The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-22
BIG FAIR IS OPEN.
Auditorium Is a BeWildering
Bower of Beauty.
Hall Is Resplendent in Brilliant
Red Effects.
MANY AT OPENING.
Good Vaudeville Acts Mark the
Rise of Curtain.
Exposition Is Larger and Better
Than Ever Before.

The fifth annual Midwinter fair
opened today
There must be something in the
name. Up until Saturday the weather
has been little short of remarkable
today heavy overcoats and earpads
have all they can do to combat the
cold.
For four successive winters past this
has been the experience and 1906 re-
peats, even though Shakespeare never
does.
But the avalanche of zero weather
which has been sweeping the city today.
did not prevent the opening crowd this
afternoon from being one of the best
on the records. There is a good deal
of the first night spirit in the com
position of every man and woman. It
gives some people real pleasure to be
among ''the first
But that won't do for an excuse en-
tirely for bringing out the big opening
crowd. 1t is the fair itself. Never be-
fore has the exposition association sue
ceeded as this year.
Just step from the cold and bleak
street into the big Auditorium doors.
The transition is like going from
LeavenwOrth to heaven. The great
hall is a fairyland. Color is every
WAACLC- oCdQLAlul CG&dLlOIS. lAALE1l4-
gently studied out effects, remarkable
exhibits. greet the eye at every turn.
The decorations this year make the
Midwinter of 1906 unique in the his
/ tory OF them all. Crimson garlanded
over with live green Smilax, pines and
palms-these are the simple materials.
But material is only a small part of a
decorative scheme. The arrangeme ent
counts for more than three-fourths.
And of the latter art, the persons who
DlIf holiday Rnt0TS ia q laier hall
past masters.
There are forty-two different booths
in the big hall and they all vie with
each other for beauty 1t would be a
harder job to select d prize winner
| from among them, than for Paris to
| have picked out the most beautiful
woman Not two are alike. Some
/ especially original effects have been
worked out this year.
Everywhere electricity has been used.
The little radiance shedding bulbs are
numerous as stars on a midsummer
night In front of the big hall hangs
a canopy of fire. Fifteen strands Of
electric lights hang from a central point
above the Auditorium entrance to points
across Quincy street. and Qff at angles
north and south. The effect is extraor-
dinarilY beautiful.
The doors of the big fair opened this
afternoon at 1880 o'clock, as they will
every afternoon during the next two
weeks of the fair. In the evenings the
doors viii open at 7:30 o'clock. The ex-
hibitOrs need the mornings and hours
from $50 to 7:30 o'clock to clean up
their booths and get their exhibits into
shape.
The admission is Is cents. About 400
seats are reserved in the balcony direct
ly facing the stage. All the rest are
free.
In the afternoon the big vaudeville bill
will commence at 8 o'clock and in the
evening at 9 o'clock. The program is
as follows for this week:
/ Cyclone, The Devils Chimney
The Arisato Troupe of Acrobats
The LeFelle Trio of Gymnasts
/ Ahern and Baxter, Comedy Acrobats.
Cyclones act is the piece -de-resist-
ance. In a cylindrical affair. twelve feet
high, and with Slated sides that are
/ perfectly perpendicular, he rides on the
sides on a bicycle from top to bottom
and bottom back to the top 1t beats
the loop -the-loop" all hollow.
! The Arisato Troupe is comp esed of
four people who do some marvellous
/ tumbling stunts. The LeFelle Trio are
gymnasts that do a comedy horizontal
bar and bounding platform act. Ahern
and Baxter put on a comedy acrobatiC
act of a remarkable eccentric character