The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1913-07-11
RECORD BREAKING CROWD II 81
m CITY FOR CELEBRATION
Over Twenty Thousand People.
Throng Streets Of City During
i: Afternoon and Evening
:: Last Friday.

| One Of the biggest, crowds eve1
gathered in any city on the iro1
range attended the Fourth of July
celebration in Virginia last Fri.
| day. The visitors came early, re.
manned late and despite the fac
that drizzling rain prevailed
Throughout the evening and inter.
fered to. some extent with thu
plans for the evening program the,
spent very enjoyable day..
The celebration crowd was est.
mated by members of the genera
| celebration commute at from 18,OO(
to 10000 people. It came from al
sections of the Mesaba and Yer
million ranges and despite the fact
that it taxed the hotel and eating
house capacity of the city it was
good-natured, thoroughly imbue1
with the holiday spirit and seemed
to enjoy itself immensely from the
early hours Of the day until the
late evening when rain sent many
! to their homes who would other
wise have remained until Saturday
morning.
The program for the day went
off without hitch. There was
not a dull moment from the time
it began until the big night pagean
was over. In the morning the in
dustrial parade was the feature
Virginia business houses were well
represented, four bands were in
the line OF march and the clowns
and burlesque circus section kept
the big reviewing crowd we'll anus
ed. The parade was headed by
the police and fire departments
members Of the city council in
carriages and veterans of the civil
war. It trayersed Chestnut street
twice. Following the parade the
ADDRESS OF the day was given by
Hon. Cleon T. Knapp of Duluth
Mr.. Knapp was given a respectful
hearing by large crowd and de-
livered an excellent speech which
had as its chief theme an i'm
pressive lesson in patriotism. A
big crowd saw the st. Paul-Virgini
baseball game in the afternoon, The
theatres were all packed to the
doors and the crowd up and dow1
Chestnut street did not seem to be
in any degree diminished.
The special train over the Duluth
and Iron Range from Tower anc
Ely was filled to capacity, a fail
crowd came in on the Canadian
Northern special from Cook, An
CORA and Gheen and ON the Great
Northern train from the western
Mesaba in the morning, passengers
were turned away at KeeWatin
The electric line brought Thousand
to the city, gave excellent service
throughout the day and kept cars
In service practically all nigh
Friday night to accommodate the
celebration crowds.
A program Of athletic sport!
was given on Chestnut street dur
ing the afternoon and kept the biz
crowd amused and entertained un-
til late in the day. Band concerts
followed. The Virginia, Mohami
Finnish Socialist, Aurora ane
Scotch Highlanders OF Duluth eacf
giving programs. The Scotch High.
banders were a big hit with the
celebration crowd and proved one
Of the biggest attractions Of thu
day. All OF the bands worked hare
and all had big share in enter
tanning the crowd.
The night carnival was to some
extent marred by a drilling rain
but the procession of the fire kine
was pulled off and was indeed 3
brilliant spectacle. 1t extended tn.
full length of Chestnut street ant
with hundreds Of marchers, three
bands in the line, clowns and dane.
ers and the whole illuminated by
thousands of sloW-burming red-fir'
fusees it made a brilliant spectacle
While the pageant was at it,
height the effect on Chestnut
street was pretty indeed.
The grea' crowd was very wei
behaved. There were few acct.
dents during the day and few ar