The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-02-13
Every Seat Taken Last Evening When
the Public Observance of Lin
coin Anniversary Was
Given.
AN INSPIRING PROGRAM
Songs, Addresses and Music Made the
People Realize What an Impor-
tant Person Lincoln
Had Been.

The civic federation of the one hun
dredth anniversary of the birth of Lin
coin was an inspiring, patriotic, APP
propriate and fitting one last evening
at the Grand opera house when every
seat was taken by an audience which
heard the addresses and songs, ap-
plauded the martial music and paid
their tribute to Lincoln by being pres
emit
The theater was decorated with a
fine display of the national colors, the
program was most appropriate and the
Lincoln centennial was success in
every way. Long before the time of
the common cement the main part of
the opera house was filled and the gal
lery had to be used to accommodate
the ladies and gentlemen.
The stage was occupied by the boys
chorus, members of the city council
and board of education, The speakers
and singers of the evening and the
commanders of the G. A. r. posts and
the ladies auxiliaries.
Flags were used profusely on the
stage and n the house, the boxes be.
ing draped with them and strings Of
small flags being stretched from the
balcony to the stage. Upon the left
hand corner of the stage upon an easle
formed of army muskets. was one of
the old Fuller paintings of Lincoln and
regimental flag On the other corner
were potted plants.
Seats were reserved in the front
rows of the house for the Lincoln vot-
ers. each of whom was given badge
upon calling at the table presided over
by committee of ladies from the D.
A. R.
At 1870 the members of the two
G. A. R. Posts came marching down
to the theater from their quarters, led
by the martial band and at o'clock
the exercises commenced.
A selection of patriotic numbers by
the Miller-Rutledge orchestra was the
first number. and then D. w. McElroy
chairman of the program committee,
called the meeting to order and intro
duced Mayor w. E. Strimback, who
acted as president of the evening.
Mayor Strimback delivered the fol-
lowing short address:
Ladies and Gentlemen: The citi-
Zens of Keokuk are gathered here to
commemorate the fact that hundred
years ago today Abraham Lincoln was
born. AS the greatness of Lincoln
makes his works not only national,
but worldwide, not merely study in
statecraft. but lesson in humanitar-
ianism, so this large assemblage of
people is but small part of the great
mass of humanity that is commemorate
ing his centenary today. All over the
state. all over the nation, all over the
world, wherever Americans have gone,
fitting ceremonies are held today,
sweeping over the face of the globe
with the passing of the sunlight from
east to west until the earth is encir-
cled with songs of praise for Abraham
Lincoln
We are not met together to honor
him who saved the greatest nation OF
the world in the time of its only real
peril We honor ourselves when we
show appreciation of the wonderful
character of the boy born in hut a
hundred years ago. the boy who
passed from the cabin beside the Ken
lucky creeks to the White House on
the banks of the Potomac; the boy
whose face g1owed in the Pickering