PROGRAMME FOR ARBOR DAY.
The celebration of Arbor Day has become so common that there is a demand for a programme of public exercises for schools and academies. The following can be varied by omitting pieces or substituting others. Little flags on palm-leaf fans tacked on well, also tufts of pine, and wreaths of flowers, bouquets, etc., might aid in decoration. Let the pupils take an active part in preparation.
SONG. Tune: “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
We have come with joyful greeting,
Songs of gladness, voices gay,
Teachers, friends, and happy children,
All to welcome Arbor Day.
Here we plant the trees whose branches,
Warmed by breath of summer days,
Nourished by the dews and showers,
Soon shall wave in leafy sprays.
Let us plant throughout our borders,
O’er our lands so far and wide,
Treasures from the leafy forest,
Vale, and hill, and mountain side;
Rooted deep, oh let them flourish,
Sturdy giants may they be!
Emblems of the cause we cherish—
Education broad and free.
Gentle winds will murmur softly,
Zephyrs float on noiseless wing;
’Mid their bows shall thrush and robin,
Build their nests and sweetly sing.
’Neath their shady arms will childhood
Weary of the noontide heat,
In its cool inviting shadow,
Find a pleasant, safe retreat.
READING.
Proclamation of State Governor or of School Commissioner.
DECLAMATION.
Arbor Day is an anniversary that looks forward with bright hope. The trees which we plant to-day, will grow into groves and forests of the future, and in their silent beauty and voiceless green will honor the hands that so tenderly planted them. Beneath them the youth yet to be may meet in social banquet, and enjoy the fruitage of our labors.
“We are what wind and sun and water make us,
The mountains are our sponsors, and the rills
Fashion and win their nurslings with their smiles.”
This is not a holiday; but a day especially set apart for the purpose of tree-planting, of observing more closely and studying more carefully the trees, flowers and gifts of the forest; also of cultivating a greater reverence and finer sense of the beautiful and sublime.
What object can better inspire us to gain victory over trials than the grand old oak which in bold defiance to its foes while reeling in the wrath of the tempest is sending down to deeper hold its gnarled roots only to be better able to triumph in the next storm? Our poets have used their purest thought, their sweetest music in praise of the forest and the flowers. Arbor Day provides gracious means of a closer acquaintance with “God’s first temples,” and we hope that this day’s effort may result in much good.
QUOTATIONS.
(Pupils stand by desks and after naming authors recite the quotations.)
1st Pupil.—Whittier said:
“Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;
Let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field or trains a flower,
Or plants a tree, is more than all.”
2nd Pupil.—Ben Johnson wrote:
“Not merely growing like a tree
In bulk doth make man better be,
Or standing long an oak three hundred years,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald and sear.
A lily of a day is fairer far in May;
Although it fall and die that night,
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measure life may perfect be.”
3rd Pupil.—Holmes said:
“In fact there’s nothing that keeps its youth,
So far as I know, but a tree and truth.”
4th Pupil.—Morris wrote:
“To me the world’s an open book
Of sweet and pleasant poetry;
I read it in the running book
That sings its way toward the sea.
It whispers in the leaves of trees,
The swelling grain, the waving grass,
And in the cool, fresh evening breeze,
That crisps the wavelets as they pass.
“The flowers below, the stars above,
In all their bloom and brightness given,
Are, like the attributes of love,
The poetry of earth and heaven;
Thus, nature’s volume, read aright,
Attunes the soul to minstrelsy,
Tingeing life’s cloud with rosy light
And all the world with poetry.”
5th Pupil.—Longfellow said:
“If thou art worn and heart beset
With sorrows that thou wouldst forget,
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.”
6th Pupil.—Bryan Waller Proctor wrote:
“Methinks I love all common things,
The common air, the common flower,
The dear, kind, common thought that springs
From hearts that have no other dower,
No other wealth, no other power,
Save love; and will not that repay
For all else fortune tears away?
“What good are fancies rare, that rack
With painful thought the poet’s brain?
Alas! they cannot bear us back
Unto happy years again!
But the white rose without a stain
Bringeth times and thoughts of flowers,
When youth was bounteous as the hours.”
The School.
“He who plants a tree
Plants a hope.
