Smyrna times., 1895-10-09
The State Fair at Dover.
BIG CROWDS AND PICKPOCKETs THURS
DAY.

The Fair at Dover last week had for
a rarely, good weather throughout
bright suns, pleasant temperature and
dust by the mOuthful. The attendance
from this section was not near SO large
as followed the first seasons of the fair:
in fact has not been since games of
chance got to predominating every-
thing else. The matter of gambling
devices it is claimed were prohibited
this year. The large crowd, however,
who find never ceasing wonder and
interest in the fakirs, bad them to
their satisfaction.
The exhibits, which are, strange to
say, never so drawing as the games.
were less in evidence than usual. The
races on the track, exhibits of Wild
West hOrsemanship and base ball
games claimed the almost undivided
attention of the visitors.
The base ball games Wednesday and
Thursday were between the Phillies
and the Dover teams, the Phillies be.
ing victorious both days, whitewashing
the Dover team the first day and beat.
ing them by score of IL TO 8 the sec.
Ond day.
Thursday was, as it always is, the
great day OF the week, In the absence
OF gamblers the place seems to have
been overrun with thieves. The dav
is thus drawn by the Dover correspond
ent of EUery E3ening:
Dover, Oct. 4.-Yesterday was a bio
day in the history of the Delaware
State Fair Association. 1t was Rio
Thursday and the largest crowd passed
through The gates yesterday that has
been on the grounds for a number of
years. The total was estimated at from
10000 to 10000, They began to arrive
early in the morning and at s o'clock a
steady stream of teams of all descrin.
ton passed through town to the fair
grounds. The excursion trains brought
large number of people. The south
bound train had eight carloads while
the nOrthbound excursion was run in
two sections of 10 carloads each.
The fair grounds presented livelv
scence early in the day and as the
hours passed the crowd continued to
grow.
The only unpleasant feature about
the fair is the extremely drv condition
of the grounds. The dust is almost
sutfOcating,
The games of chance have been ex-
cluded, but much worse pest showed
up yesterday. The grounds were in.
tested with clever set of pickpOckets
and Sheriff Shaw told EVery Eveninq's
correspondent last night that he be-
lieved fully $4,000 had been stolen
from persons on the grounds during
the day. Two men were arrested but
nothing was found on them by which
they could be held and they were re.
leased.
The pocket of E. F. Totten, of Smyr-
ma, was picked and 5000 ir cash and
$500 worth of papers. Charles WYATT.
of FELTON,, was relieved of $3.50; Thos.
Slaughter, of Dover, had $50 stolen:
Mrs. Wilbur II. Burnite and Mrs
Hastings were each relieved of their
purses; Mrs. SallIe Cole, of Dover. also
lost her purse with contents. Two
pocketbooks we're found late in the
afternoon in one of the exhibitions sta
bles. They were turned over to Sheriff
Shaw, who examined them. They
contained no money, but papers found
showed that they belonged to Jobn
Macklin, of Georgetown, and Josenh
Burchenal, of Smyrna, ($i5.)
The thieves operated in a slick man.
ner and have probably escaped.
Barring the work of the pickpookets
the day passed off without anv trouble.
The crowd was very orderly and two
uniformed policemen kept good order. |
When the racing began at ! 80 o'clock |
every seat in the grand stand was oc- |
eupled and both sides of the fence |
along the track were lined with several
hundred people,
The performance given by Jim Kidd |
between the heats was we'll received.
especially the riding of the bucking
horses and the lasso throwing.
The first race was won by Jack Lucas
10 the straight heats. The winner is a
brother of Jack Splan who trotted the
best race ever seen on the Dover track
few years ago with Dick Organ. In
this race it took six heats to settle the
race, three Of them being dead heats.
Many horsemen remember this re-.
race.
In the pacing race Polka Bolton won.
queen Garrett won the first heat after
hard fight but shortly after stnrting
the second heat the horse was
hrown BY the hobbler. Harriott. who