Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-07-31

GRAND GERMAN FEsT1vAL.-The attendaH's
sP.- IL es----.urr r7avuger1est at Buffalo last
week all speak with enthusiasm of the glo-
rious time enjoyed. Nothing occurred to
mar the pleasure of the five days Festival.
The Buffalo Courier gives the following very
lively and readable account of the grand
union Picnic of Thursday, in which all the
German, and many Americans joined. The
air of hearty nationality about it must have
been delightful
Each singing Verein carried sundry tro-
phies, such as cups, drinking horns, &c,
which were used in faithful, practical man
ner on the journey out. An immense mem
Der of the Arion society, who lowered above
his brethren like Saul among the people,
carried the prize goblet of 1860.
Twenty or thirty rural restaurants had
been imprOvised in the woods, benches were
set up, swings were hung, and all the accom-
paniments of a fair or horse show in the way
Of side attractions, had thronged to the
ground. As early as twelve, the crowd be-
gan to arrive, and till five or six, when the
stream slowly became reversed in its course,
all creation seemed to pour into the grove.
The Main street cars with reinforcements
from the other road groaned and broke axles
under the loads that went by rail. All the
hacks in the city drove out-all the four
horse and two horse wagons which could be
mustered drove out, tOO-all other vehicles
of every kind and condition, from the farm
er's dray to the baby cart drove out also, and
after all, the bulk Of the people seemed to
foot it thitherward on the sidewalk. The
result was, that the grove, hyperbolcally
y LII,
women and children of every age and class,
in it, as it has leaves.
Wedespair of giving any Just idea of how
things looked in the grove. Everybody to
whom we spoke, agreed that it was sight
TO be seen once in lifetime, and never to
be described. The bluffs, the beautiful little
valleys, the glades and meadows comprised
in "the grove" were strewn thick with the
multitude. They gathered in groups, each
group large enough to fill large hall, at
points where the various societies had made
headquarters, and around the different dis
pensaries oflager beer and other good things.
Everybody ate and drank and talked at once,
all the while. One or more Of the splendid
bands made the woods ring again, now on
this side, now on that. A gun squad, with
the "Lady Washington" added to the din,
and at intervals the irrepressible song, with
throats, that gurgled with the everlasting
lager. Flags hoated among the trees and in
the air; crinoline on the swings, ditto, ditto
myriad of glasses clinked; uncounted bret
zels and sandwiches and sausages disappear
ed; kegs Of bier rolled in and beer kegs roll
ed out, toasts were given and responded to
and thus the Picnic began.
At the height of the festivities there wal
more demolition of lager, bretzels, and rhein.
vein more running to and fro in the wild.
est state Of iubilant enthusiasm; more music
by the bands; more singing and cheering
more firing; more clinking of glasses; more
filing and emptying oflager drinking horns
in short, grand, sweeping, universal delugt
! of good feeling and animal spirits. The New
Workers, who, according to an aged picnic
ian, whom we overheard sind der feHfel,
were foremost in inventing expression fol
the merriment. They dressed themselves
up as mummers, in the most absurd cos
tunes. They had a Japanese troupe with
" little Tommy" a prominent character, and
| in the oldest of professions they marched
| through the grove to the extraordinary mu-
sic Of cornstalk flutes, making halts every
where, and performing sundry side-splitting
antics, to the infinite delight Of the crowd
| Others of the societies joined in the mum
merry had mock music rehearsals, and Wend-
ed in absurd state amid the screaming null
titude. For all the world the scene would
remind one of Assumption Day in Paris, Of
| the Carnival at Rome. "Did you ever see
anything like this ?" inquired we Of a ven.
erable Teuton. Zach, ia, in Deutschland 2
quotha. Certes, never in America was the
match of the Saengerfest Picnic enacted.
And thus, till nearly sundown, the jubila.
ton lasted all the while, it must be said
without the frat manifestation of anything
but the broadest, kindest good feeling on the
part Of the Germans. The only attempt at &
quarrel or threatening of a fight which We
saw originated among individuals speaking
another tongue than the cultural Teutonic
Gradually, as we said before, the stream o.
vehicles turned city-wards, and the army oi
jewellers, exhausted, but CHEEKY and good
natured, went home. Surely the Pic Mo
will forever live in their memories, as Of al
I their lives
| 50 The maddest merriesf dav y