The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-06-12

|
with it, Nope, l guess we II have to pass
it up
| "Well, | guess we won't have to do
anything of the kind said Mac, I'VE II
give them centennial of the first meeting
of the incorporators of the town; the meet
ing at which it was decided to present the
matter to the legislature, and if anybody
can catch us up on the date, I'll buy you
| the best hat you ever wore
"Not so bad at that, said the city edi-
tor with a smile. By gosh! it's all right,
, and we II go to it, I'll get Johnson from
the news and Handy from the Journal to
come up here after the paper goes to press
and we II thresh it out together.
So the plot was laid by these four moulders
of public opinion, and the next afternoons
paper suggested centennial celebration to
be held upon the anniversary of the towns
incorporation. Both the morning papers
next day favored the idea enthusiastically,
but in skiilfully written article in the
Times, it was shown that December 23d-,
the real anniversary,-was no time to hold
celebration of this character, and sug-
gested tina, the first meeting of the incor-
porators be celebrated which it solemnly
stated was held on June 23d, 1904, at the
home of an old resident whose name prom
inently figured in the early history of the
town.
Of course it was all cut and dried for the
other papers to fall in with this suggestion,
and two days later, these four newspaper
men, headed by Mac, appeared at the mayor
office and appealed to him to appoint
committee at once as no time was to be
lost in bringing the celebration to focus.
In order to get the matter off his hands
in hurry, the mayor said: "Well now l
don't believe could do better than to APP
point you four men just as you stand, and
give you power to appoint subcommittee
if you think it necessary, but of course
you understand the city is not to be re-
sponsible for any expenditure of funds
"Of course not, said Mac; "but Mayor,
you re putting an awful lot of work on us,
and we hardly expected to be given the job
when we started to boost it, but if you say
so, we will do it to fnish-Eh boys!"
With show of hesitancy the others fin
ally accepted the appointment, and when
they got back to the Times office there
was a general laugh and handshaking.
Mac threw his hat in the air and yelled:-
CHOW, gentlemen of the committee, the
first business before the house will be to
have good cigar on me-
The plans of procedure outlined rough
ly-Mac was to see about a place for hold
ing the celebration, arrange the programme,
hire the music and about everything else
| there was to be done. The others were to
simply boom the life out of it in their re-
spective papers. And boom they did for
all it was worth and then some-all sorts
of suggestions were being made-the town
was on fire with expectation.
Mac went to see the management of the
new park and signed a personal contract
with them for half of everything
ing the bar-for the celebration, the park
to furnish music, fireworks and other
speakers and most important of all-the
crowd.
When the papers announced that the
celebration was to be held at the new park,
great row was stirred up by the OPP
position railway line and the other brewery,
but all to no effect-the people living in
that part of the city nearest the new park
were delighted and their exultation more
than overbalanced the knock of those in
terested the other way
But opposition suddenly developed from
an altogether unexpected source, and for
time it had the committee-all but Mac
up in the air.
On the Sunday night after the announce
ment of the new park having been decided
upon was made, Johnson of the Journal
called Mac by phone and in scared
voice yelled:
Hey Mac, did you have anyone at the
North Side M. E. church tonight
mo, replied Mac. "Why?"
''Well that darned blatherskite Martin
devoted his entire sermon tonight con-
demning the committee for selecting what
he calls beer garden to hold the cite S
centennial celebration at. I've got the
whole bale of stuff here he sent down with
a boy-wants it run in full in the m orn-
ing's paper-did you ever hear of such
nerve in your lifef Tam going to ''kill"