The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-07

jamestown Fair, July 5.-The Fourth
of July was preceded here by more and
bigger fireworks than 1 had ever ex-
peeted to see; and the sight cost me
something like $500, besides a risk Of
my life; and how can 1 tell whether
J the show, although positively theat-
rical, can be made as readable as
| think it ought to be? 1 came here to
| tell you all about the big and little
| dfgnified and comic, stage perform
ances on the Warpath, which is
Jamestowns attempt to equal Chica-
go's Midway and St Louis Pike
Within an hour after locating myself
at the largest of the temporary hotels
close to a fair grounds entrance,
was on the Warpath for a first even
| ing's observation.
The wailing of the Oriental pipes and
the humping of tOm-toms didn't lure
me into any of the couche shows;
there would be time enough for such
familiar affairs bye and bye. The IL
lumined signboard of 1.-The Interna-
tional Congress of Beauty" with a
calcium. throwing a glare on a sample
dozen girls on an outside platform, de-
cided me to begin work there. The
girls were scarcely pretty, but the
bankers in a voice that needed no meg
aphone to compete with the pipes and
tom-toms across the way, declared
that they were a contrast with the
loveiness to be seen within for the
sum of one dime. Then a vision of
genuine beauty was revealed in an
alcove above the doorway A woman
of faultless figure stood forth suddenly
and her face was fit to be painted by
an artist, instead of smeared by her
self
of course THE International Con-
gress of Beauty was no chronological
exhibition for scientists, but a catch
penny show for the multitude. The
score of girls who had been displayed
I'm relays outside were costumed for
various countries, and seated on plat
forms like freaks in a museum. Sew
eral sang ballads harshly, several 9TH
eTs danced clumsily, and after seven
minutes of that, Venus came on the
stage. She was in f1esh-hued tights
from neck to heels; and in her ex-
tended hands she held a pair of
screens. which she opened and shut in
front of herself. At each distension
of these wings a. magic lantern threw
on her a bunch of poises, a bit of
dIapery, or an emblem of something
or other. A union shield on her breast
made her a Goddess of Liberty, and
an apron of fig leaves made her Eve
in Eden. Oh, there is no prudery at
the jamestown fair. I give precedence
to Venus because I shall recur to her
in writing about those fireworks. At
the time / regarded her as merely the
first fake I had CHANGED upon.
Another of the first evenings batch
of shows that I looked in at was 1.-THE
Destruction of San Francisco" 1t
was one of those panoramic pictures.
rendered spectacular with lights and
shadows, that abound at fairs, because
their salary roll ends with four or five
operators with the talent centering in
the barker and an investment of g. 900
or $4,000 sufficing for an ample outfit.
1t was a good enough thing of it's
kind, but l mention ii here because,
like Venus, it will recur later in this
letter. You see, l am trying to create
dramatic interest.
1t is a popularity of the jamestown
fair that its own Warpath is-or was
until the morning after my arrival
duplicated by Pine Beach's Warpath.
the outside one beginning at the gate
way where the inside one leaves off.
Colonel FerFari's "Marvels of the Jun
GLE is within the fence, the Bostoc!s's
"CaH of the Wild" is without. Zone
Hundred and One Ranch" brought
here after a first disclosure in Chicago
Of its wild western life. is-or again
should say was-balanced by Conan
che Dams Widest West" Note, if
you please, that I am still working up
an interest Of suspense. Something is
going to happen bye and bye. II
passingly looked into Comanche Dams
show 1t seemed to be one of the
many limitations of Buffalo Bills and
no swindle, even though I stayed only
ten minutes for a half dollar.
1 gave more time to 10 cents worth
of 'Trixie," because she was a good
One-hOrse- show. Perhaps it was be-
cause 1 was tired by the journey from
New York, or transformed by the
phantasmOrgia Of electric lights and
the pandemonium Of noises; but. any
way, I couldn't detect the tricks Of !
Trixie. She spelled names by nosing |