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diff --git a/36219.txt b/36219.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5acdcae --- /dev/null +++ b/36219.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6138 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sawdust & Spangles, by W. C. Coup + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sawdust & Spangles + Stories & Secrets of the Circus + +Author: W. C. Coup + +Release Date: May 25, 2011 [EBook #36219] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAWDUST & SPANGLES *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +SAWDUST & SPANGLES + + +STORIES & SECRETS OF THE CIRCUS + + +BY +W. C. COUP + + +Herbert S. Stone and Company +Eldridge Court, Chicago +MDCCCCI + +COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY +HERBERT S. STONE & CO + + + + +CONTENTS + + +FOREWORD ix + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. BOYHOOD WITH THE OLD-TIME WAGON SHOW 1 + + My First Exciting Experience 4 + The Intelligence of Elephants 5 + Fights with the Grangers 6 + "Doc" Baird and the Bully 9 + Teasing Old Romeo 10 + The Story of a Stolen Negro 12 + Horse Thieves in the Circus 15 + + II. THE PERILOUS BUSINESS OF STOCKING A MENAGERIE 18 + + Beasts at Wholesale 20 + The Professional Animal Hunter 21 + Striking into the Interior 22 + Hunters' Life in the Jungle. 23 + Why Baby Elephants are Hard to Capture 26 + Across the Desert with Captive Beasts 29 + The Adventures of Specimen Hunters 31 + + III. FREAKS AND FAKES 35 + + The Burial and Resurrection of the "Cardiff Giant" 37 + The Rival White Elephants 40 + How the "Light of Asia" Embarrassed the Lecturer 41 + The Wild Cave-Dweller of Kentucky 44 + The Two-Headed Girl's Three-Headed Rival 46 + Missing Links and Dancing Turkeys 49 + The Salaries Paid to Freaks 50 + The Love-Making and Merrymaking of the Freaks 51 + The Exposure of the "Aztec Children" 54 + An Adventure with a Circus Shark 56 + + IV. MOVING THE BIG SHOW 59 + + The First Attempt to Move a Circus by Rail 61 + The Spartan Habits of the Old Timers 63 + Seven Heartbreaking Days on the Long Road 64 + Performing by Day and Traveling by Night 67 + On a Runaway Circus Train 69 + Panic Among the Animals 71 + A Single Track and a Broken Rail 73 + The Bronchos' Charmed Life 75 + Old Romeo to the Rescue 77 + An Unexpected Midnight Bath 79 + + V. THE PRAIRIE FIRE 86 + + A Chance Meeting with a Great Man 96 + + VI. BOOMING THE BIG SHOW 104 + + Novel Advertising Features 105 + The "Devil's Whistle" 106 + "Spotters" 108 + Rivalry in Exploiting Opposition Shows 112 + Costly Rivalry 113 + Idle Bill-Posters 116 + The Courtesy of Editors 118 + Jumbo's Free Advertising 120 + + VII. PARADES AND BAND WAGONS 124 + + The Fifty Cent Rivals of the Ten Thousand Dollar Hippos 124 + A Skillful Appeal to Public Sympathy 126 + A Silent Parade from Albany to the State Line 128 + The Fluctuating Level of Circus Values 130 + What it Costs to Ride with the Band Wagon 132 + Requirements and Cost of the Circus Horse 134 + A Page from the Invoice Book of the Big Show 136 + +VIII. ANECDOTES OF MEN AND ANIMALS 139 + + Origin of the American Circus 139 + The First Elephant Brought to America 141 + The First Drove of Camels 144 + The Fight of the Ostriches 145 + The Belligerent Alligators 149 + Parrots and Cockatoos 153 + Educated Dogs 154 + A Wounded Horse in the Grand March 156 + Intelligent Bronchos 158 + The King of the Herd 159 + An Elephant's Humor 160 + Zulus in London 162 + + IX. TRAINING ANIMALS AND PERFORMERS 169 + + The Perils of a Trainer's Life 170 + Where Steady Nerves are in Demand 172 + Captured Animals Preferred to Cage-Born 173 + The Education of a Young Jaguar 174 + The Leopards at Kindergarten 177 + How they Punish Unruly Pupils 179 + Punishment of Treacherous Beasts 180 + A Single-Handed Fight with Five Lions 182 + Teaching the Horse the Two-Step 186 + Ring Performers Trained with a Derrick 187 + Circus People a Long-Lived Class 189 + + X. MOBS, CYCLONES AND ADVENTURES 192 + + Forcible Argument with a City Marshal 193 + Breaking Camp under a Hot Rifle Fire 195 + Ambushed and Shot at on the Road 197 + The Studies of the Apprentice to the Clown 201 + Devotional Services Upset by a Demon 204 + The Wild Beasts Loose in the Big Crowd 205 + The Midnight Stampede of the Elephants 208 + A Polar Bear Hunt on Fifth Avenue 209 + An Equine Officer of Artillery 211 + + XI. STORIES OF OLD-TIME SHOWS AND SHOWMEN 214 + + Dan Rice's One-Horse Show 215 + Tan-Bark Oratory and Harlequin Pluck 217 + An Imitation Patriot Shown Up 219 + In which Cupid was Master of the Ring 223 + Barnum's One Unconquerable Superstition 227 + Gullible Patrons in Early Days 229 + Expedients of Advance Agents 231 + Plantation Shows 234 + Exhibiting "Yankees" in the South 235 + Sleeping in Strange Attitudes 236 + A Circus "Crier" 238 + Showmen's Names 239 + The Escape of a Leopard 241 + Hotel Keepers 243 + Early Breakfasts 245 + + XII. HOW THE GREAT NEW YORK AQUARIUM WAS MADE AND LOST 247 + + The Quest of the Tree-Tailed Kingio 249 + Half-Hours with Bashful Whales 251 + A Slippery Deal in Sea-Lions 254 + An Eventful Monday Morning at the Aquarium 258 + The Ultimate Fate of the Aquarium 260 + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The notes from which the following narrative was drawn were dictated by +Mr. W. C. Coup at odd moments in the big show tent, the special car or +the hotel where he chanced to find himself with a half-hour at his +disposal. The manner and the motive of their writing unite to +contribute to their charm and effectiveness. His unbounded enthusiasm +for his peculiar calling and his desire so to state the facts of his +experience as to give the general public a fairer and fuller +understanding of its real conditions inspired him to the labor of +crowding into his busy life the pleasant task of putting upon paper the +main points of his interesting career. + +Nothing could have been more fortunate than the fact that he was +compelled to do this in a manner wholly informal,--intending later to +put his haphazard notes into good literary form. His recollections fell +from his lips as they came into his mind, in the forceful and +picturesque phraseology of the typical showman. To preserve this +original quality has been the effort constantly held in view in +grouping these notes for publication. The terse idiom of the offhand +dictation has been consistently retained and gives the true "show" +color and flavor to the stirring scenes, adventures and incidents with +which the book deals. + +Of Mr. Coup's prominence in his profession it is scarcely necessary to +speak, and I think none will venture to question the statement that he +was the founder and pioneer in America of the circus business pure and +simple, as distinguished from other lines of show enterprise, and that +the story of his life would incidentally furnish a concise history of +the circus on this continent. His name was a family word in homes of +the people of every part of the United States during the period of his +greatest activity. The main incidents of his career may be tersely +stated as follows: + +William Cameron Coup was born in Mount Pleasant, Ind., in 1837. While +he was still a boy, his father bought the local tavern in a small +country village. The business of hotel keeping did not commend itself +to the future showman, who left home and took the position of "devil" +in a country newspaper office. Soon, however, he became dissatisfied +with the opportunities which the printing craft seemed to present, and +started out to find something which better suited his unformed and +perhaps romantic ideas of a profession. After a hard tramp of several +miles he chanced to encounter a show, and immediately determined that +this was the field to which he would devote his energies and in which +he would make for himself a name and a fortune. With this show he +served an apprenticeship, in a humble capacity, and gained a clear idea +of the essentials of the business. + +In 1861 he secured the side-show privileges of the E. F. & J. Mabie +Circus, then the largest show in America. He remained with this firm +until 1866, when he secured similar privileges with the Yankee Robinson +Circus, with which he allied himself until 1869. In the latter year he +formed a co-partnership with the celebrated Dan Costello and entered +upon the first of the original ventures marking as many distinct epochs +in the history of the circus in America. This departure was the +organization of a show which traveled by boat and stopped at all the +principal lake ports of the great inland seas. This enterprise was a +decided success. + +At that time Mr. P. T. Barnum had never been in the circus business, +and Mr. Coup had not personally met this king of showmen. He keenly +appreciated, however, the prestige which Mr. Barnum's name would give +to a circus enterprise, and went to New York for the purpose of +interesting Mr. Barnum in an enterprise of this character. This object +he had no difficulty in accomplishing, and in the Spring of 1870 they +put an immense show on the road, which toured the eastern States and +was highly successful. + +The next year marked a turning point in the career of Mr. Coup and also +in that of the traveling show business. He was the first man who ever +called the railroad into service for the purpose of moving a circus and +menagerie. This significant step was taken in opposition to the +judgment of his partner, P. T. Barnum, and in the face of the doubts +and objections of the leading railroad officials of the country. But +Mr. Coup's faith in the results of this "rapid transportation movement" +was firm, and he astonished Mr. Barnum and the entire public by the +phenomenal success of this venture, which brought a rich harvest of +money and reputation. + +The project of building a permanent amusement palace in New York came +to Mr. Coup in 1874. Under his supervision, and while Mr. Barnum was in +Europe, he erected, on the present site of the Madison Square Garden, +the famous New York Hippodrome. His labors in this connection were so +arduous that, when the great enterprise was thoroughly established, he +felt obliged to take a long rest. To this end he severed his +partnership with Mr. Barnum, and in 1875 took his family to Europe. + +Immediately following his return to America, in the spring of 1876, Mr. +Coup announced that he had formed a new co-partnership with Mr. Charles +Reiche, for the purpose of starting another mammoth enterprise to be +known as the New York Aquarium. A large building especially designed +for this purpose was erected at the corner of Thirty-fifth Street and +Broadway, and was opened October 11, 1876. Into this enterprise Mr. +Coup threw the energies and ambitions of a lifetime, and so long as he +retained its management the great undertaking was notably successful. + +His labors in this connection brought him into relationship with the +most celebrated scientists of the world, and many of them became his +personal friends. Scribner's Magazine devoted many pages to an article +describing the Aquarium, and referred to Mr. Coup as a benefactor of +science and as a valued contributor to a more popular knowledge of +biology. Probably no other recognition ever received by Mr. Coup from +the press gave him the satisfaction which he gained from this magazine +article. + +Because of disagreements with his partner, who was determined to open +the Aquarium Sundays, for the patronage of the public, he disposed