“ FANCY BIG BILL IN THAT COACH.”

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1928, Page 4

“ FANCY BIG BILL IN THAT COACH.”

FAHERTY CAN’T IMAGINE IT, HIS DELIGHT AT LORD MAYOR’S SHOW. (London Daily Mail.) The Lord Mayor’s Show in London had inst passed amid the merry chiming of church hells, the stir ol martial music, and the (beers ol a jolly London crowd glowing with the thrill ol 11million and the inspiration ol a bright and buoyant " Ninth.”

.Mr “ Mike ” i'kiherty. Chicago’s biggest. builder and president ol "( hi’* Hoard of Improvements, entered his hotel like a man in a dream, and exclaimed: "Say, I wonder what would happen to Rig Bill Thompson if he rode in a gold Cinderella coach like the one used just now l.v your Lord Mayor. He would not remain Mayor ol Chicago for five minutes.”

•• VL'nit do 1 think of the Lord Mayor’s Show? Look here; il Hill Immipson rode ill that coach No. 1 can’t see it. Big Bill can do a lot of things, but ho just wouldn't, fit in that coach. You see, it takes hundreds of years to make a mayor who can sit in that coach as if it belonged to him. and Chicago, despite Michigan-aienue. the stockyards, and the ‘-Tribune’ building, has only begun to grow.” Mr " Mike ” Enliorty, one of the most popular Americans ever seen in London, may he 100 per cent American, hut he would pass in a Dublin crowd as a typical Irishman. BUSINESS AN D BOM ANTE. “Tradition is a great thing,” he said reflectively. “ This city circus of vours is certainly the biggest trade show in the world. Vo have our torchlight trade processions in Chicago, hut we can’t do a brave boost and make ii a fairy tale such as T have seen tin. afternoon.

"■ Say, take that story ol Dick V liiftington. You put it on as a star turn, and make it alive. You make business out of romance, and romance out ol business. II .only Big Bill could ha\o Will' Iced that Cinderella touch! ■■ Do you folks understand how much you owe to tradition? I’ve seen big processions in Rome and elsewhere, and I appreciate the value of gorgeous uniforms in a big parade; hut the Loid Mayor’s Show just gets me like a niirscry talc come true.

•• Everythin**: tits in. ■ YOU NEVER FORGET.” -• The old buildings, the London crowd, the coachmen and footmen that might have slipped out ol picture-books and that fairy coach. I’d give a lot of money to see Big Bill Thompson in that coach, but (sadly.) it’s one of the, things that can't lx- done. “ You Londoners are centuries young. You never forget, and you keep in touch with the past. That’s tradition. That’s where you score. V hen I saw that procession I felt like a kid again. It was just like a fairy tale coming true.

“ It’s all a maze. Here’s Ireland going to he saved by the Shannon scheme, the biggest effort in electrical engineering in Europe; and here’s your magnificent subway schemes, the cleverest thing in their kind in the world; and here’s your Lord Mayor’s Cinderella coach that Big Bill Thompson could never ride in because Chicago is too young. “ I am proud of Chicago, very proud, hut when it comes to history and tradition we’ve got to hand it to you. Tf only Big Bill Thompson could ride lfc that coach !

Rarely, if ever, have such immense crowds lined the route of the Show, and if their cheers were generous for the new Lord Mayor, Sir Charles Batho, they were scarcely less so for his predecessor, Sir Rowland Blades.