Newspaper Page Text
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By CHARLES N. LURIE.
1 HE pageant's the thing In civic
I affairs nowadays.
m H If your city or town needs
a reawakening of the civic
J I iplrit five a pageant.
If it has a centenary or a semicen
M trnr. or a bicentenary to coumum
t orate- get up a pit-vanl
Is there a v. ortlr. cause in your town,
Hj iuch as a hospital or an orphan asylum
or an old folks' home, that Is uttering
for lack of funds' Raise monc by
gi ing a pageant
7 Kvi r; clt)'s doing It ours mltrht as
JB well be in the municipal swim Not to
know what a pageant Is means to be
I unknown In the world of cities
J What a Pageant Does.
The pageant is Interesting, Instruc
L tive, entertaining and distinctly worth
I ft while. It brings before the modern I
L populace of a city or town, by means 1
II of visual and oral representation, the
past of the community in which its I
J worthy citizens take pride. Before the
I Wind's eye It calls up those pictures of
f. the past in which history is summed ;
i Up. Garbed In the costumes of thai
long gone days, tho actors In the pag
eant summon from the past the shades
I of theLr ancestors, who strove to up
j build their dwelling place. Whatever
there i of Interest and value In the
town annals Is dug up for reproduction
I that the present day population may
I es how their forebears lived and j
f moved and had the Ir being. The pages
Whereon are written the focril points
In the town's history are read aloud ,
THERE'S much to he said In fa
vor of the "fly to your busi
ness" idea invented and prac
ticed by Harold F. McCor
Inlck of Chicago. The millennium of
the commuter, for Instanr..-, v. 111 come
When he can hop aboard his aeroplane
or h (IroaeropliLne and "pass up" the
daily discomforts of the rldo from and
to Suburbia. True, hell miss his
JBorning and evening rubber of whist
Or game of che (,r . hekers, but he'll
get In compensation speedier trans
portation and purer air Ho won't
have to buy his monthly commutation
ticket All he'll have to do is buy on
I'l.o.,.. by American lTe Association.- '' '. " -flZffrf' ' "uT 'fa V 1t3L
1-Fi0t 'nNtw Rochello ( N. Y.i paaeant. 2 In New York parade. 3. A 1 J&P 'tjf'l
iiahtudoni! in modieval coitumos. 8. Reproduction oMhc Half Morm, ' t jSuL g
in letters or hum.i; ,. historic
I costumes and memorable scenes
To the young r-sp, -i.-iMy the pageant
s-ervos a useful purpose In arousing
that aense of civic pride and duty
, which Is one of the elements of good
j citizenship. Before the boys and girls
of the town are presented living plc
i ture-s of patriotism and suffering and
endurance and achievement.
Good to Look Backward,
It Is good for a city or town, as It Is
good for an individual, to cast a long I
look down tho backward trail, to re
enact the scenes of the past, to read
therein the story of the development
Of life Most towns have histories of
which they are proud. Eminent citi- j
I rent his flying machine and hire a man
to run It
We poor city and town dwellers -who
depend on elevated trains, subway and
, trolley cars for our dally transporta
tion and we farmers who have to
, walk seven miles Into town when Old
Dobbin develops etrlr.ghalt or the bug
gy spring breaks may also 6ee in the
Hying machine a way of salvation.
"Not yet, but soon." as Mr. Harrlmm's
famous saying had It
But in the meantime Harold F. Mc
Oormlck'H air and water boat carries
him gayly between his office on Michi
gan boulovard, Chicago, and his sump-
I zens of -arlous sorts have played their
! parts on their stages and, dying, have
I left the tales of their achievements as
part of the towns' heritages. In them
I may be found hints and suggestions for
the staging of scenes In a town's
pageant Of course more and richer
material Is found In the historical
events In which more of tho citizens
were Joined.
How much history must a city or
town have before It may Indulge in a
pageant? That is a hard question. In
the eastern sections of the United
States, which were settled earlier by
the white men than the others: vir
tually ovary sizeable town has Its In
teresting history. But oven the youn
ger slsterB of the west may find enouKh I
I John D's Son-in-law Is the First Aerial
Commuter
tuous home at Lake Forest, 111. As the
h droaeroplanc flies the distance is
thirty miles, and the machine makes
It In about twenty-eight minutes.
