Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-09-01
THEY CAME TO TOWN.
HOW A MAINE CITY BROUGHT IN A
CROWD OF VISITORS.

Bonrd of Trade Provided Simple En-
tertnInment and the Railroads Re-
duccd Fnres-Trce Rides ON Troll
lcys and Bnnd Concerts.
The city Of Rockland. Me. recently
celebrated its first board of trade day.
and ii proved success beyond the
widest dreams of its promoters. says
The Courier Gazette of that thriving
city.
People poured into the city froIL all
points of the compass. and that they
were not drawn here merely out of
idle curiosity and because the trans
pOrtation companies offered low rates
was proved by the fact that they car
ried their purses in their hands and
had the string tied only with Il bow
knot. They came here for bargains
found our merchants ready to meet
them hnlf way, and there was con
sequent exchange of coin and mcrChan-
disc which proved mutually salts
factory to the parties of the IL Il part
and the parties OF the second parts
Noontimc found Main street crowd
ed with people from the surrounding
towns, us it is only when something
very much out of the ordinary is trans
piring. The stores were crowded, the
the streets were crowded and the res
taurant keepers who had looked for
only mild influx of visitors were
driven nearly to distraction in the at
tempt to feed the public and sustain
their reputation for feeding it well.
The dealers Of dry goods, clothing,
boots, shoes and the like have the c'cam
of the trade, and at least two of the
firms report the largest single days
business In their history. One of the
firms In question put on 10 extra clerks,
and even then there were no idle pc
RODS. One place Of business had Il
rush which may seem somewhat pc
culinr, and that was the Rockland
Savings bank The green covered
books which bespeak thrift and pru-
dence came In from all sources, some
for the purpose of having new deposits
recorded and some for Withdrawals.
| One man brought six books and was
somewhat dIsmayed to find the office
full of people on similar crrands. Talk
about board of trade day not being n
| success,
/ During the afternoon the Rockland
military band gave continuous and
what might be termed Il pcrambula-
tory concert. Part of the programme
was rendered from the band stand In
postotfice square, part while marching
up and down Main street and part
while marching on Sea street.
Among the other attractions provided
for the entertainment of the visitors
was prcarranged fire alarm, which
brought out the department and gave
the tiremen chance to display their
agility and their fire apparatus.
The electric cars did land office
business all day, and particularly the
Highland branch, on which visitors
were given a free ride that they might
see our wonderful lime rock quarries
| They were amazed at the depth and
size of these mines and went back
home with some new ideas of Rock
land resources.
The day was a great success, and n
great host came and went away con-
tent with their bargains and the days
outing. Now that the experiment has
been shown to work successfully more
elaborate plans may be made for the
next board of trade day.
If an expenditure of $50 or $40 will
bring many hundreds of dollars in the
way of trade, might 1t not be good
policy to put out double or even triple
the amount to maintain the interest
which the first effort has awakened?
The programme need not necessarily
be long enough to prevent people from
doing all the shopping they wish, yet
through the afternoon 1t ought easily
to be possible to put on attractions
which are genuine novelties.
While some merchants carry stocks
which are not especially adapted to the
transient trade, 1t should be remem-
bered that every new dollar brought
into town increases the circulation and
indirectly benefits all.