The Portland daily press., 1897-09-08
The GORHAM FAIR.
The Opening Day Of the Great
Exhibition.
EXCITING RACES AND MANY IN
TERESTING FEATURES.


feet and Everything Passed Off as
Smoothly as Could Be Desired-.To-
days Programme.
For over so years the Cumberland
County Agricultural and Horticultural
Society has been giving annual exhibit
ions, and Tuesday, the 18th fair opened
at Narrangansett park in Gorham. II
is the one exhibition held in this section
of the state that Cumberland county
as a whole is interested in and people
travel from miles around to witness this
exhibition every year. There is an old
saying, which holds true today as well as
it did fifty years ago and that is that
"there is more fun to be found to the
square inch at the Gorham fair than is
to be had at any other exhibition of the
kind in Maine
Tuesday was record breaker for an
opening day at Gorham. The crowd was
larger, the races better and all of the feat
ures more. interesting than are usually to
be seen at the first day. This big crowd
was due to the reputation the Gorham
fair has for giving its patrons their
money worth and of making the first
day as interesting as any.
The exhibits of cattle, sheep and swine,
of fruits and vegetables, of household
goods and so forth are the best the fair
has ever seen. On the midway there
are the usual number of fakirs and few
of them are missing. Queen 10 70, the
Gipsey fortune teller is on deck as are all
of the catch-penny games at country
fairs. From early in the morning until
6 o'clock the fun went on and as the ad-
vertisements of the big vaudeville shows
say there was something going on all the
time.
THE BALLOON ASCENSION.
The balloon ascension andi parachute
jump was made late in the afternoon by
F. E. Stevens was one of the best ever
seen in this vicinity There was very
little wind when the ascent was made
and tie balloon went straight upward
to great height, the daring aeronaut
performing on the trapeZe as the balloon
flew upward. When the man was SC
high in the air that he] looked mere
speck against the blue sky the parachute
was cut loose and he came down like
a shot. While. descending Stevens con.
tinued his gymnastics on the. bar. which
is something that has never before been
seen hereabouts. He landed safely in
big field just outside tire park. AL
who saw this ascension pronounced it to
be the finest they ever witnessed.
THE RACES.
: If the Gorham fair is more famous fol-
one thing more than it is another, it is
the horse races. There is only one place
to witness race and that is on a half
mile ring where the crowd in the grand
stand has the fun of seeing two finishes.
The races yesterday were far above the
average races at country fair. There
being no pools all of the races were trot-
ted in their merits and the best horse was
given chance to win in every case.
Perhaps the best race Of the day was the
2.27 pace which was in many ways a
most peculiar one. The first two heats
in this race were captured by Also, Jr.,
belonging to and driven by w. 6. Rey-
nolds. In each heat, however, DR.. Fan
duiss Benovento Boone made Also, Jr
fight for his place and pushed the stallion
under the wire at such speed that it
seemed to take all of the starch out OF
him. In the second heat DIR. Fanduis S
Benovento Boone succeeded in heading
Also, Jr. on the turn into the stretch in
the last half. The DOCTOR who is a gentle
man of color, got little excited at the
close finish, and made a mistake which
lost him the heat. In the stretch the
doctor turned his horse into the pole di-
rectly in front of Also, Jr., which was,
of course, contrary to all rules. The
judges put Benovento Boone back into
sixth place for the foul driving, although
he really won the heat.
AT the beginning of the third heat, a
funny thing happened. After the field
had scored once or twice, Also, Jr., who
had two heats to his credit, went lame
and was drawn SO that the race practical
~ had to be started all over again late in
the afternoon. Benovento Boone took
the third heat very handily, although
Lucky Roy, owned by Mute Trefethen of
Portland, now came to the front and
proved to have the necessary staying
powers to be very troublesome custom
er. In the fourth heat Ira Woodbury. was
put up behind Lucky Roy and after a
most exciting race beat, Benovento Boone
out On the stretch and won the heat.
In the fifth heat Benovento Boone and
Lucky Roy had it all to themselves. And
hot heat it was too. On the first quarter
Icky Roy went to break and the
B one horse got the pole. Woodbury. kept
MS horse after the money and on the Sec
d round began to give Boone horse a
close rub for the lead. Turning into the
stretch Lucky Roy fairly beat the Boone
horse out, but just before the wire was
~ BEST HND