This day in The Saratogian in 1916
Thursday, July 27, 1916
The Saratoga Racing Association opens up shop for the season at the Grand Union Hotel today as final preparations begin for “what promises to be an epoch-making meeting in the annals of the Saratoga Association and of American racing generally.”
“The scope of the meeting has been enlarged in every way by the foresighted directors of the local association to prepare for that they knew was coming,” The Saratogian reports. Despite their efforts, the Association’s assistant secretary, A. McL. Earlocker, “finds the accommodations taxed.”
Despite the taxing circumstances, “Secretary Earlocker is naturally cheerful and optimistic, and many a time during years that have recently passed he had to say the cheerful thing when he and everyone else knew that things were not at all cheerful.”
Those uncheerful years ended just last year, when “The Saratoga Association … passed out of the period of bondage that followed the passage of the anti-race track gambling laws of 1908 and cleared itself of debt as a result of the successful season of 1915.”
The 1916 meet “promises to place the association on an even more substantial footing,” a reporter notes.
RECEPTION FOR GOAT
The Saratoga Lodge of Odd Fellows seems to live up to its name when members hold a ceremonial reception for a goat this evening.
The goat is “Traveler,” who recently embarked from Mechanicville on a mission to visit every Odd Fellows lodge in New York State. A delegation of twenty lodge members from the Kayaderosseras Lodge of Ballston Spa escort Traveler into the Spa City today.
Traveler “has quite a trip ahead of him,” The Saratogian reports, “Inasmuch as there are approximately 1,000 branches of the order in the state, it will probably be five years before he is returned to the starting point, because he is sometimes kept in one place a week or more.”
The goat will stay here until Monday, August 2, when a special committee will escort him to the Electric Lodge of South Glens Falls.
CARNIVAL NIGHT
Back at the Grand Union, Carnival Night “drew forth a crowd of several hundred dancers and spectators to the outdoor pavilion and the verandas of the hotel.
“Carrying out the spirit of carnival, various kinds of noise makers were supplied the guests and grotesque hats of all descriptions were given as favors to everyone present. The soft illumination from the many red-colored electric lights added to the effect.”
H. B. McQueen of Schenectady and his partner win the lucky number dance contest because their number isn’t drawn until after every other couple is eliminated from the dance floor.