Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-27
CAPTURED THE FORT.
An Army Of Eighteen Hundred Law
renceville School Children
STORM TIE ALLEGHENY ARSENAL.
They Wade in Grass Up to Their Knees
and Have q Good Time.
CHILDREN'S DAY ACROSS THE RIVER

The Allegheny Arsenal was stormed and
captured yesterday afternoon by an army Of
1,s00 pupils of the Seventeenth ward
II. w. Fisher, whose staff was composed Of
the Board of Directors.
The school children formed in line at their
respective school buildings, and headed by
the Grand Army Band they marched down
Butler street to the Arsenal grounds. Each
little soldier carried flag in place Of gun
and the canteeu was ably represented by a
tin cup hung about each child's neck. The
army reached the Arsenal grounds at
O'Clock, and Major Mckee, the command
ant, seeing that resistance was useless,
marshaled his forces in line and made a will
ling surrender. The upper portion of the
arsenal, which lays above Butler street, and
extends as far back as Penn avenue, was the
part the children took possession OF, and to
say took possession, mears everything that
the words Imply.
A BEAUTIFUL SPOT.
If there is any spot in the large section Of
territory that was left unexplored, 1t was
only because the children could not find il.
No lovelier spot for children's outing can
be found anywhere IN the city. The grass is
knee-deep, there are little hills and valleys
that rise above each other in a pretty pictur-
esque way.
On the top of one of these little knobs Jo-
seph Cox had erected a band Standard prob
ably the least said about that stand the better
Mr.. Cox never took into consideration the av-
erage weight of local musician. At any rate
part of the band got onto the platform and
Immediately got of it, for the reason that if
they had not the platform would have gone to
smash. Mr.. Cox finally set to work, and soon
had things righted.
There was no restraint placed on the chill
dren. No games were barred. Copenhagen
f1ourished in half dozen spots; baseball games
were as numerous as flies about sugar bowl.
croQuet was INDUCED in by the older pupils,
and above all there was merry-go-round.
JUST REvELED IN IT.
That was the great attraction. The children
fairly crowded over each other to get at it, and
the crowding was not confined alone to the
children, several of the teachers and two or
three members Of the Board of Directors were
observed occupying very undignihed positions
on the packs of wooden horses.
At4 O'Clock Director John Smith started out
in the amusement line First he sent up sew
eral large paper balloons to the intense delight
of the children. Then he had a wbeelbaTrow
race between four boys who were blindfolded-
This created no END of amusement. One little
redheaded contestant was so eager to win
that he got out of the track and
after pushing his barrow through several
CEONOS VI CuuOEeu S6dIeO On Tue grass ne
finally run bang into Principal Fisher, upset
ting him on the grass and causing a general
smashup. The next feature was a sack race;
them followed potato race, both of them
affording much amusement
LEMONADE AND FIREWORKS.
Atdifferent points throughout the grounds
colored men were stationed who served out
lemonade TO the thirsty little ones
In many cases the children were accompanied
by their parents. There was also large turn
out of youths and maidens, SO that a crowd of
at least 600 persons was on the grounds.
In the evening there was a very neat display
of fireworks and colored fire. The park was
kept open until O'Clock, then the band quit
playing and the children dispersed to their
homes, having spent an enjoyable afternoon
and evening.
The Seventeenth ward school directors and
teachers have kind feeling for their neigh
bors in the Fifteenth ward. The cause of this
is that the Seventeenth ward people were un-
able to secure band for their jubilee, and the
Fifteenth ward directors, who had engaged the
Grand Army Band to accompany them to Hull
ton, kindly allowed the band, after it had es-
corted the Fifteenth ward children to the
depot, to return and play for the jubilee.