The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-07-06
LAKE CRYSTAL.

Lake Crystal, July 5.-The one hun
dred and twenty-fourth and the last
celebration of the birthday of our
great nation to be held during the
nineteenth century, has passed into
history at Lake Crystal rs well as at
all other points. The preparations for
this event had been elaborate in all
departments and when Old Sol let his
beaming rays of light shine down up
IN the pleasure seekers whose faces
were turned hitherward all hearts
were bouyant and everyone looked for
ward to a full days enjoyment at the
lakeside town.
As early as seven o'clock teams from
all quarters anne in with happy coun-
try folk to get the first exercises. The
trains brought crowds from north,
| south and west and when the eleven
o'clock train arrived the main street
| was crowded with an enthusiastic and
| gaily dressed crowd. When the speaker
| of the day, Hon. A. E. Clark, of Man
kato, arrived the procession which
was formed and at a halt, moved on
preceded by the speaker and mayor in
a carriage, to Lake Park, where the
multitude awaited them. Arrange
ments had been made previously for
singing and prayer at the opening
ceremonies but the singers had gone
| on a strike and the ministers were
conspicuous by their absence and the
exercises proceeded without these Gus
tomary performances by Hon. II. E.
Howard taking their place with a few
happy remarks in which he apologized
for the a in the program and
at the close introduced Capt. Keysor,
of Mankato, as the first speaker of the
day. The captain held the audience
spellbound for twenty minutes by
reading from a manuscript which he
had as a reserve" in his pocket.
w. H. Cole then introduced the
principal speaker of the day, Hon. A.
E. Clark, who placed the audience in
a happy mood by his remarks about
the calamity caused by the absence of
prayer and the great need of it for the
present postmaster. For about forty
minutes the. assembled people listened
to one of the most entertaining and
| sensible Fourth Of July orations ever
delivered in this place. The speaker
| did not resort to the old antique idea
usually excavated for occasions of this
kind but brought to the notice of the
attentive minds present the truths of
our country's birthday in a manner
entirely new and unique.
Amid tremendous applause at the
close, MI. Cole announced dinner and
| the program for the afternoon. The
afternoon exercises began at the driv-
ing park with base ballon the diamond,
between Good Thunder and Lake
Crystal clubs, horse racing on the
track shooting at the target grounds.
| These amusements were in full pro-
gress and were witnessed by a large
crowd, when a heavy rain was turned
loose by Hank Humphreys carlessness
and drove the people to shelter. After
the rain, which lasted about fifteen
minutes, it was impossible to get the
crowd back to the park SO those parts
of the program were abbreviated.
| Outgoing trains soon after carried
away hundreds of visitors and the
great celebration of 1900 at Lake Crys-
tai was practically at an end. The
decorations for this event were elabor-
ate and lastly arranged. Much
credit is due this committee as well as
all the others which helped to make
this celebration so successful No &C
cident of any kind marred the pleas
ures of the day and all went home
pleased. No expense was spared to
mako This the best celebration in the