Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-09-01
Midway is MAGNET

Midway is Magnet
/ While many Of the exceptionally
| large crowd who were in. attendance
! elected to spend their time in the
| Coliseum and Exhibition hall, or at
the judging or the races. the ancient
call of the Midway and the gang won
not a few. The streets along which
| the fakirs booths are lined were
! TANNED all the time. 1t was we'll
| nigh impossible to turn around three
times in the space near the Arabian
| nights show. There is. near the Of
/ fee of the association, a structure
which looks like a gigantic wash tub
! which is somewhat leaky. From
! within it there sounds the heavy
roar of a fast motor. AT short inter
walls something whirls by on the in
side, with quite a racket This
strange thing. the top of which is
crowded with spectators. is the
"silodrome." so called. a place in
which a courageous pair ride motor
cycles round and round. The walls
of the thing are absolutely vertical.
How anything other than a fly can
stick on them is beyond the average
person to conceive. But these two
do it, They are a man and a woman.
The lady is known as Daredevil Dot.
She gets onto a motorcycle spinning
around that little place. on a wall
that is straight ny and down, and
stands on her head o. the handlebars
and all the time she is whiZZing
around there SO fast you can hardly
see her. The man is Mike Driscoll.
He gets humming around the place
at high rate of speed. and then
starts going from the bottom to
the top in spirals. His course re-
minds one of the corkscrew of pre-
historic times.
Also there is q diminutive circus up
beside the exhibition halls. You go
inside. and it looks as though you
were at circus. There is the ring,
the usual banners, and even the
regulation board seats. This is a
trained animal show. There are
some ponies who count and do other
stunts. One of their stunts was to
go around the ring and look for a
, bootlegger We had thought that
that pony was nice little animal
until he stopped directly in front of
US and nodded yes when asked if
we. the press We're the bootlegger.
But them. of course, he is only a
pony. There is. too, gentleman in
black tights who gets out in front
of the audience and proceeds to wig
gle his way through a steel ring
that seems to be about a foot in
diameter. It is a question how he
does it, He also does the stunt with
a glass OF water balanced on his
forehead, an added complication, to
say the least.
Concerts a Feature
There were concerts by Drew s
Waterville band at nine and two. on
the stand at the grandstand The
band played between the heats OF
the races. Their concerts are one Oh
| the most enjoyable features of the
fair. The lady who performs With
| Mellos was thought to be unable to
perform Wednesday on the stage III
front of the grandstand, because she
was hit on the shoulder late Tuesday
afternoon by foul ball from the
baseball diamond when she pushed a
couple of children out OF it's way She
was theer however, and Went
through her act quite calmly, al
though her shoulder is badly bumped
In the evening, the spectators as
| sembled with Obs and Abs to watcn
the display of fireworks from the
/ grandstand They were good ones
The band played on meanwhile, tc
wind up the day.
Today is Governors day. when Il is
expected that Governor Percival T
Baxter will attend. There will De a
reception to him and parade 70
the grandstand at 100.