“MONARCH SENDS HIS ENVOY TO SAN DIEGO’S FIESTA – Alphonso of Spain Honors City by Directing Spanish Ambassador to Personally Attend CARNIVALLE CABRILLO – Credit for Achievement is Given to Col. Collier – Order of Panama Names Committees to Shoulder Burdens of Details of Big Celebration of City’s Discovery – His Majesty KING ALFONSO of SPAIN has directed Don Juan Riano y Gayangos, Spanish Minister to the United States, to attend in person the Carnival Cabrillo, the celebration arranged for September 24th through 27th to dedicate the sites for monuments to Cabrillo and Balboa and to unveil the Cross to be erected to the memory of Father Junipero Serra. This recognition by the Spanish sovereign of ceremonies commemorating the early Spanish colonization and Christianization of California, and the additional tribute to San Diego that it carries, is most gratifying to the Order of Panama and to the committee in charge of the celebration. All are disposed to give the credit to Col. D. C. COLLIER, and dispatches from Washington D.C., which conveyed the information, do the same.
Close Friend of Marquis
Colonel Collier is a personal friend of the Marquis De la Vega e Incian of Madrid, Spain, who is intimately associated with the king, and it is not doubted that it was through the efforts of the Marquis that King Alfonso so readily consented to have his representative visit San Diego. According to dispatches, the minister will leave Washington D.C. on the 19th and come directly to San Diego, traveling with only one servant. While here he will stay at the Hotel Del Coronado. On the return trip he will visit the Grand Canyon. Colonel Collier will make all the arrangements for his trip. Companeros of the Order of Panama who have been drafted into service on committees for the Carnival Cabrillo are about the busiest men in San Diego this week. The “Carnival Cabrillo” is growing every day. It started out with an idea of celebrating the discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the unveiling of a statue to Father Junipero Serra. Then it expanded to a second dedicatory ceremony, and then to a carnival in connection with these events; for it is an old-time Latin custom to follow a ceremony with a carnival and general good time. That is just what is going to happen in San Diego during the week of September 24th through 27th when the Order of Panama and the other fraternal organizations of the city will join in a huge celebration of the THREE GREAT EVENTS that mark SAN DIEGO as the *beginning place* of all things in California!
Committees Named
Committees were filled up yesterday to full working strength. In addition to the skeleton committee first organized, which worked out the plans for the celebration, there are now committees at work on every detail of the whole affair. The committees are in charge of the ceremonies of historical events. There will be three of these: (1.) First, on September 25th, when the site for the Cabrillo Monument at the Old Lighthouse on (cont. Pg. 9) Point Loma will be dedicated. This site has been granted by the government, and the Order of Panama intends to get behind a movement that will result in a gigantic statue of Cabrillo on this site. This statue is to be 200’ high and is to contain a light that is to be maintained by the Government, a similar statue to that on Bedloe’s Island (i.e. Statue of Liberty – ed.) in New York Harbor, except that the summit of this statue on Point Loma will be over 500’ above the water and the light will be visible 100 miles out at sea.
To Dedicate Site
(2.) The second event is the dedication of the site for the (Conquistador – ed.) Vasco Nunez de BALBOA statue in Balboa Park. This site has been selected and the ground marked off. It is situated at the junction of the Midland drive and the Laurel Street entrance to the Exposition, at the east end of the Prado of the Exposition. The statue will face directly west on the main Exposition street. It will be in the east entrance to the Exposition grounds, in such a position that after the Exposition is over and the temporary gates and decorations are removed, the statue will remain as an ornament to the park for all time to come.
(3.) The third event is the unveiling of the statue to Father Junipero Serra on Presidio Hill, Old Town. For this occasion there will be present the BISHOP of Monterey and Los Angeles, and other notables. The same floats used in 1911 representing the Missions founded by Serra will be used in this ceremony, and the whole membership of the Order of Panama will be present, together with hundreds…, even thousands…, of others who will want to see the elaborate ceremonies being arranged for this impressive and historical event.
Some New Thing
With these three events as the reason and foundation for the Celebration, the Committee has gone ahead with its arrangements from day to day. Everyday has developed something new. Every time a committee meets it finds some other organization or group of men in the city who want to take some part in it. The carnival spirit is very much alive in San Diego. It seems the opinion of all concerned that the city desires to celebrate at this particular time because of the prosperity and good times that have prevailed in San Diego. It is also the opinion of San Diegan’s that this city should celebrate now because San Diego is about the only city on the coast, if not in the entire country, that has not suffered from some untoward event or condition. Therefore the Carnival Cabrillo, to which San Diego invites every person in California! She has arranged for special rates on all the railroads and steamer lines. She has arranged for two beautiful Pageants, pageants that cannot be given in any other city on the coast, bar none. She has invited the Spanish Minister from Washington D.C. to be here and take part, and has invited the Bishop to perform the ceremonies incident to the unveiling of the Serra Monument, and he has consented and will come with all his episcopal suite, as he did in 1911.
