Independence Day : $b its celebration, spirit and significance as related in prose and verse
History
Independence Day : $b its celebration, spirit and significance as related in prose and verse
Fourth of July -- Poetry; Fourth of July celebrations; Fourth of July orations
II. FRANCE. King Louis XVI is forced to recognize General Lafayette,
the commander of the new National Guard, on July 17, 1789, and affixes
to his own royal garments the tricolor cockade of red, blue and white,
the symbol of liberty. This event occurred three days after the storming
of the Bastille, a subject that would not lend itself well to pictorial
treatment.
III. IRELAND. Some incident from the Rebellion of 1798. The float
might be in honor of the patriotic Society of United Irishmen and of
their founder, Theobald Wolfe Tone. Or it might represent the dramatic
betrayal, on May 19, 1798, of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the promised leader
of the revolt.
IV. SERVIA. Some incident from the splendid rebellion of 1804 when
the Serbs, who had been galled by the Ottoman yoke for more than four
centuries, rose and drove the Turkish _dahis_ out of Servia. Their two
leaders were Black George and Milosch who have been called respectively
the Achilles and the Ulysses of Servian history. The float might give
the crucial moment in the decisive battle of Schabaz, with Black George
leading his men against those picturesque standard-bearers of the Turkish
army, the bravest Begs of Bosnia.
V. GERMANY. It is not so easy to find a moment in the German struggle
which is both significant and simple enough for our purpose. Perhaps the
“Wartburg Festival” would answer. Some historians treat this incident
in lighter vein, others seriously. But all agree that the government
reactionaries took it very much to heart and at once began a reign of
tyranny that was largely responsible for the revolutions of ’30 and of
historic ’48. At any rate the Festival would make a most effective float.
This was the way it happened.
A couple of years after the battle of Waterloo secret political societies
were formed all over Germany among the students and the athletes. These
were called the _Burschenschaften_ and the Turners. On October 17,
1818, several hundred of these young fellows met at the Wartburg (the
ancient castle which had sheltered Luther after he had defied the pope
and the emperor). That evening they gathered about a bonfire and fed it
with various symbols of despotism and with the effigies of reactionary
books, while, hard by, the Turners did exuberant gymnastic “stunts.”
This float could be made most realistic with a genuine bonfire and a
couple of Turners in the rear performing, perhaps, on a horizontal bar.
The decorations should be in black, red and yellow, the colors of German
liberty.
VI. GREECE. The float might merely show a group of the picturesquely
costumed leaders of the Revolution of 1821. There would be General
Kolokotrones, Marco Botzaris (the Suliote chieftain immortalized in
Fitz-Greene Halleck’s poem), Admiral Miaoulis, Kanaris of fire-ship fame,
Karaiskakis, the daring guerilla, and Lord Byron, the poet of revolt, who
gave his life for the cause, and without whom there might have been no
Greek independence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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