East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-09-14
WHY Is THE
BY MERLE r. CHEESEMAN'S;
City Editor of the East Oregonian.

- commodate several times the number of their own population
within a period of three days for the very simple season that
the occasions which will cause such a great concentrating Of
humanity are limited. Pendleton has the distinction of being one of
these few cities because she presents one of the few essential occasions.
it are drawn the thousands which outnumber her own people.
The explanation 0" the singular properties of attraction which this
like vet different from the many festal institutions which abound
through this and every country. In its likeness it is their peer, in its
difference it surpasses them.
Every community has its fair, its perennial fiesta, its day of days
or week of weeks, many cities have a distinctive festival and a few pre-
and greater magnitude than the average. Blu. the primary purpose of
all is the same, the benefitng of the city and its tributary territory
by the awakening of interest in the community and by attracting to 1t
those persons interested that they may see and know the opportunities
Rnna5 / mas is i9e0 0tisFi with ii is its m sisters sls c sqea al P Fl 6as a further 1Ph1 re
sembance in that it employs the one and only successful means of ac-
and entertainment which has Judgement in every human breast But
the scope of the appeal
The Roundup implies in its name what it is to any who know
aught of the great western prairie, and there are few of the reading
life > Wild west show is YOU win. but always an institution Of enter
tainment and amusement
As i was born because certain business men felt its need, so it took
It's character because these men desired its success. They wanted
orat;va and . show Of the nature of the Round-Tp supplied all three
wonts L i Illustrative because there are but few communities in
America where such an attraction could be developed, significant be
cause Pendleton has been and is yet the center Of one of the richest
stock countries in the world and commemorative because it celebrates
the passing Of the last frontier Thus its conception destined it to
success.
The intention of the Roundup is to present to an audience, the
picturesque cowboy and other characters OF the frontier in their favor
lite pastime. 1t is the playday Of these people on which they gather
from every direction to vie with each other in feats which they have
learned in their daily life and which they practice with the skill that
comes only from long experience. For the occasion every COW camp,
every range, every ranch, every eXpanse of bunch grass and sagebrush
prairie gives up its people and the gathering IS such as rev few c enc! nave
ever seen. They are not wild people out OF contact win an crfnzaIon
but rhev are the children OF the western plans, ana all II me freedom
Of the life they, lead, all OF its usgednes' all OF ITS IS, dash las n ana az d hanger
enter into the fibers of their nature and they bear with them the stamp
of their environment and occupation.
Inc Il. Iom mo- n J.a DgI cane" Gposto %S SUGGESTS scenes Of quite
and tranquility such as are found in the rural districts about every city
Your typical cowboy is neither quiet nor tranquil He is quite the re-
verse. He IS loud and vociferous and he makes his presence known
with a yell and a whoop, for to such a demonstration does hi. spirit
ffor hat i the he r@v If HI. world The word drama" SUGGESTS the
presentation of the artificial by the unreal which is Just what the
daily exhibitions are not actors, they ar. real characters, and there is
nothing theatrical, STACY" or meodramatic in their performances
get their own personalities in the delneation of characters foreign to
their own natures, but they rest it in their efforts to portray a part of
clothes the unreal with the robes of realism, they can only be them
proficiency to which they have attained. the feats which thew have
learned in the routine Of their daily existence. The actors is the realm
of fiction, the Roundup performers the province of truth. and the
cowboys audience never experiences the disappointment of dropping
from an imaginary to the actual world at the falling of a curtain, is
n notl red ioeea 10 sign and say when 1t Is all over after ALL it was
There remains yet one phenomenon Of a show like the Roundup
to be explained, the why 0. its superior magnetism over the large num-
Der Of other festivals in the country, It has been stated before in a
general way that this superiority lies in its nature, but what is it in
will people for hundreds Of mi miles "a about sg p 5ta% for . months tis'& in adv %me
to come to Pendleton during the Roundup when there are any num-
and much less Inconvenience Why does the enthusiasm for this show
spread outside the bounds OF the local community about it? Why is
- 'pl] 50 contagious! Why Is its slogan made the mouthword Of
III answer hes WITHIN mans makeup and dates back to the be-
ginning OF the human race. 1t 5 a part Of modern mans heritage from,
his barbaric ancestors that he still loves the exciting, the spectacular and
the sensational There still turks in his breast a trace of the savage
ne was and despite the subduing forces of civilization, these pristine
instincts are strong and cannot be totally conquered. Thus the baz-
ardous, the wild and all the supreme accomplishments of the physical
man contain an appeal for him that is still almost irresistible.
The pastimes Of the cowboy-the riding Of a manhating "outIaw"
bJroncho, the Ptting Of human strength against that Of the pride of
the herd, or any one of the innumerable achievements of which he j.
capable contain to a degree unsurpassed by any other sport of modern
u!mes this element that 50 strs the natural man and sends electric
thHIls chasing through his nerve fibers, all of which, together with the
gI"mor which the pages of romance and history have thrown about the
west and the children Of the west, accounts for the universal popular.
iy Of a show like the Roundup.
There may be some who will ,dePlore with long faces this popular
Ivy Ir the very reason that 1t IS based upon an appeal to the feelings,
emotions and impulses rather than to the intellect. They m call tbe
Round-UP brutal but they must admit that the men who conceived,
organized and promoted it in order that strangers might be drawn
to the city, knew human nature and profted by that knowledge: And
after I'D The show is WHOLESOME. it is natnral- il is rel and nnnreouer