The San Francisco call., 1910-10-24

delightful glimpse into an old
Teutonic country. with its simple
pleasures, its happy lives. its pictur-
esque costumes, representing every
rank Of life, and it's pleasing folk
songs and dances, was presented at
the German harvest festival held yes
terday afternoon and evening at the
Auditorium rink in Fillmore street.
The affair struck its own warm re-
sponsive note in the hearts of those
who were fortunate enough to see it.
1t was the first festival Of the kind
held in this city in more than 20
years, it being a revival of the great
old three day German festival cele-
brated annually in Woodwards gar
dens At the Auditorium the hands of
time were turned back for the nonce
$50 years and old costumes were re-
vived and old pastimes ran riot. while
music and color and mirth filled the
air.
POLE CELEBRATES HARVEST
AS befitting the season the harvest
pole in the center of the vast hall was
the nucleus around which all the gay
ETY. and laughter of the afternoon CEN
tered. This was a vast pole 20 feet
high, made of red checked apples and
purple grapes. yellow plums and green
and yellow pears, Offset with the quiet
sr reds of beets and Isabella grapes and
the more vivid tints Of radishes, and.
for a background, cabbages and onions
and celery, wheat and oats and all the
grains that come harvesting. 1t was
triumph of art and was similar to the
pole erected 200 years ago in southern
Germany by Carl William to celebrate
I1a nlo f111 n
At it's base under the combined col
ors of Germany and America sat the
court whose triumphal entry early In
the afternoon was one of the features
of the day. They were garbed to rep
resent a burgomaster and his alder
men, and, behind their judicial table
and their pole crowned with red car
nations, they sat in state and led the
singing of the afternoon, the singing
of the old German harvest songs and
the old familiar airs, sweeter to the
ears of the assembled throng than
modern music.
1t brought many of them back across
seas to the little German town, they
had once called home. and it reused in
each the unspoken feeling the love
Of the fatherland always calls forth.
ATHLETES COMPETE
A splendid orchestra was gathered
below the court. and only stopped its
music while acrobatic or athletic pas
times were in progress. A large bell
was vigorously rung to call attention
to each new change in the program,
signal for those on the floor to draw
near and those in the gallery to stop
their chatter and tossing of favors.
and watch the events
It was gay, too. Before the court
ambitious youths wrested for honors
in Olyhipfan pursuits, and men anA
maids in costumes danced the, graceful
peasant dances or sang songs in the
native tongue. Around the walls of
the large auditorium the sideshows,
with their old fashioned German
games, were drawing their own crowd.
There was long forgotten style of
bowling alley as you entered the door,
around which a body of interested men
were clustered, and there We're shoot
ing galleries and prize booths. and
coffee garden, with its groups of
women in costume serving the bever-
and cakes.
COUNTRY FAIR DEPICTED
And then there was a restaurant,
and a wheel of fortune and pretty
girls in peasant garb selling fancy
work of their own making, to swell
the fund, and 10 or 90 other things,
reviving true country festival in the
German fatherland.
The audience for the most part were
Germans, too, and their farmers ball.
as one expressed it. was the most en-
joyable entertainment ever given un-
der the auspices of the San Francisco
Schwaben verein. 1t was thoroughly
German, excepting for it's American
setting and wherever the flag of their
country f1oated or the German colors
were draped, there with them they
hung the flag of their adoption, the
colors of the two countries bearing
equal honors. But German music and
song and speech reigned, and German
eatables were served, and wherever one
turned were the charming red and
white costumes of the fatherland seen
on women and children, and on the
men costumes varying according to
fancy. but each appropriate to some
Office in the home land across the seas.
EVERYBODY DANCES
Only when the dancing began did
the music lose. its national character
and then the airs of all nations in two
step and waltz broke forth. And
everybody danced. They began at
o'clock and some were still dancing at
dawn. The program opened with the
grand march played by the orchestra,
after their excellent overture. Then a
speech of explanation and of welcome
was made by the mayor of the day, A.
Curtin.
The Hessen Gesangverein the
Schwabischer Liederkranz and the Ge-
sangsection Oesterreich were the three
German singing societies that added to
the afternoon and evenings entertain-
ment, and THE Whippoorwill'' and
other songs were sung by "a quartet