SCHOOL CIRCUS IS VOTED BIG SUCCESS.
'Poly's' Eccentric Entertainment Is Lively From Start to Finish.
"La-dees and Gentlemen! The glittering galaxy of triumphant, turbulent tumblers will now occupy the center ring."
Thus spoke Ringmaster Joseph Stein at the festival of fun and frivolity staged by the students of the Poly-technic institute's multiple school, Eleventh and Locust streets, yesterday afternoon. With a bull fight in the gymnasium and side shows in practically every room on the first floor of the school building, the fun was fast and furious. The junior college, the normal school, the high school division, the commercial and mechanical training classes each presented a convincing argument against dull care. The admission fees were 1, 2, and 3 cents to the shows.
The proverbial snake-eater, fat woman and tattooed man were superseded by a specially convincing replica of Sis Hopkins, given by Miss Velmatto Williams. Virgil Thompson, as the Hindoo seer, offered the "past, present and future shamelessly revealed."
Among the side shows given was the shoot the chutes, a popgun rifle gallery where, if you did lose the game, you couldn't lose the bullet, and the most convincing demonstration of electricity yet shown in Kansas City. The "class" to be initiated into the marvels of the electric fluid was ceremoniously seated in room 34 after an exhaustive lecture on electricity and its merits was given. Then a plea was made for contributions for the newly organized electricians' clubs and a request made that "all who will donate $5 toward the cause will please stand."
The reason why each and every one not only stood, but arose with surprising alacrity was that at that psychological moment some one threw a switch conveying certain lively portions of the current to the anatomy of every person who had been so courteously seated the few moments before.
Dancing backwards, or what appeared to be backwards, was another amusing feature. A class of normal training students tied their hair over their faces, put masks on the backs of their heads, put their clothing on backwards, and then went through an eccentric dance. The effect was uncanny.
"I told them to go as far as they liked as long as they had lots of fun and broke no bones," said Principal E. H. Rainier, who was "game" for every "stunt" pulled. "The students obeyed my instructions."