of +his business at a great sacrifice, and started out on the road with the +"Equescurriculum," an entirely novel and original exhibition consisting +of trained bronchos, performing dogs, goats, giraffes, etc., and +troupes of Japanese acrobats. Each year new attractions were added to +this show, and, in 1879, the New United Monster Shows were organized by +Mr. Coup and developed into one of the largest consolidated circuses in +the United States. + +Four year later, he established the Chicago Museum in the building then +known as McCormick Hall and located at the corner of Kinzie and Clark +streets, Chicago. Wild West shows and trained animal exhibitions +engaged his energies from 1884 to 1890. + +The "Enchanted Rolling Palaces" were put out in 1891 and created a +profound sensation throughout the entire country. This show was a +popular museum housed in an expensive and elaborate train of cars +especially constructed for the purpose. With this enterprise he toured +the southern and eastern States. This was practically his last +important undertaking, and his latest years were spent in practical +retirement, although he occasionally varied the monotony of life at his +country seat at Delavan, Wis., by engaging in new ventures and making +short tours with trained animal exhibitions. His death occurred at +Jacksonville, Fla., March 4, 1895. + + + + +SAWDUST AND SPANGLES + + + + +I + +BOYHOOD WITH THE OLD-TIME WAGON SHOW + + +As many a boy has come into the circus business in much the same manner +that I entered it (at the age of fourteen years), this start in show +life may be of some interest because typical of the way in which young +lads drift into this wandering existence. Doing chores about my +father's tavern in a little southern Indiana town brought me in contact +with such travelers as visited our quiet community. Listening to their +talk and stories naturally inspired me with a desire to see something +of the big and wonderful world outside our village. As this was +impossible at the time, I did what seemed the next best thing so far as +getting in touch with the world was concerned. When only twelve years +old I took the position of "devil" in the country newspaper office, and +for years worked at the printer's case, helped "run off" the paper on +the old Franklin press and did almost every disagreeable task that +could be put on the shoulders of a boy. + +This seemed quite exciting at the start, but it finally grew +monotonous, and the boyish longing for travel and adventure came back +to me with redoubled force. As my mother had died when I was very +young, and father had married again, surrounding himself with a second +family, my home ties, though pleasant enough, were not what they might +have been had my own mother lived. The printer in the little newspaper +office who was dignified by the title of foreman had seemed to take +quite a fancy to me, and we became rather close companions. One day +when the spirit of restlessness and adventure was strong upon me I +confided to him that I was tired of our slow old town and suggested +that we pack our few belongings in bundles and start out for some place +which would offer us a bigger chance to get on. This proposal, with the +beautiful summer weather, started the slumbering tendency to wander +that lurks in the heart of every true printer. + +Placing a few necessaries in two bundles, we quietly left the village +in regulation tramp-printer style. At length we reached Terre Haute, +where I was offered employment in a newspaper office. I realized that I +knew very little of the printing craft, and that it would take many +years of hard, up-hill work to make me a master of the art. +Consequently I determined to find some other line of employment more +exciting than that of "sticking type." The first thing we heard was +that a circus was showing in the town. This caught my fancy, and I told +my companion that I was going to join the circus and see something of +the world. He was disgusted at this proposal, and very plainly warned +me that if I took such a course I would make a worthless loafer of +myself. But my circus blood was up, and I put my resolve into immediate +action, little dreaming that I was taking the first step in a career +that was to become a part of the history of the show business in +America. + +The show which I joined was one of the largest then in existence, +having more than a hundred horses, ten fine Ceylon elephants, a +gorgeously carved and painted "Car of Juggernaut," and many other +"attractions" which seemed marvelous in my boyish eyes. Not the least +of these in point of attractiveness and popularity was General "Tom" +Thumb, who was petted and feasted wherever he went. But Nellis, the man +without arms who could paint pictures and shoot pennies from the +fingers of the manager, claimed a large share of my silent admiration. + + +MY FIRST EXCITING EXPERIENCE + +My first exciting experience came very early in my service. I had +learned that the very best use to which I could put my time when not +actually engaged in work was to throw myself on the nearest bunch of +hay and sleep until awakened by the "boss." Having a boy's natural +affinity for an elephant I chose, on this particular day, the hay near +which the Ceylon drove was staked. In the midst of my dreams I was +suddenly awakened by a strange sensation--a peculiar sense of motion +that had something startling and uncanny about it. Then I realized that +I was being lifted in the coils of an elephant's trunk. So intense was +my horror at awakening to find myself in this position that I had +strength neither to resist nor to cry out. My helplessness was my +greatest protection. From sheer inability to do otherwise I remained +entirely passive, and Old Romeo, the king of the drove, laid me gently +down a little distance from the hay on which I had been sleeping. Then +I understood the intelligence of the elephant and the harmlessness of +his intentions. He had eaten all the hay save that on which I was +stretched, and to get at this he had lifted me with as much care as a +mother takes up a sleeping child whom she does not wish to waken. + + +THE INTELLIGENCE OF ELEPHANTS + +Only one other instance of elephant intelligence ever impressed me more +than this awakening in the grasp of Old Romeo. One of the small members +of the drove was trained to walk a rope--or more properly a belt--the +width of his foot. This performance attracted the attention of the baby +elephant, and one day I noticed the little fellow stealthily unhooking +the chain by which he was tethered. Then he boldly attempted to walk +the guard chain which surrounds the drove in every menagerie. The same +baby elephant, one day seeing the men shoveling to throw up a ring +embankment, contrived to get a shovel in his trunk. At once he +attempted to stab the blade into the earth. Failing in this effort to +imitate the men he flew into a passion and threw the tool to the +ground, trampling on it and breaking the handle. + +In those first days of my novitiate I found the people almost as +interesting as the elephants--which is saying much from the point of +view of a boy. The crudity of society at that period is vividly +illustrated by an incident which occurred soon after we had crossed +over into Illinois. We were showing at the little town of Oquawka and +"put up" at the only tavern there. The dining-room of this hostelry was +papered with circus bills. Our first meal introduced me to a scene so +outlandish that I shall never forget it. Shortly after we had seated +ourselves at the rough board table, the kitchen door was pushed open by +a tall, lank young countryman of a fierce and forbidding countenance. +He wore a broad-brimmed hat, heavy cowhide boots--in the tops of which +were buried the ends of his trouser legs--and a red flannel shirt. From +his belt protruded a huge bowie knife. In his hand he carried a +sixteen-quart pan heaped with steaming potatoes. As he strode across +the room he shouted: "Who in hell wants pertaters?" + + +FIGHTS WITH THE GRANGERS + +The novelty of all these curious and wonderful sights wore away after +awhile, and then began my circus life in all its stern reality. The +hardships and trials and the rough attaches of that "vast aggregation" +can never be forgotten. If the showmen were rough, so also were our +patrons. The sturdy sons of toil came to the show eager to resent any +imagined insult; and failing to fight with the showmen, would often +fight among themselves; for in the days of Abraham Lincoln's childhood +the people divided themselves into cliques, and county-seats were often +the arenas selected to settle family feuds. In other words, "fighting +was in the air," and, as may be imagined, the showmen received their +full share of it. It was no infrequent occurrence to be set upon by a +party of roughs, who were determined to show their prowess and skill as +marksmen with fists and clubs if required. As a consequence showmen +went armed, prepared to hold their own against any odds. Not once a +month, or even once a week, but almost daily, would these fights occur, +and so desperately were they entered into that they resembled pitched +battles more than anything else. Many years later, when describing this +part of my career and later battles and circus fights to General Grant +and Governor Crittenden at St. Louis, in which city my show was +exhibiting, they admitted that my experience in thrilling and startling +incidents compared favorably with their own, the difference being that +they had perfect discipline and were backed by a powerful government, +whilst for showmen there seemed to be little sympathy. + +The roads at that time were in a terrible condition--so bad that slight +rains would convert them into seas of mud, and a continued rainstorm +would make them impassable. + +One day one of our men became so immersed in quicksand that he sunk up +to his armpits, and would have been very quickly swallowed up entirely +had not some of his old comrades come to his rescue. Fastening one end +of a long rope around his body, they drew him from his perilous +position with the aid of a team of horses, and with so much force that +a very necessary part of his attire was left completely behind him. +These and other rigorous scenes were occurrences to which I became +inured. + +In these peaceful days it is almost impossible to realize the rough and +desperate character of the people in the backwoods districts from which +the old-time wagon shows drew their principal patronage. Even the +latter-day circus men have no adequate conception of the improvement +which time has wrought in the general character of the show-going +public in the country communities. There is no denying the fact that +then, as now, the attaches of the big circus were rather poor specimens +of humanity; but in common justice it must be said that some of their +pioneer patrons were more than a match for them. Never shall I forget +the awful impression made upon my boyish mind by the first combat of +this kind which I witnessed. Although I had not been long with the +show, I had caught the prevailing sentiment that we were constantly in +the "land of the Philistines," that the hand of every man was against +us, and that our only safety was in perpetual alertness and the ready +determination to stand together and fight for our rights on the +slightest signal of disturbance. + + +"DOC" BAIRD AND THE BULLY + +Connected with the side-show of the circus was a