The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-06-21
Conclusion Of the Tournament.

went to press preparations for the Ball,
which took place Wednesday evening,
were going on. The Ball was given in
Bleckley, Brown & FretwelPs large brick
building, on East Benson street, and IL
pronounced the largest and most brilliant
Ball ever given in Anderson. The spa
cious Hall was tastefully decorated and
brilliantly illuminated, and the floor was
waxed until it fairly glistened. Bear
denis Band, of Augusta, furnished the
music for the evening. The dance
opened about 10 o'clock with the grand
march, led by Mr.. Mr.. T. s. Crayton and
Miss Maggie Evans, in which about
thirty couples participated. The dancing
was continued until the small hours OF
the morning. There were large crowd
of spectators present, among them Gov.
Richardson and Gen. Bonham. The.
merry participants as we'll as the lockers
on enjoyed the evening in the highest
degree. The management of the occasion
could not have been better, and the An
derson Dancing Club is to be congratula-
ted upon the success of it's Fifth Annual
Ball.
At ali early hour Thursday morning it
was evident that interest in the Tourna-
ment was not waning, and by II o'clock
there was as laige crowd in the city as
there was OIL the preceding day.
The programme for the day opened
with the Hook and Ladder Truck contest,
the. time judges being Messrs. J. NJ. Hub
bard, of Anderson, VIM. Meredith, OF
Bolton, and Chief Jones, of Newberry,
and the ladder judges we're Messrs.
Mcdowell and Dorsey, of Athens. There
were only two entries in this contest, the
Independents, of this city, and the Pio-
neers, of Greenville. In justice to the
latter company we would say that they
did not come prepared to enter the con-
test, but were prevailed upon after their
arrival to enter. The Company used the
independents Truck, and despite the
fact that they run in heavy shoes and
parade uniform, they made the run in
421-5 seconds. Capt. Regan has fine
set of men, and received many compli-
ments from the crowd.
The Independents then appeared in
white tights with velvet trunks and red
caps. They took hold of their Truck, and
as they marched up the track to the start
ing point, it was the general verdict that
no finer looking team had appeared on
the track during the Tournament. Their
climber, Ben. FAINT, had come out of
sick bed, and was very weak, but the team
was confident of success. The word ''go"
was given and down the track the boys
run, scoring record of "a seconds. The
boys had frequently beat this time In
practicing, and had it not been for the
sickness of their climber, they would
have reduced the time at least two seq
onds. The Independents were given the
first prize, sl0O, and the second prize ($50)
was given to the Pioneers of Greenville.
| The next feature of the days programme
| was the foot race, and it proved to be the
most exciting event of the Tournament.
The Judges selected were Messrs. F. A.
spellman and L. E. Norryce, Of Ander.
son, s. B. Jones, of Newberry, and w. A.
Mcdowell, ofAthens.
There were twelve entries for the con-
test, as follows: Bloomfield, No. 4, Of
Athens, Chas. Dottery; Pioneer, No. S,
of Athens, G. R Nicholson and W. A.
Reeves; Pioneer, of Anderson, Will.
Branch and S. c. Baker; Independent
Hook and Ladder, Anderson, n. W. Ste
phens, Will: milford and ]. W. Bell;
South Carolina, of Anderson, Geo. Miller
and B. A. Daniels, Excelsior, of New
berry, s. T. Mclaughlin and 81. T.
| White. The Athens team objected to Mr..
Stephens being entered, as he had not
participated in the parade Of tuesday, as
the rules required. Mr.. Stephens had
been excused from the parade on account
of sickness. After delay of an hour or
so, the Judges decided that Mr.. Stephens
was entitled to enter the contest, as his
excuse for not participating in the parade
was valid one.
| When the runnera appeared on the
course, loud cheers went up and excite
ment ran high. 1t was soon evident that
Messrs. Stephens, Nicholson and Reeves
were the favorites, and bets were freely
offered on each of them. The run was for
100 yards, and in addition to the prize of
$40, Messrs. Hubbard 6 Bro, our popular
young jewelers., offered fine gold watch
to the successful man. The runners were
strung out in line, and at the report of q
pistol. they all started down the track
together, the crowd yelling and cheering
as they san. It was close race, and the
friends of Messrs. Stephens Nicholson
and Reeves claimed that each had come
out ahead. There was considerable ex-
element at the time, and in the meantime
the judges retired to decide who was the
winner Of the prize. They were closeted
for two hours, but could not agree, and
finally decided to let the three gentlemen
named above run the race over. Reeves
declined to enter the second race, and
Stephens and Nicholson had the race
between Themselves. Tile friends of both
were confident of success, but Stephens
crossed the line first, and was declared the
winner of the race by at least two feet.
The crowd then went wild for few min
utes, and Mr.. Stephens was certainly the
hero of the day. This race makes Mr..
stophena the champion of North Carolina,
South Carolina and Georgia.
The steamer contest came next There
wcro only two entries, the Hope, of
Athens, and the Pioneer, of Anderson.
The Hope steamer made steam in 8 min
utes and 3 seconds filled aud emptied
the bucket in inmates, and threw a
stream distance of 100! feet. The Pio-
neer steamer is much larger than the
Hope steamer, and 1t was decided not to
enter 1t In the quick steam contest. In
filling the bucket, the Pioneer refused to
work about the time the bucket was half
filled, and that contest, as we'll as the dis i.
tanco contest, had TO bs abandoned. The
South Carolinas, Of this city, entered the
bucket contest and captured the prize,
filling tia bucket in minute and ID
seconds, the best time on record.