The Washington times., 1902-05-04
STUDENTS AT THE FAIR.

A walking delegation composed Of rep
resentative students from the Business.
Central and Western High Schools, with
few graduate friends. visited the Ma
sonic fair one night last week just prior
TO the closing and proceeded to stir up
more trouble for some of the side show
promoters and persons in charge of the
booths than they had from other sources
during the whole time the fair was in ex-
istencc.
There were about dozen of the boys,
and all of them were well supplied with
money so that they could visit all the
side shows and partake of candy and
soda water from every booth where those
refreshments were sold.
Their first point of attack was the
cakewalk in the dancing palace. They
promptly coniiscated one of the ice cream
tables against the wall for their own
use as a grandstand. The entire dozen
young men climbed upon the frail table
and hugged each other tightly to prevent
general falling off around the edges.
The table creaked and shook ominously,
but the students did not seem to care
whether 1t collapsed with them; they were
out for good time, and thought the de-
struction of one table would help along
the cause. When the cclored cakewalk-
crs came on the floor the boys began to
sing and applaud then heartily. girl
who attempted to sing Way Down Upon
the Suwanee River in high, cracked
voice was interrupted between every few
words with cat calls and cries OF "oh,
fudget"
Attendants Charge the Students.
Attendants began to hurry forward and
plant themselves directly in front of the
boys table, until within a very few min
utes nearly every man of authority in the
room was there, threatening to put the
boys out OF the hall IL the racket was
not stopped.
But the students cared not an atom for
the threats Of violence and continued to
hurl their amusing criticisms at the per-
formers. Presently the entire crowd of
spectators in the room became more in
torested in the boys than in the cakewalk
and began to take hand in the disor- |
DERBY proceedings, until scarcely one note
of music in a dozen was audible above the
howls of "oh. fudge!" clapping OF hands,
and whistling. One of the students struck
up the song Sweet Annie Moore" which
was taken up by fully a hundred other
young people, and loud singing of the
catchy air brought down the house.
Then the young men deemed their dis |
turbance in that particular show had gone
far enough, and quietly descending from
the ice cream table they marched out of |
the room.
Dying Soldier and Other Freaks.
The students visited many other side
shows. winding up finally in the Mas
todonic Museum, where the freaks were |
eybfhffiau ,n;r
giant, the dwarf. the dying soldier. wild |
man from Borneo, bearded lady, Chief |
Sitting Bull, and other similar Oddities |
The boys began by rolling up the panta- |
looms OF the giant so as to reveal the |
wooden stills upon which he was stand |
ing. This particular giant happened TO |
have the temper of bear with a sore 1
head. and he promptly dealt one of the |
students from the Western High School |
SQUAD blow across the back with long
pole he carried for a cane. Thus re- /
buked, the crowd moved on to the .ppo-
site side of the room from the bearded |
lady. who proved to be a boy and, pro- I
ducing ''spitbail blowers" tormented the /
fellow terribly by pelting him constantly
with small balls of wet paper. So furious
did the fire soon become that the LADY
was obliged 10 retreat from her seat upon
a tall box and take refuge behind cur
tain.
BY this time quite a large crowd had
gathered in the place. and a small. deli
cate-looking young man stepped out to
deliver lecture concerning the various
freaks. He called attention to the dying
soldier as one of the finest specimens OF
wax figures in the world. Its original
cost had been $4,000. He said it had been
on exhibition at Paris, and at ali the
great expositions in this country.
A loud chorus of groans interrupted his
remarks at this point, and deep bass
voice in the rear bade him come down
from his perch
When he came to his senses again and
was able TO proceed. the speaker went on
to speak of the skill that had been ox-
pended upon the figure TO mold the wax
into such perfect shape. One of the
students reached out with his cane and
dug the dying soldier in the ribs with
, considerable force. To the great amuse-
ment of the spectators the wax figure"
instantly emitted an ear-splitting howl
of pain and sprang up from the box on
which he had been lying. The laugh was
very much on the lecturer. and he grew
indignant under the steady fire OF de-
risior.
Say. you're a smarty. aren't you?" ne
exclaimed.