The Portland daily press., 1900-09-07

screen is OF such WaVy outline that few
could be offended at the point where
she Is carried up stairs. The performance
winds up with two rounds of the
Jetfries- Fitzslmmons prize fight. It is
pretty hard to give any sort of show
In the good old safe of Maine without
violating law and this reproduction of
prize fight breaks one of the enactrnents
of the last legislature which was, as
everybody remembers, noted for It's wis
dom. However, few people knew that
such law had been passed and most of
them have forgotten it, but the prize
fight is drawing card for the corpulent
colonel, who announces from the front
Of the tent that he came to Lewiston
only because the management urgently
requested him to do so.
Conspicuous on the grounds re
the men who, under the broiling sun,
are wearing new mack1ntoshes. Mixed
In with wild men and the fortune teIIers
is gentleman who is selling mackin-
toshes. They are very fine mackintoshes,
but as they came from bankrupt stock
the gentleman is able to part with them
for 81 each. He proposes to sell them at
that price for just an hour. After that
they will be 81 apiece. The crowd does
not stay for the second hour which never
comes, but the gentleman with the
bankrupt mackintoshes is doing such
lively business that these rain shedders
are now fashionable hot weather apparel
in central Maine.
AMONG THE EXHIBITS.
The fair managers have in the past two
years greatly improved the grounds.
The unsightly little shacks which former
ly served as hotels and eating houses
have disappeared and so have many of
the tumble down cattle sheds. In place
of these quarters for cattle there have
been erected four large barns where the
visitor may walk under cover and see the
animals standing head foremost instead
OF wading through the dust and dirt
and looking at their tails as in other
days. 1t is we'll worth visit to these
cattle quarters for in them are the
ride Of many smiling Maine farmer.
Among the prominent exhibitors are II.
r. Perkins, of Skowhegan, Il. G. Bur
leigh OF Vassalboro, WE. Easron of So
lon, G. A. Green of East Wilton, Charles
P. Woodbury. of Lincoln Centre. j. f.
Libby OF Richmond, J. Il. Carville of
Lewiston, A. W. Hunt of Brunswick,
John F. Buker OF BoWdoin, f H. Briggs
of Auburn, the Grant Farm of Gardiner,
L. w. Dyer, j. L. Robinson of South
Windham, A. r. King of North Mon
mouth, f. c. Pooler of Skownegan, G.
| II II v-e
Leeds, L. II. Maxim of West Sumner, the
Herrick Farm of Orono, P. 0. Wheeler
of Paris, A. A. HunneweII of New Glou-
cester, Benjamin Tucker of Norway,
/ George &. Gilman of Bingham, and
Simeon Tracy of Portland. There is a
particularly fine exhibit of sheep and
swine.
In the big exhibition building are the
usual varieties of articles, but perhaps
the quilts attract moro than their share
of the attention of the visitors. lime
was when the quilt was of the patch
work variety, but art has now entered
more prominently into the fash1oning OF |
these coverlets and portraits worked up
on them in silk and worsted make fear
full and wonderful exhibits of the hui
man features, Most OF the quilt makers
have labelled the pictures with which
they have adorned their handiwork and
that is OF assistance to the observer, but
may perhaps be a source of mOrtifca-
ton to the subjects of these portraits.
All in all, these quilts suggest the puz-
zle pictures now so popular in the news
papers.
FEEDING THE MULTITUDE.
When %, 600 people go to a fair, means
must be provided for the comfort Of the
innerman. The little shacks which have
disappeared have been replaced by rather
pretty little cottages over by the grand
stand, sand here the ladies of the w. G. Il.
U. still go into the restaurant business
during fair week. Their restaurants
stand side by side with the Dewey house
ana other ''hoteIs." The ladies appeal
to the crowd by the ring of asbell The
propr1etors of the other eating houses
have learned a lesson from the bankers
on the Midway and shout their bills of
fair Judging from what one Of them
was announcing in stentorian tones to-
day, there are four popular dinners on
the grounds and each variety sells for
quarter. They are turkey dinner,
chicken dinner, roast beef dinner and
red hot dinner, as much as you can eat,
with all kinds of pie, and only quarter.
The announcement that the diner can
have as much as he can eat is not super
fuous. Before one Of the restaurants
today appeared a young man with one
who was evidently his best girl ''You
wait here, Gertrude, he said, and then
between the young man and the restau-
rant keeper, there was held this dialogue:
"How much for a dinner?'
"Twenty-1ive cents"
"What nave you got?'
The list was long one