What helped make the Tuesdays of fairs held in the 1920's a "hummer?" Why, the barbecue! It was something that satisfied the gastronomic demands of the most captious meat eater. On those Tuesdays, fireless cookers were shipped by express from the Armour Packing Company, with an expert bent on serving the fair-goers a delicacy such as they had never before tasted. Preparing and serving a half ton of boneless beef finely cooked was too big a job for the one man, so President J. J. De Motte, Treasurer P. H. Andrews, Secretary Horace H. Baker and others pitched in to help. Thus the multitude was appetizingly served.
If Walter Evans was unable to sell any Paige cars that afternoon he could blame only poor salesmanship for his failure. The same might be said of all the other automobile salesmen on the fairgrounds. Other salesmen pressing for sales included Thomas Boyd with Buicks priced from $865 to $2195, Clarence Massey and a new car named the Chrysler with a new idea called balloon tires, and Dave Diers had his Fords. Many were skeptical of the Chrysler which sold from $1395 to $1995, and predicted it wouldn't last. Dave's Ford runabout cost $348 F. O. B. Detroit with certain accessories extra. Diers also was trying for tractor sales with a new Fordson tractor that sold for $395. It is difficult to understand how any man fortified with barbecued beef a la King, Andrews and De Motte could look at those shiny new cars and turn these supersalesmen down.
The county and state fair automobile races drew immense crowds, and El Paso held them on Saturday as a climax to the crowded schedule fair week's horse racing events. In 1924 sixteen cars were entered, but less than half finished. Four preliminary races of five miles each followed the time trials. The real contest was the twenty-five mile event when the grim-visaged drivers defied death on the sharp turns of the half mile track. Ralph Hammers had a stripped down Chalmers, but was not racing in 1924. The auto races filled the air with gasoline fumes, the odor of scorched castor oil, and clouds of choking dust. The roar of the motors was deafening. A high board fence enclosed the grounds, and climbing through or over this provided a daring sport for the kids, who perched themselves in trees outside the fence if they got caught trying to sneak through it.
Sharing honors with the racing cars were the motorcycles. The record setting Gowdy brothers of Fairbury could make their Excelsiors do everything but talk. Hair raising speed was their specialty and they established several American dirt track records. Of all these daring races on the old fair grounds track, only one man was ever killed;
Hefferly of La Salle lost his life on the north turn when his motorcycle went out of control.
El Paso gave the horse racing fans everything they wanted, and there were many spectators who wouldn't trade a horse race for all of the gasoline kind. We had pacing, trotting and running races with
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