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Show Gunnison Celebrates With Pomp and Glory Hundreds of rosy cheeked children, chil-dren, girls with their beaux, fathers and mothers, old and young, from the adjoining towns and settlements gathered at Gunnison last Friday to celebrate the Natal day and to assist in doing honor to the returned soldier sol-dier boys. Notwithstanding the fact that the Fourth was one of the hottest hot-test day3 of the season, the elements had little effect on the merrymakers and the celebration was voted one of the grandest ever held in the city. Special features had been made for the entertainment of the soldier boys in the way of races, an interesting interest-ing program and a diversity of amusements. Main street was profusely pro-fusely decorated with flags and bunt ing and on a large banner spanning the main thoroughfare was the emblem "Welcome Home to Our Soldier Boys." At sunrise a volley of blasts signalled sig-nalled the hour for preparation for the day's festivities and by seven o'clock the city band had rendered many patriotic selections and the true spirit of patriotism was manifest mani-fest on all sides. At nine thirty the soldier boys assembled on Main street and amid a throng of admirers admir-ers gave the audience some classy stunts in drill work. Following this a procession was formed and the masses assembled at the Bowery where a lengthy program of band music, songs, readings and addresses address-es was given. The address of welcome wel-come was delivered by J. H. Mace and this , was responded to by Roy Madsen. Each soldier who served in the Nation's army from Gunnison was given a neat badge of gold, bearing bear-ing the inscription, "Gunnison, World' War, r918." The badges were the gift of the citizens of Gunnison, a fund having been collected for the purpose. Following an intermission for the noon hour, the exercises were continued con-tinued at the Bowery until 3 o'clock when a program of sports was start ed on Main street. The races proved interesting and thrilling and was immensely im-mensely enjoyed by all. In the stripped Ford auto race for a halt mile, R. Rdwards was the victor. Lundberg taking second honors. The free-for-all was the biggest thriller, although there were only two entries, N. L. Hermansen and M. Lundberg were the only . two that finished, crossing the tape in "Old-field" "Old-field" style. Hermansen was an easy winner with bis Buick. Frank Christensen had a walkaway walk-away in the horse race against his opponent, Howard Roberts. The 100 yard foot race between Earl Whitlock and his brother, R. Whitlock, was a good feature. Earl beat his. brother only a few inches. Lester Williams and Ros3 Tolles-trup Tolles-trup made a close match in a' 100 yard dash. Tollestrup was the fastest fast-est and captured first money. At the ball park where nearly 1000 had gathered two intereesting ring bouts were pulled off. The first preliminary between Dan Christensen Christen-sen and Alvin Jensen, lasted three rounds, and Mayor Knighton, acting as referee, declared the fight a draw, tlie purse being divided. The main event, scheduled for six rounds, was ended in the fourth. The "go" was between Herbert Johnson, John-son, and Leonard Thompson and for the first two rounds the fighters "mixed" affairs at a lively rate. The third round was tame, both men being be-ing tired. When they entered for the fourth Johnson, apparently fresh and eager, rushed the fighting and soon had his adversary on the decline. de-cline. A few sharp jabs and punches put Thompson "groggy" and at this point Referee Knighton stoopped the battle and declared Johnson the victor. vic-tor. In the evening a dance was held at Peterson hall and many of the soldiers sol-diers and their friends spent the remainder re-mainder of the day's celebration dancing. |