Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Hillyard hosted a particularly sad and forlorn carnival.

The Miller Carnival Co., hired by the Hillyard Moose Lodge, suffered a series of unfortunate events, including:

• The carnival lacked the money to buy gasoline for the carousel engine. So the operator accepted payment of “hats, shoes” and vegetables from small boys. He apparently shoved the carousel around by hand.

• The dancing girls refused to “dance the Tango” because they had friends in Hillyard and didn’t want to be seen. Two of the girls quit and were hired by the Hillyard movie theater.

• A muscle-bound employee of the Great Northern Railroad shops made a $20 bet with the operator of the strength-testing machine. He wagered he could ring the bell using only one hand. He not only rang the bell, he broke the bell. The operator didn’t have $20, so he offered him the entire machine – it was no use anymore – but the man chose instead to take all of the cigars the carnival had.

• Four of the snake charmer’s “poisonous, death-dealing reptiles” died. So Erna the Snake charmer displayed them in a bottle while she held the sole-surviving snake in her lap.

• A hotel company seized the carnival’s tents for money due.

• A transfer company seized all of the carnival’s trunks, including “two trunks of ballet dresses, trimmed with yellow spangles.”