The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-12
FAIR NOTES

No one piece of machinery on the
fair grounds this week has attracted
more attention than the big trench
digger located at the west end of the
machinery field. Cannon was fired,
the spielers called and whistles blew
in vain while the big caterpillar dig
ger was in action. The crowd stayed.
The big piece of machinery simply
settles down on the ground and walks
away, leaving a trench four or five
feet deep cut straight down into any
kind of soil
DIR. Morrison's new Jazz" band,
which he had to take out upon his
own lawn two weeks ago to find
place to practice is getting in many
hours this week. The new band has
been stationed in the patriotic cir
Gle" in front of the Peoples pavilion
and gives a concert each morning and
| afternoon. 1t is a comfortable loca-
ton with pleasant surroundings and
always has a crowd. And it plays
good music well.
THE agricultural college has taught
people how to make two blades of
grass grow where one grew before,
but I'll be darned if it ever taught
anyone how to put two big tractors
of rival concerns on the same lot ;"
said Secretary Phil Eastman. He had
just returned from the machinery
field, where he had spent an hour try
ing to straighten out a tangle due to
an error whereby the same lot had
been sold twice.
There is a notable increase this
| year in the number of concerns ad-
vertisfng Thanksgiving plans Some
| of them have been developed to the
point where the farmer can have
| electric lights and power with very
| little more trouble than the town
man. Farmers and their wives are
spending hours looking over the
i plants. One of them has a gasoline
! engine and dynamo combined and
runs as smoothly as a motor. From
! 1t batteries are charged and from the
| batteries are operated electric lights,
electric irons, washing machines,
| churns and a water system.
| notwithstanding the immense crowd
on the fair grounds Tuesday and Tues
| day night, there was no serious trou-
| Bile. Frank Leach, marshal of the
court of Topeka, is in charge of the
| guards and he has a large force. They
mix with the crowds and quen every
| thing that looks like a disturbance
and do it quickly. There are also
numerous uniformed police on the
grounds.
Visitors at the fair who have seen
/
| know why the soldiers at the front
have personified the tanks There
is something human in the way the
machines operate. The small one at
| the grounds is located near the main
| drive. It is not much larger than a
| washing machine. It weights only
| 2,700 pounds but it has traction for
| every pound of it and yanks great
pieces of machinery around like toys.
1t turns without moving forward or
i
ment on the two sides running in op-
| posfte directions.
Prices for 'eats' are higher at the
grounds this year than heretofore but
! the increase has not been in proper
ton to the increase at uptown res
| taurants. The church lining tents
are keeping their prices down well
and that has held ss1e others down.
| One curious thing, however, is that
! few of the tents advertise the price of
their dinners and suppers this year.
In other years the prices have been
| in figures a foot high.
Thomas Steele, who lives at 1890
North Kansas avenue, lost his new
Buick automobile at the fair grounds
Tuesday. 1t was not a case of mis-
taken identity as on one occasion last
year, for there was no automobile left
| over when the grounds closed Tuesday
night. He parked the car at the
grounds and when he returned for it
| it was gone. The state license num-
Der was 99971 and the engine num-
| Der was 267210. 1t was a five-pas-
/ senger machine and had been used
/ only a short time. Police and fair
officials have been exerting them
| selves to locate it
The remodeling of the horticultural
/ building has given the fair grounds
another band stand. A part of each
/ afternoon one of the bands gives q
concert from the new stand over the
south entrance to the hall. Coming
from that height the music reaches
far into the grounds in spite of the
! mechanical noises in the machinery
field