THE REPUBLICAN

June 28, 1889

 

GREAT DAYS FOR WAUPACA

The Little Village Advertising Her Beauties and Making Money

 

            Milwaukee Evening News – From a commercial standpoint the change of venue taken by the Curran boys from Portage County to this county has been a godsend for the butchers, the bakers, and the candlestick makers of this city, to say nothing of the boarding house, lodging house, hotel and saloon keepers.

            Though the presence of the crowd has had the effect to materially enhance the market and rental value of edibles and sleeping rooms the price of whisky and other palatables remains the same, and visiting Stevens Pointers can make themselves comfortable even though they are compelled to sleep in hallways on canvas cots at fifty cents per sleep.

            Sam Stout’s place next to the Vosburg House is headquarters for everybody, whether principals, attorneys or witnesses in the case, no matter what their sympathy may be, as well as the great crowd of the curious that are in attendance upon it and at any time between sunrise and midnight the thirsty wayfarer must watch his chance to get up to the bar.  At the Vosburg the jam at meal times takes the breath away from the tall blonde mistress of the dining-room, and her assistants who have been used to waiting on two or three people at a time, and the cooks have trouble such as they have not been obliged to see since the old days when Waupaca was a feeding point for the hundreds of teamsters who used to haul freight from the steamboat landing at Gill’s landing or the railroad terminal at Berlin to supply the whole northern part of the state.

            Instead of thinning out, the crowd grows larger as the trial proceeds, and the interest in it is unabated. There is hardly a member of the Portage or Waupaca county bars that is not in attendance, while Waushara, Marathon, Outagamie, Winnebago and other counties have contributed their quota of legal luminaries to swell the throng.

            The sporting element, high and low, is well represented, and the man who cannot get a bet of some kind on almost anything from a scrap between a couple of curs in the street to the result of the trial, must be hard to suit, for there are lots of men here who profess to be ready at any and all times to bet on anything and give their opponents the choice of propositions provided they get odds enough.

            Waupaca will not have another such a picnic in many a day.  Her citizens know it and are making the best of it, though it must not be inferred than any undue advantage is being taken.

            On the contrary they have done their best to make everything agreeable for everybody, and no one has just cause to complain. The elegant quarters of the Business Men’s association have been constantly at the services of the visitors and have been taken advantage of by many.  Nearly every one here keeps a horse or horses, and every evening some of the strangers may be seen driving behind them down the pretty streets of the little city. Visiting newspaper men certainly have no cause for complaint for Messrs. Holmes, of The Republican and Gordon of The Post, have placed their offices at the disposal of the scribes and have done everything in their power to facilitate their work.

            While the city has a fine water power, a splendid electric lighting system, nice drives, good business buildings, a beautiful chain of lakes and a grand set of good fellows among her business and professional men, she is sadly lacking in girls.  They are few and far between, though the percentage of pretty ones among the few that are visible is fairly good.  The only excuse offered for this by residents is that the girls have all been married off and they are waiting for a new generation.