Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-27
THE SHOW
THAT SAN FRANCISCO EAs ON HAND
JUST NOW.
The Many Glasses of People to be Seen at
Night at the Fair-soms of the
Leading Attractions.
San FRANc1sco. AUGUST "a. 1881.

Our Mechanics Fair is coming along in
years-it is sweet sixteen this fall. Surely
anything may be entitled to regard itself
as an existence when it is sixteen years of
age. So we have come to speak OF
So the fair" as though il were a place
that has always been open to us, and al
ways will be, ana day after day the same
people go, and everyone asks, Have you
been to the fair ?" as though net to have
been were to argue yourself outside the
worlds current altogether. There are
deep, cool and quiet pools outside that
current where one may rest in peace and
solitude, but
PEACE AND SOLITUDE
Grow very tame on long experience.
One may live on marmalade and sweet
meats for time, but pepper and salt COM
mend themselves fora steady diet. La
dies go the Pavilion in the afternoon as to
matinee, where they are free to meet ae-
quaintances, to take their children, and
not quite take knitting work, vet they
|
heaven in it. Dainty little girls run about
overloaded with fiuery and popcorn balls,
and they blossom out into smiles ike little
coquettes at every new face. One fine
| little thing the other day was dressed en-
tirely in faint blue, even to shoes and
stockings, and as she trotted hither and
thither every eye followed her. | heard
her mother call her Phoebe" Now was
| mot hat ont Il ,,o,,,o S.
generation =? But it sounded so quaint and
odd, it was pretty. a great many little
misses wear high shoes with straps across
the front, sandal.wise, and every boy has
a nobby cut in knee-breeches, red stock
ings and straw hat. Some of them have
learned to suck canes with all the devotion
and embarrassment of their elder brothers,
and for while they investigate the ma
chinery department with curious eyes, but
invariably in the end hover like flies about
the candy and popcorn stands A few
little ragamufiins hang within shifting dis.
lance outside of the enchanted Pavilion.
and when they judge from the looks of you
where you are going, they come up and
beg so humbly, Please take me in, Missis !:
l hain't been in this year." I saw two of
the
LITTLE CURMUDGEoNS
On the inside the other day, dirty but
sharp-eyed as they could be. Their grimy
hands were full of advertisement cards
they had collected from the various booths.
"Come on, Bill" said one, "let's 90 and
see the man what makes the chickens. :"
and off they darted to the incubator where
the infant orphans in the chicken and duck
line were on exhibition. A great many
people saunter in for an hour, look at the
brightness about them, listen to the cool
plash of the fountains, enjoy the very good
music of the band and then 90 out again.
1t is such bright place. The vari. colored
costumes, the shining glass of the cases,
the attractive exhibits, the slow moving
throng Of people and the toss of the
waters all help to make it so. But of a
morning the building has desolate look,
like "some banquet hall deserted" and
the visitor wanders about in lonesome,
desultory way feeling that there really is
no particular object in life. The abused
pianos are all silent, the orchesterion
man stands sulleply by his rumbling in.
strument, and even the man with the his
torical chart is dumb. The giIls in the
different booths are on half-duty, and run
from one to the other paying little calls,
or talk to one another across the aisles.
Even the woman with beautiful COM
plexions in bottles allow you to pass with
out suggesting, Chow much better You
would look, Miss, if you were just brushed
over with little of my beauty enhancer,
which makes all the difference in the world
with a face" But come about half.past S
of Saturday night-say last Saturday
highland, presto, change A radiant
light OF many gas burners fills the great
barn-ike building
TIE MELLOW CoLoRs
OF the piles of fruits, and the gay tints of
flowers and the brilliant green of foliage
meet the eye against the shine of glass,
and the three fountains dash in graceful
spray with a sort of reckless abandon.
The attendants at the booths are in bust.
ness Trim, and banter the pasEer-by to
| taste, smell or examine their wares. The
clank of machinery breaks upon the ear
with the measured tramp of iron the tiy-
ing machine, with its capacities still undem.
onstrated, is pushed On its rollers to and fro
by the enthusiastic workers and with a
rattle, rumble, puff and miniature
|
engine with its train of cars across the
trestlework running from one end of the
| building to the other. Hark the
band strikes into ." Monastery Bells its
accent intoned by the toll of bell and the
people stand and listen, then resume their
busy, aimless march to and fro, and to and
fro, with word and a laugh here, with
rapid shake of the hand or nod there.
Above all and under all, with your hand
against your ear, runs the monotone of the
grandest music of all, the step and shuttle
OF thousands of human feet, and that great,
silent rustic which tells of the motion of
multitude. As you listen to it, it seems
| to leap into one toned melody that muir.
murs and echoes among the rafters like the
voices and shakings of many leaves. See
| this man behind the counter, how he Jumps
| about as If on wires. He is blowing per.
fume in little clouds among the people, and
the whole atmosphere thereabout is redo
lent. As it strikes your face you feel
dash of
DELICIOUS GOODNESS,
And recognize the closeness of a SWEET
odor, then off it blows upon some one else,
who frowns and turns angrily away. Here
stand couple drinking soda water, their
eyes set in ole position above the glasses
rims, like oxens' eyes as they take large
draughts from buckets of water. Look at
that child dancing about to the music, his
cap on the back Of his head, and his copper
toed feet stepping fast to keep time, and
the crowd looks and laughs. He is too
young for embarrassment and too old for
fear. A lady approaches with conspicu-
GUS tout ensemble, and again the crowd
turns, and then whispers sibilantly
among itself. Trudging YEARLY along
is the woman with FIVE children,
one asleep in her arms, and all girls.
"What shall we do with our girls ?" she
seems to ask pointedly, and the group is
lost among the people.
THE WASHER.
Behold the one young man who is repre-