The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-10-08

Mrs. Sutton Sees the Kansas City Pa
rade and Passes judgement.

The Kansas City Flower parade did
not come up to the standard Of the To-
peka floral parade. 1t was not as long,
the carriage We're not as prettily dec
ARRANGE This is the opinion of the
Topeka ladies' who went to Kansas City
yesterday for the purpose Of Witnessing
the floral parade. and also Of several
Kansas City people who witnessed the
parade la this city
Among the ladies who went to Kan
saS City yesterday was Mrs C. s SUIT
ton, the chairman of the ways and
means committee Of the Topeka floral
parade. Mrs Sutton thinks the floral
parade in this city. as a whole, far sur
passed the parade in Kansas City, al
though there We're several features in
the Kansas City parade better than
features shown in the the parade in
this city. Mrs. Sutton said:
with the exception Of the Floral
Queens float, the Kansas City Worlds
carriage and three other Individual
carria ges the decorated carriages in
the Topeka parade surpassed those of
the Kansas City parade. The Topeka
parade was also much longer than the
parade in Kansas City, and L think the
statement that the parade was forty
blocks long was certainly a mistake
The Floral Queens float was beau
tiful. and the lady who took the part
of the queen was strikingly handsome
She sat on a throne at the back of
the float probably 25 feet high, and her
attendants sat on steps extending from
the throne tie the floor of the float All
were beautifully gowned- The float
was far prettier and better arranged
than ours.
.-All of the other floats were poorly
arranged and were spoiled to a certain
extent by advertisements. I now feel
more strongly than before that the de-
cision of the general committee that no
advertising should be allowed on any
Of the floats was a good one.
In my opinion. but few OF the car
riages We're artistically arranged In
many, poor taste was shown in the
combination Of colors, and think that
was one point in which the ladies' par
ticipating in our parade succeeded ad-
mira bly,. Many of the carriages which
We're really pretty in themselves were
spoiled by the appearance OF the horses
"On the whole our parade was much
the prettier This opinion is shared
by several Kansas City people who wit
messed our parade Dr. Stemen,
Kansas City physician who witnessed
our parade. said he thought the Topeka
parade far surpassed the flower parade
of Kansas City.
II intend to witness every flower pa
rade that I possibly can from now until
next fall. and in this way secure ideas.
The next parade we have in this city
viii be sure to be much better than our
first attempt, from the fact that the
merchants will be much more willing
to help and that many more Of our
ladies win take part There is no rea-
son at all why Topeka can't have the
finest floral parade in the United States
Next year I am in favor of having
the floral parade on the first day Of
the Fall Festival and have the parade
followed in the evening by a ball at
which the Floral Queen and her at
tendants win form the reception com
mittee I think a ball Of this kind
would be a very attractive feature.
IF our first attempt in the direction
Of floral parade surpassed anything of
the kind ever gotten up in this part Of
the country and ! think this is conced-
ed everything is possible in our next
parade"