Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-08-05
Baseball, Side Shows, Horse
Races, Balloon, Etc, Fea-
lures of Field Day.
VILLAGE ENTERTAINS 1000
Good Order Maintained Despite Big
Crowds and Much Hilarity
Tuesday Evening.

Vestaburg celebrated last Thurs
day as she never has before, in fact
as no small central Michigan town
has ever celebrated. A most orderly
crowd of two thousand people hailing
from every conceivable corner of
Montcalm and west Gratiot counties,
gathered there for a Field Day cele-
bration which was inaugurated by a
few of the enterprising business men
Of the town, and had the time Of their
lives. Two bands, a baseball game,
the Lanshaw Players, track and field
events, horse races, two balloon as
tensions and innumerable side shows,
were some of the features of the day
of entertainment.
The footraces were held in the morn
ing. In connection with these there
were held a fat mans race, potato
races, etc. There was enough enter
tainment entailed in the running off
of these events to have repaid people
coming long way to see them. In
the afternoon the Twin City baseball
team recruited from the ranks of base
ball talent claiming either Elm Hall
or Riverdale as their home, essayed to
lower the colors of the Vestaburg
team In trying 10 accomplish
this noble purpose they failed but
failed with honor. The score which
is fairly indicative Of the comparative
playing strength of the two teams,
was eight to six in favor of Vesta-
burg. This victory went to swell the
total of long string of victories In
the last thirteen games Vestaburg has
been returned a winner no less than
twelve times. This is a record of
which the best team In the country
might we'll be proud. OF course in
Brown they have one of the cleverest
pitchers in the amateur game around
that part of the country, even as a
high school hurler he had an envia-
BILE reputation. However, he has not
been wanting in capable support anC
good hitting behind him. AS a whole
the team would probably give the
mi-professional teams of the state
something more than a short argu
ment on the diamond. In the game
against the Twin City team, ThorI
caught good game for Vestaburg
The amiable Del Hicks was on tht
mound for the Twin City outfit will
Savoy catching. Del started playing
baseball about the time most good Re
publicans were casting their first vote
for Lincoln, and he is still at it, ant
probably will be until his younges
grandchild takes him out of the gam
bodily, and consigns him to the bleach
ers; but he still managed to lob tn
ball over the platter in a most salts
factory manner. A few misplaced er
rors tended to annu some of his bes
efforts, but in spite Of that he hel
the slugging Vestaburg players With
the bonds of conservative hitting.
Following the ball game, the resul
of which left everyone in good humo
except the unfortunate visitors fror
Elm Hall and Riverdale and their SYN
pathizers, the first balloon ascensio
was made. This was successful
every size shape and manner. 1t ros
a full thousand feet straight up int
the air. In fact, it rose so straigf
that there were a lot of mighty sol
necks in the crowd by the time tn
balloon reached terra firma agail
1t alighted in spot about eighty roc
from where it arose.
About this time there was son
horse racing going on. The talentt
horsefesh was nearly all home grow
and the interest in the result was
fever heat most of the time. The fe
ture race was half mile free-for d
with four horses entered. Flora IL
driven by Lee Shafer, managed to g
under the wire for first place in evei
heat, but she did not make it witho
severe struggle with a little ma
driven by Jack Johnson of Elm Ha
In the second heat the latter ma
came within half head of nosing o
the ultimate victor. 1t was so clio
that many hackers of the defeat
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