*
man and Penn Kirkendall, Charles
PH I.
THE POST, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1940
v
PAGE THREE
Dallas's Vanished Fair Was Magnet
For Excited Throngs In Long Ago
Town Boomed Lustily Every Fall When Buggies
Brought Farmers’ Families Into Dallas For Fair
When the sun slants low on these autumn evenings, burn-
ishing the leaves and the harvest stubble, they say you can
hear, if you listen carefully, the blurred drumming of horses’
hooves and the faint roar of an excited crowd on the weed-
grown tract which used to be Dallas’ fair ground.
It’s the ghostly voice of the past, say the old men who sit
in the cooling sun and talk of
long ago September, when the
air was filled with the dust
thrown up by buggy wheels
carrying families into town for
the big fair.
The Dallas Fair Association was
formed back in the middle 1880's.
Most of the old records have been
lost or destroyed, but the few old-
timers still alive place the year of
the first Fair as 1886.
For weeks before the fair, Dallas
braced itself against the invasion,
and then, spic and span, it saw the
first of the shiny buggies rolling in
with Tuesday’s dawn, loaded down
with folks big and little and all
ready for their holiday.
For five days the town would
give itself up to the yearly seizure
of the carnival spirit. Homes were
jammed with guests. Phil Raub’s
hotel would overflow and the tap-
room and broad porch under the
great elms would be crowded with
loose-jointed, brown-cheeked farm-
ers, swapping rural gossip.
Perennial Prosperity
Frantz’s and Reese’s and Ryman'’s
stores would do a banner business
and Ed Van Campen could scarcely
handle the number of customers
who came in for haircuts. Wall's
restaurant became a feverish, fran-
tic place, where hard-pressed wait-
ers strove in vain to breast the tide
of hungry patrons.
When rigs had been packed along
Main Street, hub to hub, they be-
gan to park them in vacant lots and
behind buildings, until every inch of
space was occupied. B. F. Mott's liv-
ery stable was filled early in the
week, and farmers were hard put
often to find places for their teams.
On Saturday the fair would end
and, one by one, the tired, happy
visitors would depart, leaving the
town strangely lonely and quiet,
and with little to talk about but
next year’s fair.
Now the old fair grounds in East
Dallas are overgrown and desolate.
The half-mile race track, “best in
the country,” the oldsters recall, has
disappeared under the brush and
weeds.
The old grandstand (seating ca-
pacity 500, but capable, somehow,
of holding twice that many) has
been torn down.
And nothing is left of the exhibit
building—200 feet long and 50 feet
wide—or the horse and cattle barns
or the old farmhouse.
There are people living in Dallas
today who don’t know that Dallas
ever had one of the biggest fairs in
the State.
Lives Only In Memory
The first directors put in enough
money to purchase the fair grounds
and erect the buildings and race
track, Each year the profits of the
event, which sometimes were a con-
siderable amount were turned back
into improvements to the grounds
and other fair expenses.
Nobody is quite sure who made |
up the first board of directors. But
among those who served in the
early years of the fair were the late
Jeff Honeywell and P. T. Raub, Will
Conyngham and his brother, John,
the late J. J. Ryman and John T.
Hildebrant. William K. Goss, after
whom Goss Manor was named, was
active in the Fair Association, as
were the late Tom McKeel of Leh-
D. Gregory, Sr., grandfather of the
present Charles, Dwight Wollcott,
Zura Hess, Ira Shaeffer and many
others.
Sometimes as many as 1,000 ex-
hibitors entered the fair, bringing
in load after load of farm produce
and scores of fine cows and bulls,
sheep and horses and other farm
animals.
One of the most prominent horse
racers was the late William Bul-
ford, whose horses were driven to}
pea aT TTT VTDE
HIMMLER THEATRE|
DALLAS, PA.
MATINEE EVERY SATURDAY AT 2
THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
“Andy Hardy Meets
Debutante”
with Mickey Rooney
First Chapter—“Adventures of
Red Rider”’—Cartoon
~ MONDAY AND TUESDAY
% DOUBLE FEATURE *%
“Lucky Cisco Kid”
with Cesar Romero
— and —
“] Was An Adventurous”
with Richard Greene
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
“Dark Command”
with Claire Trevor and Roy Rogers
Three Stooges Comedy—Fox News
NEXT FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
“Maryland”
with Brenda Joyee and John Payne
Cartoon—Serial
SEB PR BDV FD DIR BR TD
a
DATE WHEN NEW ROAD
WILL BE DONE RESTS
WITH WEATHER MAN
How soon Dallas’s new
$750,000 boulevard will be fin-
ished rests entirely with the
weather man.
