A Night at the Park for the Kobers
The local Eagles lodge and Shields Park management host a benefit performance to support a professional performer recovering from surgery.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At the request of the local lodge of Eagles, Manager Rasmus of Shields Park has generously consented to give a benefit performance Tuesday night to raise funds to aid Mrs. Bertha Kober, who recently underwent a severe surgical operation at the Walla Walla Hospital. Mrs. Kober and her husband, Walter Kober, are professional acrobats and aerial performers well known all over the United States. Their clever and winsome little daughter, Irene, is employed by the Shields company as a contortionist and soloist, and she is a prime favorite with the crowds that nightly attend the entertainments at the park. No doubt the benefit performance will be liberally patronized, as the object is a most worthy one.
“Their clever and winsome little daughter Irene is employed by the Shields company as a contortionist and soloist.”
In an era before employer-provided health insurance or robust social safety nets, mutual aid through community events like this was the primary way performers and workers coped with the high cost of emergency surgeries.
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