defend the rights and liberties of our country."

The Barringer High School and the Newark Academy also seized the opportunity when interest was keen in local history, to mark in the one case the home of Moses Hedden, the Revolutionary patriot, and in the other, the site of the original academy building which was burned by the British in 1780, when they directed a raid against Newark from New York. The last of these tablets was dedicated by the Schoolmen's Club who selected Lincoln's stop in Newark on his way to the capital in 1861 as an incident worthy of a permanent record.

From some points of view the acquisition of the Colleoni statue, the gift of Mr. Christian Feigenspan, was the crowning episode of this character, heralded as it was far and wide throughout the country and

possessing such deep significance in its relation to the artistic and aesthetic future of the municipality. It is located in one of the most attractive sections of the city-a most impressive sight to the beholder.

One of the greatest enterprises connected with these commemorative exercises was the raising of funds for the memorial building, the selection and acquisition of a proper site, and the planning and construction of the building. The most difficult question is that of determining what purposes shall be served by the building. It is probable that some part of it will serve as an art museum and other portions given over to a community theatre and an auditorium. It is barely possible that it may house the Newark Museum Association now cared for by the public library authorities.

When we consider the more transient features of the celebration such as the exercises of Founders' Day, the industrial exhibit, the school parade, the pageant and the school exhibit we are more and more impressed with the essential unity and complementary character of the program. The stone and bronze were simply the embodiment in more permanent form of this same civic patriotism and lofty idealism which found their momentary expression in the form of pageant, parade, and exhibit. The one expression would have been incomplete without the other. The bronze and stone will therefore do more than simply remind the passerby of the particular episode commemorated. To those who took an active part in these events they will not only bring back that par

ticular episode of the celebration and what lies behind it in the more distant past, but will do much to keep alive that community spirit which permeated the entire celebration.

The Pageant.

The city's past was perhaps most vividly brought before the eyes of her citizens in the pageant. It was as if some good fairy had waved her magic wand and had breathed life and flesh about these names inscribed in bronze or these personalities portrayed in stone. This feature of the program illustrates the characteristic to which reference has just been made. Barring the masque itself, there was not a single episode in the spectacle which was not marked in an appropriate manner by boulder or tablet and that too in many cases as a part of the celebration as has been already noted. The preparations for this were most elaborate in character stretching over weeks and months and had been committed into the hands of experts.

Mr. Henry Hadley wrote the music and Mary Porter Beegle directed the dancing. There were four performances, each of which was attended by over forty thousand people. The spectacle was staged in the open at one end of a natural ampitheatre in Weequahic Park. The spectators looked across a lagoon onto a spacious stage, large enough to allow of great freedom of action to the four thousand persons who participated in the performance. In many cases the roles of Newark's famous citizens were taken by their lineal descendants, lending added interest to the spectacle and giving it an even stronger touch of realism. The three movements as they were designated, which constituted the historic portion of the performance represented three periods in the city's history. The first of these covered the century and a quarter which elapsed between the settlement of the city and the outbreak of the Revolution; the second mirrored “the vision of that mighty discontent. that

[ocr errors]

lashed the land to flame," and closed with the burning of Newark Academy and the arrest of Justice Hedden. The third opened with the visit of LaFayette and pictured in rapid succession the great national movements in which the city had participated laying special emphasis upon the rise of Newark's industries. The concluding movement was in the nature of a masque in which the city was portrayed in a life and death struggle with the evil spirits of Greed, Strife and Ignorance, striving with all her might to maintain the old Puritan ideals which she had inherited from pre-revolutionary days. These These were impersonated in the "Puritan Spirit," who constantly reminds fair Newark of her past. As she is confronted by the first shipload of emigrants from the shores of Europe, the spirit cries, "But these of alien life and dissonant faith, shall we receive them? Shall they dwell with me where I have reared my walls against the world?" The Watcher makes

answer:

"None comes so alien that he brings not here High vows and golden memories; and these Are thine and Newark's for a mightier day." In the successive national groups which now appear dressed in their native costumes may be recognized

famous characters in history. The interest aroused by this part of the pageant was the more keen in view of the fact that the actors were recruited from the particular nationality whose past was thus commemorated. In conclusion the Puritan Spirit acknowledges the contribution which these have made to the world's ideals and exclaims "I see my city richer for their high traditions and immortal names.'

Unfortunately no effort was made in the industrial exhibit to contrast present with past and thus drive home the lessons taught by history. The products of the various industries were simply martialled in such a way as to impress the eye of the visitor with the great, manufacturing interests of the community.

THE SCHOOLS AND THE CELEBRATION.

The committee of arrangements, realizing the educational possibilities of the celebration planned a school exhibit and a school parade. Reference has already been made to one phase of the exhibit in the December number of this magazine. This very small fraction of the exhibit was typical of the unique character of the display. The object sought was not alone to present the work now being done in the schools, with special emphasis upon the methods pursued, but also to show in graphic fashion the steps by

The

which these results had been attained. The Board of Education spent hundreds of dollars in placing this historical data in attractive form for the visitor. record there was an enviable one and one of which the citizens had reason to be proud with a high school system dating back to 1838, an evening school system in 1855, a technical school founded in 1855, and evening high schools established in 1890.

So impressive was the exhibit that the city authorities considered the advisability of making it permanent and housing it in some public building. Its very size, filling as it did, 55 rooms, not counting hall and corrider space, in the South Side High School, made it difficult to secure the necessary accommodations and the project was abandoned.

The historic and civic spirit were very much in evidence in the school parade in which all the educational institutions of the city participated, both public and private. Each school had from three to five hundred boys and girls in line, making a grand total of 15,000 and representing four high schools, 53 elementary schools and 25 parochial schools, besides the Fawcett School of Industrial Arts, The Newark Technical School, and the Newark City Home. Each contingent wore a uniform, preference being given to costumes of a historic character. It was a unique sight to see filing past a squad of miniature Revolutionary soldiers or Robert Treats or Puritan maidens. One

high school formed the stars and stripes by a dexterous use of colors. Several floats were prepared, some allegorical in character, others historical. One of the most interesting of these was a model of the first school house, with the schoolmaster standing at the door ringing his bell.

Mention should also be made of a prize essay contest conducted under the auspices of the New York Times." Prizes in the form of silver medals and

« ПретходнаНастави »