Show ANCIENT ELK HISTORY Stories of Last Meeting of Elks Grand Lodge HOW SALT LAKE WON THE DAY Rumor That Salt Lake Lodgo Would Send Dig Delegation Accompanied by tho Live Elk How tho Five Men Who Went Mado Good on tho Elk Animals Strange Sickness Necessitating Sending Him Back to Zion Ottumwaa Aid Given What the flipping Tags Did As the time draws near for Elks from all over the United States lo gather In Salt Lake in attendance upon the grand lodge session and reunion the boys around town are growing a bit reminiscent remin-iscent r Among themselves they are recounting re-counting a number of funny Incidents in connection with the selection of this city for the convention They I are too good to keep although they border a little on the con gnme But In times of love and war everything goes except the cook stove and two Joints of pipe Any one who has ever tended a grand lodgvi session knows that the fight for the next reunion in no love affair it Is war to the hilt of the knife EXPECTED I THE LIVE ELK In the first place the rumor gained circulation throughout the United States Just before the Milwaukee convention con-vention hun the Salt Lake boys were going to the Beer city several scoics strong and would be accompanied by a real live fourlegged elk which was to march In I the Elks day parade n the the head of the Klon delegation There was no need trying to diny the story the boys would not have it hat I way They weie determined upon having the iiiadiuped elk at Milwaukee and the Salt Lake boy found ihe > must produce pro-duce the goods or ever be in disgrace Vhen tha date t for departure arrived the big Salt Lake delegation dwindled dwin-dled down to five loyal I Elks They boarded the train with nil the Importance Import-ance and dignity of fifty bipeds Then they began discussing among themselves how they should make good at Ottumwa In and Ulwaulc cIt c-It on the elk proposition When that was solved they turned their attention at-tention to making excuses about the sine I of their delegation At Ottumwa a big reception had been arranged for A E Lyon one of the five Elks who by l the way used to live there and the fourleased fellow ELKS ALLEGED SICKNESS At Provo a telegram t was sent to the Iowa hoys stating that the Salt Lakers were on tbiit way W lth the elk In I the baggage car A station or two beyond wires to a message was sent over the the efCect thai the elk was showing signs of Indisposition the IHl cof the train was too fast for him he was outclassed An hour later another wire was dispatched that the elk was getting worse rjlion the Iowa boy weie informed that a veterinary surgeon sur-geon had joined the rain having been telegraphed ahead for to administer to time wants of the suffering animal As the train sped on Its way toward the main range of the Rocky mountains tbe condition of the elk grew worse Infinite In-finite of the veterinary and the corps oft five male Elk nurses When Grand Junction Cole was reached a long message wan sent lo Iowa slating that I the surgeon had ordered the journey of tim elk discontinued at that pointlf his biped admirers wished him to lemain In earthly Elkdom many hours longer Much as they disliked to do so thu boys said they were compelled to take the elk from the train and ship him back home Several members of the supposedly big delegation abandoned their Milwaukee l trip 1 to return to Salt Lake willi the elk They wired the eastbound Sail Lake boys on their train from every station between Grand Junction to Zion how the l IOOr elk was standing the homeward trip As Salt Lake was approached the poor animals condition grew worse and worse and when the Rio Grande Western depot was reached the elk collapsed lIe was taken Immediately to the park where after onrefully nursing and perfect rest he regained his normal condition and ultimately recovered SALT LAKERS OF IOWA Cople of every telegram received by the Salt Lake I boys as they sped toward Iowa were saved When Ottumwa was reached and there was no fourlegged elk In the baggage car the disappointment disappoint-ment ot1 the Elks of that city was keen At first they scented a myth but the production of the telegrams which costa cost-a goodly sum soon convinced them the Zlonltcs really had an elk at home started with him for Milwaukee but were compelled to send him back as he was taken 111 At every town In Colorado where the train stopped there were crowds lo greet the Salt Lake delegation When time size the delegation was commented comment-ed upon those who asked too many questions were Informed that the remainder re-mainder of tle party had gone around by another route It was not until Ot tumwa was reached that the boys of No 81 had to admit that their big delegation del-egation numbered Just five men It would never do for a delegation of that sic from the city which wanted the next convention to enter Milwaukee Milwau-kee Ho twentyeight Elks were nee cured In that city to t march behind the live I Salt Lake bucks in the Elks day parade And the Milwaukee people wcie never any the wiser PRINTED THOUSAND5 OF TAGS When it came lo staipecliiig that cltj for Salt Lake jr the 1H02 convention the clever brains of the crowd wet drawn upon again The hotel room ot Secretary A F i Raybould l was used as headquarters After I the boys arrived In Milwaukee they decided that something some-thing had to be done and at once If I they expected to win After many secret se-cret conference a 1 plan was decided 1 upon A delegation of the five men visited a printing office bought tens of thousands of common shipping tags and ordered pertain printing on both sldcr In purple Ink Then about fifty little newsboys were pressed Into I perv Ice They weie instructed to return 1 lo the hotel at n certain hour that evenIng even-Ing They did so Each war given a big package of those tags throuih the hole of which hncj been looped a rubber rub-ber band Just about sundown that evening when everybody was beginning to arrive ar-rive upon the streets thronging < the I downtown section the fifty ncunboys wera turned loose with instructions fsislen on ° of those tags upon a button of every man woman and child they met In less than an hour thousands I of people were parading 1 the streets of Milwaukee wllh u tag flopping from a button On the tag was the Innorip tionShip Ship Me To Salt Lake City 1002 The J Idea caught just as the boys hoped It would and carried the day for I Salt Lake when the naming of the con vention city w us brought l up lit the grand lodge Next month thousands of niun and women who wore those tags last year In Milwaukee will be shipped to Salt Lake Thofo tire some of the stories going the rounds as to how the boys cap tured the forthcoming convention and the good Imps they had disposing of the mythical elk and accounting for their small delegation AH stories In creatyj In size as they travel It may he true with these points may he stretched a little but It Is I a tact Salt Lake baa a live I elk that numerous tel l cgrami were produced In Iowa explaining explain-ing why he was not on the train that the Salt Lake delegation did consist of but five members and that the tags were actually fastened on every man woman and child In that city ao long as the supply lasted |