Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-03
GAY BUTCHERS THESE
Classic Joy Unconfined at Ben
ming Track Barbecue.
ATHLETICS, FOOD, DANCING
Ten Huge Beeves Cut Up for Hungry
Multitude.
KNIGHTS COURSE IN TOURNEY
Fat Men Race-Girls in Fluttering
Dashes-Basc Ball, Too, and
a Piccolo Orchestra.
KNIGHTS COURSE IN TOURNEY

There were great doings at the Benning
track yesterday afternoon and evening
whep the master butchers and their
| friends turned loose to make holiday.
There We're many things to see and lots
! 10 do. plenty to eat and slathers of liquids.
There were games and games. music and
| dancing, speeches and jokes.
| Altogether it was q classic affair. And
the classiest of all the events was the
tournament between the knights Of
Washington, Virginia and Maryland.
| tournament is game wherein
pseudo knight a-horseback has to charge
down a section of track and impale
ring the size of quarter on long IRON
! tipped pole--a lance, they call it. He
goes as fast as his horse will take him:
There were twenty-five gallants who
entered this tournament And twenty
four of them fell before the intrepid and
reckless daring of Thomas Head, Knight
| of Munson Hill. who speared SO well
that he was entitled to crown the queen
of love and beauty at sunset
But greater far was the triumph of
| that young LOchinvar, who came out of
the west, through all the swift running
his aim was the best. Jonn Mercer,
Knight of Pleasant, met .3urteen cham
pionss who have won first places in
various tournaments held this summer,
and captured gold medal on which he
may engrave his name in the space re-
served for it, above the words champion
of Virginia, Maryland and the District Of
Columbia
The Growing Feature.
There were ten large beeves slaughter
ed for barbecuing. to give the affair the
right touch. There was more professional
interest shown in the cutting up of those
beeves than for any other event.
DASH Swift-footed girls futtered along
the course for the money prizes hung up
for the first three. Base ball teams labor
ed heavily. But none of these caused a
ripple compared to the enormous pent-up
excitement that swelled through the
| crowd when the first large bovine form
was placed on the iron spit and hung
above the fire.
There was roast beef for all. And bread
beyond the wants of hungry nation,
great long loaves of which resembled a
tawny mountain as 1t lay alongside the
splits.
Everybody got enough. And many peo-
pie got too much and had to seek some
quiet spot where they could stretch out
and give their overladen anatomies a
chance to rest awhile.
The hungry were marshaled in long
lines. They passed by Jimmy Duin and
Earnest SchloSser. who carved and cut
and worked and Iabored, so that every
man and woman and child was filled with
beef and bread on the inside and smeared
| nightly with it on the outside.
Il have never seen such eating" said
Jimmy.
They've all got hollow legs" said
| Slasher Schlosser. 81 just saw one fellow
with the eighteenth pound of meat and
the twentieth loaf of bread. And he'll
| come up for mOre:"
Let him come" said Chairman Woody.
| THE more the merrier.''
| But there's always trouble. even at the
| best-reguated barbecues. There was one
woman and large following of young
! sters, who scientifically arranged them
selves in the waiting bread line so that
by the time each one got to the beef he
would get just the part he wanted. But
little Sammy, who bawled and yelled be-
cause ne could not have more of the
Il rare. and in the anguish of his hunger he
dropped what he did have from between
the slices of bread to the ground below.
But Sammy got another piece.
Dancing to Piccolo Music
And there was dancing, too. For ten
cents one could trip it and waltz it and
i schottische it and deux-temps it to the
!, greatest orchestra the Butchers could get
! together. There were great crowds of
girls who made the old betting room look
like Kaleidoscope with their whirling
dresses of all colors. Everybody danced,
from ]. B. OShaughnessy, the Old Do
minion heavyweight. who won the fat
mems race. down to Dickie Thompson
who has to stand up on a box when he
waits on customers.
When the orchestra started to play
Harvey Hunt chose the belle of eth street
and glided out the floor. Other gal
lants chose subbelles. just as lovely, but
less famous. and followed. In the short
space of a few bars of music every promi-
nent meat cutter in the District was lost
in the mazes Of the waltz. each one with
a good dancer draped over his arm.
There were many piccolos in the orches-
ira. John Lynch, the committee is.
fond of piccolos. All the week men have
been coming to him with the statement
that they We're good piccolo handlers.
Each one got a job
So that last night the orchestra leader
had to demonstrate with them for all
playing at once. Finally the matter was
! fixed by allowing three of them to play
during each selection. but only after II
was assured to them they were on the
pay roll for the entire performance.
j In the afternoon there was a base ball
game, in which the Center Market put
it over the picked team from the other
markets to the tune of - to 2.
Excitement was caused during the even
northwest, who was struck in the back by
a stray bullet from the shooting gallery.
He was more scared than hurt and
walked home
Raymond LeiZear of Rockville had too
much beef and went to the Sibley Hos
pital. He was relieved of his overburden
and allowed to go on his Way