The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-03
STATE FAIR WILL
Be REVELATION TO
PEOPLE OF ALABAMA
Airship Race and Daily Flights
VIII Be Features of
Big Show
THRlLLERS SECURED TO
MAKE SPECTATORS GASP
Miss Francis Equestrian Leap Into
Pool and Navassar Ladies' Are
other Attractions to Make
the Fair Notable.

Now comes the Alabama State Fair
with bid for the patronage of the
state. October 11-20. The invitation is one
to throw away care, forget business, let
crops rest. drop politics. and get into the
wheel of fun and wonder, which is to
begin week from tomorrow.
The management has prepared an all
round fair. Every corner is chuck full
of really interesting exhibits Details
have been worked out carefully, so that
from smallest pie in the food exhibit, to
the huge thriller" in front of the grand
stand, the show is good and clean and
new. The main effort has been to pro-
duce a fair which would be just as inter-
esting to the person who saw it all last
year as if he had never been to a fair
in his life.
The association at an expenditure of
several thousand dollars has brought to
Birmingham two features which will be
witnessed no where else in the south.
They were too expensive for Memphis and
Nashville and Montgomery, but were not
considered too good for the patrons of
the Alabama State Fair. These two fea-
her death-defying dive on an Arabian
steed, and the NaVassar concert band,
made up entirely of ladies and considered
the best in the land.
1t is fair for women, for children, for
men, for thinking people, for rollicking
fun-makers, for investors, for everyone.
There will be the greatest agricultural
exhibition ever pulled off in a southern
state, some of the fastest racing by he
best horses from Kentucky and Tennes-
see tracks a three-ringed circus and a
medley of free amusements, closing with
a wonderful fireworks display at night
in front of the grandstand, a midway
down THE Pleasure Way of 20 indi-
vidual shows, airship races and the
most perfect outlay of department ex-
hibits, cattle, perfect dairy and barn,
women's work. merchants tinery and a
score of 'whatnots.' or just what you
are not expecting.
E. T. Odum, who is at work in one of
the buildings on his own invention of
an aeroplane, has every hope of complet-
ing it in time for the fair, and whether
he flies or not it will be on exhibition to
! appearance similar to that OF the Wright
machine.
A race between two huge dirigible bal
looms, driven by two famous aviators,
will be an event which the visitors to
!. the fair will witness. The races will be
a daily event, beginning on October 49,
which is the first day the aviators can
get to the city with their big air craft
The fair management has just an
X a han in
coin Beachy, his daring flying partner,
have been secured for the fair this fall.
The contract calls for a race between
the two airships each day and an ascen-
sion of one Of them every night. Pres
ident Ufford and Secretary Chaffee of
the Fair association witnessed the fight
of these two ships at Nashville and pro-
nounced them wonderful.
The contest between the two ships high
among the clouds Is a singularly thrill
ing spectacle. 1t is said by the news
papers of New York and other cities
where this act has been seen that the
race is one of the most thrilling spec
tacles of the time.
The flights of the dirigibles are of some
length, frequently covering distance
of 10 miles. 1t Is probable that the air
craft will race from the Fair Grounds
and sailing over the city return again
to the grounds. They will also probably
circle one of the skyscrapers while here.
The two balloons are OF the very latest
and most improved type and represent
perfection in the dirigible class. The case
with which they are controlled Is said
to be wonderful. They respond to every
turn of the rudder and can be made to
perform all kinds of maneuvers in the
air.
Made of light yellow Japanese balloon
silk the huge gas bcgs are things Of
beauty. The pair are very similar in
build and about the same size The frame
of the machine on which the aviator
rides is made of very light wood braced
with piano wires.