quiet inoffensive +little man known as "Doc" Baird. While we were showing in a +county-seat, the bully of the community, who was evidently bent upon +displaying his courage, singled out the little "doctor" as his victim +and proceeded to pick a quarrel with him. This proved a difficult thing +to do, for Baird was decidedly pacific in his disposition and preferred +to stand abuse rather than fight. I was among the attaches of the show +who witnessed the trouble, and it seemed to me a shame that a big +fellow like the bully should be permitted to terrorize the most +inoffensive of all the showmen. Suddenly the altercation grew warmer, +the bully's arm shot forward and the little doctor was knocked to the +ground. Instantly, however, he was on his feet, and the next moment I +heard the sharp report of a pistol, saw the smoke curl from the muzzle +of the arm and watched the fall of the bully. This was the first time +in my life that I ever looked upon the face of the dead or witnessed +any affray of a fatal character. The shock and shuddering which it +caused me were so great that I actually attempted to leave the show +business, but was soon back again into the "current of destiny" and +became inured to these exciting scenes. + + +TEASING OLD ROMEO + +The circus grounds appeared to be the favorite arena for the settlement +of the neighborhood feuds that were then characteristic of backwoods +communities. Weapons of every sort, from fists to pistols, were +employed and bloodshed was the rule rather than the exception. But the +belligerent spirit of the pioneer yeomen was sometimes displayed in +ludicrous ways. An instance of this character came near having a tragic +ending. A party of young people halted before the elephant drove and +amused themselves in teasing old Romeo. The ringleader in this reckless +sport was a veritable young Amazon. For a time the patriarch of the +drove, who had more good common sense than all his tormentors, stood +the annoyance with dignified forbearance. But at last the big country +girl succeeded in arousing his ire, and the huge elephant raised his +trunk and gave her as dainty a slap, by way of warning, as was ever +administered by a mother or school mistress to an unruly child. But the +young woman would not take this hint that would have sent the most +reckless animal-keeper of the show to a discreet retreat. Her pride was +wounded before her companions. With her face flaming with anger, she +leaped over the guard chain and made a vicious lunge at the shoulder of +the elephant with the point of her gaudy parasol. Fortunately an +attache of the show leaped forward in time to save her. This was one of +the most foolhardy displays of animal courage that I ever saw--and it +was thoroughly typical of the circus-going public of the West at an +early day. + + +THE STORY OF A STOLEN NEGRO + +The sectional feeling between the North and South was also a constant +menace to the showmen when traveling in the slave States, for the +circus men were universally regarded as "Yankees." The exciting +episodes growing out of this sentiment were numbered by the score, but +the one which gave me the greatest fright was encountered in Missouri +in an initial chapter of my experience. + +As the caravan pulled into Booneville, early one morning, after a +wearing night of marching, we found ourselves suddenly surrounded, not +by the usual welcoming party of children of all colors and sizes, but +by a band of lank Missourians, armed to the teeth. By this time I had +developed a very respectable amount of courage for a lad; but the sight +of this posse made me decidedly uncomfortable, and I'm afraid my whole +body shook as badly as the voice of Mr. Butler, the manager, when he +inquired the cause of our hostile reception. + +"You've got a stolen nigger in your outfit, and you're our +prisoners--that's what's the matter!" was the rough answer of the +leader of the posse. + +The gravity of our situation was at once grasped by every man who heard +this announcement, for the stealing of a slave was then a far greater +crime in the eyes of the community than unprovoked murder would now be. +A desperate and bloody battle in which every follower of the show must +look out for his own life as best he could seemed inevitable. We all +kept our eyes on the manager, who was cool and of impressive manners. +In those moments of breathless waiting for the fight to begin, I wished +myself with the vehemence of despair safely back in the quiet little +Hoosier office. + +Then Mr. Butler made a plucky appeal to all reasonable men who might be +in the posse. Was it not fair, he argued, that the man who had brought +this accusation should come forward and make himself and his standing +known? Was he a planter, the owner of slaves and a substantial citizen +of the great commonwealth of Missouri? This kind of ready eloquence +took with the crowd, and it was soon found that the man who had brought +the report was unknown to the people of Booneville. He was unable to +give a satisfactory account of himself or to prove that he ever owned a +slave. + +Our trouble seemed to be rapidly clearing away when one of the natives, +who had been quietly investigating the caravan, brought the stirring +news that he had discovered the stolen negro. Then all was excitement +again, and the strain was even more intense than before, for, hidden +away in one of the wagons was a black man! This mysterious evidence of +guilt dumbfounded every attache of the show save the manager, who +continued to maintain his splendid nerve in the presence of a half a +hundred rifles. Every instant I expected the shooting to begin. + +Once more, however, Mr. Butler caught the attention of the leader and +fired at the man claiming the negro a question which made the fellow +turn pale. On his answer depended the issues of peace or conflict. To +the surprise of the Missourians, our accuser broke down and confessed +that the affair was a scheme laid by himself and the negro to blackmail +from the circus manager a large sum of money. They planned that the +negro should make his presence known to some citizen while the white +man should circulate the rumor that his slave had been stolen by the +showman. Then the white man was to go to Mr. Butler and threaten him +with the wrath of the people unless a large sum was paid him to quiet +the matter and make his peaceable departure with the slave. But the +would-be blackmailer had started a larger fire than he had counted on +and had become frightened at his own work. The moment his confession +was made the mob turned upon him as fiercely as it had first started +for us. Then our manager once more stepped forward and urged the cooler +members of the posse to hasten the white man and negro inside the +protecting walls of the jail. This they did in a hurry--and just in the +nick of time, too; for the delay of a moment would have resulted in a +lynching. This episode won us the admiration and respect of the rough +men who had met us with loaded rifles, and we were feasted on +yellow-leg chickens, hickory-cured ham, wild honey and all the +delicacies that the southern planters "set out" for their guests. + + +HORSE THIEVES IN THE CIRCUS + +It was on this trip into Missouri that we met with a very serious loss +which almost crippled us for a time. The baggage train had passed en +route to the city where we were to exhibit, leaving the performers, the +band and ring horses, as is the custom, to follow in the rear. We had +about twenty horses and ponies of great value, and of invaluable use in +the show. One morning, just at daylight, the men who had charge of +these horses were attacked by a gang of horse thieves, and the entire +lot was taken from them. Our men were left wounded and bound with +cords, lying by the wayside. Meanwhile, the tents and other +paraphernalia were already in the village, awaiting the arrival of the +horses. The time for the show to begin came, but still no horses +appeared, and the crowds, assembled to see the performing animals, were +growing impatient. + +While we were in this embarrassing predicament, a citizen came riding +up in hot haste, stating that he had seen and released some men who had +said their horses had been stolen and who begged him to come into town +and report the loss to the managers. When this news was received, it +was immediately communicated to the expectant, impatient audience; but +being naturally suspicious of all mankind, and especially of circus +men, they thought it was a "sell" and a "Yankee trick"; but when once +they were made to believe the true facts of the case they rose as one +man and mounted their horses to overtake the marauders and punish them. +But the thieves, having had several hours start, escaped, and after +several days' search the chase was finally abandoned, and we were +obliged to proceed on our way without our horses. Horse thieves in +those days were very common, and were a continual annoyance to the +planters and farmers, and had our thieves been captured, they would +have been summarily dealt with. + +Naturally, we were very much crippled with our loss; but soon the +fertile brain of some of our performers secured us a means of +recovering from this calamity, and we were provided with other horses +which we used as substitutes for the beautiful and (for those days) +highly-trained animals which had been stolen. + + + + +II + +THE PERILOUS BUSINESS OF STOCKING A MENAGERIE + + +There are at least two features of the show business which are seldom +exaggerated, no matter how capable the showman may be at blowing his +own horn or how brilliant may be the accomplishments of his advertising +man as a professional prevaricator. These features are the great cost +of stocking a menagerie and the danger attending the capture and +handling of the savage creatures. Few people not in the business have +any idea what it costs to get together and maintain a large collection +of animals. + +Perhaps the only reason why these phases of the business have not been +magnified by the eloquent pens and tongues of the advance men is +because they are well-nigh incapable of exaggeration. The plain truth +concerning them is as astonishing and sensational as would be any +addition thereto, and consequently the advertising men have been +tempted to regard this as a field which does not invite a display of +their special talents. + +I know of one showman who paid $10,000 for a hippopotamus. This figure +would have been as effective for advertising purposes as twice that +amount--and yet I do not recall that this price was made much of in the +advertising put out by the proprietor. At the time I went into the +great New York Aquarium enterprise I remember having one day figured up +the amount which I had paid Reiche Brothers, then the leading animal +dealers of the world. It reached the neat sum of half a million +dollars. This, however, was but a fraction of the fortune I had been +called upon to invest in wild animals. Besides buying from other +dealers, I had been interested in several independent animal hunting +expeditions to Africa. This was a tremendously expensive experience, +and led me to a willingness to pay the very large profits demanded by +the established animal houses rather than attempt to go into the +forests and jungles with my own expeditions. These houses were able to +employ educated Germans who delighted in the adventure, and they saved +us time, anxiety and money. + + +BEASTS AT WHOLESALE + +In this particular