No one could find fault with that, provided that those taking part in the thing do so of their own free will and understand what they are doing.
The trouble with the community masque is not so much with the masque as with the community. For while the masque may be a five star sporting extra hot from the presses of Percy Mackaye, the community is the same old community that has been getting together for inter-Sunday School track-meets and Wig and Footlight Club Amateur Theatricals for years and years, and the result has always been the same.
Let us say, for instance, that the community of Wimblehurst begins to feel the lack of a good, rousing war to keep the Ladies' Guild and the men over thirty-five busy. What could be more natural than to call in Mr. Mackaye, and say: "What have you got in the way of a nice masque for a suburban district containing many socially possible people and others who might do very well in ensemble work?"
Something entitled "The March of Civilization" is selected, because it calls for Boy Scout uniforms and a Goddess of Liberty costume, all of which are on hand, together with lots of Red Cross regalia, left over from the war drives. The plot of the thing concerns the adventures of the young girl _Civilization_ who leaves her home in the _Neolithic Period_ accompanied only by her faithful old nurse _Language_ and _Language's_ little children the _Vowels_ and the _Consonants_. She is followed all the way from the Neolithic Age to the Present Time by the evil spirit, _Indigestion_, but, thanks to the helpful offices of the _Spirits of Capillary Attraction_, and _Indestructibility of Matter_, she overcomes all obstacles and reaches her goal, _The League of Nations_, at last.
But during the course of her wanderings, there have been all kinds of sub-plots which bring the element of suspense into the thing. For instance, it seems that this person _Indigestion_ has found out something about _Civilization's_ father which gives him the upper hand over the girl, and he, together with the two gunmen, _Heat_ and _Humidity_, arrange all kinds of traps for the poor thing to fall into. But she takes counsel with the kind old lady, _Self-Determination of Peoples_, and is considerably helped by the low comedy character, _Obesity_, who always appears at just the right moment. So in the end, there is a big ensemble, involving Boy Scouts, representatives of those Allies who happen to be in good standing in that particular month, seven boys and girls personifying the twelve months of the year, Red Cross workers, the Mayor's Committee of Welcome, a selection of Major Prophets, children typifying the ten different ways of cooking an egg, and the all-pervading _Spirit of the Post-Office Department_, seated on a daïs in the rear and watching over the assemblage with kindly eyes and an armful of bricks.