The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-21
NOTABLE INCIDENTS OF THE DAT
Oil Cloth Mackintoshes All the Rage
 Ladies Ina Big Gum Boots.

Saturdays football game was the oc- casion for the gathering of the largest i rainy-day crowd that ever congregated
 at any event in New Haven and prob- ably was the largest ever gathered on
 such day in New England. In fact,
 the size of the assemblage at Yale field
 could not have been much larger had
 the weather been ever so pleasant, as
 nearly every seat was occupied. The storm was central over New Haven and
 even the elements seemed protesting against the inevitably defeat of Yale,
 which has been almost invariably vic torious over Harvard on the gridiron. The crowds which arrived in the city
 by the special trains from New York,
 oston and other places Saturday morn
 ing were wholly unprepared for the
 driving rain which met them as they
 alighted from the trains at the Union
 depot, having come from localities some not very far away-where no rain was falling, and the weather was com paratively pleasant.
 Consequently the result was that the visitors as soon as they reached New
 Haven made dry goods stores, or rubber
 stores, objective points for the purpose
 at first of buying mackiptoshes. Ear ly in the forenoon, however, the entire stocks of mackintoshes at Malley & Co.'S, F. M. Brown & Go. s, Ewen Me Intyre's, Howe & Stetson's,y Charles
 Monson company's, the Goodyear Rub-
 Der company's store, and at all the oth- CT stores, large and small, in the city had been sold out. When the supply of mems mackintoshes had been exhaust ed the men began buying ladies mack intoshes and wearing them as best they could It was not long until these, too, were all sold. The next thing was to | find a makeshift Some thought of the oilskin suits worn by sailors and crowds thronged to the State street | stores and the sailors supply stores
 around the wharves where these arti- i cles were kept. Prices at once went l soaring, but notwithstanding this fact l every oilskin suit and sou 'wester was | sold in a short time and hundreds of I men were soon seen on the streets clad 1 in the yellow oilskin suits and soul
 wester hats, giving the place the ap- | pearance of fishing town. Many wo-
 men, too, wore the oilskin coats. The supply of these having been exhausted, 1 the crowd then began looking for any 1 thing that would shed water Soon ta- ble oilcloth, white, black and in all col
 ors, was selling like hot cakes. One boy purchased two rolls of white oil cloth and, taking up his stand in front of the Graduates club, sold out his stock as fast as he could cut off two or threeyard strips.
 1 The way in which these improvised | waterproofs were worn was most anus 1 ing. The style set by some, who quick ! ly made up their minds to be unconven- | tional under the stress of circum- 1 stances, was soon followed by hundreds. 1 This style was two or three-yard strip ] of olcloth with a hole cut through for l the head and then worn by sticking the
 head through the hole and allowing the 1 flaps to hang down, one in front and the
 other behind, and very good watersheds
 they made, too. Some students, endeav-
 bring to make up this costume in as
 picturesque style as possible wore the l strips of oilcloth after the fashion of a
 Roman toga, and had bows made of the 1 same material, which they wore on their l hats
 i Chapel street crowds presented a
 most unusual and ludicrous appearance
 with the oilcloth, horse blanket, car
 riage cover and every old kind of inn
 proved coverings. One old Yale grad of perhaps eight or ten years, meeting
 a policeman who was wearing one of 1 the heavy rubber coats such as police
 men wear, asked the wearer if he would
 sell it. The policeman hesitated, but | just then came still harder dash of rain and the desperate football enthu-
 siast pulled out $20 and offered it for l the coat. The policeman accepted and | the now happy grad" donned the coat
 and went on his way rejoicing.
 1 Rubber boot and overshoe dealers | also came in for big sales, and these goods were snapped up at fancy prices. 1 One dealer reported Saturday evening | that he had sold seventyfive pairs of
 rubber boots As the time for the gamd | approached, frantic efforts were made
 to get coverings for the wet benches at l the field. First straw mattings were all | bought up; then some one, thinking of | the New Haven Chair company, went | to LldL cDItpduy p1dSC -Ol buSIiltoS, 1 followed by hundreds of others, and in
 a short time the company had closed
 out at neat prices a large stock of old
 chair bottoms, the sale of which had
 not been even dreamed of. The crowds | then went to hardware stores and | bought up all the coal sifters and the !, box part of these, with the wire screen ] bottoms, by being inverted and laid on | the benches, were used as seats.
 1 When the procession to the field, just | before the game, was begun it present. | ed a strange appearance-men and wo- men with the improvised oilcloth mack i intoshes. women wearing big gum boots, | how large or heavy made no difference, 1 the wearers considering themselves lucky to get any kind.
 On the whole. the day was a profitable | one for New Haven merchants. Old stocks of rubber goods which had lain | on the shelves for years were pulled l down and sold at fancy prices, and for ] articles of this kind alone many thou 1 sands of dollars were spent, people be- | ing willing to pay any price so that | they could get into shape to brave the | clements and see the game.
 YALE FRESHMEN LOST. .--- With only two minutes to play and I