Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-09-05
sILVERToN's LABOR DAY cELE
BRATiON.

the most successful celebration IL
the history of the camp. not excepting
the 4th of July In the palmy days
Only one Silvertonian believes th'
attendance to have ever been equalet
and that was in 1884. Your CORE
spondent was in Silverton that yeal
and cannot agree to this. There arr
more people in Silverton at the pres
ent time. or yesterday at least, thar
the town ever entertained, both as
regards home people and visitors
And by home people is meant San
Juan county. The outlying camps were
virtually depopulated. The mines
closed down throughout the county
and 1t is estimated fully two thousand
miners were down from various San
Juan county mines. Then the little
towns of Eureka, Gladstone. Animas
Forks, Howardsville and Mineral
Point contributed their quota. And
last but not least, Durango was here
with both feet" Durango has been
noted this year for contributing lib
eral delegations, several of the base
ball Sunday excursions over one hun
dred have taken the advantage to visit
Silverton. But it remained for the
Labor day exercises to draw the
crowd. Sunday morning four coaches
were crowded to the limit, something
like two hundred landing in Silverton
at noon. Then the passenger train
although delayed five hours. brought
In another large delegation, and to
this was added two hundred more
Monday morning. making a total at
tendance from Durango of about 500
Every hotel, rooming house and pri-
vate residence was needed to provide
accommodations.
And the weather. Grave doubts
were entertained a week ago and up
to and including Saturday night, just
what was in store. Well, Sunday
morning cleared and the day as fine
September day as one might wish
and Monday followed suit. We have
often experienced colder weather dur
ing the month of July. No wraps
have been needed even during the
evenings.
The town itself is in gay dress.
Flags and bunting are conspicuous.
and especially is this true of interior
decorations. And the weather seem
ed to clear auspiciously for the big
event, preserving the decorations ans
even the temper of the people, who
have made themselves agreeable in
every way and pleasant for the Wis
itors.
The only thing going on the first
day was the ball game between Du-
score of to for the Silverton boys
or rather for four of the Silver
tonians and five semi-professionals
from other fields This was the first
game Silverton won this season. Even
three weeks ago with three new mer
and their crack pitcher. Toner, Du-
range won. But Jack Slattery never
lays down and the result is the Sill
verton team is now composed of FIVE
men who make baseball their bread
and butter. This is mentioned to
show that Durango is up against a
hard proposition when playing solely
local men And with all this the Du-
range boys are strictly in the swim
and we are confident they will take
their proportion Of games the rest OF
the season.
Silverton was first to bat and scored
three runs, two at least being. on er-
rors-ones that do not often happen,
Grant Hughes dropping ball at home
plate when holding it meant putting
out the runner. but his hold was not
quite firm enough when his hand en-
heier fumbled his first ball on first
not bad, but just enough to give the
runner the base and a score
This was rather disheartening. Sill
vertcn did not score again until the
seventh. making one run, and two
lore in the Sth. Durango was not
Lle to get any runs until the eighth
inning when two touched the home
plate through two muffed flies on the
part OF the Silverton team, one an
imported product, and the other by
a local player. Leon Hills umpired
the game and gave excellent salts
faction.
Mondays Program.
The first thing on the program Mon
day morning was the parade which In
turn was far the largest in the history
of the camp and especially of organ
lied labor. The parade formed early
and was in marching line by 10 O'Clock
and consisted Of the Silverton band
Durango drum corps, Silverton Min
ers' union and half a dozen Other
unions, about twenty members OF the
brickmakers and masons' union ol
Durango being in line with white