With no dancing evolutions, the author of this book
has chanted John Brown and King Solomon for the last two years
for many audiences. It took but a minute to teach the people the responses.
As a rule they had no advance notice they were going to sing.
The versifier sang the parts of the King and Queen in turn,
and found each audience perfectly willing to be the oxen, the sweethearts,
the swans, the sons, the shepherds, etc.
A year ago the writer had the honor of chanting for
the Florence Fleming Noyes school of dancers. In one short evening
they made the first section of the Congo into an incantation,
the King Solomon into an extraordinarily graceful series of tableaus,
and the Potatoes' Dance into a veritable whirlwind.
Later came the more elaborately prepared Chicago experiment.
In the King of Yellow Butterflies and the Potatoes' Dance
Miss Dougherty occupied the entire eye of the audience and interpreted,
while the versifier chanted the poems as a semi-invisible orchestra,
by the side of the curtain. For Aladdin and for King Solomon
Miss Dougherty and the writer divided the stage between them,
but the author was little more than the orchestra.
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