The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-18
TOpeka'S Summer Retreat Will
Be Open Sunday.
Railway Company Has Spent
Much on improvement.
THINGS THAT ARE NEW
Figure Eight TobOggan Is in
Working Order.
Summer Hotel and Cafe Are
Ready for Guests.

Vinewood opens tomorrow. Those
who go viii find much that is new and
great improvements over last year. In
the first place the entire track from
Topeka to the park has been rock bal
lasted and this year the cars viii have
no excuse to go off the track.
The line is in excellent condition and
the views from the highest points along
the way are quite as attractive as the
park itself. From several places an ex-
oelIent view of the city is obtained and
from the top of the hill looking south
west across a valley and to the hills
four or five miles away is unsurpassed.
Everything is green.
The view does not last long for it is
but 20 odd minutes to the park on one
of the big cars. Nearly everything
about the park is new The walks are
of new fresh gravel and well laid. There
is plenty of grass and the trees of the
park though natural growth, seem to
have been arranged in the very begin
ming for just such a summer amuSe-
ment place. The lagoon is full to the
brim and there is a steady stream OF
water going over the big stone wall
which makes the falls.
The first thing on entering the park is
the Figure Eight Toboggan. 1t is an
immense affair and harder to figure out
than the How old is Amp puzzle
There are ten cars each seating four
persons. Ten cents will initiate you in
to the mysteries of the ride. You enter
one of the cars. A man gives it u
slight push and then an endless chain
catches it and gradually takes the car
up and up an incline to the top OF the
tObOggan and then-swish! and away
you go in and out, over and under, up
and down, turning this way and that
until you don't know where you started
from and you wonder when you will
get back and where you will land. Y on
Il. erAe inc nj
impetus takes you up another incline
still higher. You thought before you
were at the top but you We're not, you
were only in the middle. Then with a
football rush you are whirled through
a maze of tracks and see nine other
cars going in nine different directions
from the direction you are pursuing
and then with an extra burst of speed
you suddenly see before you the point
where you started and you wonder if
the car is going so Iast that it will
again make the tour. It will not for a
man is there to throw a lever which
gradually brings the car to a stop and
you get out. You have Travelled $500
feet, nearly half mile in about q
minute There are 425 electric lights on
the frame work OF the tobOggan and at
night the sight is especially attractive.
A mammoth merry go-round under d
roof 100 feet square is being put in and
viii soon be ready for those who wish
to ride and for those who do not wish
under the same roof. If you do not wish
to whirl over the half mile circuit of
the tobOggan nor wish to ride one of
the lions, tigers, camels or horses OF
the merry-g o-round you can rock.
The new band stand is going to be
one of the features of the park and
MarshallS band will dedicate 1t toInor-
row afternoon. 1t Is not one of the time
hOnOred band stands such. as you see in
the center of every village square. 1t IS
large sounding shell, painted pure
white and decorated with 231 electric
lights. The sounding shell viii act as
a sounding board for the music and
the sounds VIII be reVerberdted toward
the audience and the park and not in
every direction. There are dressing
rooms in connection with the sounding
shell and it will serve as an excellent
stage for vaudeville turns of every des-
cription.
There is a neat cafe in a little white
building. brand new and plastered and
decorated until it is as inviting as one
could wish. The dancing pavilion is 40
by so feet entirely surrounded by a
board veranda. The lagoon is about a
quarter of a mile in extent and 1t
winds in and about the buildings ana
the different points of the park and is
spanned by several picturesque white
bridges. They are iron, too and they
won't fall in. There are IA row boats
and a naphtha launch to hold ~ people
is coming.
There are several concessions for the
amusement of the public sucn as a
shooting gallery. rag babies" to knock
down for cigars and striking machlne-
There is a photograph gallery ana a
Camp of fortune tellers and palmists.
In one corner of the park is the light
and power station. A 80 horse power
gasoline engine drives the dynamos
which furnish the lights for the PARK
and the power for the merry -go-rouhu
and the toboggan. One of the features