That’s the best answer the
State Highway Department and
contractors can give to the
curious.
Operations have proceeded
at creditable speed so far but
cold weather could delay com-
pletion of the road until next
year, since the actual paving
cannot be carried on when the
temperature drops below 32
degrees.
All efforts will be made to
complete the contracts as quick-
ly as possible, but if unseason-
able weather delays operations
parts of the road may not be
paved until next spring.
New Road Is Part
01 Vast Program
$2,000,000 Being Spent
On Highways In County
The $750,000 boulevard which
Pennsylvania is building in the Dal-
las area is a part of a construction
program which is giving Luzerne
and Wyoming Counties well over
$2,000,000 worth of new concrete
roads this year, Norman Johnstone,
secretary of Wyoming Valley Mo-
tor Club, pointed out yesterday.
That is more than $700,000 more
than the State received from Lu-
zerne County last year for auto reg-
istrations and drivers’ licenses.
There are 24.59 miles of concrete
under construction in the two coun-
ties now, Mr. Johnstone said.
In addition the State Highway
Department has been improving
roads in this section, cutting away
brush on the curves, erecting new
direction and danger signs and re-
painting the old ones, repairing
guard rails and improving highway
visibility.
=
victory year after year by Marvin
Riley, one of the finest horse train-
ers and racers of his day.
Drew 10,000 Persons
The crowds visiting the fair ,which
was a five-day affair, lasting from
Tuesday through Saturday night,
grew steadily each year. Often,
daily crowds reached to nearly 10,-
000.
In its closing years, just before
the World War, the Dallas Fair en-
joyed its greatest prosperity. One
to well over 9,000 persons.
The last Dallas Fair was held in
1918. That year a handful of di-
rectors bought out the rest of the
stock and sold the grounds to a
firm of realtors. It would be diffi-
cult to determine exactly what that
deal cost Dallas in prestige and bus-
iness over the last 22 years.
John Frantz was secretary of the
last board of directors, which in-
cluded the late W. B. Robinson,
William Bulford, D. P. Honeywell,
E. G. Stevens and John Conyngham.
Times play hob with human na-
ture. It used to be that the young
blades took their gals for a hay ride
and sparked from the right side.
Now they “pitch woo’ from the left,
or wheel, side.
~ BLOOMSBURG FAIR
Sept. 23 through Sept. 28
DAY AND NIGHT
40,000 EXHIBITS
GIGANTIC MIDWAY
FREE VAUDEVILLE
SPECTACULAR NIGHT REVUE
EAST'S GREATEST CATTLE SHOW
HORSE RACING—TUES.
2—THRILL DAYS—2
Tuesday, Sept. 24—Lucky
Friday, Sept. 27—Jimmy Lynch and His Death Dodgers
Auto Races Saturday, September 28
Don’t Miss the Barnum of ‘em all
ADMISSION 50c¢
PARKING ON THE GROUNDS, 25¢
TAX
That Grows On Its Merit —
— Bloomsburg Is The Fair
&
3
In many Pennsylvania communities the traditional coun
and early fall season. Above you see a snappy harness racing s entre
made articles, fruits and jellies—the pride of the housewife. Below a cattle judging scene.
” : ® Penna. Department of Commerce Photo
ty fair is under way during the late summer
cene. In the centre a display of hand-
x ““Heigh, Ho! Come to the Fair”
yeesaia
Walter Rau Will Teach
At Federalsburg, Md.
Walter Rau, 33 Lake Street, Dal-
las, has left for Federalsburg, Md.,
where he will teach fine arts’ and
industrial arts in the Federalsburg
high school. Mr. Rau was graduated
from Millersville State Teachers’
College and also attended Pratt In-
stitute.
Pole On Spring Street
Broken Off In Crash
A pole of Luzerne County Gas &
Electric Corp. at Spring and Machell
Streets, Dallas, was broken last
{of the last crowds recorded came Thursday night when it was struck Ie
{ by a car operated by Darwin Roberts
| of Dallas. Although the automobile
was badly damaged, none of the
occupants were injured.
RE IRE
THE WYOMING
NATIONAL BANK
OF WILKES-BARRE, PA.
