The Billboard 1913-03-22: Vol 25 Iss 12 (1913-03-22)

: 2A ow + 4 “53 ‘ ves epee a ens 32 The Billboard MARCH 22, 1913, : \ | ie ‘ & : = * \ a me | (( " a \ 2% > \ ee = a pie a FFL (4 +t i| , is em i 4 .> 1] dy p) yb WOK a s Al pea y ; f 4 | ae / oy las sage — ee \\ = State ae in os Vow 2000 A Dream By Ww. W. Dunkle : = | . B It was 5 o’clock in the morning of a bright fall day. An electric annunciator spoke sharply overhead and a red-haired, freckled-face boy of 16 ; hopt out of bed, jumpt into his one-piece suit, which snapt on, and selected his breakfast from the automatic serving tray that came from the ! farmhouse kitchen. This was to be a gala day in Joe’s life. Reared on a farm, unused to city ways, he had been promist a trip to the state capitol, a visit with his cousin, and a day at the big state fair then in 4 progress, Joe hadn't forgotten the date. No, indeed, : He turned to the big aluminum sheet calendar, nh with its raised enamel letters, electric lighted when he presst a button, and read: “SEPTEMBER 10, 2000.” Stepping into his motor skates he bid his mother good-bye at the door, listened to a few timely words of warning from his father who was at work in an adjoining township, and chatted with quite proud of his success) produced milk, cream and churned butter from a little chopt hay, wet bran and rain water. A refrigerator attachment was turning out ice cream for those who preferred the frozen delicacy. Various flavors were obtained by turning on indicator to any kind of fruit desired, as shown in a beautiful oil painting. Joe wanted peach, but his hand slipt and he got lemon. Another machine, which the city folks en joyed watching operate, but which was old to Joe, was a reaper that cut, thresht and ground the wheat, turning the flour into biscuits, bread or cake, as desired, and keeping the output perfectly fresh in the airless storage apartment for years. After a hearty lunch at the automatic cafe, Joe’s party moved toward the hippodrome arena, where the races, sports and carnival features were to be shown. A terrific thunderstorm was raging outside, but all was clean and dry within, and the crowds him over his pocket fone as he went out on the broad asfalt highway and started for the city. He stopt once at a roadside station to re-charge his motor skates, but easily covered the 60 intervening miles in less than an hour and was soon comfortably seated on one of the benches on the municipal moving sidewalk. Arriving at his cousin’s he found the family waiting for him and already to start in their private aero-car, and they were soon sailing over the city to the giassenclosed fair grounds. Clouds had overcast the sky and rain began to fall, but the crowds were coming from all di is aa. rections on the covered moving sidewalks. They were buying ad mission slugs by the hundreds from the automatic dispensers, in serting them in the slots of the clicking turn-styles, and entering speedily and without confusion. Not a ticket seller or ticket caker was in sight. The silently working indica tors showed that over 300,000 paid admi-sions : had been received up to 9 o’clock. i The free list had been entirely suspended. i§ It was a novel sight for Joe. Thousands of us happy joy-seekers moving in every direction with9 out confusion or effort. Automatic announcers Ss indicated the locations of the different attractions e in soft, sweet, musical tones, andthe various ad: mission slugs were purchast from machines con veniently located. There were no arguments 3 about the age of the child and the change was } always returned in exactly the correct amount. i} Far above the arched spans of the glass-cover; ed dome protected them from the driving rain : without. Huge ventilating fans gently wafted sweet-perfumed breezes and powerful, but shaded, 4 lights brilliantly illuminated the holiday scene. Entering a carrier basket of one of the many gigantic passenger cranes, their party was gently : deposited in the center of the prize stock arena, and, reclining on soft leather-upholstered divans, they lookt with interest at the hundreds of blooded eattle in transparent stalls that slowly revolved in front of them. A never-ending display of the choice breeds of the world, and everyone a blue ; diamond winner. Joe was much imprest with , two rare specimens of the horse, an animal he 4 had never seen before. They next visited the various machinery halls and inspected, with much interest, many novel ; machines that had supplanted the primitiv in° ventions of their forefathers. One device (the inventor of which was present, and who seemed SCENE AT THE NEW YORK STATE FAIR IN 1912. continued to arrive by the thousands. Over 