The 13,900 people who filed out of Boston Garden Monday night were strangely quiet and bitter. They had paid up to $2.75 apiece to see the well-publicized Harlem Globetrotters perform, and instead of an exhibition they were forced to see a basketball game.

The Globetrotters that came bursting onto the court to the tune of "Sweet Georgia Brown" were the same red, white and blue uniforms which have gained them world-wide renown, as well as capacity crowds wherever they go, but as far as this crowd was concerned, the Globetrotters could have stayed in New York. Gone from the lineup was the showman Goose Tatum; gone from the floor was the remarkable dribbler Leon Hilliard--in short, the Globetrotters were just a basketball team, and not a show company.

And since they were just a basketball team, they had to compete on even terms with a group of college seniors with the deadliest assortment of shots that the Garden crowd had ever seen. The Globetrotters tried very hard. Their "ringer." Sweetwater Clifton, who had just finished the season with the New York Knickerbockers, scored 13 points, and Charlie Primas made 15, but the College All-Stars easily won, 83 to 78.

Saperstein Perturbed

Although this was only his team's first loss in the 25 game series the teams will play Abe Saperstein, the Globetrotter owner-coach was very worried. For he knows as well as anyone else that the people who filled up Boston Garden Monday night were far from avid basketball fans. It was a nondescript crowd, composed mainly of people who wanted to have a good time, see a few good shots, and which some fancy passing and dribbling.

The atmosphere, moreover, which pervaded the Garden Monday was not that of basketball but of a carnival. The feature attraction was played between a galaxy of vandevile acts, most of them so bad that they haven't been on television yet. There were jugglers, acrobats, gymnasts, accordion players, to al., on the program and the crowd loved them all. They clapped furiously at everything, except the game.

The contest was played according to the rules. There was no baseball game, no mad dribbling, nor any such horseplay. The collegians, led by the great Tom Gola with 25 shots, jumped out to a 30-13 lead in the first quarter, and were never headed.

Gola, Jack Steepens, Ed Conlon, Jesse Arnelle, Dick Hemric and company controlled both backboards and played good solid ball, never getting tense under the Globetrotters' tight defense.

A normal crowd would have cheered the teams, for the game was well played, but instead, when it became evident that the Globetrotters would have to fight to stay in the game rather than clown around as they do when they are ahead, the crowd began to hiss, clap hands rhythmically and in general show their disapproval of the game.

There was no avoiding it--the Globetrotters looked like the second-best team; if this continues throughout their long trip it may mean the end of the road for the colorful Negroes. For the word is going to circulate that the Globetrotters have to play basketball, and that they don't clown any more. When this happens, the only people interested in seeing the Globetrotters are going to be basketball fans, and these fans would rather see the Boston Celtics.

May Be an Omen

The Globetrotters used to have a strangle-hold on all the good Negro basketball players, but the example of Clifton may provide a shadow of the future. He used to be a Globetrotter, but now is a regular in the NBA. The two Negroes on the All-Stars, Aruelle and Ed Fleming, both will be grabbed by the NBA, not the Globetrotters. The material is thinning and Monday's game may have been a sign of bad times to come for the illustrious Globetrotters.