East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-09-15
LAWSON WRITES
OF ROUNDUP
Boston Financier Gives His Impress
sions Of Great Frontier Show
I'm Pendleton.

Writing in the Portland Oregonian
of Sunday. Thomas w. Lawson, the
Boston financier and author. has the
following tribute to the Pendleton
I Roundup:
"On Byron's return from his first
visit to Athens they asked him whar
of all it's wonders of the wondrous
state impressed him most Athens" /"
was his prompt reply. Two years ago
when The Oregonian asked me what
Of all the wonders of the wondrous
state impressed me most. I was i'm
PEELED compelled to copy the world
wizard of Britain and answer "Ore-
CON"
Sitting here in the front row of Am
erioa's only prototype of the ancient
Roman gladitorial Let 'er Buck" the
PendIetrn Roundup. enchanted, with
Oregon marvel, US September skies.
thrilled with the vitaIized air of the
Rcund-up's vast humanity. a-tingle
and G-quiver with the kaleidoscc
oval ot battling man and beast which.
like "A god-snapped movie" of an age
! long. long dead. dances my eyes dim.
how can / answer you. What do you
Ike best?"
But with the Roundup, Truly II
strikes me-the tenderfoot from The
effete east there is no best 1t is all
best and then some and a lot more
Racing. roping, bucking. bulldogging
cowboys, cowgirls. Indian chiefs OF
squaws. pony express or stage coach
contests-each seems more best
than the one before until / reverse the
program and run each number back
y hen the unbroken chain of "bests''
makes me give over searching for an
answer TO your question. In my wor-
/ Germent how it is all possible in the
( New West
All American. He says.
Much peeking into the works oi
/ man in all mans inhabitats of earth
tends TO make one callous of mans
ioodern achievements Thus l confess
to a touch of that creepy disease
! which comes with an overplus Of
"peeking'' ere-is-nothing-n
under-the-sun' disease-so Imagine
the exhilaration of sitting in your glor
ious oregon September and beine
compelled to cry: 1t is grand, mar
velous and all new-all American"
When they told me that so, 900 peo.
pie saw each Pendleton Roundup
said. can it be? How is it possible fol
( a city of five or six thousand inhabi.
I tants in the far, far west TO attract
so many people? And what said
/ scores of, thousands of my eastern
! neighbors who have no more concep-
ton of a Pendleton Roundup than
they have of the activities of Mars or
/ Satrrn, said.
600.O0 Ought to De There.
But today as / gaze on your Round
up wonders / ask why it is that there
are not 100000 out here: why is il
that the whole world does not flock
to the greatest of all the worlds hu-
man shows? OF course We all under
stand whv-because the world does
not dream of the wonderful entertain
ment. the fascinatingly instructive OBJ
ject lesson in Nature and modernized
humanity which Pendleton's sturdy
citizens have brought into being as if
by magic.
NV one best guess Is inside of five
years, if Pendleton's Roundup con-
tinues to keen its quality and its gin
ger, there will be no building large
enough to seat the audience which
will come from everywhere. even
though the Roundup runs two per-
formances a day for the whole week
or more. Pendleton will in that brief
time have multiplied itself. size,
wealth and greatness. 30 times.
Sitting out here. Watching the un-
broken chain of heart and head thrill
ers, l cannot help wondering if the
men of brain and Drawn who birthed
and matured the Roundup know
what it means truthfully to say in this
old. old. big big world we have made
the all-round greatest human enter
teinment shown in the world. Wheth-