Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1916 — INDIANA COUNTIES IN MONSTER PAGEANT [ARTICLE]

INDIANA COUNTIES IN MONSTER PAGEANT

Round-Up of All Hoosiers For Big Parade and Reunions at Indianapolis. A processional pageant staged by the counties of Indiana which Will contribute floats and picturesque groups of people to it is one of the brilliant spectacles to be given as a chief feature of the great Indiana centennial celebration at Indianapolis the first two weeks of October; the county pageant to be held on Oct. 6. It promises to be the largest and most elaborate spectacle of the kind that has ever been given in the United States, and it will be one of the outstanding features of all the statehood centennial programs that have been given in Indiana this year. The speaker for this special day is to be William H. Taft, former president of the United States.

Preparations began weeks ago in counties where there is spirited interest in seeing that each is splendidly represented. Some of the counties will have historical floats, others by floats showing the chief resources. A conspicuous feature is to be a cavalcade of 93 young women on horseback, which will head the pageant, one equestrian coming from each county, and out of the 93 one will be chosen to impersonate “Indiana.” The equestrians for the cavalcade are now being selected in the counties by popular vote, many of these contests being conducted by the newspapers. The girl receiving the highest number of votes is to be chosen to represent “Indiana.” A large number of brass bands from over the state will accompany their floats in the parade, which is to mqve over the Indianapolis streets. Indianapolis people who formerly lived out in the state are forming reception committees to greet the folks from “back home” when they come to the Hoosier capital, and during the day each county is to hold a reunion. It is going to be the greatest reunion held in the history of Indiana, and the first of its kind held in ' America.

“County day” is to culminate at the state fair coliseum where Mr. Taft is to speak at night, when the counties are to be seated in delegations as at a state political convention. The bands will be massed into one for a great concert in which perhaps 1,000 musicians will take part. A musical feature of the night meeting will be a review of Indiana music covering the state’s first century. This medley will be played by a band of sixty. The musical review being with the crude songs and battle airs of the Indians, it will include the music which the first French explorers and soldiers brought into the Hoosier wilderness, the military airs of the British, the folk songs of the first settlers, the patriotic music of the war of 1812, the Mexican war and the Civil war. Old songs like “Nellie Gray” that were immensely popular in their time and which are unfamiliar to many people of this generation will be revived in the medley. This review is to close with the band and the great audience joining in Indiana state’s song, “On the Banks of the Wabash.”