Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1901-07-12
July Fourth Celebrated in Alma
in An OId-Time Way, And
Big Crowd Present.
10000 PEOPLE TURNED OUT ON
THE FIFTH TO WELCOME
BUFFALO BILL.
a Royal Good Time With No Acct
dents 10 Mar The Pleasures of
The Day.

The one hundred and twenty. fifth an
Iniversary of American Independence
has come and gone, and Alma did her
part in properly celebrating the day
The custom of celebrating the Fourth
has undergone little change during the
recollection of the present generation
a salute at sunrise, procession in tho
morning, followed by an Grafton and
winding up IN the evening with a pro
technic display This was not exactly
the program carried out in this place
bat were the principal features of the
event.
f. E. P0llasky, chairman OF the dec
Grating committee, had a number of
men busy on the third making stream.
ers for the street and the Fire Depart.
ment assisted in placing them in the
evening. They we're artistically made
and spanned the principal streets, max.
ing very pretty display. Our mer.
chants also took special pains In decorat.
ing their business places and the town
presented handsome appearance on
the morning of the Fourth, which
dawned bright, clear and very warm.
BY ten clock seven or eight thousand
people were upon the streets and upon
the arrival Of the l0:2S train, which
brought the orator Of the day, Hon
Geo +. Nichols of Ionia, the procession
formed and marched to Stuttz grove
The Ithaca band opened the program
with an excellent selection, and after |
invocation and selection by the Breck |
enridge band, Mr. Nichols was intro
duced and gave most excellent ad-
dress. The RECORD will not try to give
extracts from the address, but Will say,
1t was one of the best talks we have
ever listened to on similar occasions,
and was well received by the large audi.
ence
After this part of the program, the
people were obliged to seek shelter for
two hours while a good sized shower
was lowering over the town, but at two
clock the sun was shining again and
Sartor and Wagner, who had charge of
he sports, announced for the first event,
! fat men S race The entries for this :
ace included some of the heaviest and l
astest business hustlers in the county.
They were $. Messenger, o. +. Brown,
Dr.. f. G. Olp and A. J Hall of Alma !
md NJ. f. Heath, of Ithaca, all well ;
lnown business men and great "spurts'
when it comes TO hustling after business
'ut little too fat to make fast time on
he track, especially when it is damp.
These five fine specimens of perfect
manhood lined up for the start, and
hey certainly made big appearance.
Wagner fired the gun and they were
fl. All got good start except Brown,
Who over-reached on the start and made
bad slip. The buildings shook from .
he heavy tread as the men tore down =
he avenue. Alma tried hard to beat
he big Ithaca hardware man, bat it was v
no use, and he crossed the finish line
nlly yard in advance of the Alma y
Iothing merchant, who was just in ad.
ance of the other three. 1t was a great
ice and capped the climax Of the sport.
x events of the day.
Wells, of Ithaca won the 100 yard b.
ash with Foster of Mt Pleasant. OF
.cond. We are unable to give the 81
ames of the winners in the boys race pr
here were no entries for the sack race er
for the horse race. T.
The Ithaca and Breckenridge bands ce
ere lavish with their music during the a..
ternoon, and we are sure it was much is
ljoyed. The former organization had 10
.men in line and with their neat and be