branch of trade Germans take the lead. Charles +Reiche, the New York partner, came to this country a very poor boy, and +began peddling canaries, bullfinches, and other songbirds. He made his +start in 1851 when he went to California by way of the Isthmus of +Panama, and employed natives to carry the living freight on their +backs. He marched with his men and carried a heavier burden than any +servant in the caravan. His only great competitors were the Hagenbacks, +of Hamburg. Since the death of the Reiche Brothers, the Hagenbacks have +almost monopolized the trade, supplying the menageries and zoological +gardens of the world. The Reiche Brothers left an enormous fortune made +from this humble beginning. + +There is something thrilling in the thought of the lives that have been +lost, the sufferings and hardships endured, the perils encountered, and +the vast sums of money expended in the capture and transportation of +wild animals for the menageries, museums and zoological gardens. +Indeed, the business has been so exclusively in the hands of two very +quiet gentlemen, whose agencies cover nearly half the globe, that +beyond the managers of gardens and shows, only a very limited number of +persons have any conception of the extent of their operations. + + +THE PROFESSIONAL ANIMAL HUNTER + +The head of the Reiche firm, and its directing spirit, was Mr. Charles +Reiche, who was well educated and had traveled widely. His New York +establishment was each day passed unnoticed by thousands of +pedestrians, yet from it wild animals were supplied to almost every +traveling show in the United States. The great supply depot for this +country was in Hoboken. Henry Reiche, his brother, lived in Germany, +where they had a large supply farm for all the world, with +accommodations and appliances for keeping almost every bird, beast and +reptile produced by any country or clime of the world. They were ready +at any time to fill an order for anything, from a single canary to a +flock of ostriches, or from a field-mouse to an elephant. + +Africa, the home of the most fiercely voracious animals, was their most +extensive field for operations. In it they had many stations, with +sheiks or chiefs in their employ, and standing rewards offered to +natives for choice specimens of rare birds or beasts. During nine +months of every year they had a band of experienced white African +hunters traveling from station to station, overseeing and directing the +work of the natives, and capturing elephants, lions, leopards, tigers +and such other beasts as they might be instructed to obtain. The +company, usually composed of four or six, and never more than eight, +was under the command of Charles Lohse, a veteran hunter and trapper, +and started from Germany about the first of September and generally +returned from Africa early in June. During the remaining three months +of the year, the rainy season, the climate is so unhealthful that it is +almost certain death for a white man to remain in Africa. + + +STRIKING INTO THE INTERIOR + +Starting from Germany, the hunters used to take a complete outfit of +clothing and firearms, gifts for the chiefs, and from seven to twelve +thousand dollars in drafts and letters of credit. They would go to +Trieste, thence to Corfu, in Greece, thence to Alexandria, and by rail +to Suez. There they would exchange their money for Austrian silver +dollars, the only coin known to the Arabs and sheiks of Africa. A Bank +of England note was valueless to them, and the brightest specimen of an +American gold eagle would not buy the meanest ring-tailed monkey. They +next took the Turkish steamer to Judda and thence to Sarachin, the last +station before they commenced their long, tiresome and dangerous march +across the Nubian Desert. For this undertaking they bought camels, +water and provisions, and hired such of the sheiks and other natives as +they needed, the latter being cheap enough, generally costing five +dollars, and occasionally seven dollars, each for the trip across the +desert. When the caravan arrived at its destination the poor fellows +were left to get back as best they could. In this manner they traveled +to Honiahn, the principal station of the company in Africa, where the +distinctions of caste are strictly maintained. + + +HUNTERS' LIFE IN THE JUNGLE + +Every white man had a "mansion," which consisted of a straw house about +twenty feet wide by thirty feet deep, and was divided into two rooms. +In such houses they lived and slept, and in one of them they kept the +money which had been brought across the desert in trunks on the backs +of camels. + +No attempt was made to hide it, nor was there any secrecy as to where +it was packed during the long journey. So honest were the native blacks +that not a dollar was lost by carelessness or theft. Frequently there +would be ten thousand of these silver dollars in the hut, with only one +or two white men in camp, surrounded by negroes, Arabs and half-breeds; +yet no attempt at robbery was ever made. The half-civilized natives, +knowing they were not entitled to a dollar until they had earned it, +never tried to get it in any other way. The natives slept where and as +they pleased, and three times a day were given a fair supply of Indian +corn, which they would grind and, after adding a little water, would +cook over their own fires, making a sort of biscuit. The white men had +negro cooks and lived luxuriously. They had eggs, coffee and Indian +corn biscuit for breakfast, with a broiled chicken for a relish +whenever desired. For dinner, maize and beef or mutton made up the +usual bill of fare. A well-conditioned ox cost only four dollars, and a +"good eating-goat" was to be had for fifty cents. No meal was complete +without plenty of onions. After supper, the German hunter's inseparable +evening friend, his long-stemmed china pipe, invariably appeared. + +[Illustration: CAPTURING WILD ANIMALS FOR THE SHOW.] + +The interior of the huts would have charmed an artist. Elephant tusks, +lion and leopard skins, hunting-hats and coats, tall wading-boots, +rifles and pistols, bright-colored flannel shirts and bits of harness +were scattered about in picturesque confusion. In a safe place, where +it could not possibly be scratched or disfigured, was the choicest +treasure within the four strong walls, a large German accordion. In the +long evenings, after the perils and labors of the hunt, Lohse played +this instrument by the hour to his hunters as they puffed great clouds +of smoke and dreamed of the Fatherland. + +The camp was pitched in a clearing on the bank of a little river and +was closed by a high and thick hedge of a native thorn. At night, after +the pack animals had been fed, watered and housed or tethered, great +fires were built at irregular intervals about the grounds to scare off +wild beasts, and the watch was set. Then began the dismal howl of the +hyena, the roar of the lion, and the shriek of the wildcat. About five +o'clock in the morning the camp was again astir and the business of the +day was begun. The native hunters formed in companies of about twenty, +with a white leader, and started off in different directions. Those +left in camp put in the time cleaning it, caring for the beasts, and +making boxes for transportation of the animals, and cages for the +reception of freshly captured beasts. + +In capturing wild animals the rule is to kill the old ones and secure +the young; for after any of the beasts have grown old enough to become +accustomed to the free life of the forests, and to hunt their own food, +they are treacherous and worth little for purposes of exhibition. + + +WHY BABY ELEPHANTS ARE HARD TO CAPTURE + +Paul Tuhe, one of the ablest master-hunters in the service of the +Reiche Brothers, who has brought from Africa hundreds of rare birds and +animals, gives me this account of the methods and perils of the hunt: + +"Though the lion is a fierce creature, the lioness, when protecting her +young, is very much more ferocious. From long practice, however, we +know how to go after them. A good rifle, firm hands and steady eyes and +we can soon topple the old king over. The old lady, however, may make a +better fight, but in the end we are sure to kill her. Then it is no +trouble to pick up the cubs. We try to get these little fellows when +they are about three or four weeks old. They are then like young +puppies, easily managed, and soon know their keepers. Leopards, tigers +and all animals of that kind we get in the same way and at about the +same age. + +"Baby elephants are hard to capture, and the hunt is very dangerous. +The old ones seem to know instinctively when we are after their young, +and their rage is something terrible. The trumpeting of the parents can +be heard a long distance, and quickly alarms the whole herd. The rifle +is comparatively useless, and trying to approach them is particularly +hazardous; yet it has to be done. + +"First, we try to distract the attention of the female from her young. +Then a native creeps cautiously in from behind and with one cut of a +heavy broad-bladed knife severs the tendons of her hind legs. She is +then disabled and falls to the ground. We promptly kill her, secure the +ivory and capture the little one. Of course we sometimes have a native +or two killed in this kind of a hunt; but they don't cost much--only +five to six dollars apiece. The sheiks are paid in advance, and do not +care whether the poor huntsmen get out of the chase alive or not. We +like to capture the baby elephants when they are about one year old. +Younger ones are too tender and older ones know too much. They soon get +acquainted with all the camp and we have lots of fun with them. They +are kindly, docile, and as full of pranks as the little black babies +who play with them. + +"Of all fierce, ungovernable, lusty brutes, the hippopotamus with young +is the very worst; and whenever we start off to get a baby 'hip' we +calculate to come back with one or more men missing. In water they will +fight like devils, and will crush the strongest boat to pieces in five +minutes. They are quick as a flash, too, notwithstanding their clumsy +appearance, and the oarsmen have to be wide-awake to keep out of their +way. On shore they are just as ferocious, and the way they hurry their +stumpy little legs over the ground would astonish you. They die hard, +and take 'a heap of killing.' When such a job is over you may be sure +there is great rejoicing among us; but as one little hippopotamus is +worth as much as half a dozen little lions, tigers and such truck, we +are well content to take the risk. We cannot get these babies too young +to suit. One, I remember, was captured the very day it was born, and +the hunters and attendants brought it up on a bottle. + +"Ostriches we run down on horseback, and then catch with a lasso. It is +an exciting chase, but not particularly dangerous. On these hunts we +are entitled only to the young ones we capture. The beautiful skins of +the leopards, lions, and other animals we kill, the tusks of the +elephant, the feathers of the ostrich, and all other similar spoils, go +to the native chiefs and sheiks, and these old rascals are as sharp at +a trade as the shrewdest 'old clo' merchant in Chatham Street. + +"In the encampments the natives assist in taking care of the animals +and do general work, but the menial duties are performed by Nubian +slaves, who are very cheap and can be bought in numbers to suit. Among +the natives the women are