The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1909-09-19
FROM KEEL BOAT
To AEROPLANE
PAGEAN OF SAINT LOUIS CEN.
TENNlAL IN ocToBER ILLUS.
TRATE CENTURY OF CHANGES.

As features of the Saint LOUIS Zen .
tennial week, October 3rd to 9th this .
year. aeroplanes and air,hips circling
above the city may seem less strange
than the ancient keelDoat shown In
the historic pagcants with which the
city celebrates the hundredth year of
its first incorporation in 1909. 1t will
crowd the week with pagoauts, show.
ing such contrasts as that between the
koelboat and the alrship. In the hope
that It can suggest through them to
the eye in panoramas OF progress
something OF the difference between
the world as it was when Saint Louis
was the outpost of civilization in
the far West and the world which
it is central among the great cities
Of the United States. with modern
convcnienccs' London and Paris had
not thought Of as possible in 1909.
As one feature after another of this
kind in these pageants presents such
sharp contrasts of ideas, the city wiz
use its own experience In paEeants,
added to that gained from the revival
OF historic pageants in England, to
define the meaning Of its hundred
years of incorporated life. II does no.
expect to do more than suggest the
changes OF the single century OF It's
own municipal history ;Iearly a full
generation ago, II was the first city
north of New Orleans to introduce the
historic pageant, as in fact it has been
the first American city to develope
II up to the point beyond which Il Is
row passing in its English revival
Its Centennial pageants, as they are
perfected by the experience ana MADE
striking in their spectacular illustra-
progress, may be expected to do all
that can be done 10 aid the magma
tion. But after all. the Imagination
Is likely to break down In the at.
tempt 10 bridge over the gap the
meaning OF an airship crossing the
Mississippi at Saint Louis this year
and what the ancient keelboats of
1909 meant. as they landed at the
foot of Walnut street, where the town
was founded in 1864 by the pioneers
who had padded and cordelled their
bateau painfully up the river from
New Orleans, under Laclede as he
advanced in the bold attempt to con
troll the fur trade OF half continen,
with his handful of men.
The distance in point OF change in
the way things are done is almost
impossible for the mind. In point o
, fact in Saint Louis it is only a matter
of the third generation between keel
boat and aeroplane. In 1907 TIE FRS
airship on record as crossing the Mis-
, sissippi river crossed 1t at Sain
Louis during the International con
tests of that year, when, with Captain
Thomas Baldwin, Lincoln Beachey an,
, others contesting the honors Of tn
air in dirigible balloons. young Crom
well Dixon, OF Columbus, Ohio, fley
across the Mississippi in his Sky
/. cicle." after circling over Saint Louis
: This made the record on which tn
first dirigible airship has alread
}. crossed the Mississippi at Saint Louii
but it was not considered at tn
d time, because the Mississippi was NJ
thought OF in that connection as th
dividing line between the Unite
States of the Eighteenth Century an
g the United States OF the Twentieth.
D. part OF the record to which belonl
the history made by the first locom
d tive crossing the Mississippi at Sal
" Louis in 1852 to complete the wol
y of the Saint Louis Argonauts In 1Si
~ crossing to the Pacific In their "pri
rie schooners."
II we suppose aeroplanes and a
ships circlins in the air above the
=, Louis keelboat landing OF a hundr
years ago, as they will circle III
October, We may imagine, IL We ca
how they will appear to the men who
grandfathers not only navigated I
y, river in keelboats, but lay flat behi
the goods the boats were loaded Wi
80 while they were being shot at by
:, dians along the banks. The airshi
are certain to be watched by I
grandsons OF considerable numl
:, of people who reached Saint Lo'
- first in keelboats, at a time VIII
-, there was a good chance OF bel
:. shot at from the banks. Among
surviving descendants OF DR.. Antol
.,o Saugrain, a grandson who Is not
- an old man, Is hardly likely to m