PERSONAL LOAN SERVICE
$25 to $1000
Payments On $100—
$7.75 Per Month—15 Months
Discount Rate $6 per Hundred
LOANS INSURED
With or Without Co-Makers
You need not be a depositor to
apply for a Personal Loan at
THE WYOMING
NATIONAL BANK
OF WILKES-BARRE, PA.
, WED., THURS., FRIDAY
Teter and His Hell Drivers
DAY—25¢ NIGHT
FREE
Voters Can Register
In Town Hall Tuesday
The County Commissioners have
fixed next Tuesday as the registra-
tion day for Dallas Borough and
Dallas Township. Clerks will sit in
the borough building on Mill Street
to register new voters or to record
changes in registration.
Michael Dalachasky
Michael Dalachasky, R. D. 1,
| Trucksville, died Sunday in Wilkes-
Barre General Hospital, where he
had been a patient since Wednesday.
/ Your Grand-stand \
P” WED.-THUR.-FRI.-SAT.
5 75¢ $1.00 $1.50
Mail Orders Filled
in Order Received
/” “ECHOES
/ OF BROADWAY”
With
Gae Foster's Roxyettes
Elaborate Song and Dance
Spectacle Every Night
\35¢ 50¢ 75¢,
LUCKY
TETER
AND HIS
a HELL DRIVERS
Friday, Sept. 20
Hot Water
BOTTLES
Douche
SYRINGES
4c
89c
1c
29c
23c
23c
Lc
Combination
SYRINGES
Reinforced
RUBBER GLOVES
TAMPAX
Queet
Deodorant Powder
Mercerex
SHAMPOO
LANTEEN
DIAPHRAM SETS
and Lanteen Refills
ee ay soni
MINIMUM PRICES
BERT & CO.
CUT-RATE STORE
Next to the postoffice
DALLAS, PENNA.
licious jar of strawberry jam to vie
and compliments.
State.
Many families make the fair their
annual vacation because it takes
several days to see all the displays,
races, cattle and poultry judging
contests and various other things.
Besides, time must be allowed for
repeated visits to the midways so
that children and adults can ride the
merry-go-round and have their fill
of pink lemonade, cotton candy and
sticky apples.
Much of America is going ‘back
to the farm,” and gentlemen farmers
of the ‘station wagon set” and tour-
ists join practical farmers for a gala
time at these fairs.
Visitors mustn’t miss exhibits of
vegetables, fruits, canned goods and
handiwork proudly displayed by
farmers and their wives. Neat rows
of labelled jars of preserves, em-
broidered doilies and hand-hemmed
aprons are carefully watched over
by busy women who spend the time
talking over domestic happenings
with last year’s Fair friends. Hus-
bands are busy discussing crops,
eattle, and new farm machinery,
but manage to get excited over the
harness races, too. And there are
always hired ‘‘acts” of trapeze per-
formers and expert automobile driv-
ers who run cars through flaming
hoops to thrill the customers.
And boy usually meets girl at the
ARUTUMN'S COLORFUL FAIRS AS
AMERICAN AS BEANS AND HAM
It's County Fair time in Pennsylvania this month and Grandma is
getting out her most beautiful crocheted table cover and her most de-
with many others for blue ribbons
The State Department of Commerce says that approx-
imately 90 fairs are scheduled to take place this year in every part of the
NT
POLL OF EDITORS GIVES
WILLKIE SLIGHT MARGIN
IN SMALL TOWNS OF U. S.
Fifty-two per cent of the
rural communities in the United
States favor Wendell L. Willkie
for President, according to a
survey completed this week by
The American Press, an organ-
ization of small town news-
papers.
The editors themselves were
even stronger for Willkie than
are their readers. Sixty-three
per cent of the editors like him,
but they granted him only a
bare majority of 52 per cent
of the votes in their communi-
ties.
In Pennsylvania, the editors
estimated, 75 per cent of the
rural vote will be for Willkie.
Four years ago Landon received
but 52 per cent of Pennsyl-
vania’s rural vote. Ninety per
cent of the State’s small-town
editors favor Willkie.
=
|
Fair. He buys her a little bird hang-
ing on the end of a stick, or a cane
or wind-wheel which will hang in
her room all year to recall memor-
ies of fun with the folks from the
other part of the county.
Last
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SATURDAY
Day
RTE FELLAS SALE THAT COUNTS !
The Greatest Savings
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Six Floors offering hundreds
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