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dmam’AYBE Linus P.urr Smith,HI(Mihead of the Nebraska U. a r c h itectural department, ill bp the only other Lincoln resi- 1 dent intrres’ed, but Sol Butler is now helping train a prize fighter named Killer Coates in California.! Probably you never heard of Sol’ Butler. Don't admit this in the. presence of anyone who resided in I Hutchinson, Has , in the 1910-20 • «, dai ■' kSol w-as the finest athlete who p . : « am'- out of tbt Ml Ctt)Six feet tw'o, about 200 pounds of tapered physique that would have; sent a sculptor Into a seventh heaven. Sol wa- a one man foot- LI ball, basketball and track team.Of course Johnny Armstrong, later'lesWestern league ballplayer, Vrre Lowe and Spec Stephens werejfui fine help but it was Sol who car- #cj. ned the load. The big Negro later attended Dubuque U., where his fame spread but his chance at international glory went glimmering when he pulled a tendon just before Uncle Sam’s Olympic team pulled away for Antwerp in 1920.He was broad jumping 24 feet 8 Inches then which was. and still is, quite a leap, altho Jesse Owens and others have dwarfed the figure somewhat.Sol’s pappy was a character who could have stepped right out of the cast of “The Green Pastures.” About five feet three, and almost round, his hair entirely white, his teeth were skinned perpetually in a wide grin. He had been a slave In the deep aouth.In the alley next to my own dad s office. Ben Butler conducted a combination shoe shining and cold drink stand but the only re- J ^ freshment he offered was a bright j red concoction whose base was I ev soda pop. This he dipped from a! ten gallon crock. Ben called this1^ sweet poison “Strawberry Finish. j co His sales talk was convincing. It’s! m many a belly ache this jolly old I V( Negro talked me into with his j smooth argument about the tonic; qualities of Strawberry Finish. He J guarded his recipe like the owners of the Angostura Bitters formula, j ar _: MBEN prohably has passed on but | cs I hope he gave someone a list I J71of the ingredients in their pro- 0 per proportion for compounding'^ Strawberry Finish. This potion,1 with the same beautiful tint that comes to a glass of plum Jelly with the sun shining thru it, this syrupy draught for which the flies, both house and horse, had such fondness that they would gather from miles around in the hope of placing their snouts in a spilled dnf or tv.o—or itetter still rush the crock itself when they could J q catch old Ben off guard for a moment as he lifted the cloth to retrieve a dipper full, altho this practice stepped up the mortality rate as many of them were caught j n inside and subsequently drowned in what must have been a beautiful death—this elixir that would add years to your life besides effecting a permanent cure for all . ills, should not have been per- j mitted to go to the grave with! r Ben Butler. I gCWhile conforming strictly to the laws of Kansas as to alcoholic content, Strawberry Finish was just as Insidious. It got to the point where you couldn’t take it or let it alone. No day, nd especially those crackling July and August afternoons, was complete without at least two helpings of this pink perfection. What the Pink Lady is to the present trade, Ben Butler’s Strawberry Finish was to the juveniles of my set twenty years ago. A Pink Man, if you will.Any one good at tracing the original causes of gastronomic disturbances could follow the trail of some of my present day midriff difficulties straight back to that combination shoe shine and re- J freshment parlor operated by Sol j, Butler’s pappy. 11
Newspaper Details
Lincoln Nebraska State Journal
Lincoln, Nebraska, US
Sun, Feb 02, 1936
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Hutchinson P.
KS, USA 17 May 2024
Other Publications Near Lincoln, Nebraska
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