looked upon as inferior. Women never eat with +their husbands. The husband is allowed four wives, and as many slaves +as he can corral." + + +ACROSS THE DESERT WITH CAPTIVE BEASTS + +A sufficient number and variety of animals having been secured, a +caravan is formed to take them across the desert for shipment to +Germany or America. This usually consists of about one hundred camels, +each having its native driver; thirty or forty horses for the white +men, and the Arab hunters and their attendants; a flock of from one +hundred and fifty to two hundred goats, for their milk and also for +food; and black slaves to look out for the goats. The wild animals are +secured in strong boxes and carried on the camels' backs. They are all +young, and fed with goats' milk principally, although occasionally, to +keep them in good spirits, they are given raw goats' meat. Horses are +very cheap there, ranging in price from fifteen to twenty dollars each. +Natives are even cheaper, seven dollars each being thought an +extravagant price for the trip. + +The journey ordinarily occupies from thirty to forty days, and all +traveling is done between three and eleven in the morning and five and +eleven in the evening. During mid-day the sun's rays are so fiercely +hot as to make labor or travel hazardous, and none is attempted. The +route home is much the same as that taken out, and in due time the +beasts are landed, usually with very little loss, in Germany. There +they remain until needed to fill orders of showmen in either Europe or +America, while their hardy captors take three months of rest and +recreation before starting on another trip. + + +THE ADVENTURES OF SPECIMEN HUNTERS + +Several men of scientific attainments are always to be depended on for +novelties in the way of monsters from the deep. Some of these +"professors," as they are generally termed by showmen, are given +salaries to go out on special expeditions, while others make an +excellent living by pursuing this peculiar craft independently. Often +these men have adventures quite as exciting as those which befall the +hunters in the wilds of the jungles. + +While on an expedition to the Bermuda coast one of our professors had a +decidedly interesting experience with a small octopus. He had been +towing about in his little boat in search of the beautiful colored fish +with which this coast abounds, when there was a sudden lurch of the +boat followed by a constant thumping against its bottom. Thinking the +skiff had met with an obstruction of the ordinary kind, the professor +thrust his arm into the water, at the stern of the boat, where he felt +a moving mass which was indistinctly seen, and caught hold of the slimy +thing. He then found that his arm was being encircled by what he +believed to be a sea serpent. Then he felt a sensation that, according +to his description, was like a hundred sucking leeches. This strange +and powerful animal was trying to pull him overboard. With a desperate +effort he separated the tentacled part that encircled his arm from the +body of the devil-fish, and the creature fell back into the water. On +the professor's arm were several sores where the suckers had been +applied, and he was as thoroughly frightened as a man could be and +live. + +One of the most pathetic subjects which can be proposed to a +proprietary showman of wide experience is that of "wild goose" +expeditions. Experiences of this kind are so costly that they are not +easily forgotten. I spent thousands of dollars on an expedition sent to +the coast of Alaska for the purpose of capturing a live walrus. The man +in charge of this undertaking had been with my menagerie for several +years, and I knew him to be courageous, capable and determined. He had +plenty of assistance, the best equipment in the way of boats, wire nets +and other paraphernalia that could be devised, and still he returned +empty-handed from a shore that abounded with those ugly monsters. The +failure of the expedition and the loss of the heavy investment which it +represented all hinged on the fact that, unlike the seals we had taken +by nets, the walrus could not be found on the shore. What was still +more tantalizing was that they would permit their pursuers to approach +within a hundred feet of the ice blocks on which they discreetly held +forth. + +After he had abandoned all hope of capturing them alive, he determined +to have some sport shooting them. As before stated, the walruses would +remain on the ice until the party came within one hundred feet of them, +resting all the time in perfect silence and raising their enormous +heads as if curious to see what manner of men had the temerity to +invade their dominion. In that position they were, of course, perfect +targets for the bullets. When wounded they would collect in a group, +and then, as if by a preconceived signal, they would rush for the +boats, and their retaliation would be furious and the attacking party +was usually wholly unprepared for the onslaught. As a walrus frequently +weighs nearly a ton, and sometimes more, the hunters were in imminent +danger of being tipped over into the cold waves--a catastrophe which +would be almost certain to result fatally; and as the movement of the +walrus is very swift, the only alternative left the party was to empty +their guns on the foremost of the creatures. This would break the force +of the onslaught, the killed and wounded forming a barrier to those +coming on behind. On one of these excursions the hunters killed a baby +walrus, and while using the oars to reach the ice floe whereon the baby +lay dead, they were astonished to see a grown walrus jump to the little +one's side and, taking it in its mouth, disappear with it into the icy +water. + +If the countryman who finds undisguised delight in "seeing the animals" +of the big show could only realize the money, the perils and hardships +and the disappointments which a good collection of animals represents +he would marvel the more at the spectacle. + + + + +III + +FREAKS AND FAKES + + +No saying attributed to P. T. Barnum has been more widely quoted than +the remark that "the public likes to be humbugged." Certainly this +comment on the credulity of the masses opens up a most curious and +entertaining field, and its mention in a company of old showmen is sure +to provoke a flood of reminiscences on the subject of fakes, freaks and +fakers. There is scarcely another line of experience concerning which +veteran showmen more enjoy comparing notes--possibly because it touches +on the secrets of the craft. Though it is true that Mr. Barnum was a +master in the science of humbugging the public, and did not disclaim +that distinction, it must be said in justice to him that in the course +of his long professional career he gave the people more for their money +than any other showman, living or dead. + +A little inside information on this hidden side of the showman's +business may be entertaining to a public which has often experienced +the pleasure of being humbugged. Certainly no fake is entitled to take +precedence over the celebrated "Cardiff Giant." This was the invention +of a certain George Hull. He lived, I think, at Binghamton, New York, +and manufactured the giant in a rude shop on the small farm which he +worked. Hull was shrewd, energetic and very persistent, as may be seen +by the fact that the elaboration of the idea of his fake and its +execution occupied him more than four years. He thought the whole +matter out, even to the most minute details, before beginning work on +it. Without any knowledge of the art of sculpture or the science of +anatomy, he set himself resolutely at work to remedy these defects of +education. He had considerable aptitude with the chisel, and gradually +developed the skill necessary to hew out a figure that was to be put +before the public as a relic of an age so remote that no person would +be likely closely to criticise its proportions. Hull also knew that, no +matter what the age in which his giant was supposed to have lived, the +"remains" must show pores in the skin to pass the scrutiny of even the +unlearned, The making of these pores required more time and labor than +all the other work of making the "Cardiff Giant." The work occupied +many months, and was all performed in the "studio" or shop where it was +at last finished to Hull's satisfaction. + + +THE BURIAL AND RESURRECTION OF THE "CARDIFF GIANT" + +Preparations were then made for the giant's burial in order that when +brought to public view it might show the proper evidence of antiquity. +It was buried in the side of a hill only a few rods from the +outbuilding, where it had been chiseled from a huge block of stone +taken from that very hill. In all this work, huge and heavy as the +uncut stone and the giant hewn out of it were, Hull had only the +assistance of one man, a sled and a yoke of oxen in moving them. This +helper was a green and stolid German immigrant, utterly devoid of +curiosity, and the man who helped to bury the giant was another of the +same description. + +The statue was allowed to remain more than two years in the ground +before its maker considered it to be in proper condition for +"accidental" discovery. Hull then promptly "discovered" and dug out the +"petrification," and placed it on public view to amaze and perplex +people generally and to delight the antiquarians, who found it an +argument to uphold some of their most cherished theories. It took its +name from the fact that near the spot where it was buried and +resurrected was a small hamlet called Cardiff. The public career of the +"Cardiff Giant" was not of long continuance, however, but was +sufficiently lengthy to enable Mr. Hull to make considerable money out +of his clever conception. He declared, however, that he might have made +much more money if he had accepted Mr. Barnum's offer made at the time +of the giant's first appearance in public. Mr. Hull knew, too, that +exposure was bound to come in the end, but that mattered not to him. +For many years thereafter the "Cardiff Giant" reposed neglected in the +very shop in which it was made; but its owner and inventor averred that +he was entirely content with the financial result of his ingenuity. + + "Bridgeport, Oct. 8, 1870. + + "My Dear Coup: Yours received. I will join you in a show for next + spring and will probably have Admiral Dot well trained this winter + and have him and Harrison in the show. Wood will sell all his + animals right, and will furnish several tip-top museum curiosities. + You need to spend several months in New York arranging for + curiosities, cuts, cages, bills, etc. All things got from Wood I + will settle for with him and give the concern credit. We can make a + stunning museum department. If you want to call it _my_ museum and + use my name it may be used by allowing me the same very small + percentage that Wood allows for calling himself my successor (3 per + cent on receipts). You can have a Cardiff Giant that won't crack, + also a moving figure, Sleeping Beauty or Dying Zouave--a big + Gymnastic figure like that in Wood's museum, and lots of other good + things, only you need time to look them up and prepare wagons, + etc., etc. + + "Yours truly, + + "P. T. BARNUM." + + "I will spare time to cook up the show in New York when you come. I + think Siamese Twins would pay." + +The year 1884 is a memorable one in the annals of circus history, and +circus men remember it as the "White Elephant Year." For many years +persistent