Books

Dusting Off the Old Ones

Oh! We're All Right

Well, we got through all right and--if the truth be told---even suprised ourselves. The way the staid and elderly, the austere and the eminently respectable, thawed and relaxed and finally gave up to the true carnival spirit, was indeed a revelation. Why, there were scores of people, men and women grown, who had not been unbent for years, romping and almost rioting up and down Main street in broad daylight and engaging in a confetti fight with anyone who might come along, acquaintance or stranger, it made no difference. And of course, the younger people, those on whom the bonds of restraint have only recently been imposed were positively rampant. Hordes of them surged up and down the sidewalks of the carnival district possessed of the merriest of devils and their mischievous play was the infection that set the red blood to circulating in the older people. And with all this liberty and freedom of action prevailing, there was not one case of intoxication recorded. Just think of it! Two days with the bridle off in wild and wooley Milestown and not a case of 'booze.' And do you know why? There was too much fun on tap during every minute of the time for anyone to think of trying any other kind of enjoyment. It was a clear case of the survival of the fittest. It was more fun to deluge the pretty girls with confetti while making the rounds of the Midway and the booths than to coop oneself up indoors and drink. That explains it all and it is a demonstration of a condition of the human animal that might be useful to temperance agitators, if they could figure out to employ it as felicitiously as we did.

And this was the first one too. Our first attempt at 'old world' foolishness. But, say it was great."