The Daily News Batavia, Genesee County, New York State July 5-1898 - part 1 of 2 Price One Cent GREAT FOURTH AT LE ROY. Elaborate Celebration in that Village - An Unqualified Success in Every Way. Big Crowd Present. Estimated that not Far from 15,000 People Witnessed the Day's Events. Perfect Weather, Interesting Attractions and Admirable Accommodations Combined to Make the Occasion an Enjoyable One--Magnificent Decorations--Sports of the Morning--Big Street Parade with Over 700 Men in Line--Masterly Address by Daniel J. KENEFICK--Balloon Ascension and Parachute Jump--Fireworks in the Evening. Le Roy.--Big crowd, perfect weather, fine attractions, magnificent decorations, successful management--those were the parts that made up the whole. The whole was the greatest day in the history of Le Roy. It was a Fourth-of-July celebration that any city would have good reason to be proud of. Almost every feature on the programme was carried out to the letter, the thousands of visitors were well cared for, and there were no accidents of any consequence. Opinions differed as to the numerical dimensions of the crowd. "I should say that there were over 15,000 here," said Colonel A.W. LAWRENCE, Marshal of the Day. "There are 20,000 people here, if there is one," vigorously asserted Editor E.H. BUTLER of the Buffalo 'News.' "We must be entertaining not far from 15,000 people," remarked Chief Stanley M. SMITH of the Fire department. I never undertook to estimate the number of people in a crowd before," confessed Editor Marcelius of the 'Gazette,' but I should say that we have not far from 15,000 visitors." It is safe to assert that 15,000 was not far out of the way. Pleasure seekers began to arrive by 7:30 a.m. and they were still arriving as late as 8:30 p.m. Thanks to the foresight of the managers the attractions were so distributed that, aside from at the exercises in Trigon park, there were no suffocating crowds at any point. The decorations were very beautiful and elaborate. From Lake street to the bridge Main street was cobwebbed over head with thousands of multi-colored banners on ropes strung across the street. In the evening thousands of Japanese lanterns were suspended from these ropes, making a scene long to be remembered. There was not a place in the business portion of the village which was not more or less elaborately decorated with the Stars and Stripes and bunting, and numerous Cuban flags were seen, among them one large one suspended across Main street. The ironwork on the Main street bridge was fairly covered with bunting. The residence portions of the village had put on a gay appearance, too, the most beautiful decoration in the whole town being at the LAMPSON mansion, recently purchased by E.H. BUTLER of the Buffalo 'News.' Le Royans who were awake between 1 and 2 o'clock yesterday morning and heard the rain pouring down in torrents opined that if the storm didn't last long enough to make the celebration a dismal failure it would take the starch all out of the decorations. But it did neither. The early morning sunshine quickly dried the damp folds of the flags and the drooping festoons of bunting and left their colors as bright as ever. The thick dust in the streets had been thoroughly wet down by the rain, although that, too, became pretty well dried out before nightfall, and a cool breeze which blew from the west from sunup to sundown counteracted the influence of the sun's rays. It was warm enough so that hundreds of shirt waist girls weren't sorry that they hadn't brought along their jackets, before the shades of night had fallen anyway, and it was cool enough so that the man who carried around over 200 pounds of flesh inside of his clothes was able to go home with a little starch left in his boiled shirt. From everybody's standpoint it was an ideal day. There was no excuse for wandering about hungry or thirsty--if you had the every day price. No matter where you were in the business portion of Main street, if you turned toward the outer boundaries of the thoroughfare and walked straight ahead you were pretty sure to run into or up against a place where refreshments of some kind were sold. Bushels on bushels of sandwiches were exchanged for coin and it is probably that enough liquids, hard and soft, were passed over the bars to half fill the Water works stand pipe. But if you didn't have the price of a drink there was no occasion for being thirsty, for every Main street hydrant had been fitted with a small faucet and a tin cup was fastened to it with a chain. And there were amusements galore. Under the very eaves of old Ingham, where sedate girl students strolled in bygone days, a blatant barker held forth, inducing the uninitiated to buck the festive wheel, while on the opposite side of the street, on the banks of the shimmering Oatka, was a platform where rustic swains and their buxom sweethearts tripped the light fantastic all the livelong day. Many fakirs were doing business on streets leading off Main street. A pair of enterprising Batavians who invited the populace to throw hen fruit at the head of a "Spaniard" had their license revoked