Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1916 — CENTENNIAL JUBILEE COVERS TWO WEEKS [ARTICLE]

CENTENNIAL JUBILEE COVERS TWO WEEKS

Indianapolis Has SIOO,OOO Fund to Entertain All Hoosiers Oct. 2-15. While practically every county In the state is in some form celebrating the centennial of Indiana statehood the culminating and most gigantic celebration of the year is to be held in Indianapolis, covering two full weeks beginning Oct. 2. The observance is the greatest civic enterprise the capital city has ever undertaken, and it is to be a period of lavish entertainment of the higher class to which all the people of the state are invited. It is, in fact, to be a great civic and patriotic demonstration on the part of all the Hoosiers and it is estimated that one million or more people will attend. It is to be a festival of pageantry, parades, music Olympic games, motor parades, family reunions and oratory with immense arrays of attractions and entertainments for every day. Nearly a score of committees made up of the most active , civic workers of Indianapolis have the details of the celebration well in hand, the whole force of committees being headed by former Mayor Charles A. Bookwaiter as chairman. The business associations and individuals have contributed ' nearly SIOO,OOO to the guarantee fund with which to stage the huge affair. Riverside park, the largest and most beautiful civic spot in Indiana, is to be the scene of the chief pageant which will be given on six afternoons. The state fair grounds will be used for several events as it is the only place near the Hoosier capital with acreage large enough to take care of both crowds and attractions. Murat theater will also be utilized, while the Indiana Soldiers’ monument and its surrounding circle is to be the centerpiece of a very elaborate scheme of downtown decorations. All the counties of Indiana are being drawn upon to organize a processional pageant for one day. Practically all the brass bands of the state will go to Indianapolis for some of the parades and will be massed into immense concerts. The Boston Grand Opera company has been engaged to give three operas at the Murat, and it, with the massed choral societies of Indianapolis will give the grand finale of the celebration in a concert at the state fair coliseum on Oct. 15.

Eighty per cent of the people, of Indianapolis are Hoosiers who formerly lived out in the state and they are preparing to keep “open house” to their kith and kin from “back home” while the centennial festival is in progress. The whole city is astir in preparation for the mighty demonstration, which will be the greatest outburst of "Hoosier” patriotism the state has ever known.