The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-07-10
IT RAINED TIE FOURTH
Heavy Rain jnterfered With the Pro.
gram, but a BIG Crowd was Mere
and All Had a Good Time.

The Fourth of July started off in
fine shape in Leon, but alas, before
the daytwas over old Jupiter opened
up a bombardment of rain, and he
managed to interfere very materially
with the program for the. day.
Large crowds commencing COM
ing to Leon early Friday morning
and the four bands, Leon, Lamont,
with Walter Case as .fifer. and J. H.
Evans as drum leader, were busy all
the time The Lamont band occu-
pied the band stand first giving a
two hour concert, and they made fine
music.
At 10 o'clock the big parade was
ing and paraded down Main street to
Harvey park, and it was a mighty
creditable parade. There were a
number of mighty good business
floats, and decorated autos, and with
the four bands in different parts of
the parade it strung out like regu-
lar CIRCUS parade. the q committee comm! tee
the best decorated business floats
and the same amount in prizes for
the best decorated autos had some
artistic work to pass upon, but they
finally made their awards which met
with the approval of the big crowd.
AXES Bros. had a big motor truck on
which they had a couple OF pure
bred Herefords from their Sunny
first place, The Boy Scouts with their
fine float won second prize and
Smiths Studio third prize. For the
best decorated auto Mrs. T. A.
jackson, OF east of Leon, easily won
first place with her car very artis-
tically decorated with grasses, grain
and farm products of all kind, a.
beautiful white, lamb finishing up
e car in goSSd 3D. shaRe and Mrs. ds
serve great praise for the skill shown
in the decorating of their car. Mrs.
VIII F. Lindsey was awarded second
Garden of Flowers the car be-
ing nicely decorated and loaded with
small children whose faces appeared
as the center of mammoth paper
ard Mcclain, with his auto "Wel-
come Home for the soldier boys. 4
J. R. Bowsher had display of auto
trucks and Dodge cars, and had built
a movable incline fifty feet long,
with a track at an angle of As de-
grees, and Will Kimport drove a
Dodge stock car with three persons
in it, up this steep incline, making
great demonstration t ration of the RHdlling
Implement Co. and Harry Wright
had farm tractors and other machin-t
cry drawn by tractors.
But the big part of the, parade
which received hearty applause as 1t
passed along was the sight of the
soldiers. sailors and marines in uni
mand of Lieut.. Fred Hoffman, assist
ed by Lieuts. David Dancer, Ralph
Rumley, Ralph McGiRpis and Maur-
ice Grogan.
At II o'clock President Fred NJ
Smith, of independence, Mo-, deliv-
cred a fine memorial address to
large audience at Harvey Park, but
unfortunately shower came up in
the midst of his address which caus-
ed many to seek shelter, although
rain to hear his magnificent address.
During the noon hour the soldiers
and sailors were provided with din
ners furnished by the ladies of the
Christian and Presbyterian church,
and throughout the day nothing was
left undone to show the boys good
time, and they expressed themselves
as delighted with the way they
were entertained
Two prizes of $40 and S. had
been offered for the best wind9w
awarding committee being mer-
chants from other towns, and they
awarded first prize to G., B. Price,
the north side clothler and second
to E. E. Bells Rexall drug store.
After dinner large crowd as
sembled to hear the address by DR..
Frank C. Mexican, pastor of the Cen
trail Presbyterian church at Des
Moines, and it was one of the. finest
And then trouble commenced, a
time and d everybody scampered for
shelter. The stores were closed but
the court house was all thrown open,
the awnings were down and some Of
the stores opened up, but it put a
damper on the celebration. Soon
the rain let up, and then a big squad
Of s9ldier be boys were srl,,l put It od through
of Lieut.. Fred Hoffman, and it was
the. one big feature of the day. Ev-
erybody wanted to see the boys drill
and cheered them heartily After
the full drill, a competitive drill In
the manual of arms was held, about
twenty soldiers entering, and all of
the officers present took a hand in
CdIllAS tuC COMudAuS. w NACAOVCA
soldier made a mistake he dropped
out, and one by one they were elm
mated. and the crowd and soldier
boys cheered when Lieut. Ralph
Rumley dropped out and left five
buck soldiers still in line. Finally
the contest narrowed down to Bob
Scott and Reese Gittinger, both of
near Leon. and try as they could the
officers could not catch them nap
ping, both being deemed perfect,
and the contest was declared tie
between them. Then bayonet drill
was put on and Bob Scott was given
first place in it, and the winner of
second place was an unknown over
seas soldier, whose name we were
unable to learn, as heavy rain
commenced before the drill ended
and soldiers and everybody else ran
for shelter. 1t rained and then rain
ed again, and nothing more could be
done until after supper, when q
number of boxing contests were
pulled of to the delight of large
crowd on the platform in the court
house park. All of the bouts were
three rounds and no decisions were
given, leaving everyone to pick the
winners. The first was between Bob
Scott and Arthur Hale, the second
by the bantams Will Sanger and