Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-08-23
BIG EXCURSION PARTY
CAME IN FROM WAYNE COUNTY
OVER THE WHEELING &
LAKE ERIE ROAD.
TWO THOUSAND STRANGERS


Streets in the business District,
Giving the City a Fair-Tfme APP
pearance-A Good Natared and
Orderly Crowd - Amusing Incl
dents.
Wayne county, Ohio, must have been
depopulated yesterday. Passenger
Agent Sam Sherman, of the Wheeling
& Lake Erie, worked up business
mems excursions" from several towns
in the county, and put the fare for the
| round trip at the extremely low rate OF
one dollar. The distance very closely
approximates LIS miles. The country
folk had heard that they do such
things and they say such things in
Wheeling" that their curiosity was
aroused, and when Sam Sherman offer
ed his bargain day trip, they eagerly
availed themselves of the opportunity
to visit the West Virginia metropolis.
The w. e L. E. officials thought the
low rate would induce about thousand
to make the trip, but the various ticket
offices were rushed, and when the two
thousand mark was reached the tickets
ran out. Then an order was issued to
carry them all whether they had tickets
or not. The excursion train consisted
of two sections, and twenty-six coach
es, all crowded. One coach was dis
abled en- route, and detached from the
train, but two coaches were attached
here, so that the returning train con
sisted of twenty-seven coaches.
The excursionists came from Woos-
ter, Creston. Orville, Smithville. Dali
ton. Lodi and Canaan, all Wayne coun-
ty towns, and each town sent band,
but they did little or no playing after
reaching Wheeling. The trains arrived
at II: 80 o'clock, and the visitors were
Immediately conveyed to Wheeling
Park. About half the crowd spent the
afternoon at that resort. The others
took returning W. & E. G. cars and
strolled about the city taking in the
sights. The train departed from the
Terminal Station at 1870 o'clock, and
for two hours prior to that time the
crowd of strangers was distributed
along Market and intersecting streets,
giving those thoroughfares an unusu-
ally busy and holiday-like appearance
The visitors were surfeited with sight
seeing and pleasure. They had been
to the park; had drank from the River
side fountain; some had gulped down
few twenty-five ouncers; had viewed
the Fort Henry tablet, inspected the
city workhouse, gazed upon the SOL
dier's monument. marvelled at the
classic grandeur of Wheeling creek,
guessed at the age and history of the
old court house and Jail, and rubbered
at the sky scrapers. 1t is small won
| der that they were fatigued.
| The city was a show for the visitors.
the visitors a show for the citizens.
There was the unmistakable odor OF
new mown hay about some of the ex-
cursionists. Populistic whiskered
masculinlty and unhappy color combin-
ationed femininity, were very much in
evidence. The unsophisticated Jacob,
who was so engrossed in the adulation
OF his best girl as to be unmindful Of
the smiles of observers; the matronly
visitor clad in her best bib and tucker,
a strange and wonderful creation, in
vesting in hockey pokey and nuts for
the young 'uns; the old man whose
voice grew husky askin about things
| to tell EN- at home, his neck all awry
| and out of gear from working overtime
these were types that brought merch-
| ants and clerks to their front doors,
and caused pedestrians to linger longer
on Market street
| One tiller of the soil, spokesman for
a crowd of six or eight gave Register
reporter the startling information that
he was "a stranger here and supple
mented 1t with a request to be directed
TO that there place where we git the
| biggest meal in the city for fifteen
| cents"
A group stood in front of the old
court house, discussed the peculiar ar
chitecture of that venerable pile. and
" lowed as how that must be the bull
| din" Somebody had been "stringing"
| them. They thought it was the State
house and used before the war, and
every one of them remembered study
ing about it in their biographies.
| There was an universal lament that
| the merry-go -round on Sixteenth street
was closed. The owners of the ma
chine missed an opportunity to reap
veritable harvest of nickles.
-Four young men, who were members
of the Ohio National Guard, and who
had been away from home before, en-
tertained crowd of several hundred
| for half hour at the corner of Six
| teenth and South streets. Their mock
drill was really amusing and they had
the crowd fairly CONFUSED with laugh
ter. One carried a drum, and the
other three beer bottles. Their finale
was the singing of the couplet:
| Nobody knows how dry / am,
Nobody seems to care a d"
| Badges and boutonniers were plenti-
full. and some of the gallants and their
sweethearts looked Just too cute"
One husky agriculturist who was not
nearly so verdant as he looked. had
| borrowed the Arkansaw idea, and wore
| a badge inscribed.