Rootlets up through fibres blindly grope;
Leaves unfold into horizons free,
So man’s life must climb
From the clods of time
Unto heavens sublime.”
RECITATION—What do we Plant when we Plant a Tree?
What do we plant when we plant the tree
We plant the ships that will cross the sea
We plant the mast to carry the sails,
We plant the plank to withstand the gales,
The keel, the keelson, the beam and knee,
We plant the ship when we plant the tree.
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the houses for you and me;
We plant the rafters, the shingles, the floors,
We plant the studding, the lath, the doors,
The beams, the siding, all parts that be,
We plant the house when we plant the tree.
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
A thousand things that we daily see.
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag,
We plant the staff for our country’s flag;
We plant the shade from the hot sun free,
We plant all these when we plant the tree.
Henry Abbey.
EXERCISE—Wedding of the Palm and Pine.
(Characters.—Uncle Sam, Miss Palm, Mr. Pine, and maids for Miss Palm, and servant for Mr. Pine. The maids carry tropical fruits, and one holds either a palm leaf or a peacock fan over Miss Palm, who wears a flowing dress made of some light cheesecloth or goods without starch; also over her head an ice-wool shawl. Her face powdered white, cheeks rosy, and she should be a girl having black hair and eyes. Approaches the stage very modestly, and is always very reserved. Her dress should wear flowers and blossoms. Mr. Pine should be stately, tall and reserved, and should wear tuft of pine for button-hole bouquet. His hair might be whitened with magnesia. His attendant should carry his fur coat and leggings, etc. Uncle Sam should be dressed in customary attire. Uncle Sam first enters stage, carrying a good-sized flag. Palm carries a palm-leaf fan on which is fastened on one side a small flag, and on the other side a wreath of leaves—myrtle or the like.)
Uncle Sam:
“She’s up there, Old Glory, where light wings are sped,
She dazzles the nations with ripples of red;
And she’ll wave for us living, or droop o’er us dead—
The flag of our country forever!
She’s up there, Old Glory, how bright the stars stream!
And the stripes like red signals, of liberty gleam!
And we dare for her living or dream the last dream,
’Neath the flag of our country forever!
She’s up there, Old Glory, no tyrant-dealt scars—
No blur on her brightness, no stain on her stars!
The brave blood of heroes hath crimsoned her bars—
She’s the flag of our country forever!”
There comes from the south (Miss Palm enters) where the balmy breeze blows,
There comes from the north (Mr. Pine enters) where the hardy pine grows,
Warm hearts and true hearts, loyal and free,
The Palm and the Pine now wedded to be.
Come stand ’neath the flag, modest Palm, mighty Pine,
(Both step to front before Uncle Sam and bow to
each other, and then gracefully salute the flag.)
The emblem so dear to brave fathers of thine,
And under its bars, and its stars and its blue,
Unite now and ever to dare and to do (join hands)
What your hearts and your hands can our nation to save,
And to keep the old flag o’er the free and the brave.
(Uncle Sam, placing his right hand upon the
joined hands of Palm and Pine, continues.)
No north, no south, no east, no west,
But one, united, free!
The Palm and Pine, in Union blest,
Now stand for liberty.
From lakes to gulf, from sea to sea,
May union stronger grow;
Thus teach the world humanity,
And might together go.
(Retire, Palm leaning on arm of Pine.)
PAPER—Origin of Arbor Day.
At an annual meeting of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, held in the city of Lincoln, January 4, 1872, Hon. J. Sterling Morton introduced the following resolution which was unanimously adopted after a short debate as to the name; some desired to call the day “Sylvan” instead of “Arbor:”
Resolved, “That Wednesday, the 10th day of April, 1872, be, and the same is hereby especially set apart and consecrated for tree planting in the State of Nebraska, and the State Board of Agriculture hereby name it Arbor Day, and urge upon the people of the State the vital importance of tree planting, and hereby offer a special premium of one hundred dollars to the agricultural society of that county in Nebraska which shall upon that day plant properly the largest number of trees; and a farm library of twenty-five dollars’ worth of books to that person, who, on that day, shall plant properly in Nebraska the greatest number of trees.”
