The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-21
TOLD BY An EYEWITNESS.
A Han who Does not Put Himself
Forward, but Evidently was in it

tween the fairs Of the present day and the
| fairs held when was boy. said Patrolman
/ Tickle las. evening when the Anenias Club
was called to order. "Of course, there have
I been fairs for thousands of years, but |
mean only Indiana sta Isirs.
The first one Of that kind was held at
| Cambridge City in 1726 | was ID years
/ old at that time, and exceedingly smart for
my age. and l think | can say truthfully
that | am the only man in Indiana now
| living who attended that fair, or, at least
the only one who has vivid remembrance
of its every detail The exposition building
occupied ], 200 acres. an was built Of brick
partially burned. 1t was seventeen stories
high, aud had a tower from which one
could see the entire United States This
tower, however, was not built ot brick, but
wasthe trunk of a tree. The tree standing
was 100 feet high, and, shorn of It's limbs
and branches, left a trunk 500 feet
long and IS feet in diameter. 1t was hol-
lowed out, and inside was a spiral staircase.
Landings were made at every fifty feet, and
near each was a window that was only
pane Of glass 16x17 feet. On the tiptop was
platform where the people used to stand
and watch the earth revolve. The main
building was divided into apartments, the
same as our exposition building is, but be-
lieve they had better exhibits; that is, l
mean natural products, for we didn't have
so many different kinds Of machinery then
as we have now, and consequently they were
not on exhibition.
81 remember one year the managers made
a run on pumpkins, and the person woo
raised the biggest one was to be sent to the
legislature and have poem written about
him. A Marion county man cap ured the
premium. His pumpkin was fifty feet high,
/ twenty feet in diameter, and weighed three
tons. | don't remember his name now, but
he was sent to the legislature just the same,
AID his pumpkin was brought to this city
and placed on exhibition. 1t stood for q
number of years where the Spencer house
is located now, and band Of robbers cut a
| hole in it and used it as a cave. but Capt.
| Bruce (great-grandfather Of our Capt.
| Bruce drove them away.
But to return TO the fair. AS it was the
| only thing Of its kind in the west the at
| tendance was very large, and as it was held
all the year around the managers made
great deal of money. The first train of
| cars and the first steamboat were among
the articles exhibited there if my memory
serves me true Such horse racing as we
| had! Regular flyers and no mistake. Why,
have seen horses 60 so fast that the driver
and sulky would stick straight into the air.
| Irotting, pacing and running nowadays
amt nothing. Iowned little brown mare
that could make half a mile in half a
minute, and not think much of it. Why,
| she made a mile in three-quarters one
evening after working hard at the pillow all
! day. A horse that couldn't trot a mile a
minute was barred off the track as no good.
We had balloon races, too, and they occa-
stoned great deal of fun.
II was in a balloon race myself one dav
and the way we split the air and shattered
the clouds into little bits was a caution. We
we're sure to win, when a fellow VINO had a
good deal of money bet against US, fred q
| rife ball into our balloon. This let out the
gas, and down we went. There were
twenty-three people in the basket, and all
were killed except me. happened to have
on linen buster, and that helped me out
good deal by catching the wind as l went
down. think | was pretty lucky to fall
| 1900 feet and live to tell about it. The ex-
position was held in Cambridge City for
many years, and would no doubt be
held there yet but for the fact
that Indianapolis is the capital of the
state. The buildings at Cambridge
were destroyed in a most novel manner
I'm those days there lived in the east part
of the state an old Indian chief known as
Step-on- His-Face He had beautiful
daughter called Howling Rainbow, who
was beloved by every one who knew her.
was rather badly gone on the Rainbow my
self, but didn't make any particular yell
| about it. One day Howlirg Rainbow came
to the fair with young white man from
| Centerville, and this made her father mad
because this young white man only had 900
acres of land and a half a thousand Of
horses. So he goes away and gets drunk,
| puts on his warpaint and stalks haughtily
into the fair grounds. Howling Rainbow
| and her friend were getting into the
'merry-go-round,' when she noticed her
father striding toward them.
"'Al, she whispered Gor twas / with
herr, al, papa has his jag on, and is look
| ing for trouble
"Well, let him look
"'You don't know him, Al. He is a high
kicking rooster when he gets started. and
now If he says anything to you, just pass it
by as if it was joke
30, certainly l laughed. IN just pull
verize him if be gets too funny
Here our conversation ended. The In
| dian chief, with a breath that would free
! ireland, was near by us.
Young man. began Step-on-His-F Face.
4 am not at all pleased to have you fool
ing around my family. My daughter is a
| chump-'
40, papa
Don't interrupt meme, the chief OF
all the Indians in this locality. I say that
Howling Rainbow is a chump.'
! That was more than could stand and
casting one fond look at the pronzad maiden
at my side, let drive with my left first al
her paternal ancestor. missed him. bu,
struck corner in the building The blow
knocked a hole in the wall through which
you could drive load Of hay. The build.
ing began TO shake and totter.
j" 1T is falling screamed to the crowd.
And SO it was. Thousands of people
would be killed ground to atoms !! buried
beneath falling walls and timbers!l Bat !
was on hand; 1, who was the innocent
cause of the threatened catastrophe, would
overt it. With lightning speed sprang tc
the tottering walls and, sinking my heels
deep into the mud, braced myself. The
creaklng noises ceased, the walls were
steady and for ten days l held up that
building, until not only were the people all
out, the stock was removed, the exhibits
taken away, and everything valuable
cleared out of harms way. Then let the
building come down. 1t was never re
built"
What of Step-on- His Face and Howling
Rainbow
both lived to ripe old age, but never
spoke to either of them again. They caused
| all the trouble u