The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-09-02
WAS GREAT BIG DAY
THE OLD SETTLERS PICNIC THE
BEST ON RECORD.
AN ENORMOUS CROWD PRESENT
Fully 500 Go From Kenosha-over 600
Teams at the Grounds The Speeches
of John T. Dale, of Chicago, and
Judge E. o. Hand, of Racine.

PaddOck'S Lake to celebrate ola sell
tiers day. The day was a perfect one.
The sun was bright and CHEEKY, not a
cloud during the day to threaten nor
even a distant growl of thunder to-
dampen the ardor of those who were
determined upon enjoying life to the
full. The people began to gather early
at the grounds, so that by the time the
Kenosha citizens who went out by
train got there, there must have been a
larger crowd present to greet them.
Kenoshans gathered at the depot early
and filed four coaches chock full.
There were nearly 200 people aboard
the train and it is estimated that fully
that many more went out Dy other
conveyances.
The grounds presented regular
holiday appearance. All about the
road for mile either side of the
grounds and in the grounds to the
south teams were as thick as they could
be crowded together. There were so
many Of them that Alex. Bailey took it
upon himself to count those actually on
the grounds and he found just 8l0,
which took no account of those hitched
further away. The bicycles lined the
fences and were stored in every con-
ceiVable corner The most cOnserva-
tive of the estimates concerning the
number of people on the grounds was
that there were at least 5000 people
present, which made the affair un-
doubtedly the greatest ever given by
the club.
There were all sorts of games and
methods by which one could part with
his money from the cane ring game to
a panorama of Andersonville prison.
Refreshments of every sort and de-
scription were served, with the eXcep
ton of Intoxicating liquors, and the
people enjoyed the picnic all the more
for the absence of them. There were
balls to throw at wooden babies and at
other hideous caricatures and number
less other things.
The program of the day was opened
promptly at l o'clock in the big pavil-
ion. 1t was opened by selection by
the Antioch band. Vice President D.
L. Burgess then opened the meeting to
an attendance which filled the big au-
dience room. The first number on the
program was the reading of the secre-
tarY's report in which appeared rec
ord of the deaths of all the old settlers
during the year past. This was fol-
lowed by an address by John T. Dale,
of Chicago, whose subject was "Vital
Issues of the Day." He spoke as fol-
lows:
Members of the Old Settlers club
and ladies and gentlemen-Again, in
the full flush of a summers glory, has
your annual gathering taken place,
and you have turned aside once more
from the cares and tolls of daily life to
clasp hands, and to bestow your cor
dial greetings to friends, old and new.
If, as some imagine and believe, that
the spirits of the loved ones who have
gone before, are still permitted with
silent and shadOwy footsteps, to walk
with majestic tread among the living,
then what company is here, we in
the vigor of buoyant life, they silent
and invisible and yet who shall say,
that our souls and all the powers of
our better nature, are not quickened
and inspired by their glorious compan-
ionship here with us today.
With them, the tolls of life are over,
and they have entered into their rest.
They came to this goodly land with all
the radiant hopes, and sturdy strength
of their young lives, and finding will
derness, left it garden. With deep
est reverence and affection, we would
offer our tribute of respect to the mem
DRY of the indomitable pioneers, our
fathers and mothers, who braved hard
ships without shrinkage, and by pa
tient and unceasing toll, made this fair
land what we see it today.
Many of them found the strain and
burden more than they could endure,
and sank into premature graves; most
of them have passed to their reward,
and only a few are left, like the strag-
Cling remnants of once proud army.
All honor TO these, and may the re-
membrance of their heroic lives be ever
cherished in our memories.
For them no more the blazing hearth shall
burn:
Or busy housewife ply her evening care
No children run to lisp their sires return,
Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share.
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn sod has broke;
How jocund did they drive their teams af1eld,
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy
stroke.
The sainted dead, how they rise
before us,-the young and fair, radiant
in beauty and full of promise, the
middle aged, stricken down in the
midst of their usefulness, and the old
gathered like shocks of corn, fully
ripe.
p1% uo aoonot 1.-Two oIfounthnr in the