The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1910-08-11
K OF P'SIN MILWAUKEE
They Had the Time of Their Lives
and Come Home Happy.

left indellible impress of the fact that
Oskaloosa, Iowa, was on the map.
There has never been together a
better crowd OF live ones" at any
national gathering than went from
oskaloosa to the encampment at Mil
waukee last week,and they were busy
might and day spreading the gospel
and the fame of Oskaloosa.
/ The boys came home by twos and
threes and the entire company with
the exception OF T.. M. Shockley, who
stayed for the conclusion of the SUI
preme council, is now returned.
Jack Shelton and Nate Corey arrived
home Saturday. They left Milwau-
kee Immediately following the exhi-
bition and prize drills, went to Chi
cago for a day and hurried on home
for Saturdays business. Others of
the company came in Sunday and
Monday, and the remainder of the
bunch, all tired out but wonderfully
good-natured and happy, came in on
the night trains. .>
The Oskaloosa company was
great bunch,-in and out of camp.
Zone thing perhaps more than any
other that tended to make Oskaloosa
we'll known was the fact that the
company was almost always togeth
er. Companies from other states
might have been organized for parade
or drill, but the Oskaloosa company
was in formation all the time and the
remark, Here comes that noisy Os-
kaloosa bunch" was heard on all
sides. The whole camp came to
know OskalOosa, and the town of Mil
waukee likewise became familiar
with the name. They said that the
Oskaloosa lads were the best bunch
of advertisers they had ever known.
Other companies did not think of the
idea of organizing for fun and stick
ing together as did the Oskaloosa
boys, and for that reason the local
company was the most heard and the
most seen and the most popular lot
of Pythians at the encampment,
They made the Iowa street at the
camp grounds the most visited local
ity on the grounds. More than once
it occurred that after the boys had
turned in for the night they were
dragged out of their tents by some
special delegation and would be TAX
en- to a distant corner of the camp
or back to town, five miles distant. to
be made the center attraction of some
tnew doings. The boys did much, but
lslept little, and Thursday night they
did not go to bed at all. But why
all this unusual fuss over some one
company, the uninitiated will inquire
What did they do? There is, the
point. The Oskaloosa boys did some
thing. Several days before the en-
campment and while enroute to Mil
waukee the bunch made up number
of songs, words appropriate to the
occasion, applicable to camp or to
Milwaukee, were set to some popular
and easily caught tune. They prac-
ticed up for the occasion and the
bunch of twenty-three members, con-
tanning a number of exceptionally
good voices, as every mothers son
of them could sing some, made big
hit and an impression that was last
ing. The boys had no sooner landed
at the station than they set off their
fireworks and they had the floor from
that moment. Who's that? Who's
that" asked everyone, and they soon
found out. Other crowds had yells
and did special stunts, but the songs
Of the Oskaloosa crowd caught like
wild fire and before the end of the
encampment every one was singing
them. Jack Shelton, while on his
route as letter carrier here at home
composed a lively skit, We'll, here
we Are on the Old Milwaukee," sung
to the tune OF Way Down South in
Dixie The piece made tremend-
GUS hit with the crowds. Whatever
spare time the boys had was occu-
pied in writing the words at the re-
Iuest of companies from every part
of the. land, from Maine to Texas and
from Washington state to Florida.
Kentucky, Connecticut, Massachu-
sets. Indiana, Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South
Carolina, Idaho, Vermont, and a
bunch of others were singing the Os-
kaloo3a songs long before the camp
broke up. Oskaloosa had started
something that no one could stop.
The newspapers took up the refrain
and the fame of Oskaloosa and her
1910 Pythian Company has been writ.
ten In permanent record. Oskaloosa
helped to make the Milwaukee en-
campment famous. ..a.r
The Drills.
/ At the parade practically everyone
in the town knew about the Oska-
loosa boys and they were Justify
lcheered almost every step of the
march. They received marked atten.
ton at every turn and notably SO at
the reviewing stand. They were fav-
orites everywhere.
0skaloosa entered for the prize
drill in class B, which required a
drilling squad of twenty-one men be.
sides officers. They entered with
thirty-five other companies from Iowa
and other states. They were not in
the money but they were close up
among the ranking few and although