Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-10-13
cushman Attended the County Ralr.
TOOK IN DINNER AND MIDwAY-DoEsN
SAY WHETHER HE SAW ANY OF THE
REST OF THE SHOW.

EAST SUMNER, Oct. 7th, 1908.
Once more l have been out on about
three weeks pick up. My first break
was for the South Paris fair. After
while got there, where run afoul oil
about twenty thousand people, more OF
less. got on to the grounds Wednes'
day about 1890 A. NJ. Having taken an
early breakfast I began to feel sortel
gaunt. | knew of place called Good
Cheer where they sold baked beans and
SIGH. This was about 80. l ate un
til they helped me away from the table.
1t was lucky got away as did for the
place was besieeed by hungry crowd
crying for baked beans. had my after
dinner smoke and proceeded to investi'
gate the show.
The first thing that attracted my at.
teution was few people that looked to
me as though they were about one-hali
| men and women and the wild beasts.
But the boss said they were full blooded
and registered "Phillopens". The
worst looking one was King, the next
Queen, the next declared war, and when
his people got licked be declared peace.
The boss said the noise they made was
sweet music to them but it was sour to
me.
Not wishing to have my pocket picked
l only took some small change with me
but soon found that had not enough
to 90 around. so l put on dignified
conntenance and marched up to the tent
and told the doo-keeper that was re-
porter and asked him to let me in free
of charge. He said he never had done
such a thing but told me to go right
along in. l tried that racket on all
other places of amusement and succeed,
ed, but / found that game would no,
| work at the Good Cheer when dinner
was ready.
They had fine show of fancy dancing
girls called the daughters Of liberty, OF
some such name, any way they were In
taking liberties.
There was a sort of rigging where
they told fortunes A man was dressed
up to make himself look as bad as posi-
BILE. He had in his hand hollow piece
of tin which looked like the handle of a
tin dipper. Another man gave him a
sheet of paper. He rolled it up and put
it in his dipper handle, then rubbed the
tin-ware on his nose and shouted at the
top of his voice, "Ge-hoo-ser, CurhoO-
der, Hooder," about a dozen times, then
took out the paper and 10, your fortune
was told. One fellow managed to get in
sheet of paper with no writing on it
and that foStune did not pan out much.
/ left A. D. Parks place and took the
train for Portland. When left / was
well filled with pears, grapes and other
good things too numerous to mention.
| visited my friends in Portland and had
a good time, but the weather was so
dry and smoky l was scared to death
most of the time, but had friend who
lives on an island in Portland harbor, so
fed to that place as soon as l could
find a man to take me there in motor
boat. When we got to the island In
question we found We could not land on
account of low water. asked the man
If the drouth had affected the ocean.
He smiled and said that when the tide
came in it would give US lift, 80 we
cruised around among the rocks and let
the tide rise. We saw good fish, he
said it was dog fish, l knew enough to
know it was not a cat fish. We finally
landed on the rocks and he pulled me
over the bow of the boat. 1t made me
think of the landing of the Pilgrims on
Plymouth Rock. After stopping at the
island few days visited Auburn, Tur-
ner, and got back to the Hartford of
Sumner Flat Oct. I'd, sober.
VIM. CUsHMAN.