Chariot Racing in California 255 



of a beautiful tournament given by the people 

 of Pasadena to celebrate the ripening of the 

 orange in the land of the setting sun. The tour- 

 nament of roses could be given at a much more 

 seasonable time, as the roses are more plentiful 

 in March or February, but January first is the 

 impossible time everywhere else. The oranges 

 are turning gold and it is a national holiday. 

 To the eastern man or woman the tournament 

 is an extraordinary sight, with its wealth of 

 verdure, its thousands of flowers which cloy the 

 air with perfume or are supposed to, if we 

 fall in with the temperament of the poet. The 

 tournament is held at Pasadena, because the 

 Valley Hunt of that place founded it, in 1888, 

 and it has been carried on for the last twenty 

 years on January 1st without a single break. 



The fact that a pageant two or three miles 

 long, made up of flowers picked on the first of 

 January, can be seen at Pasadena, tells a mar- 

 vellous story of an open winter. The tourna- 

 ment is in two parts: the parade or pageant in 

 the city proper, and the games in the park in 

 the afternoon. The rose parade is made up of 

 floats representing the schools, various State so- 

 cieties in Los Angeles County, and the various 

 orders or fraternities. 



Pasadena in winter has more motor cars than 

 any city in the country in proportion to its size, 

 and these make a fine display. Then come the 



