The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-12
PRE- ARE DN ESS" PARADE WILL BE VAST SPECTACLE
Pageant In New York Will Be Biggest Ever Staged In
 Metropolis.


 been held in the world. This is the statement Of Col. Charles H. sherri11, grand marshal: and Col Sherrill. who parade in 1896 and the Taft demon strati0n in 1908, is entitled to speak.
 Up to this time the gold standard parade of '9S has been the high water mark of New. York's civil outpourings. Tho business mems colunan of 1908 fell slightly behind. But the non partisan preparedness cohorts of 1916 will be as large Qacking oneffth) as those two placed end to end And it would swallow up several of the other processions which in their day were called great
 New York has been city of ibg parades. marking centennials, tercen- fennia1s and expr essfons of. sentiment, but no other occasion or national crisis has called forth such universal re- sponse.
 There are to be 154,OO0 in line on Saturday. including 10000 women and 10000 National Guardsmen- Besides this there have been 60s000 applicants for places who have been refused Past experience dictates the limitation bas- cd upon the width of the streets and the consequent number of men who can marchaby a given point in a given number Of hours.
 The first large parade within the last thirty years was the Republican turnout for Harrison in 1888. The estimate of this was published as s40,- 900. On May 1, 1889, when the city was extending itself for the centennial of Washingtonss inauguration, the civil parade was computed to have had 75,- 0DO persons in line
 The two Columbus processions. on October 12, 1892 and April 28, 1893, had parades of 50,000 and 10000 re- spectivelx. the latter purely fniH- tary,
 The sound money parade in 1896s a national landmark at the time, was estimated to have had between 100,- 300 and 135. Ooe rnarchers. It was also published that the official count was 121, 900. None ofs<1hese figures was correct Col. Sherr1Il, who had two men with official counting ma chimes stationed opposite to each othe CT (although neither knew that the other was therel- has preserved the accurate record of 92s000 minus 100, for the days march. The published figures. some lof them 50 far astray, are thought to have depended to a cer- tain extent upon political bias as well as upon the inevitable tendency of ob- servers to overestimate a crowd.
 The dedication of the Grant Tomb - occasion of another large. though chiefly military. parade. The esti- mate of that line was s0,000. The Dewey parade in 1899, almost wholly military, tota11ed 32.oo0 men.
 The Republican parade in 1900 was estimated to have had more than 100.- 00O but Col. Sherriu gives assurance that the sound money and the Taft processions outstripped all others The figures on the latter varied according to political conviction from 60,000 to more than 100000. The exact count, according to Col. Sherri1l,sl records, was s1,187.
 The Hudson-FuIton celebration in September, 1908, was unprecedented in dimensions, but none of it's pro- ceasaons was comparable to the larger political efforts The military parade,
 which included detachments from all the visiting fleets in the harbor, be- sades regulars and National Guards men, did not exceed 25, 900.
 The sound money parade, comprts- cd a trades divisions. while on Sat women, 81. The largest former Darades, moreover, were ended prac- Ideally by sundowns while on Satur- day tho mar ching will be continuous from s.so in the morning until 10 at niBaE-
 Tt was learned today that the Ursted States Steel Corporation has larrangsd to present every one of it's employees who marches in Saturdays s parade with a straw hat and cane. This is not offered by way of inducer ment, for the men knew nothing about 1t until after more than 400 had signed up- There will be SO from the executive off1ces in line.
 The first plan was to give the men saHlk hats. but it was later decided that ik would be in keeping with a. pre- papedness parade to prepare them for the hot weather.
 The Guaranty Trust Go and the Liberty National bank are also among tho anstftuftons which will furnish headgear to their employes in the parAde. Yaa
 The executive committee met. yes- ltsrday evening in the Yale club to round or the arrangements. Mayor Mitchell was present and congratu- lated the committee on it's services to the cause of preparedness.
 Colonel SherriIl has n1pped in the bud an effort on; the part of certain members to give him a dinner for his work after the parade is over. While the grand marshal appreciates the sentiment he believes that there should be no personal gIorifcation about the undertaking, since that would be adverse to it's fundamental idea
 Tn order to head on such a plan he has appointed a committee to arr range a celebration. not of the more ornamental marshaIs. but of the ac- tuaI grubbers who have brought the parade into being. The entertain ment at this celebration will be vau- devills to be furnished by the actors division
 The members Of the Women's N C. R. club. composed of the wives and daughters of officers and agents of the National Cash Register Co, de- cided at a banquet last night that they would march in a body in Sat- urdays parade. They planned to bear the slogan, Preparedness in the home-in the of1ice-in the nation"