The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-02-24
K. OF c. MINISTRIES
GIVEN WITHOUT
>;>IAL!1|ES
AppreciatIve Audience Packed
Aarte's Theater
MANY GOOD VOICES PRESENT
Local Knights Have Established Pre-.
cedent For Minstrel Entertain.
ment in Bennington.
MANY GOOD VOICES PRESENT

Those who expected to take the fur
niture at the Harte Theater to pieces
for chair-legs to protest against the
quality of the X. OF c. minstrels last
evening. were agreeably surprised to
be suddenly handed their moneys
worth and incidentally saturated with
one of the best minstrel entertain
ments offered by home talent in
the village for several winters Music
that least disagreeable of all
noises-was in abundance, and sever
al cracked a joke. But otherwise the
performance was bright, breezy, belli-
cose and bustling.
The show was prompt in starting.
snappy in delivery and when it came
to an end, it stopped! The start oc-
Cured about 8.15 while some of those
standing in the rear waiting for ush-
ers still had long neck. But the or
chestra, composed of Harold R. Hur-
ley, violin; Daniel Rifenburg, cello;
r. D. Long. bass viol; Harold Cook
clarinet; Murray Hamilton, cornet;
A. ID. Hurley, trombone; Edward Hur-
ley, drums and Miss Helen Hurley at
the piano satiated the place with first
class melody for spell, and other
wise kept indiscretion at a minimum
and director E. G. Bennett got on his
rostrum on schedule and began to
make with his hands motions.
The leadership of Judge Bennett de
serves q whole paragraph, The musi-
cal Judge found chair-rung round
the place. with which he proceeded to
slash up the atmosphere in a scandal
GUS manner, followed by the orches.
ira in such perfect time that 1t was
well worth the price of admission to
watch his perfect control over his
thoroughly efficient salon of harmony
artists and wonder how they did it.
When it comes to leading an orches-
ira, Judge Bennett knows his job and
he lost no fragments of his reputa-
tion in that quarter. keeping the per-
formance up to the chalk-line in first
class shape.
After the overture, the curtain
arose on an imposing assemblage of
fair women and brave men; the fair
women being in the auditorium and
the brave men behind the footlights.
A tier of male singers in white shirts
rose behind half-crcle of similar
sex and species in dress-suits below,
with William j. Lunergan as interlo-
cutor in the center, fearing a smile
that wouldn't come Off Subsequently
on the ends, appeared apparitions In
canvas pajamas, silk sashes and SCOT
from their kitchen stoves, who pro-
ceeded to instigate musical distur-
bance without further incentive
When behaving themselves in the
even tenor of their way they are
known as John Whitney, Joseph j.
McDermott, Marden II. Nichols, II.
Harry Sharpe, Gidion Lacrosse, Ed
ward NJ. Whitney, Martin Cutler Pat
rick Dunn and David p. Sears The
larker side of Collins (M'Lord)
Graves was also present. Of him,
more later.
The doings commenced with a
minstrel overture played by Judge
BENEFITS baton and accompanied by
a lusty chorus of the flfty-odd male
voices and consisting of all the re-
cent songs on the Chautauqua circuit,
several popular hits and a few picked
up by somebody on Saturday night
visit to Hoosick Falls. The choruses
and songs for the entire performance
were arranged for the occasion by
Fred Thebarge, who has praise
worthy talent in this direction and