Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-28
REIGN OF ROSES
TO BE COMPLETE
PLANS OF PASADENA T0URNA-
MENT PROGRESS NICELY
HALF HUNDRED ENTRIES IN
FLORAL PAGEANT
From Small Beginning Twenty-Five
Years Ago New Years Day
Event Has Grown to Un-
usual Proportions
Especial to The Herald. !

PASADENA, Dec. 27-With the
Tournament OF Roses five days away,
the officials have already received prac-
tically half a hundred entries for the
big floral pageant probably more than
ever before in the history of the tour
nament at this stage. This is taken at
tournament headquarters to mean that
the parade will be longer and better
than ever before, and, given a fine day.
an unprecedented success is looked for
ward to.
Tickets for Tournament park and
the afternoon exercises went on sale
today, and there was q big demand
from the start. There will be consider
able more room this year in the grand
stand and more than ever before be-
tween the grand stand and the track
fence The new track allows for an
adequate stand for both automobiles
and carriages for the first time, and the
material changes made within the past
year at cost of about $4,000, to say
nothing of the value of the land, mean
the biggest lot Of improvements ever
made during a tournament year.
Synopsis of Entries
Some idea of the varied extent of the
entries may be obtained from brief
synopsis. Local japanese will have an
entry, four or tVe large fraternal or
ganizations will be represented, there
will be a regiment of soldiers, two di-
visions of automobiles, not fewer than
ten entries from cities and civic bodies,
about half a dozen big hotels viii have
vehicles in line, there will be six or
eight marching clubs, an equal number
of novelty entries, several guild ana
-. In
veterans of the American wars, the
out West club of Los Angeles, the Los
Angeles Y. NJ. G. A. cadets, ten to fl
teen single horse and pony entries, and
the w. Z. II. L. Watcr-Wagon novelty.
These are not all but only some Of the
varied features promised for the Tour
nament of Roses parade.
The exclusive Valley Hunt club will
take q more active part in the parade
this year than ever before. This club,
or really two of its members, Dr. f. f.
Rowland ana Charles Frederick Holder.
the author, founded the Tournament of
Roses just tWenty-Ono years ago. At
the start il was 10 be a sort of harvest
home celebration, time of games and
amusements in honor of the harvest of
the citrus crops, in which all the people
of the Pasadena Of 1899 We're vitality
Interested.
Had Simple Beginning
The parade was merely the eXtempo-
raneous outpouring of the people, just
a few flowers here and there being
added TO make the vehicles attractive.
Then vehicle owners trimmed their own
rigs and drove them in the parade, and
in the afternoon there were field and
track sports in which all took part.
From that simple beginning came the
Tournament of Roses, which is now
witnessed by its hundreds of thousands
where but fifteen or twenty years ago
il was but a local event to which few
came from even as lar away as Los
Angeles.
Now it costs tens of thousands of dol
lars to put on the pageant and park
events, a first prize of $1,000 being Of
fered in the chariot race alone. The
silver cups given to pageant entries fill
a vault in 1910 where in 1899 merchan-
disc orders were the reward to the sue
cessful, but there is one feature un-
changed, and that is that Dr. F. f.
Rowland, one of the founders Of the
association, will this year be grand
marshal of the parade, surrounded by
men Of the Valley Hunt club, just as
he was twenty-one years ago.