The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-07-13

ter, with Clark inside the circle, and
they played ragtime music while the
immense crowd, the worse for wear,
seized one another and danced the rag
time dance. The Midland lobby is T
shaped The bar is to the right of it
and runs parallel to the length, of the
lobby, with entrances at each end into
the lobby itself. The lobby runs clear
through the hotel, which is block deep.
The stem of the T which leads out to
Seventh street is about 100 feet wide.
Now, if you will just imagine a space
shaped like that and jammed with
crowd of men, hilarious with rum, every
man shouting at the top of his lungs and
every man Keeling as much as a man can
reel in crowd, you will have the scene
just moment before the band got in.
The band pushed it's way through the
main entrance to the hotel and it stood
in the circle, right in the center of this
crowd. The center of this circle was the
only vacant space in the lobby, and in
this space stood an understood, pink
whiskered man, worth anywhere from a
hundred to five hundred million dollars.
The band started playing "There'l Be a
Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight"
The crowd kept roaring. The band then
changed the tune to a ragtime effort. In
less than two minutes every man in the
lobby had grabbed some other man and
the ragtime was being done as effectively
as it ever was done on the Bowery.
All the while the uproar was tremen-
dous. The bellboys in the hotel, who
are colored, joined in the demonstration
and danced ragtime with the whites.
From ragtime the band jumped to
Dixie" and the rebel yell split the air.
The Southerners in the crowd, those of
them who could get space enough and
who could stand straight, pranced around
in time with the music.
Outside at that moment there were
shrieks and yells that included feminine
voices. There were the clamor of hoofs
and the sound of revolvers rapidly fired.
Those near the door saw two horses go
dashing by, mounted by Montana men,
who held girls on their laps and who
fired their revolvers in the air. AS they
went up through the main street the
crowd in the streets yelled "Yi, vi, vi"
the women shrieked like murder and the
revolvers cracked at every step. The
horses appeared to be as crazy as the
men and they tore along as if Satan
himself were behind them. 1t was an
exhibition of reckless riding such as
could never be seen in the east.
But to get back to the hotel again.
The band played on through 20 airs and
finally the crowd there tired and roared
for CLARK! Clark! Clark!' At this the
man with the uncounted millions smiled
with the utmost satisfaction. A chair
came hurting through the air and was
planted near him. Upon this he climbed.
CLARK! Clark! Clark" roared the crowd.
Finally it became quiet enough for Clark
to talk and then he said, holding out
both hands after the manner of a
preacher delivering benediction:
This is an illustration of how we do
things in Montana"
The crowd whooped and yelled and
Clark had to stop for moment. He
said something then about the band be-
ing made up of miners who worked in
Montana, but the next thing that was
clearly heard was this:
Our grand state of Montana produces
some of the best things on EARTH"
"Yes, yes, yes" shrieked the crowd;
you bet it does; some of the best on
EARTH"
You're pretty good thing yourself"
came voice from away off somewhere.
Clark went on and declared that Mon
tana produced one third of all the copper
that was produced on the globe, and
then he started in to curry favor of the
Kansas City people thus:
I'VE have run up against the real
thing in the way of hospitality here and
so far we have bought no gold bricks"
That was as much as the crowd cared
to listen to and the whooping and howl
ing was resumed. The man of uncounted
millions got down from the chair. The
barroom, already full, was now filled to
OVERLOOKING. There the riot was con
tinued. 1t was still going on when the
first streaks of day came out of the east.