attempts had been made by enterprising showmen to secure for +exhibition purposes a sacred white elephant. Schemes by the score had +been discussed in the confidential councils of the showmen in winter +quarters, with a view to faking a black elephant into a white one, but +without satisfactory results. In the winter of 1883, however, it was +given out by Mr. Barnum's manager that he had positively succeeded in +purchasing from the King of Siam a sacred white elephant. The press was +splendidly "worked" in advance, and the sacred white elephant +monopolized the gossip of circus circles. + + +THE RIVAL WHITE ELEPHANTS + +A great rivalry had for some years existed between Mr. Barnum and a +Philadelphia circus man, and the public was greatly surprised, just +before the opening of the season, to find that, according to newspaper +report, the latter also had quietly and unostentatiously imported a +sacred white elephant known as the "Light of Asia," which, from the +descriptions of the few favored scribes who had seen it, was a marvel +of beauty and color. Rumors also were circulated that Barnum's white +elephant was not genuine, but only a diseased or leprous elephant with +a "blaze" of cream color down its trunk, and discolored or spotted +legs, while the Philadelphia showman's animal was of snowy whiteness, +without spot or blemish. Public sentiment ran high, especially in +Philadelphia, where the shows were to exhibit simultaneously. While +public opinion was divided as to the genuineness of these "sacred" +animals, it may be well to say that the Barnum animal was as good a +specimen of the genuine white elephant as could be procured, while the +Philadelphia elephant, pretty as a picture and superbly snow white in +color, was supposed to be a lively "fake." + +[Illustration: WHEN A "WHITE ELEPHANT" WAS NEEDED.] + +While on exhibition, this "Light of Asia" was almost entirely covered +with a black velvet-spangled cloth, and the trunk had been manipulated +in such a way that visitors could touch it, and as no coloring matter +came off on their hands I presume that part of the body had in some way +been "sized" or enameled. + + +HOW THE "LIGHT OF ASIA" EMBARRASSED THE LECTURER + +During the performance the white elephant would be introduced and +stripped of its velvet trappings on the elevated stage between the two +rings, while a learned "professor" descanted eloquently on opposition +in general and the genuineness of this white elephant in particular. So +well was this part of the program carried out that popular opinion was +at least equally divided regarding the genuineness of the competing +white elephants. Long afterward the "lecturer" told me that this white +elephant, having learned to recognize and like him, would endeavor to +salute him by rubbing up against him after the manner of elephants. Had +the animal succeeded, the effect would have been to leave white marks +on the black coat of the lecturer, who had all he could do to continue +his lecture and at the same time dodge the friendly advance of the +white elephant. About the middle of the season, after getting all the +benefit they could out of the white elephant war, Barnum and his rival +came to an amicable understanding, and divided territory with each +other, and the "Light of Asia" was withdrawn. + +The following winter it was given out that the animal had taken cold +and died in Philadelphia, but there are plenty of showmen who aver that +the animal is as lively and healthy as ever, though wearing black +instead of chalky white. A somewhat significant fact regarding this +fake was that during the previous summer its owners had been annoyed on +arrival in various towns to find an opposition sideshow, with its +canvas already up. It belonged to an Englishman whose sole attraction +was a yellow horse. No one had ever heard of a yellow horse before, and +the farmers for miles around came in and eagerly paid ten cents to see +this wonder. The animal was not particularly beautiful, but was +certainly a bright yellow, as were also the hands of his master. In +fact, there was no doubt but that its owner had rubbed the animal well +with yellow ochre. The proprietor of the "Light of Asia" paid the show +a visit and laughed heartily at the deception. After looking at the +horse a little while, he remarked to its owner: "Well, if you can turn +a gray horse yellow, you should be able to turn an elephant white." +What happened afterward I am unable to say, but, singular to relate, +the following spring, when the "Light of Asia" was "imported," a +special trainer was brought with it from Siam who gave the animal his +exclusive care and attention. This trainer was an Englishman, and many +of the circus attaches thought they had seen the man exhibiting the +yellow horse. + +In 1883, while passing down the Bowery in New York, I heard my name +loudly shouted. Turning around I met an English showman who was just +then managing one of the many dime museums then established in that +thoroughfare. + +"Come inside, Mr. Coup," said he, "and I will show you my latest." + +"Your latest what?" said I. + +"Fake," he answered. "These freaks want too much money, and are nearly +played out, anyway, so I'm making fresh ones now." + + +THE WILD CAVE-DWELLER OF KENTUCKY + +The place was packed with people, and an enormous banner on the outside +depicted a savage-looking wild man. He was described as having been +captured in the caves of Kentucky. I followed my acquaintance upstairs, +and in due time, after a preliminary lecture, a door was thrown open, +disclosing what looked like a prison cell, in which, chained to an iron +grating, stood a man closely resembling the one represented in the +picture. His skin was of a tawny yellow, his body was covered with +hair, and he ravenously snapped at and ate the lumps of raw beef which +an attendant threw to him. + +I cannot say that it was a pleasant sight, but from its effect on the +spectators it was undoubtedly a satisfactory one, and as the door +closed on it I said to my acquaintance: + +"Where did you get him?" + +He replied: "Why, you know the man well. He traveled with you two +seasons. Come inside and talk with him." + +I followed him, and no sooner were we in the cage than the terrible +"wild man" held out his hand to me and said, "How do you do, Mr. Coup?" +The voice was strangely familiar. I scrutinized the fellow's features +and recognized in him a Russian who had been exhibited in our sideshow +as a "hairy man." He had allowed his skin to be dyed yellow and his +whiskers and hair black, and, for a consideration of about four times +his usual salary, was now posing as a wild man. He afterward went West +and continued this mode of exhibition for several months, until he was +played out in that capacity, whereupon a few warm baths enabled him to +resume his former employment as "Ivanovitch, the hairy man." + +Another celebrated fake which met with success in the East was the +"dog-faced man." The Englishman before spoken of engaged a variety +performer who was an adept at imitating the barking of dogs. The +manager had in his possession an old photograph of "Jo-jo, the +dog-faced boy," and was resolved to place a good imitation of this +freak before the American public. He accordingly had made a very +expensive wig which covered completely the head, face and shoulders. +Dressing the man in the garb of a Russian peasant, he advertised him as +"Nicolai Jacobi, the Russian dog-faced man." So good was the disguise +that they exhibited an entire week at a Jersey City museum, deceiving +even the astute proprietor. Next they went to Boston, where they played +to the most phenomenal business on record. The proprietor of the museum +had a very clever cartoonist in his employ, and as the Englishman and +his dog-faced friend walked from the station to the museum they saw +nothing but pictures of dog-faced men. In front of the museum, in a +large cage, was one of the fiercest wildcats they had even seen, +labeled, + +"The pet of the dog-faced man." + +They played, as I have said, to phenomenal business. For two weeks +thousands of persons daily struggled for the privilege of paying ten +cents to see this amusing fake. At the end of that time one of the +employes betrayed the secret to a reporter and the attraction was +rendered valueless. Strange to relate, the success of this "fake" was +the means of bringing from Europe the original dog-faced boy, "Jo-jo," +who for several years drew a good salary at the various dime museums, +but never created so much excitement by virtue of his genuineness as +the "fake" did. + + +THE TWO-HEADED GIRL'S THREE-HEADED RIVAL + +Millie Christine, the "two-headed nightingale," had been exhibiting in +New York City, and public attention was called, shortly afterward, to +the fact that a lady with three perfect heads would be exhibited on a +certain day. Now, this strange being was really an optical illusion, +built on the same lines as the ghost show invented by Professor Pepper. +Three girls were used, and all portions of their figures not intended +to be shown were covered with a black cloth. The whole illusion is +merely an effect of light and shade. + +Still another "fake" that not only "drew" well but positively deceived +the whole New York press, was the "Dahomey Giant." About 1882 a very +tall specimen of the African race walked into an Eastern museum looking +for work. He was actually over seven feet in height, and had never been +on exhibition. Knowing that his value as a negro giant would be but +little, the proprietors resolved to introduce him as a monster wild +African. After consulting Rev. J. G. Woods' Illustrated History of the +Uncivilized Races, it was determined to make a Dahomey of the tall +North Carolinian. A theatrical costumer was set to work to make him a +picturesque garb. A spurious cablegram was issued, purporting to be +from Farini, of London, stating that the Dahomey giant had sailed with +his interpreter from London and would arrive in Boston on or about a +certain date. + +The man, with his interpreter, was then taken by train to Boston, from +which city they, in due time, wired the museum proprietor of their +arrival. That telegram was answered by another telling them to take the +first Fall River boat for New York City. The press was then notified, +and the representatives of five New York papers were actually sent to +the pier the following morning to interview the distinguished stranger +from Dahomey. The man had been well schooled, and pretending not to +know a word of the English language, could not, of course, converse +with the reporters. But his interpreter managed to fill them up very +comfortably. At all events, long and interesting accounts of the +"snuff-colored giant from Dahomey" appeared in most of the dailies, and +for several weeks this Dahomey was the stellar attraction at that +particular dime museum. The advent of summer and its consequent circus +season closing the city museums, the Dahomey "joined out" with a side +show in which, for successive seasons, he posed as a Dahomey giant, a +Maori from New Zealand, an Australian aborigine and a Kaffir. This +man's success was the initiative for a score of other negroes, who +posed as representatives of any foreign races the side-show proprietor +wished to exhibit. + + +MISSING LINKS AND DANCING TURKEYS + +Krao, the "missing link," as she was called, was simply a hairy child, +and almost exactly like Annie Jones, who was exhibited by Barnum as the +"Esau Child." A