A Parade, a Brass Band, and Dancing Until Four
North Yakima's Odd Fellows mark the order's 72nd anniversary with a march down the business streets, an address at the opera house, and a ball that outlasted the refreshments at the Hotel Yakima.
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.
Monday was a great day for the members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It was observed generally throughout the country, but nowhere did it pass off more satisfactorily than in North Yakima. Early in the afternoon the Encampment and the Daughters of Rebekah paraded the streets to the inspiring music of the North Yakima brass band. This organization, under the leadership of Prof. L. C. Read, is improving very rapidly, and if the present rate of progress is maintained Yakima will soon have reason to boast of one of the best bands in the northwest. The line of march included the principal business streets, beginning at the lodge rooms and terminating at the opera house, where the feature of the exercises was the address of Hon. Lee F. A. Shaw, of Walla Walla, grand secretary of the order in the state. Mr. Shaw is a pleasing talker and he handled his subject with much skill. The address is well worthy of reproduction in its entirety, but the crowded condition of The Herald's columns this week forbids more than a brief summary.
In the evening the open house was the scene of much enjoyment, the large hall being filled with ladies and gentlemen intent upon pleasure, and everyone seemed to realize his or her desire. There must have been a hundred couples present, and, with the exception of the hour taken for refreshments at the Hotel Yakima, there was no cessation in the dancing until about four o'clock in the morning, and even then many were loth to quit.
“There was no cessation in the dancing until about four o'clock in the morning, and even then many were loth to quit.”
Fraternal orders like the Odd Fellows were the civic infrastructure of 1890s Yakima — insurance, burial society, banquet hall and political network in one building. Their parade route down the principal business streets to the opera house traces a downtown that later generations tore down and rebuilt, and the ball that ran until four in the morning shows how much energy a town of a few thousand people could put into a single evening.
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