The result was that over a million trees were planted in Nebraska on that first Arbor Day. A few years later, April 22, the birthday of Mr. Morton was set apart by the Governor as Arbor Day in that State, and now nearly all States observe Arbor Day.
RECITATION—Value of Our Forests.
(The pupils come on the stage, one at a time, and recite, showing the article about which they speak and give motions.)
1st Pupil (carrying a bunch of toothpicks).
A Toothpick is a little thing, yet it is reported that one factory uses 10,000 cords of wood annually in the production of these splints of wood.
2d Pupil (carrying a box of pegs).
Shoe pegs are small affairs; yet a single factory sends to Europe annually 40,000 bushels of pegs, besides what it sells in this country.
3d Pupil.
A spool is of small account when the thread is wound off; yet several factories use each from 1800 to 3500 cords of wood every year in making these articles. Thousands of acres of birch trees have been bought at one time by thread manufacturers, for the sole purpose of securing a supply of spools.
4th Pupil.
Who thinks much of the little friction match, as he uses it to light the lamp or fire, and then throws it away? But one factory, it is said, makes 60,000,000 of these little articles every day, and uses for this purpose 12,000 square feet of best pine lumber.
5th Pupil.
Forests affect the climate of the country; influence the rain of a country; build up a wall and protect the crops; they keep the air pure. The leaf-mold in forests holds back the rains. We draw $700,000,000 worth of products every year from the trees. No other crop equals this in value.
All in Concert.
“The groves were God’s first temples.
Ere man learned
To hew the shaft and lay the architrave
And spread the roof above them; ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication.”
SONG—Tune: “America.”
Up from the smiling earth
Comes there a voice of mirth
Our hearts to cheer;
Listen where the willows lean,
Lovingly o’er the stream,
Listen, where the pine trees dream,
Springtime is here.
Let us sing merrily,
Blithely and cheerily,
With the new year;
Join in the chorus,
Loudly swelling o’er us;
Joy is before us,
Springtime is here.
Come, let us plant a tree
Tenderly, lovingly,
Some heart to cheer,
Long may its branches sway,
Over the dusty way
With shade for sultry day,
For years to be.
Edna D. Proctor.
CONCERT RECITATION—The Trees.
(By small pupils standing in aisles and in imitation of trees, gestures as indicated.)
We are trees in tiny rows
Growing straight and tall;
Roots we have so when it(1) blows,
None of us may fall.
Bending gently (2)to and fro
Then to (3)left and right,
Makes us stronger as we grow,
(4)Upward to the light.
Tiny branches spreading wide,(5)
Adding grace and form,
Growing firmly from our side,
(6)Hide us from the storm.
On our branches, in the spring,
(7)Leaves in green unfold;
Till the frost with cruel sting,
Turns them into gold.
Then our brightly tinted leaves,
From our branches fall;
(8)Flutter in the autumn breeze,
To October’s call.
(9)Midst our branches squirrels run,
Searching for our fruit;
And the birds in summer’s sun,
(10)Flit in hot pursuit
And at night when all is still,
(11)We have gone to sleep,
Comes the owl, a mouse to kill,
And (12)hoots in a voice so deep.
As little trees of hope we stand
And promises of good;
Oh, may we grow up (13)tall and grand
A deep and shady wood,
Bear sweet and gladsome fruit of love,
And shelter weary souls;
And (14)lift our crests the storm above,
Where endless sunlight rolls.
Gestures for “The Trees.”
1. Half of the number imitate the swaying of trees by the blowing of wind, done by bending head and body to right and left. 2. Hands on hips, body bending forward and backward. 3. Body bending left and right. 4. Point upward with right hands. 5. Slowly extend arms. 6. Crouch as in hiding. 7. Arms extended, open hands slowly. 8. Arms extended, move fingers like fluttering leaves. 9. First imitate leaping squirrel with right hand; then with left; then with both hands. 10. Move hands to and fro with fast moving fingers. 11. Arms extended direct above head, fingers closed and eyes shut. 12. Half the number imitate the hoots while others recite. 13. Move arm full length obliquely from right side, and direct eyes upward in same direction. 14. Lift both hands slowly to full length above head in front of body, and look up.
MUSIC—To be Selected.
