The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-10
MUSIC FOR ALL.
Marshall's First Free Concert a
Success.
Park Crowded with People
Eager to Hear Band.
A NEW WORLD VENICE.
Place Transformed by Myriads
of Electric Lights.
Kansas Avenue and All Streets
Packed With Vehicles.

A crowd variously estimated at from
five to ten thousand attended Marshalrs
band concert at what may really be
termed the opening of the city park
last night and listened for two hours to
a program above criticism. The park
was well filled with people an hour be
fore the time for the music to begin and
by eight o'clock the hour set for the
program to commence the crush and
jam at the one little gate which pro
vided an entrance from Kansas avenue
was so great that the police found it
necessary to tear down a section of the
fence.
The crowd had become so large by
this time that there was solid column
Of sweltering humanity extending the
width of the sidewalk for a block. Peo-
pie came in cabs. automobiles and car
riages Of all descriptions. thousands
walked and for an hour the street car
service was taxed to it's utmost and
then was unable to afford transporta-
ton for one-fourth of the people who
wished to ride.
Kansas avenue was so packed and
damned with vehicles of various des-
criptions and automobiles that traffic
was delayed for more than an hour.
The street to the south Of the park was
more closely packed than Kansas ave
nue. If such a thing was possible and
probably two thousand people heard the
concert from the seats of their carriages
and the walks which surround the park.
The band stand which was completed
yesterday and paid for by a popular
subscription confined to that portion OF
the city near the city park IS rather
pretentious affair." located centrally and
brilliantly Illuminated by hundreds of
incandescent bulbs studded about the
ceiling and supports The stand proper
rests on a concrete base which raises
the floor so that the musicians are about
on the level with their audience and in
plain sight.
The crowds scattered as soon as they
passed through the one gateway PRO-
vided for an entrance and sought the
vicinity of the bandstand where they
seated themselves about on the grass
and listened to good music to their
hearts content and that without cost,
or wandered about the walks or indis-
criminately over the grass for there
were no signs keep off the grass
There has been a wonderful trans
formation scene taking place at the city
park about which few of the people OF
he city know anything. Lying as It
does for two blocks alossg the river
front il suffered heavily from the floods
of three years ago which left II an I'M
slightly spot covered with debris and /
blanket of sand. The park is natural
as far as the older trees are concerned
which are scattered about in profusion
just as the hand of nature decreed that
they should be snd the shelterinG
boughs OF the mighty oaks and massive
elms carry with them a reminder Of
the primeval forest
The park is covered with q fine lux
uriant growt of blue grass which has
the appearance of a we'll kept lawn
though the dew last night indicated
that the gardener had been abroad late
in the afternoon with his sprinkling
cart. Right at this pcinr the prayer is
made that the lawn IS not inhabited by
that voracious little pest known as a
cfigre.
A broad cinder walk completely en-
circles the park and at numerous
points it IS crisscrossed with cinder
paths of equal width which wind in
serpentine courses across the lawn and
among the trees. Flower beds OF
artistic designs beautiful with the full
ness of their bloom and lending fra
GRANGE to the air Of the park BY their