When it settles gently down on the!
surface of Lake Michigan and trans
forms Itself from a flying m;.' Iilno Into,
a boat It travels along tho surface of
the water at fifty miles an hour.
Thai's just about as fa-st as the fastest
motorboats shoot when they send up
their blinding waves of spray on each
side.
It was on the cards that Mr. McCor
mli k would do something novel in the
way of aeronautics. Ever since tba
ssssssss sSESSj
Oto by "American Press Asso-i tlon.
Harold F. McCormlck Starting Out en an Aerial Commutation Tri ,
I
of irx-al attraction In the tales of their
I earlier and later years to warrant inelr
dcklng themselves out in the robes
i and adornments of the pageant.
Before the city there was tho town,
I and before the town came the village.
and this In turn was preceded by tho
hamlet Each has its story of settle
ment, progress and development. Its
"characters" who may be represented.
Its visits from men of fame, its story
of tho establishment and growth of in
dustry. .Lucky the town that has some dis
tinctive feature In Its history about
which a pageant may be grouped' An
eastern coast town may revert to the
V. rights blazed the sky trail, hack In
1008, he has been keenly interested In
aviation. Of course ho was In a posi
tion to tako much financial stock In
the new science or sport, for what are
thousands or hundreds of thousands or
even millions to a man who Is head of
n big harvester company and a son-ln-law
of John D. Rockefeller? So he
plunged right into aviation without
regard to expense Among other good
deeds In the name of tho advancement
of flying, ho backed the flrHt big air
meet In Chicago. As far back as 1911
which is pretty far back as the his
tory of aviation goes Mr m. (-. .rmlck
was credited with the Invention of a
flying machine that actually riew. He
has inventive genius Inherited by the
man who made his enormous pile in
agricultural machinery.
No wonder Harold F. McCormlck Is
the first aerial commuter. It is re
corded, however, that with all his in
terest In flying he made only very few
flights before deciding to drop the rail
road train and tho automobile for dall
traveling That showed, of course, a
commendable consideration of tbe
value of his own 1 Iff o and its worth to
Mrs McCormlck and their three chll
dn n
Mrs. McCormlck was Miss Edith
Rockefeller before she was marrii.i to
Mr. Mccormick In 1895 Their first
child. John Rockefeller McCormlck.
was born in IfOT nnd dld In 1901, and
it was his death from spinal meningitis
that led hLs grandfather to establish
the Rockefeller institute in New York
In tbe hope that thcro would be dis
covered the germ of and a remedy for
the dread disease which has robbed so
rruipy homes, rich and poor Mrs. Mc
Cormlck Is the third and youngest
daughter of Mr. and Mrs John D
Rockefeller The oldest daughter, who
was Miss Elizabeth Rockefeller, was
married to Professor Charles A. Strong
In 1KS9 and died In 1906. Tho second
I daughter Is the wife of E. Parmalea
Prentice. The only son Is John ji
Rockefeller, Jr
For several years Mrs. McCormlck
has been recognized as a social leader
in f'hlcago. just as her huhhand Is con
sidered one of the big men of the busi
ness city. Their home at Lake For
est, III , from and to which Mr. Mr
iformlck plans fiymg every day when
the weather permits. Is one of tho fin
est and most costly country homes In
America. It cost more than J2.f00.000.
At the Lake Forest home Mr. Mc
Cormlck hn had constructed a pa
rage for bla dying boat There the
machine la housed when not In use. At
, tho city end of tho trip tho hydroaero
plane sails up to or alights at a simi
lar landing place provided by the city
at Grant park. Mr. McCormlck'a
'chauffeur' la C r WltTrn"'DTV,
ARTHUR J. BRINTON.
'. '.''" ".VV ' -
-'rlW' ' ' - '""i' '
paimy days of the fisheries or the tak
ing of the great whales or it may re
call with pride the visit or Lafayette
or. perchance, the night of nights when
Washington rested there for a few
hours. The middle states town or city
has tho story of the coming of the rail
road, or the digging of the canal where
by the town's wealth was augmented,
or the recollection of a great debate by
two of tho political giants of the mid
dle ears of tho nineteenth century.
The west and northwest can bring
forth for local and general Inspection
the ever Interesting tale of the finding
of gold or 6llver or copper.
And so it goes ali down the line. It's
j a poor city or town that can t produce
some central Idea around which it may
build Its pageant.