600,000 paid admissions (and several hundred newspaper man) were present that day, and the fonenews reports of the evening bulletins stated that if the weather had been pleasant it was very likely that all records would have been broken. The circular arena was quite interesting to Joe, for while he had seen similar saucer-shaped stands for the accommodation of crowds at the village ball games, the immense size and many mechanical improvements of the fair ground track were all new to him. A band of 200 pieces was playing softly behind the multiplying meg2’ones es they entered. He thoroly enjoyed the op ning concert. altho their seats were nearly a mile from the ariel band stand. The opening number, a race in monoplanes for boys under 12 years of age, was a rather tame event, but Joe enjoved the saulting automobiles in killed. A motor-skate race between ten robust young girls, granddaughters of some of the old-time suffragettes, was well contested, the winner nearly tying the world’s record and making her best three miles in 48 seconds flat. She stated afterward that if the motor on one of her skates had not gone dead on the last lap she would have done better. The gyroscope race on the ariel speedway was a thrilling event, slightly marred by the killing of ten men on the start and making the track a bit slippery in front of the judges’ stand. The comedy race of somerwhich four drivers were aerial ambulance removed the debris and a biplans fire-truck washt the track with a chemica} spray and dried it with a vaccuum suction fan. The panorama stage was then put in motion and 500 acts, performing simultaneously, slowly passed in front of the interested spectators, while jugglers, acrobats, clowns, bar performers, contortionists, strong men, posing models, trained animals and Oriental dancers repeated their astounding stunts for the edification of the jaded amusement-seekers. An elefant doing a double loop on a motocycle was rather interesting, and an Arab troupe of 110 members forming a pyramid in which the smal! man of the bunch held up all the rest, was fairly well received. A Near Nude Dance by the Beaded Belles Ballet of 1,000, created little interest. It was agreed by those who gave the act any attention at all, that the few beads used were entirely too large. The greatly heralded feature act that Joe had been looking forward to on account of his experiments in leaping from his own home-made skyplane, was: “DYNAMITE DAN’S DEATH-DEFYING DROP OF FIVE MILES.” It was announct that he would make the fall unincumbered by any apparatus, alighting in a tank of burning oil in the center of the arena, The rain storm had passed before this number was introduced the movable skylights were rolled back and Dynamite Dan started with a clean getaway in his oldfashioned dirigible balloon. Then the magnifying skylights were rolled back into place and he could be seen ascending until his highmonoter showed that he was over five miles in the air. He maneuvered his balloon about a bit until he was exactly over the center of the arena, then those who were watching him closely saw him take his lighted cigar and ignite a fuse that led to the dynamite bomb in the balloon. When the big bag was blown to pieces, Dan started down. , artificially. glass covering was then rolled out of the way and the tank of oil set ablaze. As he passed thru the opening over the arena he was seen to take a small package from his hip pocket. As he struck the burning oil this package exploded, throwing him into the air again, out of the way of all danger. On pocket point naturally—no The his second descent he unfolded parachute and alighted at his in perfect safety. The majority crowd enjoyed his little act immensely, altho a few seemed disappointed because he was not killed, and some of the critical newspaper men (who have seen everything on passes) intimated that he should do away with such an obsolete device as the parachute. In an interview later, Dan declared he was perfecting a series of dynamite explosions, graduated in such a way that he could alight a number of times until he was able to stay down entirely, altho he was afraid that the act would run too long. A historical tableau, showing a pistol duel at short range between insane auto bandits and Chicago policemen, was the concluding feature, but Joe and his party left before many had been killed. He bid his friends good-bye at the exit gates and went home with a neighber in his sky-plane, arriving just as the evening sun was dropping behind the hills and the nicht crew of farm hands were turning on the field lights, gayly singing as they went to their honest toil. a smal! starting of the