The Alaska citizen., 1913-03-03

ment in th" Sptrit City NHl he oter. joyed to find number of their oli Fairbanks friends at Il bt1 pubHs dance hall called the Hippodrome situated al the corner ot Fifth ayy. hue and University street The han which is a huge briyk structure. is brilliantly lighted by myriads ot electric globes Festoons ol gay col ored bunting and tissue paper ar, suspended from the ceiling and walls The large orchestra seated on the stage has as d baeksrouud all in. aginary land ot paste5oarI dragons and fairies Hhiyh lte a weird and fascinating effect
 Every evening one can see Casper
 Fischer wi'h beamins counteaance and shiny bald head walking around the hall in the capacity ol manager ti'tle Casper is she big thing in the hall Always strong on line of talk. especially when reporting won. Ger.ul mining stories he mauased to convince lumber of capitalists that there was money in public dance hail They rame through and last summer the H.ppodrome started up and has been running six nights in the week ever since. coinirg all kinds of money for the owners.
 They don't run on Sundays. no.
  asked the reason Tor this, Casper eonddeu;ially declared that he didnT believe in dancing on Sunday Il develops. however, that the city ad- miuistration. Of puritanic ideas won't stand for it.
 The dance floor is fenced of from the rest of the hall Every time you Nish 10 dance il costs you q nickel There are 10 tedious waits between dances The floor is hardly cleared al the end ot one dance be fore the orchestra strikes up Tor thr next one
 Standna in the center Of the dance floor can he seen d rather chunky man. important in appearance. Who wears all ice cream eolored suit, That's Dan Gleason who formerly presided over the pool tables in Halls Book Sore. He watches the couples with all eagle ese. Now that bunny hugeiHg," "grizz!v hear inc" and other popular forms of dancing are strictly prohibited they have evolved a sort of modified rag. II consists in walking around the hall in d creuched position bend ing the knees al every step. l. gives q decidedly springy effect. Some Of the Aolaer ones bend their backs and crane their necks which gives them the appearance of biey- cIe riders engaged in a six-day en- durance race. The majority ot couples don't dance, they limp around the floor
 It keeps Gleason busy watching several hundred couples al a time. but he succeeds nobly in keeping order Every once in while he can he seen making rush for some distant corner of the hall and order, ing a couple which has oyerstcpped the boundary of decorum. from the ioor. At such time all eyes are turned in the direction Gleason is running to see who the victims are. Heralded by blast from a trum- pet Gleason also makes frequent impromptu speeches during the evening. announcing that some won derful gifts will be given to each and every lady on a certain evening. The acoustic properties of the hal. are wretched. so that when he talks it sounds like the believing of 2 hundred strong-lunged men.
 Another former Fairbanks man can be seen walking around al the dance hall every evening. It's TorQson. the former Front street grocer. who has financial interest in the enterprise. He has no spec ial duties. but makes it point to be on hand
 Then there is Riley. who was for merly with Katherine Mills store and went down to the lditarod for Isaac Brothers in the summer of 1910. He wears big purple badge which states that he is an introducer He sees that MT. Jones meets Miss Brown and MT. White Miss Smith.
 Mrs. Gleason plays a prominent role in the affairs of the place She sells tickets Mrs Riley ofter comes to the hall to look on
 Fischer also conducts a dramatic school where they aim to turn out finished artists. He says that there are many dramatic schools in Seattle which are fakes. but his is not.
 Taken altogether the hall is wei conducted and affords ample inno cent enjoyment for the young people of the city.
 Gustav Rueger, the former Fair banks tonsorial artist, has a shop ol Pike street where he is doing good business He regrets that tn