Category: Shriners

Matzo Brawl!

Nov. 29, 1907
Los Angeles

Oh Those Shriners: Recall, if you will, the grisly train wreck that killed a large number of Shriners returning from their convention in Los Angeles. It seems that one of them, George F. Hageman, inadvertently touched off a legal dispute between two belles of Reading.

Sarah Reber and Maude Weber went before the court insisting that each of them was the rightful heir of the bachelor, who was

Horse Abuse At the Fiesta

May 9, 1907
Los Angeles

The spies of the SPCA were watching closely as the Fiesta electrical parade wound its way down Broadway last night, ready to spring forward in defense of the poor animals on whose shoulders so much of the festivities rests.

Sure enough, rider W.S. Voorsanger was spotted at 2nd and Broadway, spurring his horse so violently that blood showed on its flanks. Officer Mitchell approached Voorsanger to rebuke him, but the man galloped away, then pushed his mount into a run. Commissioning a nearby automobile, the SPCA officers gave chase, capturing their quarry near Fourth and Main. Voorsanger will stand trial in Police Court today on a charge of animal abuse; he claims he did not realize he was harming the horse, and gives no excuse for running.

Voorsanger… isn’t that Dutch for "to make bloody"? 

Shriners Present a Colorful Array

What, you might ask yourself, did Shriners do before the advent of those little cars and Harley- Davidson Electra Glides? The elaborately costumed men staged precision, close-order drills accompanied by marching bands.

The effect, according to The Times, was stunning, inspiring the unidentified author to summon forth his (or possibly her) own gaudiest prose.

The Big Pickup

April 25, 1907
Los Angeles
 
Fiesta is coming!  And men of low standing are being swept from the streets—today one M. Lawrence was arrested on the charge of peddling worthless jewelry.  The police are making a special effort to remove from our midst swindlers of all stripes before Fiesta.  Sometimes they have help:  a Mr. Johnson was admitted to Receiving Hospital with cuts and lacerations to the face; he was recognized as being C. W. Draper, the recently paroled forger.  While attempting to sell goods to a woman at 115 North Olive Street, an unknown man leaped upon him and beat him severely.