Plenty of Real Fun
And for the real carnival, the fun-loving people of Southern California will come to San Diego knowing that there will be plenty of that on this occasion. There will be no Midway in an abandoned block with a lot of hurdy-gurdy get-the-money stuff at this celebration. There will be every night a ‘horrible parade’ in the city streets. Every night there will be a carnival of a different color and a different theme at Wonderland Park, which has been engaged by the Order of Panama for this occasion, together with the services of Manager Snow, who is some carnival arranger himself when it comes to that. There will be fun and room for everybody, both in the city and at Wonderland. There will be special car service every afternoon and every night. Superintendent Perry is figuring out the trolley arrangements already. He is a little committee on Transportation all by himself. As usual, the Spreckels Company is meeting the Order of Panama more than halfway, for this is a public affair is a City celebration and no one, not even the Companeros who are doing all the work, makes a single cent out of the celebration. There are no ‘concession stands’ and no grandstand rights and no salaries with this celebration; it is all public spirit from first to last and that is not the least thing about it that makes it essentially San Diegan. A similarly arranged and managed affair cannot be held in any other city on the coast, or at least it never has been. Down at headquarters in the Union Newspaper building is the archivest of the Order of Panama, who is ready and willing to answer any question anyone wants to ask him. He is also ready and willing to hand out a hat full of work to any Companero, or other citizen, that wants something to do, for there are plenty of jobs to do.
Mayor Roped In
That’s how San Diego Mayor O’Neall got into it. He strolled along and poked his head inside the door and reminded the Committee that permits are necessary for parades, etc.. Before he was a minute older he had been appointed Chairman of the Committee on Parades and Special Events, and to give him company and instructed of that were; Admiral Manney, Major Fay, and Mr. Percy Benbough had been appointed on the Committee also. The Mayor smiled and promised to do his best. So it is with all hands. Every San Diegan who has been asked to do anything has gone right about it. There is teamwork, and lots of it, and the Carnival Cabrillo already is an assured success because everyone is interested in it and wants to show the world that at San Diego is the proper place to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean, the 371st Anniversary of the Discovery of California at San Diego Bay, and the proper location for the greatest Monument to Father Juniper Serra in all California. Manager Snow, at Wonderland, is a Committee on Carnival all by himself. Assisting him in arranging these special events for the amusement of the thousands of people who will come to San Diego is the Executive Committee of the Order of Panama.
Names of Committee Men
The Committees as appointed at present include: EXECUTIVE – C. A. Richardson, Carl H. Heilbron, Winfield Hogaboom, D. C. Collier, and G. L. Jeancon. * HISTORICAL EVENTS – Earnest Riall, Col. D. C. Collier, T. H. Tracy, A. J. Morganstern, T. P. Getz, B. J. Edmonds, J. L. Hollowell, Charles F. Lummis, H. M. Holleman, Earl F. Drake, and Admiral H. N. Manney. – * PARADES & SPECIAL EVENTS – Mayor C. F. O’Neall, C. J. Champlin, Major H. R. Fay, P. J. Benbough, R. V. Dodge, Nelson Snyder, C. W. Holmquest, and Ben Crokett. * TICKETS – Col. L. S. McLure, F. E. Lindley, Arthur Cosgrove, Nelson Snyder, and W. O. Sandord. * TRANSPORTATION – Winfield Hogaboom, C. A. Richardson, W. E. Alexander, S. C. Payson, and A. D. Hagaman. * PUBLICITY – I. G. Lewis, James MacMullen, F. E. Lindley, and C. A. McGrew. * DECORATIONS – C. W. Holmquist, Duncan MacKinnon, Robert Cordtz, Ben Crockett, J. D. Smith, G. J. Champlin, M. B. Fowler, and Alexander Neilson. * AUDITING – B. H. Vreeland, O. L. Jeancen, and J. M. Chatterson. * HEADQUARTERS – Joseph E. McFadden and George E. Buxson. * HOTELS and ACCOMMODATIONS – Wheeler J. Bailey, Patterson Sprigg, Lester D. Welch, and Earl F. Drake. * ENTERTAINMENT – Ed Fletcher, Frank M. Frye, W. N. Howden, and M. M. Moulton.”
(*Source: San Diego UNION & Daily Bee newspaper – Sunday, September7, 1913 – Pg. 1)
*Editorial Notes: Sadly, plans for the gigantic 200′ statue of Cabrillo, with his “light” 500′ above sea level; did not come to fruition. Still, it’s fun to imagine such a sight! On the other hand, this event *DID* have the rare honor of an officially-allowed ‘day off’ for some 100 or more San Diego school children …, “SCHOOL PUPILS TO CELEBRATE SEPT. 26 – Day Set Aside by City School BOARD OF EDUCATION for Participation in Order of Panama Carnival In Honor of Balboa – The Board of Education has granted the school kids a holiday on Friday, September 26, in honor of Balboa Day of the Carnival Cabrillo. The Order of Panama, which is arranging the great carnival, have planned for a great time for a great time for all the children at Wonderland Park on that day. This is the day of the big Parade and very elaborate pageantry, and 100 or more of the children are wanted in that…” – (*Source: San Diego EVENING TRIBUNE newspaper – Thursday, September 18, 1913 – Pg. 3 – ed.)