Show OLD FOLK FESTIVAL IS BIG QUARTERLY but religious licious Rc pilgrimage has haa greatly changed today la is big quarterly an un der dirrim dimmed ed and sophisticated big quarterly true tnie but ono cue of the few real folk festivals still celebrated in our country for years on the last sunday in august a throng of negroes nc groes otice once tumultuously devout and intensely emotional has streamed in to wilmington del by many roads in commemoration of the establishment there of the african union free colored methodist protestant church the tha formed by free nei roes in 1811 it Is 10 art an occasion unique to tho the delmarva peninsula thousands came in other days many hundreds c ame today they gather nil all down tile the eastern ohof sho all up tip through pennsylvania and new jersey from virginia and delaware in a religious pilgrimage that used to bo be comparable to the ro romer laB of 0 spanish america in the beginning big quarterly was waa strictly a church festival and its ita spiritual diameter character was waa obvious in the decorum of tho the celebrants who arrived on foot or or in ox carta but with tho the it became a general homecoming for colored people of this largo large region a huge gay outing and reunion special trains were run from many points to accommodate tho the devotees blackmen grew rich watermelons Water melons fried fish elsh and boastin roast ro astin ln cars disappeared by tile the ton ono one custard maker as in ilie green pastures would never llave been adequate there were bare feet and slut slat sunbonnets sun bonnets gentle of any importance wore high silk hats hatm it was fl A gorgeous vivid crowd that promenaded promenades preach french street forty years ngo just about then the change the falling away began this sunday tan faco face P powder bowder and rosewood rouge plus fours and antibus antibes shirts ilstad of ceremonial toppers plenty of motorbus motor busses sea and private cars to sive save the pilgrims time the original animating religious fervor has had departed observance to Is perfunctory not exalting youth does not look wonderstruck wonder struck nor Is age renewed rene ived the waning wis was inevitable after the younger colbree folk lost their strong devotion devot lori iod to church practice and turned to world ly emotional outlets A century ago big quarterly was for many of them tho the drop of honey boney in the tasteless comb now they share with all of us n surfeit of diversions of human contacts of omniscience now new york herald tribune launcelot aal guinevere counted the world well lost for the brief ecstasy of love tile tho sequoia forest untroubled by the rise and full fall of oc nations unconscious of the sulphurous depths ol oc passion and cirul woo of the human spirit unchanged by tho the cataclysmic changes in tile the world of human Vi thought ought mercifully untouched even by terrestrial cataclysms that overwhelmed or many a mountain and plain scattered its golden pollen in the spring its ripened cones in tho the fall sang its inimitable dreamy song when tile the winds passed through I 1 it t almost within bound sound of its hushing great civilizations came to maturity and sank into tho the soll eoll so BO deep that the youngest even now la Is inarticulate al alice fee my day pratt in tho the atlantic monthly |