A Marine Band concert filled in an hour or more, delighting the audience with a wide range of selections.
Chorus Songs Are Thrilling
Grouped on the immense platform a chorus of one hundred voices followed. The program was attractively arranged with a series of period songs, several of which were illustrated with tableaux. The solemn strains of “America” were thrillingly rendered amid patriotic scenes, the people standing between the monument to Mary the Mother of Washington, and that of the gallant Revolutionary General Hugh Mercer, and on ground consecrated by the blood of the armies of the North and the South in the Civil War where each army had planted, at different times, its guns, and on ground that belonged to Washington’s family. The hills of the Rappahannock, once crowned so threateningly with battlements of artillery, echoed the volume of sound, until it rung across the valley.
“The Land of Sky Blue Water” a period song, rendered by Mr. Taylor Scott in his magnificent baritone, was illustrated with an Indian tableau posed by State Normal School students in costume. “Hail Columbia” by an entire chorus and “Drink to me only with Thine Eyes” a song of Colonial period, by male voices. “The Star Spangled Banner” period of 1812 was sung with tableau by American Soldiers.
“The 250th Birthday”
Three of the Floats in the Parade, May 21, 1921
Civil War Period: “Old Folks at Home,” “The Roses Nowhere Bloom So Fair As In Virginia,” tune of “Maryland, My Maryland,” “Carry Me Back to Ole Virginia,” by a bevy of young girls attired in frocks of “the sixties.”
The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Dixie with its ever inspiring melody were sung, and then the Spanish American War period exemplified by “A Hot Time in the Old Town To-Night.”
The songs and tableaux of the World War period struck a more tender note, and revived in many hearts the anxieties and sorrows of that epoch in the World’s History, when days of apprehension and sleepless nights were the “common fate of all.” The Tableau shown with it, represented a Red Cross Nurse, a Soldier and a Sailor of the United States.
“Auld Lang Syne,” sung by the Chorus, ended the Concert and the great crowd scattered like leaves before the wind, many hastening to attend private receptions, others to get ready for the public ball at the Princess Anne Hotel at which would gather all the notables who had helped to make the day successful. The Mayor of the City, Dr. King and Mrs. King, gave an official reception at their home on Prince Edward Street tendered to Governor and Mrs. Davis and other guests of the Anniversary occasion. Among the special guests present, in addition to Gov. and Mrs. Davis and staff, were Gen. and Mrs. John A. LeJeune and staff, Gen. Smedley D. Butler, Hon. Herbert L. Bridgman and Hon. Chas. B. Alexander. Several hundred citizens of the city called and met Fredericksburg’s distinguished guests. The reception was a brilliant and most enjoyable affair.