The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-08-20
THE MERRY VOLKSFEST.
THE SCENE AMONG THE PLATT-
DEUTSCHERS PICTURED.


Lanterns and Calcium Lights, Gay PIumes,
Hundred Bands Playing to Singing
and Marching Crowds-The Festival a
Great Success.
The Plattdeutsche Volksfest, which
opened on Sunday in Union Hill Schuet-
zen Park, has set North Hudson crazy.
The German folks are having a great
time, and they share 1T royalty with all
others who visit the scene of the festival.
Twenty thousand persons passed through
the gates yesterday-only five thousand
less than visited the grounds Sunday;
and Monday had been set down as an off
day.
The crowd afternoon and evening will
probably surpass in point of numbers that
of Sunday. And yet there is little diff
Guilty in securing seat in the cars run
ming to the grounds.
MUSIC AND LIGHT.
Along the streets leading directly to the
park the houses are decorated and thrown
opeI. On one side the ears of the crowd,
as IL Surges along, is greeted with sounds
OF mirth and music and lusty German
cheers; on the other the deafening yells or
drivers, whose decorated wagons line the
curbstone.
The park last night presented curious
yet pretty spectacle. The walks and drives
leading to the scene of the fete were beau
tifully illuminated with Orienta land Vien-
nese lanterns, while here and there power
full calcium rays were thrown upon the
surging throng. For quite distance the
crowd walked beneath bower OF pink
lanterns.
Beautifully decorated arches span the
main avenues, artistically inscribed
"Welkommenr' Off to the left, the right,
| in front hahind the ton OF
this hill, or down in that ravine, glim-
mering lights and strains of vocal and in
strumental music announced the presence
of a gay dance party in some rustic
pavilion.
THE OLD CASTLE ABLAZE.
The old Castle" was profusely embel-
lished and its piazzas and surrounding
platforms were jammed. A curve around
the Castle" and a little jaunt down hill,
and / came upon the main
scene of the festival. A large,
open and brilliantly lighted space
of several acres is surrounded by booths
and pavilions with almost every descrip-
tion of rustic decoration. The fronts are
labeled with names of German organ1za-
tions. At one end mammoth platform
is reared containing stage paraPhernalia,
and aloft are suspended tight ropes,
trapezes and other acrobatic accoutre-
mentS.
Here Zanfretta, the clown tight-rope
walker, and the Austin Sisters give per-
formances above the heads of the merry
throng, under the supervision of Man
ager Clark, of the Hoboken Theatre.
GAILY PLUMED BANDSMEN.
Military bands with plumed helmets
heading uniformed organizations marched
around the open space amid the plaudits
of spectators and an occasional display of
fireworks. One hundred organizations
from Jersey City, Hoboken, New York
and Brooklyn were represented on the
grounds last night.
The dance pavilions fairly swarmed
| with stalwart Germans and buxom maid
ems, and gilded uniforms and sabre
| flashes impaired the aspect of military
! fete to the scene. At times the crowds on
the lake would catch up the strains from
distant orchestra and make the sur
rounding woods ring with some familiar
/ song.
1t is a great time for the Germans and
| yet / do not think / saw one really
| drunken person in all that concourse of
people. Everybody was lively.
The festival will remain open till to-
morrow night, and longer if the success
which has crowned the efforts of the
managers since Sunday continues.
This afternoon a tableau viyant of
"Washington Crossing the Delaware"
| will be among the attractions.