Arizona republican., 1909-07-06
CELEBRATION A SUCCESS Annual Rain Withheld Itself For the Day ALL TOWNS REPRESENTED For One Day All Maricopa
 County Roads Led to
 Mesa - The Festivities
 Not Marred by an Acci-
 dent of Any Kind.
ALL TOWNS REPRESENTED

The Fourth of July has come and
 gone, and with it the Mesa celebra-
 ton that has been one of the para
 mount issues of the town for the past six weeks. The day was warm.
 but it did not rain. The latter was
 feature wholly unexpected. for
 there is d well known legend that
 has come down from generation to
 generation ever since the Pima In
 dians tried to have stomp dances
 near the present Mesa townsite that
 it would invariably rain every time celebration was attempted. It is
 known that this has been the case since the white man has come and
 tried to have highly colored floats
 and bunting and all those things that go with Fourth of July celebra-
 tions and Fourth of July enthusiasm.
 It was warm all right, but there was
 one of those well known valley
 breeZes which seemingly made itself felt at unexpected moments through out the afternoon and in a measure contributed considerably to the sue cess of the celebration.
 one of the gratifying features of the day is the manner in which Tempe and Phoenix and the entire valley came to Mesa to celebrate. It is estimated that there were fully ten thousand people on the streets yesterday.
 While the celebration proper was in reality one of the features, yet one of the things of greater impor-. tance to the business men of the town was the formal opening of the Mesa waterworks system. Its open ing removes one of the greatest ob stacles that has stood in the way of this towns greater progress for a good many years.
 The program opened according to schedule with the aerial salutes on the north Plaza, which were under the direction of William Burton. The parade, which marched east on Main street, commencing at Robson, was little late in getting started, but it moved along lively and by the time it reached the speakers stand a con siderable of the time had been taken up.
 Isaac Dana, as marshal of the parade, in regalia dress, formed the parade, which moved along in the fol- lowing order: indian school band. mounted police, company D., J. G. Spangler in decorated automobile with speakers of the day; H. H. Custead. decorated automobile: Melvin Dana. motorcycle decorated The float on which the Goddess of Liberty Miss Vera Richens) rode was an elegant affair, the goddess being mounted upon q large globe deco rated with blue set with stars. The next float, pulled by four horses as well furnished transportation for Miss Mesa Cantaloupe. Miss Jesse Robert son. The M. l. A. float followed and was an elegant affair. On the wagon were a number of the officers of the The Toggery float was that of a slipper and above 1t was large straw hat It was a gorgeous affair and by some was considered the best business float in the parade. Fred Decatur had one of the most unique floats in the parade. Mir. Decatur is blacksmith and he was engaged in shOeing a mule whose name was Maud. The crowd along the way took up the idea and he was given an ovation along the line. M. P Holladay. driving Maxell- | ton. was followed by the Macdonald Shetland pony The parade was con- cluded with various decorated ve- hioles and numerous draft horses from several local barns.
 Arriving at the speakers stand the | following judges. w. NJ. Newell, Mrs. | C.. s. Steward, w. A. Macdonald, l.. w. Stilwel and Mrs. Ruth Huber, awarded the prizes as follows:
 Best business prize, $50. Fred De- catur.
 Best decorated float Mesa M. l. A, s5O.O0. ~"
 Best organization, Company D., 5000.
 Best decorated auto, J. G. Spangier, $500.
 Best decorated motorcycle. Melvin Dana, S2.50.
 John D. Loper as master of cere- monies. announced the program at the speakers stand. The following program was rendered: Invocation. Rev. A. L. Hawley; address of wei come, Mayor J. H. Barnett; America tabernacle choir; reading of Declara- ion of Independence, Attorney George w. Silverthorn. It was planned at his point to discharge one of the daylight bombs. which would display l flag of all nations. The signal was O be given by ringing the school ,er in the north side building as soon as MT Silverthorn had concluded he reading of the declaration, but tome youngsters who were in a lurry to get at the fireworks rang