after 45 dozen eggs had been smashed. While there were many who were carrying heavy loads, everybody was good natured, and the only time that the members of the large force of special policemen didn't feel that their positions were sinecures was when they endeavored to handle the crowd in the vicinity of the Main street bridge while the fireworks display was on. Everybody in the village who wasn't already awake was aroused at 6 a.mm. by the noisy, brass cannon of which the village is the proud possessor and during the next 3 1/2 hours the Reception committee, which had its headquarters at the Eagle hotel, was kept busy meeting visiting organizations at the depots and escorting them to the places where they were to be entertained. At 9:35 a.m. a flag was pulled to the top of the new liberty pole erected in Trigon park, while the Le Roy band played "The Star Spangled Banner" and the gun squad fired a salute. The tub race across the Oatka was one of the things that failed to be a success. Half a dozen started, but their tubs tipped over before they were fairly underway and they waded back to shore. SMITH & BANNISTER of Batavia gave an entertaining exhibition of wire walking and tumbling in Trigon park, but Professor ALLEN didn't go up in his balloon for the reason that his apparatus failed to arrive in time. The 4-mile bicycle road race was run in the morning, with eight starters. The six winners of valuable articles of merchandise in the order named were COCHRAN of Le Roy, McKEON of Mt. Morris, LYNCH of Dansville, RYAN of Mt. Morris, ROSEBERG of Piffard and JOHNSON of Caledonia. COCHRAN's time was 9 minutes, 50 seconds. The parade, the big event of the day, was an imposing possession. There were over 700 people and six bands in line and it was over three quarters of a mile long. It formed on East Main and Church streets, proceeded on Wolcott street to Clay, to Myrtle, to Craige, to Main, to Church, to St. Mark's, to North, to East Main, to Lathrop and countermarched to Trigon park. It was made up as follows: Colonel LAWRENCE, marshal and aids, Le Roy band. Village officers. Staunton Post, G.A.R. Hibernian Rifles, Rochester. Chief SMITH of the Fire Department and assistants and visiting chiefs. Niles band, Springwater. Livonia Hooks. Crystal City Protectives, Livonia. Chemical and Hose company, Le Roy. Citizens' band, Castile. Wallace Hose Company, Castile. Avon band. Avon Hooks. Excelsior Hooks, Le Roy. Mt. Morris band. Active Hose company, Mt. Morris. Tennant Hose company, Caledonia. Chemical Hose company, Caledonia. Oatka Hose company, Le Roy. Geneseo band. Geneseo Hose company. Ancient Order of Hibernians. Odd Fellows. Bicyclists. Bicycle Callithumpian parade. Mounted men. Industrial Floats. Manufacturers and business men represented by the admirably gotten up floats were F.C. Rogers, Kroner & Lapp, McEwen & Cole, the F.W. Miller Manufacturing company, the Randall Fence company, F.O. Reddish & Co., C.F. Prentice, N.B. Keeney & Son, the Vacuum Oil company, F.L.B. Taft, the White Sewing Machine company, Allen S. Olmsted, Dr. Sutterby, F.W. Ruby, the Le Roy Salt company and S.C. Wells & Co. As soon as the parade was over the exercises in Trigon park took place, in the presence of fully 6,000 people. General C. Fitch BISSELL, President of the day, presided. The Rev. G.M. HARRIS offered prayer and "The Star Spangled Banner" was sung by a large choir and played by the bands. After the reading of the Declaration of Independence by Frederick S. RANDALL the choir sang "Red, White, and Blue." The address of the day was then delivered by Daniel J. KENEFICK of Buffalo. It was an admirable effort, sparkling with patriotism, and the eloquent speaker was frequently interrupted by thunderous outbursts of applause. The choir sang, "America" and the assemblage was dismissed with a benediction by the Rev. Father VANDEPOEL. Then there was a band tournament in the park, participated in by the Le Roy, Mt. Morris, and Geneseo bands, in which no prizes were offered; Professor SMITH gave a daring exhibition on a cable stretched over the Oatka and Professor ALLEN went up in his balloon, making a very pretty parachute descent about a mile southeast of the village. The day's events closed with a magnificent display of fireworks in the Beechnut lot on the east bank of the Oatka south of the Main street bridge. The portraits of McKINLEY, DEWEY and others were loudly applauded and the crowd went wild over the mammoth piece depicting the destruction of the Maine. The display was supervised by Fred RAMSDELL of Batavia. The Hooks entertained the Avon Hooks and Active Hose company of Mt. Morris; the Chemicals, Wallace Hose company and the Livonia Hooks, and the Oatkas, Tennant Hose company, the Caledonia Chemicals and Geneseo Hose company. Hibernians from Rochester, Batavia, Bergen and Pavilion were entertained by Le Roy Division of that order and Odd Fellows from Batavia, Bergen, Byron and Pavilion were entertained by Le Roy Lodge. A large number of firemen were informally but royally entertained by Editor BUTLER at his residence late in the afternoon. ++ submitted by Linda C. Schmidt