Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1898-07-08
WE CELEBRATED.
A Glorious Day in Honor of a Glorious
Event.
Largest Celebration Ever Held In the County.
ALMA ALWAYS DOES THINGS RIGHT.


OF the Fourth the people of Alma were
made to realize that we were to celebrate
in honor of our Nations birthday, by
the booming of anvils, giant fire crack
ers and the fusillade of the smaller
crackers in the hands of future citizens
of these great United States. This was
kept up until long after sunrise. AS
soon as it was light enought for our
business men to see what they were
doing, the decorations in front of their
places began to grow into something like
form and by the time the people of the
town appeared on the streets the trans
formation hal been completed. AT the
early hours of the morning the day
promised to be all that could be wished
for and that promise was fulfilled. Very
early the people from the country be
gan to assemble until at the time of the
parade the streets were crowded full of
people with but one purpose in view-to
enjoy themselves, and they did.
Promptly at 9 80 the parade formed on
State-st north by the Wright House in
the following order: The reception
committee and speaker in carriage, ST.
Louis Band, ST. Louis Division u. h. X.
of p, Ithaca Band, Alma Fire Depart
ment headed by the drilled company in
charge of Capt. Soper, next after the
firemen were the citizens in carriages,
followed by the bicycle corps composed
of young girls in costume and headed by
Bert Thompson dressed as Uncle Sam
who rode high wheel The procession
marched north three blocks, east two
blocks and then back onto Superior ST.
from which point the line of march was
straight to Stuttzs grove where the ex
ercises were held
The Knights of Pythias made a very
pretty military appearance with their
uniforms as also did the firemen, and the
little girls on their bicycles were very
neatly dressed in white, each wearing a
pink sash and added quite a little to
the effect of the parade.
AT the grove the usual exercises were
rendered including the reading of the
Declaration of Independence, which
was done by @. E. Scott. The orator of
the day, the Hon Chas. Mckinney of
the State Normal School, Mt. Pleasant,
delivered a very mastery oration,
filled full of patriotism and love of
country. AT 1 80 p. m. the Light
| Guards appeared on the Wright House
square and gave an exhibition gun drill
which was executed very nicely and gave
evidence of the fact that there was
material among them for the making of
good soldiers. After the drill they
marched TO the foot of State-st., where
the water event took place. This prob
ably created the most amusement of
any event of the day and the prize of
$500 was finally captured by Geo.
Cowles Next on the program was the
100-yd. dash in which Hackett won the
prize of $500. The @heelbarrow race
was also won by Hackett. The run, hop,
step and jump was won by Tinker.
During this time the Ca ithopican
parade had been forming and from the
time they started at the race track until
the ending of the parade at the same
place there was crowd following the
procession which at times made it al.
most impossible to proceed. 1t took the
form of grotesque circus parade and
was as an ingenius a representation as
could have been gotten up. Almost
every kind of animal was represented as
we'll as other different freaks of nature
all costumed and masked. The parade
was headed by martial band in costume
and the Alma Band, whose members
were also in costume, were in the center
of the line on wagon drawn by De.
catur Coleman's threshing engine
Farther down the line was the bel
chimes, and the devil brought up the
rear. People were heard to express
themselves that this parade alone was
worth coming to see, and excelled the
majority of the circus parades. Harry
Moore had the entire formation of thi,
affair in charge and deserves much cred
it for its success.
After the Calithopican parade came tn,
standing hop, step and jump which was