Evening star., 1935-08-28
NATIONS COLORED
ELKS GIVE FOURTH
DAY TO BUSINESS
Grand Ball Tonight Blue
Ribbon Social Event
of Session.
HEART STROKE FATAL
TO ONE OF MARCHERS
Statistics on Parade Yesterday
Show 5,349 in Line, So Bands
and "a Floats.

The colored Elks' 36th annual con-
vention went into it fourth day Of
festivities today with participants in
the same spirit which yesterday af-
forded Washington one of the liveliest
parades it has seen.
Visiting and resident delegates were
up early to participate in further
events of what is probably the biggest
colored assemblage ever held locally.
Formal sessions Of the Elks grand
lodge and grand temple (women) were
convened at 10 am. and huge group
photograph taken. Thereafter, the
delegates were free to go on sight
seeing tour or entertain themselves
according to their inclinations. Men,
bers of Elks young peoples organiza-
tions will meet at pm. for Junior
and juvenile hour"
The conventions blue ribbon social
event is tonights grand ball. to be
held at the colored Masonic Temple,
Tenth and u streets. beginning at
pm. j. Finley Wilson. grand exalted
ruler Of colored Elks, will lead the ball
march. Nightly cabaret entertain
ment will be continued at the Lincoln
Theater.
Huge Parade Crowd.
At least half of the city's 10000
colored folk must have turned out
to watch yesterdays four hour parade
The route was long and winding. but
all along swarmed crowds, sometimes
banked 10 deep. Many employers gave
their porters and buffers the day off
Cooks came late, but housewives for
gave. Thousands of whites watched,
too.
Along Constitution avenue, the steps
OF the Archives Building, Justice De-
partment and other Mall edifces were
alive with spectators. Government
workers paused and looked down from
windows. The parade started promptly
on schedule at l pm. and long after
8 was still moving along Constitution
avenue.
A tragedy marred the procession
when Morris Hill, A, of All P street,
one of the colored marchers, fell to
the pavement while parading past the
White House on East Executive ave-
nue.. He was taken to Emergency Hos
pital and there pronounced dead Of
heart disease.
Otherwise, the parade staged by the
Improved Benevolent and Protective
Order, Elks of the World, was Sue
eessive mile after mile of collective
laughter, music and frolicsome antics.
Rain spattered at the start, but soon
was replaced by sunny skies. The cos
tunes Of the marchers were so mag
nificent that it didn't much matter
whether the sky was gray or blue.
Brown in Front of Line.
Supt. Of Police Ernest w. Brown
rode in front in an open roadster.
Directly behind, with blue uniformed
colored motor cycle policeman as a
vanguard, rode Grand Exalted Ruler
Wilson. purple-fezzed and smiling
waving to the cheering throngs. Then
came brisk and trim unit of New
York colored police, white -gloved and
blue uniformed.
Capt. Arthur C. Newman, command
ing officer of the Districts colored
National Guard, rode on horseback at
the head of 80 colored cavalryme1
from Fort Myer, followed by an In
fantry unit. An 80-piece band garbed
In white blared martial music. It was
one Of SO parade bands.
Some parade marshals, in blue and
white military uniforms with belts
and silver chains, rode horseback.
One, in sky blue trench helmet,
rode around on a motor cycle. And
there were colored war veterans in
cleaning steel helmets. There we're
little "angels" in paper wings and gild-
ed crowns: two yellow-shirted boys in
a fiower-garlanded pony cart; 81
decorated automobiles loaded with
Elks dignitaries, and women In gold
and purple capes.
But what the crowd liked best was
Bill Robinson, musical comedy and
screen star and tap dancer extraoroi-
nary. Decked out in dark purple
shirt, two-foot white fur shake and
horizon blue breeches, Bill led the
big Monarch Temple band from New
York. Wherever he appeared, sections
Of the crowd broke away and stormed
after him, yelling and laughing.
Dances for Spectators.
Bill and his band played concert
on II street and Bill, a million-d dollar
performer, danced for 2,500 spectators.
Some one who evidently didn't know
Bill H considered the unrivaled master
OF tap routine, threw q dime at his
feet. Good-natured, Bill smiled and
slipped the dime in his pocket.
There were other capering drum
majors in the parade, whose per-
formances almost equaled Robinson's.
There was q marching unit from
khe Harper Temple, Baltimore, which
proved its mettle in the parade and
afterward by winning loving cup
In q competitive drill at Howard Uni
yersity Stadium.
Women in paper picture hats and
canary yellow and lavender crinoline
dresses and gloves marched in a divi-
sion behind q gray-haired woman in
nurses uniform advertised as the
"organizer Of the Purple Cross nurses
Of Elkdom." Eleven young women in
boots and white iodhpurs rode horse
back, led by a man in polo costume.
Oficial statistics on the parade give
some idea of its magnitude. Pvts. F..
L. Binswanger, John L. Kiefer and
Wexford E. Winfield Of the Traf1c Bu-
reau stood at Tenth street and Con-
stitution avenue and counted the fol-
lowing: Paraders afoot. on horseback
and in automobiles, 5,349; automo-
biles, 113; bands, So; floats, "a. The
head of the parade passed them at
l:l5 pm, but the rear not until 1851.
Louis Meets President.
Joe Louis, the sensational colored
heavyweight, was presented to Presi-
dent Roosevelt at the white House
late yesterday. They shook hands and
chatted briefly and Louis was given