The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 16, 1904

“World’s Fair” Day Was Great Success

More Than 200 Fort Dodge People Attend Duncombe Celebration Monday

Sports Were Features of Day

East End Team of This City Takes Game From Duncombe, Score 13 to 1 —
Bloomer Girls Play Foot Ball and Draw Large Crowds

A crowd of more than two hundred people took the train for Duncombe on Monday morning and spent the day in the enterprising little city to the east of us. Monday, August 15, was the great day of the year for the people of Duncombe. The “World’s Fair” day, which has been celebrated by the citizens of that place for many years, and which always takes a big crowd from Fort Dodge.

Program of Sports

The program of the day consisted almost of sports, and of these events there was no stint this year. Basket ball, foot ball, base ball, horse races, races on foot, sack races, three-legged races, egg races, and in fact, everything in the line of races that could be imagined. there were also wrestling matches and boxing matches and in the evening two big dances in operation in the two halls of Duncombe at the same time.

The real features of the day and the greatest drawing cards on the program was the basket and foot ball games played by the Boston Bloomer girls. The games were both fast and furious and kept the sightseers interested from start to finish.

Boston Bloomers baseball team

Post card showing nine members of the Boston National Bloomer Girls Base Ball Club, wearing baseball uniforms, posed with L.J. Galbreath in the center. Photo courtesy Library of Congress collection.

Base Ball Game

The feature next in interest, perhaps, was a ball game between the East End nine of this city and the local team of Duncombe. This game was in the hands of the East Enders from start to finish and resulted in a score of thirteen to one in their favor.

Many Stayed Over

Many of the Fort Dodge people who attended stayed for the dances in the evening, a goodly number of them not getting home until this morning. All report that the people of Duncombe know how to entertain and will be glad of another similar opportunity to visit that city.

(Editor’s note: The Boston Bloomer girls were a baseball team. The Library of Congress website says this:

“Bloomer girls” take to the baseball diamond challenging amateur, semi-pro, and minor league men’s teams in front of thousands of spectators. Known for wearing practical, loose Turkish-style trousers created by Amelia Bloomer, hundreds of teams ‘barnstormed’ the country during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing women an opportunity to travel and play this traditionally all-male sport.)

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