The Editor of the Pageant Souvenir Booklet devoted four pages to the Subject

On Pageants in General and the Pageant of South Africa (1910) in Particular

On Pageants

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Mr Frank Lascelles, and slightly altered on the arrival of the latter who, owing to the successful manner in which he had conducted the Quebec Pageant, was unanimously selected as such Master, so that the scheme as now proposed embraces a Pageant of two days, the first consisting of eight and the second of nine episodes - Suffice it to say that the Pageant is a national one, and deals with the History of each of the Colonies forming part of the Union.

For various reasons which will be easily understood the last sixty years have not been included in the period dealt with, more especially as the intention of the Pageant is to cement together, to obliterate points of difference, and to make all our fellow-countrymen feel that, whether they come from the Transvaal, from the Orange Free State, from Natal, or from the Cape Colony, their ancestors have all had a hand in the making of his country’s history, and that the work of these makers of history should be respected and honoured by all, as without it the probability of Union would have been small indeed Each contributed in his measure, and each should reap his reward.

The work of organisation has been conducted on a broad and liberal basis - Committees have been established in various parts of the Union and the co-operation of all races and classes has been secured. It is estimated that, all told, some 5,000 performers will take part in the show.

The Union Government has guaranteed a sum of £15,000 for carrying into effect this National undertaking, and the people of Cape Town have extended that guarantee by a further sum of £6,000

The performers belong to all classes and races of the population, from Bushmen to persons of title, and the spot selected for the representation of the Episodes is on the shores of Table Bay, in the vicinity of the landing-place of the early Portuguese navigators, of Johan van Riebeeck, and of the English skippers who in the early days have visited this port.

Love of country has ever been deep in the hearts of our pioneers, and in each of our great men, honoured by every race; it is the one thing by which we are glad, above all others, to remember them, and by which their names smell sweet in the dust; and it is in the love which her sons will bear towards her that the future of our country lies.

Were we to recall but a tithe of the great events or the noble deeds, or the names of but, half the heroes of old - statesmen, soldiers, evangelists, and cultivators of the country’s vast resources – our pageantry would take days and weeks in the showing, instead of a few brief summer hours. And many heroes there are, of administration, and of sword, and of pen, whose remembrance is too intimate for us to venture to recall them in our scenes.

The committee of learned historians, to whom I owe so much, has done well therefore in selecting only the land marks, and of these only such as are most seemly to be shown forth in a spectacle. May they be an incentive to us to consider, in the light of the Future, the lessons of the past, and in considering them, to learn and understand; so shall these days of our pageantry live, bound up in the life of the Nation.

September, 1910 - FRANK LASCELLES