great card for museums at one time was the "human-faced +chicken." The first one placed on exhibition was purchased in good +faith by an acquaintance of mine, and proved a good attraction. A +visiting farmer, however, declared that it was nothing but an ordinary +chicken which had had its bill frozen off, and so it proved. + +Dancing turkeys were then introduced and caused great amusement. The +awkward birds would walk onto their exhibition stage and go through a +decidedly grotesque dance, their mode of lifting their feet being +highly laughable. The truth was that the stage on which they danced was +a piece of sheet-iron covered with a cloth. The iron was heated to an +uncomfortable degree by gas jets underneath. What the public accepted +as dancing was really the efforts made by the birds to prevent their +feet from being burned. + + +THE SALARIES PAID TO FREAKS + +The spread of the dime museum craze created a great demand for freaks +and a consequent rise in their salaries. I know I am violating no +confidence when I say that at various times the following freaks have +drawn weekly the sums set opposite their names: + + "La Tocci Twins," $1,000.00 + "Millie Christine," 600.00 + "Wild Man of Borneo," 300.00 + "Chang, the Chinese Giant," 400.00 + "Chemah, the Chinese Dwarf," 300.00 + Ordinary giants and midgets, 30.00 to 100.00 + Bearded ladies, 30.00 to 75.00 + Living skeletons, 30.00 to 75.00 + Armless men, 30.00 to 100.00 + Ossified men, 30.00 to 200.00 + +And as an offset to the above figures, I have heard of a tatooed man +who would talk outside, exhibit himself inside, do a turn of magic, +lift barrels of water with his teeth, and, as boss canvasman, +superintend the putting up and pulling down of the show, all for six +dollars a week. He must have been first cousin to the man who traveled +with the circus simply to be able to sit on the fence and hear the band +play. + +It will doubtless seem incredible to the person unused to the society +of freaks that these unfortunates should take a seeming pride in their +distinguishing misfortunes and be jealous of their reputations; this, +however, is one of the strongest traits of the typical freak. In our +show at one time we carried two giants, a Captain Benhein, a Frenchman, +and Colonel Goshin, an Arabian. These two fellows were almost insanely +jealous of each other, and it was ludicrous to hear the threats which +they exchanged; many times it seemed that a personal encounter was +imminent, but the Arabian's courage seemed in inverse proportion to his +size. + + +THE LOVE-MAKING AND MERRY-MAKING OF THE FREAKS + +Referring to Goshin as an Arabian brings to light a curious fact with +regard to freaks of great size. He was not an Arabian, but a negro +picked up by "Yank Robinson" in Kentucky. So confirmed is the habit of +speaking of him as an Arabian that it has become second nature with me, +and I think that this tendency is almost universal with showmen; they +become so accustomed to enlarging on the fictitious characters for +which their freaks are played that I sometimes think they almost get to +believe these stories themselves. + +Among the freaks the women were almost universally jealous of their +professional reputations. Hannah Battersbey, who weighed more than four +hundred pounds, recognized Kate Heathley as her particular rival, and +either of these women could be instantly thrown into a jealous passion +at the mention of the other's claim to superiority in the matter of +weight. The strange alliances which sometimes took place in the freak +world are well illustrated by the marriage of the weighty Hannah to a +living skeleton who touched the scales at sixty-five pounds. + +Before leaving the subject of freaks I must mention the strangest sight +that it was ever my fortune to look upon in the course of a life spent +in association with human novelties. Early in my career I was fortunate +enough to secure the show rights for a fair in Montgomery, Ala., which +was held just at the end of the northern show season. This circumstance +resulted in bringing to the fair a most unusual number of small shows, +the main attractions of which were freaks of every kind and color. My +royalties were very large, and I was naturally expected to do something +handsome by the people who had contributed to this success; +consequently I gave a dinner to the "freaks," and that banquet table +presented a scene probably unrivaled in history. I only wish I were +able to give anything approaching an adequate description of that +festal board. At the head of the table was the towering figure of an +eight-foot giant, while at the other extremity of the board sat a +thirty-six-inch dwarf. The jests which were bandied between the +banqueters are worthy a place in a history of wit. A single instance, +however, will give an idea of the peculiar terms with which these +people enlivened the occasion. As the "Armless Man" helped himself to +potatoes, the "Bearded Lady" opposite him called out, "Hands off!" and +the whole company shouted with laughter. + +The famous "Australian Children," who made several fortunes for their +exhibitors, came from Circleville, Ohio, and were the children of a +mulatto. Occasionally the showman met with distressing but amusing +experiences resulting from the identification of his freaks on the part +of the public. + + +THE EXPOSURE OF THE "AZTEC CHILDREN" + +While I was absent from my show my manager once engaged two boys with +heads little larger than teacups; one of them had a club foot and had +some little claim to intelligence. Our people had painted them to look +like savages, and they were exhibited as the "Aztec Children." One day +when the lecturer was expatiating upon these remarkable children a +burlo countryman shouted: + +"Hello, John Evans, I know you; I worked in the harvest field with you +many a day; oh, you can't fool me." + +The "Aztec child" had been taught to make no reply to anything said to +him, and the lecturer paid no attention to anything said to the +countryman's interruption, but the countryman was not to be put down, +and once more he shouted: + +"Say, Bill Evans, maybe you think I don't know that club foot; just +come off, now." + +The audience was greatly amused at this, and the lecturer saw that he +had plenty of trouble on hand; consequently he called the countryman +aside and told him that he was certainly mistaken as to the identity of +the freak. "Oh, no, I ain't," replied the obdurate fellow; "and what is +more, you and your whole shebang are frauds and humbugs." Then the +lecturer took another tack, gave the countryman five dollars, and +thought the incident closed; but it was not, for the fellow proceeded +to spend his money on whisky and tell his friends of his discovery, +with the result that the business at that point was ruined. + +From the viewpoint of the showmen there are "fakers" and "fakirs." +Under the former head we class the men who conceive and manufacture +fakes of the kind already described. The fakirs are altogether of a +different kind, being the camp-followers who hang on the heels of a +circus for the purpose of swindling the public by every variety of +device known to the "blackleg fraternity." + +Frequently a number of illegitimate shows start out, and, before doing +so, announce that faking privileges are to be leased. The leaders of +the various gangs make the arrangements with the circus proprietors, +depositing a sum of money in the ticket wagon with which to "square +squeals," then the tribe of showmen and fakirs start out on their +nefarious pilgrimages, the shows furnishing the transportation for the +fakirs. One of the fakirs in connection with each show is selected as +the "squarer." He is generally a member of various secret societies and +orders, and his particular duty is to bribe the petty officers of the +towns visited, to secure immunity from arrest. Lottery schemes, +gambling games of every sort, pocket-picking and robbing are among the +methods by which these fakirs reap their harvest. + + +AN ADVENTURE WITH A CIRCUS SHARP + +My life has been frequently threatened and twice attempted because of +my persistent determination to drive this thieving fraternity from my +shows. One day in a small western town a man introduced himself to me +as the brother of a very respectable Chicagoan and explained that he +was on his way to Texas to join in certain speculations. I at once +suspected him of being a fakir and gave orders to the manager of the +side-show to get rid of him and all his kind. A little later the +landlord came to me and said: "Mr. Coup, there is a fellow out here who +says he will shoot you on sight; he is one of the men traveling with +you." On investigation I found that he was not the man who had +introduced himself to me, but was one of the gang attempting to work +the show: he bore a desperate reputation, and was popularly credited +with having killed several men; all of my employes stood in fear of +him, and I concluded to appeal to the mayor of the town for necessary +protection and assistance. Before doing so, however, I put on a heavy +ulster, in each side-pocket of which I placed a loaded six-shooter. +With a finger on the trigger of each revolver I started out to find the +mayor. While crossing the public square I met the man who had +threatened to shoot me. Stopping squarely in front of him I said: "I +believe you have threatened and intend to kill me, and I want to say to +you that you will never find a better opportunity to do so than right +now." He proposed to argue the question with me, but I simply insisted +that he should leave town at once. The outlaw began a tirade of abuse, +and remarked that he was a southern man. "Well," I answered, "if you +wish to bring that question into the argument, I am a northern man, and +you may tell this to all of your tribe." That ended the matter, and he +left town that afternoon; but if he had not known that I had two +six-shooters pointed directly at him, I would probably not have been +left to tell the tale. + +In my battles against the fakirs I have universally relied upon the +strong arms of my husky "canvasmen," and more than once I have armed +them with clubs concealed under their coats, with the result that the +fakirs were driven from the field with broken arms and noses. It is a +lamentable fact that not a few of the wealthiest showmen in this +country have swelled their fortunes by the "rake-off" from the +despicable gains of these blacklegs and tricksters. + + + + +IV + +MOVING THE BIG SHOW + + +It requires several months of hard labor to prepare any show for the +road, even those already organized, for, as a rule, all shows "lay off" +during the winter. With few exceptions the horses are allowed to "run +out," and all the wagons and paraphernalia are stored in convenient +winter quarters provided for the purpose. The wild animals are taken +from their traveling cages and placed in more commodious ones. The +manager then decides on his route for the coming season. This, in +itself, is an arduous labor, for the cost of transportation becomes, +necessarily, a most important consideration in his calculations. + +The manager of a large show, however, can do this with comparative +ease, since he does not fear opposition so much as does the manager of +the small show and, consequently, may choose his own territory, while +his small opponent must skirmish around to get out of the way of the +larger show. + +Therefore, the route of the big show is completed