The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-12
GOOD ROADS DAY
Continued rom Page onel

trot and two running races. One thou
sand, seven hundred dollars is the
total purse on today's races. The
2:19 trot, in which there are seven
entries, is expected to be a particu-
larly good race.
During the races Tuesdaytne grand
stand was filled and the bleachers
were also comfortably filled. Phil
Eastman, secretary of the Kansas
Free Fair, said today that the crowd
on the fair grounds, based upon ad-
missions to the grandstand, was great
er than the crowd that attended a
year ago Tuesday.
1.-The only way of arriving at the
size of a crowd at a fair where the
gates stand wide open is by the grand
stand admissions he said. I'VE
haven't checked up all the admis-
sions to the grandstand yet but it has
already passed last year figures. That
and the appearance of the grounds
both indicated a heavier attendance
than on the same day year ago"
During the races this afternoon
Captain A. H. Hardy, the worlds
champion shot, will again demonstrate
his craftsmanship. Tuesday he rode
around the track in an automobile.
travelling perhaps 80 miles an hour
and with rifle broke an average of
five out. of six glass balls thrown
from the car by an assistant. On
several occasions the audience started
to give him the laugh when he miss
ed. He stopped it by shooting 4 sec
ond time at the same ball and break
ing it. Once he shot three times
while the ball was in the air and
brought it down with the third shot.
State journal Contest.
Great interest is being taken in the
Topeka State Journals gunners' con-
test in which the members of Bat
terry A have entered. From until 4
o'clock each afternoon near the re-
&r-z@ <af,-
Gle" the men serve the piece On
different days each of the nine sec
tons of the battery will go thru the
form of bringing up the ammuni-
ton, loading and discharging the big
gun. The work must move with pre-
cision and the section making the
most perfect score at the end of the
contest will receive the prize offered
by the State Journal The gun used
in the contest is almost identical with
the famous French "75" of which war
correspondents have written so much.
Great crowds watched the progress of
the contest each afternoon.
Night Program Worth While.
The program Tuesday evening was
a fair sample OF what is in store for
visitors tonight, Thursday night and
Friday night. 1t is the best and most
complete evening entertainment the
Kansas Free Fair has ever attempted.
The grandstand was fairly well filed
but nothing like the number of people
attended that such an entertainment
should attract.
The evening began with the mil
lion dollar" paraae of livestock up and
down the track. The finest animals
the m1ddlewest has produced, wear
ing their fluttering ribbons as a tes-
timonial of their perfection, were ex-
hibited where everyone could see.
| That was at 1880 O'Clock.
Capt. Hardy's Exhibition.
| At o'clock Captain Hardy, worlds
champion shot, again demonstrates his
craftsmanship. That in itself is a
real show
| Tuesday night MarshaIFs band of
fifty pieces furnished patriotic music
on the huge platform in front of the
stand. The Modoc club, with thirty
voices, sang. There were vocal solos
! by real talent The musical feature
alone should be good for a full grand
stand. 1t was far superior to the To-
cal band concerts, which drew capac-
ity crowds all summer in the parks
| Then followed the fireworks, such
| pyrotechnics as have never before
been attempted at the far grounds
They ran far into the evening and
| held the crowd until the last number
| Each of the forty-three numbers was
a wonder in itself. There were aerial
| battles; there was the bombardment
| of a mammoth fort by a battleship,
there was an artists conception of the
taking of Verdun, there were flower
gardens, summer storms, cannonad-
ing and scores of other pieces COM
prising a most remarkable program.
All this program, with daily changes
/ in the musical features, will be given
tonight, Thursday night and Friday
! night.
The Con T. Kennedy shows continue
to draw the crowds. All Tuesday af-
| nd 17ip nd
| the enclosure has Deen filled even
when the races and other attractions
were in progress.
The Garden of Allah" with its
Oriental music and the Oriental show
| inside keeps a steady procession NOV
ing up and down its steps The Mir
acle;" "Coney Island" and other shows
are playing to good business. Outside
| the "Coney Island" show little trick
| is put on for advertising purposes
trick that puzzles them all. 1t hash t
been explained and probably will not
be. The face and head of a beautiful
girl appears suspended in the center
| of a spider-web. Below it is an or
binary stairway covered with carpet.
| There is plenty of room between the
spiderweb and the stairway for Peg
gy's" body but the body is-not there,
at least not where you can see it
spieler tells you that. but you can't
see it
Always a Wise Man Present.
The wise man in the crowd always
states emphatically at just the right
time that the head is of wax; that it
isn't alive. He does that just about
the time the spieler asks Peggy" if
she is alive and she smilingly admits
/ she is not a dead one. The wise man
! moves away in disgust
/ Miss Essie Fay. AmeEica's foremost
i woman horse trainer, has made a last
ing impression on amusement devotees
of Topeka, and hundreds of fair Wis
itors have marveled at her ability
Miss Fay is the owner of three won
derful horses, Arabia, the equine par
adox; Hazel Dawn, high jumper and
j Don Macdonald, Kentucky thorough