The Portland daily press., 1897-10-18
/. Y. M. c. A. FAIR.
Closes Successfully Saturday Night.

1t has been a grand success financial
mas been larger than we ever dared to
nope it would be. The patrons have
oeen very liberal, and very respectable
sum for the building fund has been
| realized
so said one Of the prom oters and man.
ayers of the Y. M. @. A. fair Saturday
night to reporter. The big fair was
tnen drawing to close. Many of the
booths where fancy articles and other
ehlngs had been on sale during the four
Gays and nights looked very bare. Near
" all of the articles offered for sale had
been disposed of and in some of the
booths the fair managers were seated
behind barren counters with folded
hands and self complacent smiles.
The grocery department which was ar
ranged and managed by Mrs. G. A. Wes-
ton, did especially we'll and the receipts
mere will amount to very handsome
hgure. Mrs. Weston and her assistants
have worked hard and deserve great
amount of praise for all of their efforts.
Plamistry, as explained by Miss
Laughlin of Boston, and Misses Clark
and Dunbar of Portland, was one of the
taking features of the exhibition. The
booth where these fair gypsies held
forth was largely patronized and if all
the good things they prophesied for
those who crossed their palms with sill
yer come true, there will be many happy
people in the world.
The dining room of the fair has been
great success. Mrs. Fred Boothbay.
who had charge of this department, will
have the satisfaction of turning over to
the treasury very handsome sum. She
has been ably assisted by Mr.. Pooler,
who found his time we'll occupied in
carving chickens, tukeys and. great roasts
OF meat. 1t would be an extremely in
teresting thing to know just how many
birds Mr.. Pooler has cut up during the
four days of the fair, for when taken al
together they would probably make a
large sized flock.
At some suppers at the fair over $50
were taken in % cent tickets and the
dinners averaged $50 every day. The
tickets sold on the first day numbered
500 and the attendance almost every eve
ming was as large as this. Friday night
saw the greatest attendance Of the fair
and fully 1000 people were present to see
the bicycle drill which was one of the
finest things on the. fine programme.
Saturday night picked squad of ten
High. School Cadets, commanded by
Major Charles D. Boyd gave cannon
drill, which was greatly appreciated.
The young soldiers mounted and dis
mounted the heavy cannon and scattered
It's parts all over the floor of the hall
They handled the heavy piece as if it
were play thing and did the work as
readily as veteran artillerists.
Mrs. Hoxie has been very industrious
during the fair and has modelled four
prominent heads in clay. Saturday night
Judge Nathan Webb was the model, and
Mrs. Hoxie's deft fingers soon brought
his well-knoWn features out of the large
lump Of clay. A large audience witnessed
the work and applauded the efforts of the
artist. All of the busts are extremely
well done, those of Judge Strout, Mayor
Randall and Judge Webb being particu-
larry fine, while the head of President
Mckinley looks very much like the photo
graph of the chief executive.
A funny thing about the pictures and
autograph of President Mckinley was
noted Saturday night. About 8. 80 o'clock
the two photographs bearing the Presi-
dents signature, were offered for sale.
A young lady in the crowd offered 25
cents Her escort raised the bid to so
cents, though it was evident that the
young man would have to pay the bill in
either case Some one else offered DOL
lar, and this was the highest figure which
could be obtained at that time. Evident
~ President McKinley's picture auto
graph is not very highly valued by the
good people of Portland.
During Saturday evening, Col John
D. Printable of the Governor staff, was
introduced to the large audience by
County Attorney Libby. Col. Printable
gave in mis- inilnitable manner his IA
NOUS recitation entitled "The visit of the
Montgomery Guards of Boston to the
Webster Guards of New York City," and
the recitation brought down the house.
At II O'Clock the large crowd which
had been in attendance during the
evening was pretty well thinned out and
by midnight the hall, which has been
the scene of so much festivity during the
week was in darkness.