The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-01
FIREWORKS DISPLAY
CROWD WAS THE LARGEST EVER
 GATHERED IN MONTGOMERY.
The Exhibition Was Superb and the Plan of Giving It on the River Bank Proved Great
 Hit.

The greatest crOWu OI ptOpie tHdS oNOh coi gf egated in Montgomery. and, con seryatiye men said, the greatest crowd that ever assembled in Alabama, gath cred on the banks of the winding old Ala hama River last night and witnessed a dis splay of fireworks that was pronounced the best thing of the kind Montgomery has seen. Old inhabitants declared that it eclipsed any previous exhibitions, and that the crowd was greater than the crowd which greeted President Cleveland when he visited Montgomery in 1894. This occasion had hitherto bean historic as attracting the record breaking crowd to the Capital City.
 Estimates placed the number of specta- tors all the way from 10, 900 to 30.000. Ex- travagant persons declared that there were 40 900 persons lined up on the river banks Owing to the peculiar topography of this location, it was possible for oOOoO persons to witness the exhibition, and the extravagant ones argued that on ac- count of the darkness of many portions of the banks it was impossible to gain any, thing like a definite idea of the number of people who enjoyed this grand climax of Fall Festival exhibitions. Unques- tionably, 1t was the biggest and most enthusiastic outdoor audience that Mont gomery has ever furnished.
 When the last piece of the artistic dis
 
 of people read the legend in every hue of the rainbow, Go to the Vaudeville, three modest young men of Montgomery turned away, and one of them said to representative of The Advertiser, in re- sponse to a request for an expression or opinion as to the success. of the occasion. Please just say that the committee is satisfied without mentioning the names of the committeeman"
 hA N6 committee Lee H. Well, and his speech was at once approved and endorsed by his fellow committeeman. A. c. Stern and w w. Graves. These young men have labored. faithfully with the idea in view of making the fireworks display the real event of the Fall Festival. They suc- ceeded far and away beyond the expec- tations of the public.
 If one could have read into the hearts of the vast audience which gathered to see the brilliant exhibition, he would have found the unanimous verdict to be. Bravo, Lee Well; Bravo, Arthur Stern; Bravo, Will Crave: you have contrib uted greatly to the success of the busi- ness mems entertainment" Surely these young men earned the plaudits which were so lavishly heaped upon them.
 The fireworks display was made from the Elmore County bank of the river on the edge of the farm of W. A. Henderson which slopes gracefully down to the edge of the water. Several splendid old oaks bend over the river and the effect of the myriads of colored lights playing through their branches was weirdly picturesque John Due, a representative Of the A. L. Due Fireworks Company of Cincinnati. who has been in Montgomery several weeks arranging the preliminaries to the exhibition. made his last visit to the scene of the display late yesterday even ing by way of the ferryboat He man. aged the entire exhibition with the assist ance of a number of negro laborers.
 The fireworks display was announced to begin at o'clock promptly, and one of the notable and pleasing features of the entertainment was that 1t began at ex- actly o'clock. Long before this hour, perfect streams of people wended their way riverward It no doubt caused the breasts of Montgomery-loving citizens to swell with pride to observe the adequacy of the broad, roomy and cleanly streets through which the great crowd pressed. Commerce Street was a sea of humanity from o'clock until the hour set for the exhibit to begin. The stupendous crowd surged backward and forward like de- bris tossed hither and thither upon old ocean's wave.
 The subway leading from Commerce Street to the boat landing under the hill beyond the union railway station was the objective point, and 1t was the first time in the history of Montgomery that the real advantage to the public of the wide and roomy subway was demonstrat- ed. Railroad trains rumbled overhead, and the crowd surged through and made it's way to the banks of the river. There is an electric light in the subway and the crowd moved through in perfect order.
 Police Captain w. II. Taylor was on hand with squad of twenty patrolmen, composing the entire day force. The men were in the subway and stationed at different points along the river front. Only once was there the slightest inti- nation of disorder. This was when sev- eral ruffianS undertook to jostle party of ladies Big Pat Sweeney, the finest of the Montgomery force, with six feet three inches of brawn and muscle, reached out and held one of the men at arms length as he told him in polite but emphatic language that there must be order. There was order.
 An enter rprising individual with the con- sent of the Festival management, had provided several hundred tiers of seats on the bluff overlooking the river. These seats were quickly sold at 10 cents each, and it is said that the enterprise of this citizen netted him something over $350 Of course, there was ample room, and every one in the vast audience had splen- did opportunity to witness the pyrotech- nic display.
 The Fireworks Committee and the off, cers and members of the Board of Di- rectors had a space reserved on the wharf close to the water and viewed the eXhi- bition from this point.
 Five minutes before the city clock tOlled out the hour of [. the Georgia State Band arrived on the scene and was conducted to a platform erected for the purpose high up on the hill. The band rendered selection. and just at ' o'clock a bugle was sounded. MT. Stern of the commit tee, stepped to the corner of the space occupied by the committee and waved rs d light; there was fanfare of music, the report of a mammoth cannon cracker hurled through the grass fields of El- more County and the fireworks display was on.
 There was a gorgeous prismatic illumin- alton of the entire Fillmore County side of the river and thousands looked on in wonder at the charming scene presented. A hay barn more than a mile away in the meadow of Farmer Henderson was the background, and the multi-colored lights fell softly over the scene. fiickered among the old oak boughs and died away Then followed ascensions of exquisitely colored rockets. Saucissons throwing showers of colored fire which developed into hideous-lookng dragons. reflected against the calm sky of the peaceful evening.
 The mammoth jeweled fan was the first set device and the big crowd gazed in bewilderment. There were thousands there who had never before witnessed