The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-08-26
vANITAS vANITATEM!

Conceived in laudable spirit of
State pride, and carried out in the face
Of the almost insuperable obstacle Of
destinations ignorance in places Of
high authority, the Missouri Centen-
NAL Pageant at Sedalia, for which the
taxpayers of Missouri paid $4,000
lin addition to admission fees), has
passed into history; glorious spec
tacle well performed, despite the ash
nine incompetence and inordnate van
ity of Hiram Lloyd and his chief CO.
adjutor, Arthur Mastick Hyde, who
were continuously in the limelight and
usually in the way.
The arrangements for handling the
immense crowd were made with two
apparent objects clearly in view. One
object, Of course, was to extract as
much money as possible from the
pockets of the people, The other OBJ
ject mot quite so important, though
pursued with a purpose equally re-
lentless) was to make things general
ly as inconvenient as possible for ev-
erybody excepting the small but select
personal coterie who danced constant
and devoted attendance upon the au-
gust presence of DR.. Jekyl and M.
Hyde. Both objects, it need not be
added, were accomplished with admit
rable celerity--at modicum of per-
sonal expense to the promoters and at
a maximum of discomfort to the spec
tators.
The name of alt. Gov. Lloyd" in
letters half foot high and peculiarly
appropriate to the stallion exhibit at
State fair, was blazoned forth on
the windshield of every car that
passed into the grounds. None could
enter without viewing that mystic,
cryptic, sign; and everywhere, on the
grounds, in the grand stand, in the
boxes, ordering men hither and thith-
err, bobbing up and down, and pausing
anon, like turkey gobler in a barn
yard, to ponder its own magniticence'
was the frog-faced visage of the
Lieutenant Governor himself, gleam-
ing like mud-turtle on a log. Every
where he went he was welcome as
case of smallpox, and he diffused his
genial presence over the occasion ike
miasmatic vapor out of bog.
But the Pageant! There were in
dams, and choruses, and then more In
dams, wild and tame. Many historic
scenes in the life of the grand old
State were excellently portrayed
None, however, was more appropriate
than the last. Suddenly there burst
upon the eye of the beholder, as the
climax of all our history, and gar
nished in frames of flame, like Elisha
of old ascending in a chariot of fire,
the forbidding features of Hyde and
Lloyd; and in order that no mistake
might be made, under the one, in LETT
tiers of living light there flashed the
talismanic inscription "Gov. Arthur
M. Hyde, and under the other, lit.
Gov. Hiram Lloyd" Just here
thunderous round of applause utterly
failed to develop. On the contrary,
there were cries of "Booh!" "Booh!
from various parts of the audience.
the fire sputtered for awhile and flick
erred out and then-all was darkness!
Vanitas, vanitatem! All is vanity,
saith the Preacher.
There were lots of fire works at the
pageant; lots of bright lights and loud
noises. But, as a gloriication of the
present State Observation-Disclosures
was really the object so meanly at
tempted-it fizzled out. There was no
paean of praise for Barrett, Hack
mann, Thompson or Becker. 1t was all
for Hyde and Lloyd. Give a small
man chance to make himself conspic-
uous and he will make himself ridicu-
Ious every time. Hyde and Lloyd UNI
dertook to monopolize all the glory.
They grabbed so much of it that 1t
burned their fingers. The Centennial
Pageant will be the last glittering ep-
ISOLDE in the lives of Hyde and Lloyd.
They tried, with rockets and Roman
candles to write their names into the
history of the State; but the next gen.
Grafton will never know that either
of these men ever held office in Mis-
souri,, and the few who do remember
will be striving earnestly to forget it
/, Missouri State Journal.
REASON ENOUGH FOR
| EADTV DIT OWING