Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-07-07

Preparations had been in progress for
several weeks by our business men for
the celebration of July 5th. DecOrah
had decided to celebrate, and when the
announcement of such decision was
made the people of the surrounding
territory knew full well that it would
not be done by halves; and they began
to make arrangements to be present.
They had been coming in for week
previous, and Saturday night the Mil
waukee brought in whole train load.
And all day Sunday they came, some
by train, some driving in, and some on
wheels, so that when Sunday night
came the city was well filled with
visitors. But when the early sun of
Monday morning began to show itself
and revealed coming day of warmth
and beauty every highway leading to
Decorah might have been seen dotted
with teams and bikes. They came in
crowds, and very early it became evil
dent that Decorah would entertain the
largest crowd that took part in a
celebration in this section Of the coun-
try.
Cannons had been booming and
whistles blowing for several hours. AT
$50 o'clock the Decorah City Band
was on the streets playing, and fur
Hished music for the immense crowd
which was constantly growing larger.
At 7:3O the Japanese fireworks began
to be exhibited, which was continued
throughout the day. About 9:3O the
different sections Of the parade began
to form on east Water street and little
later the Burlington special arrived
with whole train load of people.
Over 200 came from West Union alone,
and they brought their firedepartment,
their band and their pretty girls with
them. The band and firemen were
formed into line while the parade was
waiting for the Milwaukee excursion
train which soon arrived packed to the
brim. In the meantime the WaukOn
fire department had arrived and were
given position. The beautiful float
of Decorah's ladies, the G. A. r., the
platoon of mounted body guards, the
male chorus, the DecOrah fire COM
panies, Tobiason's band, the orator and
officers of the day, the mayor and
councils of Decorah and West Decorah,
the board of supervisors and a long
train of visitors swung into line, and
the most gorgeous and beautiful parade
of its kind ever witnessed in northern
Iowa moved west on Water street,
south on Mechanic, east on Main, south
OH Court, and west on Broadway to
Updegraff's park, where the exercises
were held.
After the rendition of a beautiful Sc
lection by the Decorah City Band,
Chairman Ben Bear announced Rev.
A. G. Wilson who offered a fervent,
eloquent prayer; Mayor F. w. Daub-
ney in few we'll chosen words ex-
tended the welcome of DecOrah to its
visitors, the male chorus sang song,
A. f. Anundsen read the Declaration
of Independence, another song by the
male chorus followed, and Mr.. Ben
Bear introduced the orator of the day,
Hon. John j. Ingalls,, of Kansas, who
followed with an address which held
the vast audience for an hour and a
half. Profound, eloquent and witty,
he has wonderful faculty of entertain
ing his listeners, and gave an address
which will be remembered with pleas
ure by all who heard it. He is GER
tainly an attraction worth having, and
an orator well worth listening to. At
ter the speech the immense crowd fol-
lowed the Decorah City Band down
town, where dinner was obtained as
quickly as possible. After dinner the
bicycle parade took place, which was
followed by the ten-mile bicycle road
race, Otto Figge, Of Ossian, winning
first place and Herb. Haskell second;
time 81 min., 4 sec. Next was a 100
yard foot race on Water street, Grant
Cooley, of Bluffton, winning. The
free bowery dance now opened ON
West Water street, which was source
of continuous amusement, being full of