The first number on the program was the exhibition of the siege machinery. On the platform were a city wall and tower built of wooden blocks, and before them, arranged for the attack, were many pieces of machinery. The boys who made the machines had charge of the siege, and each exhibited his instrument, giving its name and explaining its mechanism. There were catapults, ballistæ, battering-rams, vineæ, plutei, tre-buckets, wall-hooks and besieging towers. The chairman of the committee explained the grouping of the machines on the field and the relative importance of the various instruments, and then the siege began. Each machine actually worked, and the city wall collapsed. On a table near by the legates, slingers and centurions witnessed the siege, but took no active part. They were very properly clad, but their flaxen locks and gentle eyes belied their warlike apparel.
Another part of the platform had been arranged for the exhibition of statuary and was fronted by a large picture-frame illuminated by electricity. When the curtain was first drawn there stood in the frame the famous “Mourning Athena,” recently found in the ruins of the Parthenon. The Gracchi next appeared and were followed by a vestal virgin, who gave place to two lictors. The last statue was Minerva Giustiniani, perhaps the most successful of all. It had taken the combined efforts of many pupils to produce helmet, serpent and spear, so that all were vitally interested in this statue. Her pose and expression were perfect, and the silence which greeted her was intense until broken by deafening applause.
The early numbers on the program were most interesting, but did not compare with the character social itself. Each person on arriving had been tagged with a number and had communicated to a trusty official the name of the character that he had chosen. These characters could be taken from the Oriental monarchies as well as from Greece and Rome. They must, however, have been mentioned in the text-books (Myers and Morey). Each player was provided with a pencil and printed program containing a list of numbers corresponding to those of the characters present. At a given signal the game began, and each assumed his character. No one told his name, but each talked or acted as if he were Cæsar, or Alexander, or Rameses. As soon as a boy discovered that he was talking to Cæsar, he would scribble down “Cæsar” opposite the proper number and rush off to talk to same one else. One boy wore a double-faced mask and carried little gates; another had a tiny pair of boots pinned to his coat and carried in his hand a beautiful toy horse. A girl carried a lantern and anxiously searched the faces of all her comrades; her quest seemed fruitless, and she would sadly shake her head and move on. Every mind was hard at work, and at the end of the hour it was with difficulty that the room was brought to order to compare characters with the original list.
