Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-27
VI SAVED THOUSANDS.
HELD UP A BUILDING UNTIL THE IN
MATES WALKED OUT.
n Wonderful Pumpkin Story-Truthfui
Tales Related to the Ana
Mas Club.
lEmm the Indianapo, is News

There is d vice anu long olueIeuSe pe-
tween the fairs of the present day and the
fairs held when l was boy" said PATROL
man Tickle last evening when the Ana
MAS Club was called to order. "Of course,
there have been fairs for thousands of
years, but / mean only Indiana State Fairs.
"The first one of that kind was held at
Cambridge City in 1928. was Is years
old at that time, and exceedingly smart for
NY age, and l think | can say truthfully
that am the only man in Indiana now
living who attended that fair, or, at least,
::ae only one who has a vivid remembrance
of its every detail. The exposition build
ing occupied 200 acres, and was built of
brick partially burned. 1t was seventeen
stories high, and had a tower from which
one could see the entire United States.
This tower, however, was not built of brick,
but was the trunk of tree. The tree
standing was 700 feet high, and shorn of
Its limbs and branches left trunk 500 feet
long and rs feet in diameter 1t was hol-
lowed out, and inside was spiral stair
case. Landings were made at every so feet,
and near each was window that was only
a pane of glass 16x17 feet. On the tip-top
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
L believe they had better exhibits; that
Is, mean natural products, for we didn't
have an many different kinds of machinery
then as we have now, and consequently
they were not on exhibition.
81 remember one year the managers
made run on pumpkins, and the person
who raised the biggest one was to be sent
to the Legislature and have poem writ
ten about him. A Marion county man
captured the premium. His pumpkin was
fifty feet high, twenty feet in diameter
and weighed three tons. don't remem-
Der his name now, but he was sent to the
Legislature just the same, and his pump
kin was brought to this city and placed on
exhibition. 1t stood for number of years
where the Spencer House is located now,
and band of robbers cut hole in it and
.sed it as cave, but Captain Bruce (great-
grandfather of our Captain Bruce) drove
them away.
"But to return to the fair As it was
thC OhiN IuluR Va It's hitlu III the w est The
attendance was very large, and as it was
held all the year round 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 go so
fast that the driver and sulky would stick
straight into the air. Trotting, pacing
and running nowadays amt nothing. L
owned little brown mare that could
make half mile in half minute and
not think much of it. Why, she made
mile in three-quarters one evening after
working hard at the pillow all day. A
horse that couldn't trot mile minute
was barred off the track as, no good. We
had balloon races, too, and they occasioned
great deal of fun.
u was in balloon race myself one day,
and the way We split the air and shattered
the clouds into little bits was caution.
We were sure TO win, when fellow who
had good deal of money bet against us
fired 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. l hap
pened to have on linen buster; and that
helped me out good deal by catching the
wind as l went down. think 1 was
pretty lucky to fall 1900 feet and live to
tell about it. The exposition was held at
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 most novel manner.
SIN those days there lived in the eastern
part of the State an old Indian chief
known as Step-on-His Face. He had a |
beautiful daughter called Howling Rain !
bow, who was beloved by every one who
knew her. | was rather badly gone on |
the Rainbow myself, but l didn't make |
any particular yell about it. One day |
Howling Rainbow came to the fair with a
young white man from Centeryille, and |
this made her father mad, because this |
young white man only had 900 acres of |
land and half thousand of horses. So |
he goes away and gets drunk, puts on his |
war paint and stalks haughtily into the |
fair grounds. Howling Rainbow and her |
friend were about to get into the merry.
go-round,' when she noticed her father
striding toward them.
AL she whispered flor twas l with
herC AL, papa has his jag on and is
looking for trouble
Well, let him look
You don't know him, AL He is a
rooster when he gets started,
and now if he says anything to you, Just
pass it by as if it was a joke
'Oh, certainly l laughed. sPil Just
pulverize him if he gets too funny
Here our conversation ceased. The In
dian chief, with a breath that would free
Ireland, was near by US.
Young man, began Step-on-H Face,
Il am not at all pleased to have YOU fool
ing around my family. My daughter is a
chump-
oh, papa
Don't interrupt meme, the chief
of all the Indians in this locality. / say
that Howling Rainbow is chump.'
'That was more than | could stand. and
casting one fond look at the bronzed
maiden at my side | let drive with nv
left fist at her paternal ancestor. missed
him, bat struck corner in the building.
The blow knocked hole in the wall
through which you could drive a load of
hay. The building began to shake and
totter.
"'It is falling screamed to the crowd.
And so it was. Thousands of people would
be killed ground into atoms!l buried be-
meath falling walls and timbers?l But /
was on hand; !, who was the innocent
cause of the threatened catastrophe. would
avert it. With lightning speed sprang
to the lettering walls, and sinking my
heels deep into the mud, braced myself.
The creaking noises ceased, the walls were
steady, and for ten days held up that
building until not only were the people all |
out, but the stock was removed, the ex-
hibits taken away and everything valuable
cleared out of harms way. Then I let the
building come down. 1t was never re-
built"