5,000 SEE THE MEYER
MEMORIAL UNVEILING.
MANY TRIBUTES TO THE FIRST
PRESIDENT OF THE PARK BOARD.
Addresses by Leon Smith, Henry D.
Ashley and Mayor Crittenden.
Cord Releasing Flag Pulled
by Phillip Meyer.
At the unveiling yesterday afternoon of the bronze and marble memorial in honor of August R. Meyer, first president of the park board, at the Paseo and Tenth street, a drowed of 5,000 persons witnessed the ceremonies. Members of the Meyer statue comittee, Mayor Thomas T. Crittenden, Leon Smith, president of the Commercial Club, and business associates and friends of the man whose memory was to be honored, rode to the scene of the memorial services in carriages. Chief of Police Frank Snow headed the processoin with a detachment of mounted police, followed by Hiner's band and Company K, of the Third regiment, national guards. Colonel Cusil Lechtman, attended by the majors and captains of the regimennt, rode in advance of the guards.
Before the arrival of the parade the crowd had gathered in front of the statue and locked traffic on Tenth street. Many women and children were in the crowd, and when the mounted police turned west on Tenth street from the Paseo the pushing back of those in the middle of hte street crushed the smaller children, and women begged the police to help them out of the jam.
A raised platform had been erected on each side of the statue, which his located on the Paseo grounds just north of and facing Tenth street. The committee occupied the platform and Mrs. Meyer accompanied by her children and friends sat in an au tomobile in front of the statue. Following a selection by the band Leon Smith made an address in which he told of the services rendered by Mr. Meyer in whose honor the shaft was erected.
FATHER OF PARK SYSTEM.
The subject of the bronze portrait in relief which adorns the marble statue was the father of the park system in Kansas City. He was not only president of the first park board, but was also president of the Commercial Club, which was instrumental in securing the statue. A few days after the death of Mr. Meyer, December 1, 1905, the Commercial Club met and instituted a popular subscription for a monument to the memory of one of Kansas City's foremost men. The amount to be raised was placed at $25,000. Daniel Chester French, the great American sculptor of New York was selected to do the relief. It is the fist monument ever unveiled by this city.
Henry D. Ashley, an old friend of Mr. Meyer's, spoke for three-quarters of an hour in eulogy of the man, whom he declared had done more for the beauty of Kansas City than any other one man. He said that his friend was not only interested in beautifying Kansas City, but was prominent in every public enterprise and civic improvement. Following Mr. Ashley an address was made by Mayor Crittenden. He said, in part:
TRIBUTE BY MAYOR.
"The biting frost of death does not kill the fruit of patriotism. It bears on everlastingly. Thee handiwork of Washington is still our daily benefit, and the richest asset of Lincoln's life will pay dividends from generation to generation. While our distinguished townsman August R. Meyer, sleeps, grateful multitudes are daily reaping harvests of bloom and bower and flower and fountain, children of his busy brain. In life he gave abundantly the best he had -- his talents; in death we give him freely the best we have -- our gratitude.
"This great citizen, forerunning his time, saw wisely that the modern city must not confine itself merely to commerce, but must beautify as well; that it must not only have stores and banks and lawns, where the rich and the poor could enjoy the health giving sunlight and pure fresh air."
