Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Banks of the Boneyard (Charles Kiler) [PAGE 60]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

I

t

I

Alley L

65

i

I

I

I

I I I I I I I

•

are only a few; I wish I could name them all. The Chicago Sigs through their committee of which I was one, had arranged elaborate entertainment at the Fair, at the play, "America," and over the city. We chartered the steamer IVhaleback to take the boys to the Fair as well as for a moonlight excursion on Lake Michigan. The orchestra played Charles K. Harris's new song "After the Ball/' I can still hear George Ade's fine baritone rising above weaker voices. Did we see the Midway—I'll say we did, and the Midway concessionaires remember our visits with mingled feelings. Being young and enthusiastic I cashed checks freely—one for $300 written on the back of an official size envelope, and to the everlasting honor of our boys, all of those checks were good. A flag containing our new coat of arms, designed by Henry Vinton, was adopted at this convention, and that night we attended the play at the Auditorium. Among the feature attractions at the show was a family of famous acrobats—the Schaefer Family from Germany. Their finale was a pyramid built with all the family standing on the shoulders of the parents. The youngest child was a little five-yearold girl who was tossed up to the top of this pyramid. On this evening she had been given the new Sigma Chi flag, which she unfurled and gracefully waved toward the boxes occupied by our crowd. This gesture brought the house down. One of the most enthusiastic Sigma Chis in the world was Charlie Ailing of Chicago. Before the tumult and the shouting had quieted down, Charlie came to me and asked that I invite the Schaefer family, and all those having leading roles in the show, to come in the cafe and have refreshments on him when the show was over. I hunted up Milward Adams, the manager of the theatre, and had him extend the invitation to the actors. I thought there might be 12 to 15 who could be called leaders, but when, after a long wait in the cafe, the actors arrived, it looked as if the entire cast had been included. The great singer Louise Beaudet came with somebody's Sig pin on her ample breast. The Russian toe dancers from some Royal Theatre in St. Petersburg tried to look quite royal. When Brother Ailing asked Herr Schaefer what he would h^ve for himself and family, Schaefer replied that he never permitted his family to drink anything but Champagne—Louis Roderais Carte Blanche. This put an idea in the head of the others and where dear old Charlie had expected they would order beer, the liquid consumed cost $6 a quart! I

I } •

I