The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-10-06

VI ASF SLteelS o0,vyJ VISITORS. ana on
Sain and Douglas avenue last evening
the electrical parade was viewed by 900
people
Mr.. H WaIlenstein, who made the es-
Innate last year, for the Eagle. on the
visitors, yesterday announced the num-
Der Of the visitors for the past week as
follows:
Friday yesterday .....................s5,c0 Coz
1nursday ..-.....-.-..-.-.-........ rs, coo
wednesday ...........--.-.....-..-.... 22,0)9
1uesday Ia. 00J
Monday ...--.-..--......--..--.... 10, 90
According to Mr.. wanenstein, about
1900 witnessed the flower parade, and
about $500 saw the electrical parade
last evening.
As the streets appeared at the climax
: of the street flower parade Wednesday,
yesterday they were all day long. From
the depots to Main street and away
north on Main and down on Main and
Market from g o'clock until long after
midnight this morning the pavements
were being used by the overflow Of pc
destrians. As fast as the special trans
poured their thousands into the main
streets, the other visitors, made uncom-
Portable by the jostling, spread out to
the parks and the resident portions of
the city. So much was this so that there
were resident streets Of Wichita more
crowded yesterday than Douglas avenue
ordinarily is
Meanwhile wichIta's $500 was mostly
keeping at home. For there were times
yesterday wnen you could not count 100
Wichita people on Douglas avenue, and
there were hours in the Street Fair when
a Wichita man could not have recognized
among the thousands there one hundred
Wichita people, outside the booths
So vast was the multitude that noon
and supper time made no appreciate
difference in the jam on the streets For
as the people crushed into the restau-
rants and hotels and into the homes Of
friends and on steps and by-streets the
crowd of visitors from the resident por-
ton of the city set in
At o'clock thousands were sitting
along the curbing. Around every res
taurant and hotel there was a mass OF
people big enough to pack the Auditor
ium in nearly every instance. At the in
tersectons Of streets four streams of
people produced tangle. This was not
alone at the corner of Main and Douglas,
but up and down Main and Douglas at
every corner.
BY o'clock half the sidewalks were
full and the asphalt pavement had be-
come promenades where a vehicle ap-
peared out of place.
And then every portion Of the city OF
Wichita, except its business portion, !
emptied, like a huge bucket OF people |
spilled out on the two streets.
Whatever happens, neither Main street /
mar Douglas avenue will ever witness a
like scene In the Worlds Fair parade (
at Chicago and the Dewey parade at +
New York there was at no single point (
so great a crush.
And there VIII never be in Wichita !
again. The city as 1t grows will reach /
out in new business. avenues and streets /
and lines of march will have 10 be ar
ranged TO accommodate more people;
the viii be in consequence better dis
trItI ted. Fifteen thor>and more pc pie /
IN wichita-Iasr evening would nave
blocked everything. People who brought t
horses on the streets last night viii cor
roborate that.
For by o'clock the pavements were
packed. Through the parti-colored brok-
en- army the bands pushed their way
", street cars crept, and the show was
on az last
How the people reached Wichita is be-
you'd the telling. Every man has a DIFF
ferent story. People were here from
Texas. from far western Kansas, from
Oklahoma. from Missouri and from near
the Nebraska line. Railroads running out
of Fort Scott had 10 shut down on
'Ieaves Of absence" so many were asked
by men wanting to come here Parties
of one hundred and more drove from
Kansas towns TO make connections with
railroad towns. Nearby cities were
deserted 'In all the regular
trains people were riding in the baggage
cars and the platforms were crowded like
theatre cars. No one in Wichita had
ever seen anything like it, and with
Wichita at a like size no one will ever /
see it again The unloading Of trains
was a serious and slow matter. Thou I
sands Of strangers were on the platforms
who had telegraphed other friends to
come and were there 70 meet them, and .
In some instances because of the crowds :
already on the platforms It was almost :
for passengers TO get out OF
the train.
A happier crowd from first to last than
that which was in Wichita yesterday
could not be found. They went to the
limit OF fun making.
And the climax OF the day. Of the week.
Of the year. came with the enrancingly
beautiful electrical parade.
From high up in stairways, from tops
nf buildings. from platforms. from tele-
graph poles. and from the multitudes
which packed the streets It received its
greatest praise. the praise Of public aP-
plause. an applause that roared from the f,
throat Of southern Kansas and Oklaho-
ma together in a larger crowd OF these
elements than ever congregated before.
Ii was rot a murmuring crowd. Il
was a rumbiing crowd. Il was out for
'un. and lots of it. 1t was distractiug
IN all workers and people with weak
nerves
In the history Of Kansas from the fif
les 10 the present day no city O. Kansas c
as ever entertained such crowd be- I
Cor R1OO6 q