The pageant Idea, started In England
about eight years ago, is spreading
rapidly in England and the Fnlted
States and other countries. Of course
Great Britain has a great advantage in
this respect over the United St." -Tho
annal3 of the oldest of American !
cities and tokens date back at most a
beggarl 300 years hardly enough In
English eves to give It the right to call j
itself aged or to provide proper historic!
pageantry stuff.
But American cities have pageantry
materials which English cities lack.
zj ill
The Danish Invader Ls not so pictur
esque a figure as the American Indian '
aborigine, and even the knight In his
hlnlng armor has nothing on" Davy
Crockett in his coonskln cap. Tho bat
tlcax and long bow arc not IntnnsicaJ- I g
ly more Interesting than the long rifle if k,
of the backwoodsman. England and In
Franco and Germany may reproduce I D
j In their pageants the quaint strains of D I
the old time folk dances, but the war- S I ,
whoop of tha Indian sounds better in I I
a pageant. J k
It should be understood that the I M
pageant as it Ls staged today ls not for I I M
the few. There are not a few actors, 1 fl
robing themselves and declaiming for Uh
tho delight and benefit of their admir- jH
ing friends and neighbors. Oh, indeed, '
no! The best pageant ls the ono In
which the greatest numbers take part )
Tho more you can get your fellow
townsmen Interested and willing to
share in the work and trouble the mora tV
successful will your show be.
Ability Plus Money Makes Penfield a Diplomat iS
SOME folks say an Amerlcai
diplomat must have money ii
order to maintain tho dlgnltj
of tho American natloi
abroad. Others believe that money
while agreeable and soothing to th(
possessor and those with whom h(
comes Into contact should be subordi
nated to ability. The two oplnlonj
embrace about everything thore is tc
be said of the Qualifications of ar
ambassador or a minister pltnlpoten
tlary. When, therefore, the president
sends to an Important post a man who
has both mnnej' much money and
ability the country generally claps Its
hands In approval.
That's tho case of Frederic Court
land Penfleld, who went to Vienna not
long apo to represnt the United States
nevir the court of bis apostolic majes
ty the emperor of Austria-Hungary,
king of Bohemia, king of Jurusalom.
etc
i Mr. Penfleld has some money and
much ability. Hta wife has much
money and also much abllltj Also
they are adherents of the Roman Cath
olic faith, to which belong the Austro
Hungarlan ruler and the members of
his court Several years ago Mrs.
Penfleld was decorated by the pope for
her numerous chanties and the favor
of tho holy father has done much to In
sure for the. Penflelds a favorable re
ception nt the court of Vienna
Mrs. Penfleld has borne that name
since 190S, when she was married to
the diplomat-author Before that tlm
her name was Anna M Wetghtman
Walker, and she was known to the
public as one of the richest women In
America. Some writers soy Mrs. Het
ty Green has more monoy than Mrs. j
Penfleld, and others put Mrs. Sasr or j
Mrs. Hnrrlman ahead of the others In i
the financial list No one knows Just
how much money XIis Penfleld has.
Her fortune has been estimated at
varloua times to amount to hetween '
J30.000.000 and tlOO.000,000 Probably I
160,000,000 would be as closo a guess
as any She Inherited the money from
her father, a drug manufacturer.
Mr Penfleld was known to the pub- j
lie for many years before he added to '
his titles that of husband of ono of
America's wealthiest women. His
start In life was not financially auspl- ,
clous, but he managed to get a good
education and entered newspaper work
In Hartford, Conn. He Is a native of
Connecticut
After Ave years of Journalistic work
ho wan appointed vice consul In Lon- 1
don by President Cloveland in 1816 I
From Sp.l to 1S97 he whs diplomat, c
agent and consul general to Egypt, t
ranking a a minister resident, and It c
v. . .
Photo copyright. 1J1J, by American Press A iBfp
Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Courtiand Panfield. aaVS!
ls said that hi knowledge of modern
Eg pi Is at 13' as extensive as that'
Of any other American He has writ- I
ten one book and numerous articles
dealing with the land of the khedlvci
and ono book, titled "East of Suez." In gUm
whl. h he embodies some of tho results j HH
of his extensive travels in Africa, in i InH
dla, China and Jnpan. lHr
HBL'CB K. GORDON. wBr''
