“The greatest factor in the growth of county, state, or nation, No thing is dearer to our hearts than is the common school, What makes for happiness and peace is public education; For well we know that it must be if liberty shall rule. Our fathers when they came built schools, albeit they were rude, Judged by our standards, poorly taught, ill-disciplined, and crude. These schools did foster splendid men and noble women too; And from that small beginning our present system grew. Our pageant here will show to you how we have forged ahead, How in the work of betterment our schools have always led. Yet, we can not be satisfied with that which we have done, For after all our schools’ advance is only well begun. “Whence came these men who wrought these deeds? What land did give them birth? They came from distant lands and climes, from far across the earth. The Frenchman came; the Irishman; the German, Scotch, and Norse; And every mother’s son of them, a man of strength and force, That threw himself into the work with hands and heart and brain, That labored for our Country’s weal with all his might and main, Their children, born beneath our flag and fostered in our schools, Hold for the land of liberty a love that never cools; They all are real Americans—Americans through and through They stand for order, law, and right, for all that’s good and true. So in this pageant of to-day as episodes unfold The marvels of our progress; as our wondrous growth is told, All is centered round the people; ’tis their story we portray, For the people made the County what the County is to-day.” G. T. Almen. After the prologue, the five episodes and interludes were enacted in a manner highly satisfactory to the ten thousand spectators. Real Indians, dog and pony travois, an old prairie schooner, a sod shanty, the Red River ox-cart, the first railroad engine to enter the county, a stage coach of pioneer days, the cradle, the reaper, the old breaking plow, the one room school house, the different peoples from foreign countries who settled in the county, added interest and gave color to the pageant. The children from the different schools in the county were costumed to represent the different grains, the prairie roses and the violets, the strawberries and the potatoes. One set of girls interpreted an original wind dance. A boys’ band, a business men’s band, a farmers’ band, and a chorus furnished the music.