FORTY TOWNS
In order to feel the pulse of the people of the state in regard to their attitude toward plays, as well as to carry the drama to the people, a road tour of forty towns was made. Twenty-two counties were visited. The play selected for this trip was “Back to the Farm,” written by Merline Shumway, a former student at the Minnesota Agricultural College. It is a three-act rural comedy. The central thought running through the play is the old way of doing things on the farm versus the new method. It appeals to all classes of people and especially to those who have tilled the soil. One farmer said it was the best thing he had ever seen. Another told his friends that “‘Back to the Farm’ had ‘The Birth of a Nation’ skun a mile.” They were both right, because to them the play came out of the soil.
A cast of eight characters was taken on the tour. They were given twenty-five dollars a week and their railroad fares. In the evening they presented the play and during the day made a brief social survey of every community visited. For instance, one young man would go to the livery stable or garage and find out something about the roads in the surrounding community. Naturally, roads have something to do with people getting together. Another would measure the size of village halls, the assembly rooms in schoolhouses, the basements of churches, empty country stores, and lodge rooms—in fact, any place where people assembled. Listing musical activities in the town was the duty of one member of the cast. Still another looked up everything he could find about athletics in the different places. The various clubs, organizations, and societies in the town were tabulated by one young man. The three ladies in the cast ascertained the number of festivals, pageants, home talent plays, programs, games, folk dances, library facilities, and newspapers. All of these facts, combined with other data obtained before and since then, make a splendid social diagnosis of certain phases of country life in North Dakota. They give one an insight into the activities of country folks out on a prairie. Many interesting conditions were revealed by the survey and knowledge gained elsewhere.
As a rule the roads are good. Travel in the late spring, summer, and fall is comparatively easy. In the winter it is more difficult, just as it is in any state. In some places the roads are graded ten, fifteen, and twenty miles out from a center. The prairie or grass road is frequently used to save time. It is not an uncommon occurrence for parties to drive twenty and thirty miles to attend a picnic, a play or a social function of some kind. Even in the winter and early spring the snow and “gumbo” do not stop them from attending social activities. Automobiles average from one to three to a section of land. Means of communication are constantly improving. Inasmuch as the homes in the country in the state are far apart, due to the present large acreage of the farms, the roads are an important factor in developing the social life in the country districts.
Folk Dances, Parades, and Pageants Have Become an Integral Part of the Social Life of the State