The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-07-09
the BIG CELEBRATION
At Leon on the Fourth was a Big
Success. A Great Crowd and
Everybody Enjoy ed the Day.


both in attendance and in the man
ner in which the thousands who were
in Leon were entertained. The wealth
er was ideal, a little shower in the
afternoon cooling off the air in fine
shape, and everybody had a good
time. There was no way of estimat-
ing the crowd as to numbers, but it
was one of the largest crowds ever
in Leon, being surpassed probably
only in one instance, the day that
William j. Bryan spoke at Leon. 1t
was a remarkably orderly crowd, too,
being especially noticeable, and the
cept to keep the crowds moving and
see that teams and autos drove on the
right side of the street
Col. L. v. Tullis, of Decatur City,
oficiated as marshal of the day and
he made a splendid official.
The big auto parade at $3.50
O'Clock was the first thing on the
program, being headed by the K. P.
band on a decorated wagon drawn
by six big horses. Bowsher & Bow
sher had a buggy float, headed by
an auto buggy in which rode J. r..
nowsher and son Vogt, with a pla-
card reading, "The Future Firm of
! BOwsher e Bowsher.' The Home
steaders had two floats, one filled
with children and the other with a
band of Indians in full costume
which attracted considerable atten-
tion. The Ford Paving Co., Swift &
Co. and others had displays and it
made very creditable parade. Not
many decorated autos appeared, but
there were some fine ones. Mrs. j.
E. Doze of Humeston, was awarded
first prize, her car being decorated
with over six hundred yellow chrys-
anthemums. Frank Chastain, of
Road View Farm, had a novel deco
ration, using farm products to splen-
did advantage, and was given second
prize, although many thought he was
entitled to first for the originality
shown in the decorations. Third
prize was awarded to Miss Cecil
Grimes, who had very pretty car,
which was decorated in red and white
and filled with young Americas. 1t
was all her own work, while the
Humeston car which won first place,
was a purchased decoration, bought
ready to place on the car.
Hon. H. E. Valentine, of Center
Vile, democratic candidate for con-
gress was the orator of the day, and
he made splendid speech, which
was listened to by a large crowd, and
everybody expressed themselves as
pleased with it. Mr.. Valentine met
many of our citizens during the day,
and while he was not trying to make
political capital out of his appear
ance on Fourth of July program,
he met with many words of encour-
agement in his political race. He is
q fine gentleman, polished orator
and q good fellow generally. He will
visit Decatur county later in the
campaign and speek on the political
issues of the day.
Frank Smith, of the Leon Electric
Co., who was on the decorating COM
mittee scored hit when he strung
a wire from the top of the court
house dome to the top of the water
tower, and suspended a big flag high
up in the air over Main street. The
flag could be seen for many miles in
all directions from Leon, and many
marveled where it could be hanging
long before they reached the city, for
of course the wire was invisible and
it looked like the flag was floating up
there of its own accord.
After dinner the first thing on the
program was an exhibition run up
Main street by. Arthur Andrews in
an auto and he was sure going some.
Then came the motorcycle race from
the top of depot hill to the square
which was won by o. F. Eaton, with
Dixon Newton second. The way the
boys tore up the paved street was
caution and they were going better
than fifty miles an hour.
Then came the novelty auto race,
and it was not finished, the only ac-
cident of the day occurring in running
this race The contestants were to
start and run forward 800 feet, then
back their car to the starting point.
There were several contestants, and
the first two to start were Arthur
Andrew and Lewis Cook, the latter
from Des Moines. They made the
forward run alright, but in starting
back the cars came very near striking
each other and Mr.. Cooks car swerv-
ed and turned east at the south
west corner of the square, running
into the crowd, and two persons
were injured, but fortunately not
seriously. Cal Adair was knocked
down, being struck by the fender of
the car, and sustained bad bruise
on his hip, and his little three year
old daughter, Helen, sustained quite
a cut on her limb, just above the
shoe top. Both were cared for by
physicians, and taken to their home,
and are getting along nicely. Mayor
Farquhar decided this race was too
dangerous to be run with such a
great crowd, as it was impossible to
keep the crowd back, so the race was
called off, to everybody's relief.
One of the biggest events of the
day was the team pulling contest
which was pulled off on Church
street, just east of the M. p. church
and it took nearly three hours to de-
eide the contest, a tremendous crowd
witnessing the efforts of the big
teams to move the loaded dray, with
the wheels chained, go they could not
turn. 1t was tremendous load and
there were some great pulling teams
in the contest, and numerous sets of
harness and several single trees