The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-10-11
A GREAT CRUSH.
SUCCESSFUL OPENING OF The
GLASS BLOCK.

lions and Electric Light Effects
Beautiful-No Accidents. and But
One Shoplifter Detected.
Probably the greatest crowd ever
gather together in Mankato assem-
bled at the opening of the Glass Block
Monday When the doors opened
at 7:3O o'clock the street was black
with people, who surged in and soon
filled every aisle. The people kept
coming in a steady stream, and so
great was the crowd within and with
out that during the evening the doors
were ordered closed five times, and
the people within were shown OUT OF
the rear doors as soon as they mao
completed their inspection OF the
building, and fresh crowds of sight
seers were let it. During the entire
evening it is estimated that from 5000
to 5000 people passed through the
building, the former being the lowest
and the latter the highest figure given
by those competent to judge. MID
way between these figures is not far
from the actual number Of visitors.
A large number from out Of the city
were present.
Each lady up to $50 o'clock was pre-
sented with pretty La Belle china
cream pitcher, but the stock or 2,5oo
was exhausted at the end Of the first
hour. The attendance was twice as
large as was expected, and the num-
Der may be judged somewhat by the
number of souvenirs given away.
The crowd outside the entrance eX-
tended nearly across Front street in
a solid mass, and the door tenders had
to constantly repeat the injunction to
keep back. At APPOINT on the first floor
the jam was so great that one of the
counters was moved inward bodily.
Fortunately, no accidents of any
kind occurred. A steam pipe under
the first floor was slightly damaged by
the weight of the people pressing the
floor do sn upon it, and this caused a
noise that many mistook for the CIV
ing away of something. 1t was east
ly repaired this morning. On the Sec
ond floor some articles on the table
were pushed off, but no damage was
done.
Only one case Of attempted shop
lifting was reported, although fifteen
people were employed to pass through
the crowd and keep waGcn on any
thing of that nature. In the cloak
department woman, having the ap-
pearance of a servant girl, took
handsome boa and slipped it under
her cloak. Her actions aroused the
suspicious OF the manager OF the
cloak department, and the latter sue
ceeded in recovering the article a few
moments later. The woman had no
excuses to make, but took her depar-
ture from the building. In the other
departments there was very little dis
played where it could be taken.
Longini & Thoms received numer-
Gus kilograms of congratulation dur
ing the evening, from friends and
the wholesale houses. These came
from New York, Baltimore, Philadel-
phia, Chicago, ST. Paul, Galveston and
San Antonio, Texas, and many other
cities.
The building was ablaZe with cleo
tricity, and some very pretty electric
al designs were made with the incan-
descents. The store had every ap-
pearance of one of the larger estab-
liShments in the big cities. Thos. [.
Skeoch had charge of the electrical
display and large part of the decor
ations, and proved himself to be an
adept. The word "Welcome" was
spelled in colored incandescents over
the main entrance, sometimes by let
tiers by means of switching the cur
rent, and sometimes in it's entirety.
In the right display window was a
huge crescent and star formed of
colored incandescents. Incandes-
cents were placed everywhere through
the the displays to give the best eff
feet.
The interior of the store was finely
arranged, and some handsome decora-
tions were seen. Near the entrance was
a handsome horseshoe of large proper
tions, composed of natural roses of
many varieties, gift of Kohn Bros,
of Chicago, dealers in woolens and
ready made clothing. Near this was
an evergreen formation presented by
Gardner & Ferguson, Of St. Paul, and
bearing the firms name in red, with
sL. & T." above.
To the right was a representation
of the Brooklyn bridge in table linens,
with a lady crossing it. The bridge
was lighted by incandescents A
heXagOnal green light back of the