The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-01-26
May EVOLUTIONS BY A WELL
DRILLED. YOUTHFUL CORPS.
The Manual of Pals and stools-Precis<
Steps and Exact Alignment-Auc-
tioninx the Stools.

the man." sang the poet Of old; but ''of
pals and the maid who shall sing! Not
blind old Homer, for If ever a poet
wanted eyes to see. or ears to hear, il
was at the Guards Armory last night.
The Maids of Palatka, thirty-two of
them, at least, drilled for the benefit of
St. Marks Guild, and such miIkmaids
and such drilling the eyes of Palatka's citi-
zens and those of their wives and sweet
hearts, never before, we ween looked upon
The citizens and wives and sweethearts
were all there, great many of them,
hundreds, in fact, and were, if all the
outward signs were worth anything,
enraptured. We had supposed till now
that necessary adjunct of the milkmaid
was the Evolutionary mild-mannered
bovine who fills the pals. But we have
been happily disillusioned, and hereafter
shall discard the COW from our dreams of
milkmaids, and we expect that the
dreams of the Palatka boys will from
now on be filled with milkmaids carry
ing their stools and pals to the sound of
maching music, and that they will feed
themselves on the milk of human kind
ness towards all the maids, which was
the milk that was drawn i'm greatest
abundance at the Armory Hall.
But the bright eyes and the beautiful
forms of those maids made the staidest
looker-on forget the absence of the
bovine, and the grace of their move
ments in the drill was more enhancing
than could be that of all the cows that
ever lowed and kicked over the milk
pail from the days of old Noah down.
Around the sides of the Armory Hall
were ranged a triple row of seats for the
audience, all of which were filled-we
may say well filled, for so delighted were
those present with the drill that each
breast heaved and each form swelled
with such an access of pride that those
maids were Palatka's own that the seats
were indeed all too small.
The pride and the emotion were JUS
tifiable. During the period of waiting
great curiosity was manifested as to
what was going on behind those two
screens which hid the corners at the head
of the hall. Ever and anon a form,
hooded and shrouded from too-prying
eyes. glided from the head of the stairs
to one or the other of these screened
corners, and disappeared. Within the
portals Of these screens were celebrated
those mysteries which transformed
what was only presumably graceful
forms into what afterwards burst into
view. Those mysteries, as carefully
veiled from profane ken as those of
Eleusinia-which were regarded with
such awe by the lively Athenians of
old, were no doubt Indispensable, but
the time of their performance, though
meritoriously of really short duration,
was regarded with impatient feelings
by the waiting audience.
THE SUSPENSE OVER.
At last, after Nesbit's Band had
attempted to beguile the ears and atten-
ton of the spectators with some well
performed selections, the time of waiting
ceased to be, and Lieutenant Joseph
gave the order for the maids to come
forth. Mrs. r. Kersting, who presided
~ NAC Rh0AhC, StA1sh ~ ~ hihASbs aHh AuN
Milkmaids Of Palatka stepped out from
their obscurity into well merited fame.
With their appearance a general sigh OF
admiration and delight ran around the
hall. We had formed various conjectures
as to what they would be like. We have
seen milkmaids before, some not SO
young, and some more or less younger.
| and costumed in various ways, but we
had never viewed Floridienne before
acting in that capacity, and like the
others, were entranced and delighted
with the spectacle. Neither our wife
nor our sweetheart was present, SO we
lack the feminine tact i'm describing the
costume, but taking it systematically
let us begin at the top and proceed
downward-''just like a man. we seem
to hear some of our fair readers exclaim
Well, adorning and covering the grace
fully poised head Of each fair maid
was perched a straw hat oi
| SO wide a brim that no sun ray would
ever deem it possible TO tan the pearly
tinted cheek beneath. This hat wa
variously tilted and decorated, bu
always gracefully. Next came a red
low-cut bodice, with white swiss o
something Of that sort surrounding TIN
neck and shoulders, and formed int.
shoulder-knots; then q white skirt ap
pearing below the polonaise continu
alton of the bodice, with neatly fittinl
shoes Of almost supernatural smallnes
Of size, completed q costume whi ch CAP
tivated all present.
THE MARCH BEGINS.
From each screen filed out sixteen fai
maids, each carrying q tastefully decs
rated stool under the right arm and
bright tin pail m the left hand. At th
head Of the column from the right han
corner marched
Miss MAGGIE ANDERSON.
And at the head Of the other colum
marched:
Miss RUTH BURT.
While following after these two Iea'
ess came
, MES MAMIE BAILEY.
, MISS IRxxE ZEHNBAUKR.
Mm EMMA THOMPSON.
MnR DoRA TuONPsON.
\ Mrs LILLE Tmo1rsox.
Mr. EuLY CANrsul.