The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1915-07-20
ladies with the circus stuck her
finger through a hole in the dressing
room tent and almost put fellows
eye out" Dawson Sentinel
OLD FRIENDS MEET .
AT "FRIsCO FAIR

San Francisco, July 20.-This is
the place to meet unexpected people
and sometimes in most unexpected
places, With the Panama-Pacific ex-
position attracting visitors from every
section of the country, impromptu re-
unions of old friends who. have not
seen each other in years are con-
stantly in progress The meeting
may be on a street corner, on one
of the broad avenues of the exposi-
ton grounds or most anywhere
crowds are being attracted by San
Francisco's big show.
Wander through the Food Prod
ucts' building and you may be sur
prised to see the pastor of your vii
lage church going full steam ahead
toward a booth where some. of Cali
fornia's wines are passed forth. He
may be found spending little more
time than might be considered. abso-
lutely necessary inspecting an apri-
cot brandy. You can never tell. And
there have been cases where home
bodied souls have sneaked into the
Turkish theater while under the spell
of the "oo-la-la" music, only to perk
up and decide they were not so sin
full after all, when the deacon from
home was spotted right down in the
front row.
Countless visitors are pouring in
to San Francisco. The carnival spirit
is being everlastingly stirred on the
Zone, the exposition's mile of amuse-
ment, and every exposition tourist
is bringing plenty of money to throw
himself to one good time, far from
home. Under these conditions, most
anything can happen in San Fran
cisco now. .And-jerk it from us-it
does.
The downtown first aid" parlors
for reunited friends are doing land
office business. Elevating the foot
and crooking the elbow was never a
lost art in San Francisco under nor.
NAL conditions, and anything goes
now if you are an exposition visitor
Anyhow, some of these reunions are
very touching and must be followed
by some liquid expression of the tie
that binds.
Only the other day two men were
approaching the corner of Powell and
Geary streets from opposite direc-
tions. Not just two men, as there
we're others on the street, but two
particular men. Subsequent devel-
opments made it evident that neither
of the two knew the other was with
in 5000 miles of that particular spot.
When within about ten feet of each
other, both stopped short. Both
threw up their hands, and exclaimed
as with one voice: "Well, I'll be
damned!'
Maybe some one jumped at this ex-
preston of JOY and surprise, but no.
body on the crowded corner noticed
them if they did. The four words
these two men let out of their sys-
TENS could be heard a quarter Of a
block above the noises of the street.
They clasped hands. There were re-
sounding snnacks on the back and the
crowd hesitated for moment to look
on and smile. Everybody seemed sort
of glad that both fellows had seen the
other fellow he had not seen for so
long.
Here the trans-planted westerner
drops his airs of the effete East. The
transplanted northerner picks up
those "R's'' he lost somewhere when
he moved south. And the big
hearted, hospitable Golden West takes
them all in as they meet "home
folks" again for the first time in
years, way out here at the western
gateway of the nation.