Eighty blister feet crossing burning sands

The largest gathering the clubhouse is recorded as feeding, and the strangest headline in the archive.

The Dramatic Order Knights of Khorassan is the Knights of Pythias at play — a costumed degree with a desert theme, in which candidates are tyros, the initiation is crossing the burning sands, and the ordeal is called the tiger. In August 1922 it brought visiting teams to Bend, and the Bulletin gave it the whole left column of page one under four decks of headline, which are set apart below and which no summary can improve on.

Eighty tyros “seeking admittance into the D. O. K. K. oasis made the trip across the burning sands and arrived safely in spite of the tiger's vicious attacks, at the American Legion building” — the ceremonial itself was staged there, by a Medford team, with the Dokies' brass band. The Emblem Club's part came after: “persons who happened to be along Wall street witnessed a parade over two blocks long as the line of tyros was marched to the Emblem club to be ‘fattened for the tiger’, at the banquet served by the Pythian Sisters of Bend… Over 200 persons were served.”

That is the largest single gathering the clubhouse is recorded as feeding — more than the two hundred the 1914 addition had been built to seat. A “kangaroo court” had been held that afternoon in Sather's hall, rounding up knights who had failed to register for the initiation and sentencing them to take the degree; some came peacefully and others gave battle. The mayor handed the keys of the city to the visiting Medford team on Oregon street.

The club had been a purely social organisation since 1919, its hall let to whoever needed it. This is what that looked like at full stretch.