on paper not later +than the first of February, and the first agent, usually the railroad +contractor, begins his duties. Such a show as I am describing is +perfectly safe in laying out its route thus early and advertising its +days and dates for months in advance. And, having done this, woe betide +any smaller concern which elects to show in the same neighborhood, for +the larger show will immediately send an advance brigade and literally +flood the country with their bills. Brigades of this kind are called +"skirmishers," and are kept in readiness to jump to any point where +their services are needed to fight any kind of opposition. They thus +uphold a sort of monarchical right in the territory and prevent, if +possible, the success of the lesser attraction. This makes it really +far more difficult to manage a small show than a large one, as the +latter has "the right of might," while the lesser shows are continually +forced in each other's way, to their own detriment and often to their +complete financial disaster. A large concern in a prosperous season +clears an immense amount of money, but, on the other hand, a disastrous +season is bound to result in an enormous loss. + + +THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO MOVE A CIRCUS BY RAIL + +A few weeks before the time for opening the circus season the horses +are taken in, stabled, groomed and fed with grain to get them "hard" +and in good condition for work. The wagons are overhauled, painted and +gilded, and, if necessary, new ones are built. The various agents are +by this time hard at work, each having his particular duties to +perform. + +Previous to 1872 the "railroad circus" was an unknown quantity. Like +all other circuses of that day, the big show of which I was the manager +traveled by wagon. During our first season our receipts amounted in +round numbers to $400,000, exclusive of side shows, concerts and candy +stands. Of course we showed in towns of all sizes and our daily +receipts ranged from $1,000 to $7,000. Finding that the receipts in the +larger towns were frequently twice and three times as much as in the +smaller ones, I became convinced that we could at least double our +receipts if we could ignore the small places and travel only from one +big town to another, thereby drawing the cream of the trade from the +adjacent small towns instead of trying to give a separate exhibition in +each. This was my reason for determining to move the show by rail the +following season. + +To this end, therefore, I at once telegraphed to the superintendents of +the different railroads asking if they could accommodate us and +guarantee to get us to the various towns in time to give the +exhibitions as advertised; and in order for us to do that it was +necessary, I informed them, that we be landed in a town as early as six +A.M. From some of the railroad superintendents came the reply, "Cannot +furnish switch room," and from others, "Give further particulars." +After a great deal of correspondence I went to Philadelphia and +interviewed the officials of the Pennsylvania Company. I urged and +argued and argued and urged, until they said I was the most persistent +man they had ever seen, and even told me they would pay me if I would +leave them in peace. This, however, did not suit my purpose, and I hung +on until I finally made arrangements with them. + +After much preparation we eventually fixed upon New Brunswick, N.J., +as our first loading place. We were new at the work and so commenced +loading at eight P.M. and finished the job at eight A.M., with no +extraordinary incidents except the breaking of one camel's back--the +creature having the misfortune to slip off the "runs." From New +Brunswick we went to Trenton, where I had hired Pullman cars for our +performers and band, and cheaper cars for our laborers and other +attaches. + + +THE SPARTAN HABITS OF THE OLD-TIMERS + +Our experience with the vast crowds of the season before had given us +the idea of building two rings and giving a double performance. This, +of course, doubled our company, but it kept the audience in their +seats, since they were precisely as well off in one part of the canvas +as in another, whereas in the old one-ring show we found it impossible +to prevent the people who were farthest from the ring from standing up. +They would rush to the front and thus interfere with many other people. +This two-ring arrangement seemed to obviate this difficulty, and, as it +at once hit the popular fancy, it proved a great drawing card for us +and others, for within a few months smaller showmen all over the +country began to give two-ring performances. Indeed, from that time it +seemed to me that the old one-ring show was entirely forgotten. + +It was quite laughable, during the earlier portion of the season, to +watch the expression on the faces of our performers when they came on +to join us and were shown the Pullman cars which were to be their homes +for the next six months. "It is too good to last," remarked one. "The +expense will break the show," said another. To their surprise, however, +it lasted that season and has lasted ever since. Previous to that they +had been in the habit of taking breakfast at any hour from midnight to +four P.M., according to the number of miles they had to travel; but +now all is changed, and an era of luxuriant comfort has become +established for them. For many months, however, at the dawn of this +epoch, the performers viewed their regular meals and sumptuous +surroundings with a comical seriousness most ludicrous to behold. + +Small shows had, prior to this time, traveled to a limited extent by +rail; but not with accommodations like ours. Such shows consisted of +seven or eight cars, whereas ours numbered sixty-one. All of these, +with the exception of the sleeping cars, we had hired from the railroad +company. + + +SEVEN HEARTBREAKING DAYS ON THE LONG ROAD + +It has always been a mystery to me why the railroads build themselves +cars scarcely any two of which are of uniform height. Our heavy wagons +would be pushed up on "runs," and, on being pushed from one car to +another, would frequently crash through the rotten boards composing the +bed of the car. This would cause vexatious delays. + +The reader cannot possibly form any idea of the amount of labor +involved in teaching our men to become proficient in loading and +unloading. It is a positive fact that I never took the clothes from my +back from the time of first loading until we reached Philadelphia, our +seventh stop! During all that time I was constantly teaching the men +the art of loading and unloading, giving attention to the moving of all +the wagons, chariots, horses, camels, elephants, etc. We reached +Philadelphia tired and exhausted with the seven days' hard work. + +I was also mentally fatigued by my partner's opposition and his +requests to abandon the scheme; but at this point I realized more than +ever the benefits that would accrue from this great departure, and I +determined to stick it out to the end. I went to the superintendent of +one of the railroads on which we were to travel to Baltimore and +Washington and told him I must have a lot of cars of uniform +construction at any price. These he succeeded in getting after +considerable trouble. I then made up my mind to try it as far as +Washington, and if I could not by that time get everything to run +smoothly I would abandon it. We reached Wilmington without mishap and +gave our exhibitions--three each day. It must be remembered that we had +advertised three shows daily, and so far had given them; indeed, we did +throughout the season, but that was the first and only year that such a +feat was attempted. + +I told the railroad superintendent that if we could manage to load in +Wilmington by two A.M. and reach Baltimore at five A.M. it would be a +success. He ordered the road cleared, and we arrived in Baltimore with +the first section only a little late, and, with a little extra energy, +we had the parade out on time and opened the doors to the morning +performance at ten A.M. The trip from Baltimore was easily made, but +from there we had to run over heavy grades up and down to Frederick, +Md. In order to load we had to remove all the brakes, and this the +yardmaster refused to do. I showed him my contract, wherein the company +had agreed to remove all brakes, but he still refused, so I finally +resorted to strategy. + +I invited him to a restaurant, and while we were absent, by a +prearranged movement, Baker, the boss canvas-man, wrenched the brakes +off, and by the time the yardmaster and I returned the train was almost +loaded. Of course I pretended to be very angry at such conduct, but our +point was gained. As the brakes were easily replaced we made the next +stop all right. + + +PERFORMING BY DAY AND TRAVELING BY NIGHT + +I determined to have a train of cars built for our special purpose, and +accordingly visited all the shops in the east; but I could find no one +willing to undertake the job on such short notice. Finally, at +Columbus, Ohio, I made the acquaintance of a thorough man of business. +He was conducting the car shops there and was prepared to execute any +order I might give him. In a short time I had made a contract with him, +and in thirty days a train of cars was built. They were of uniform +height, with iron extensions reaching from one car to another. These +improvements made the loading and unloading mere play. I then heard of +some palace horse cars at Cleveland. These I bought. I had them freshly +painted and lettered, "P. T. Barnum's World's Fair." + +When our men, as they came into Columbus to exhibit, saw that train +awaiting them, they sent up such a shout as has seldom been heard. Now +we had Pullman cars for the artists, sleeping cars for the laborers, +box cars for the extra stuff, palace cars for the horses and other +large animals, such as were required for teaming, parades, etc., and +platform cars for wagons, chariots, cages and carriages. Thus the +Herculean task of putting the first railroad show of any magnitude on +its own cars was successfully accomplished. + +Little, indeed, do the managers of the present day know of the untiring +energy and indomitable perseverance necessary to accomplish that feat. +The railroad people themselves were utterly ignorant of our wants, as +we ourselves were in the beginning. Frequently, as at Washington, the +yardmaster would order us to load one car at a time, then switch it +away and commence on another. To load a train in this way would have +taken us twenty-four hours! Finally, however, system and good order +came out of chaos. Once properly launched on our season, we were able +to give three performances daily, and quite often made jumps of one +hundred miles in one night. The scheme, as I had predicted, completely +revolutionized the show business, and has been adopted since, not only +in this country, but by the French and English circus proprietors in +their travels in Germany. It also greatly advertised us, vast crowds +assembling at the depots to see us load and unload. + + +ON A RUNAWAY CIRCUS TRAIN + +I once had a very thrilling experience while riding in the cab of the +locomotive pulling our train from Indiana, Pa. This station is on one +of the branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad, high up on the mountain, +the grade there being exceedingly heavy. It is, I believe, conceded to +be one of the steepest grades on that system. There is also a +horse-shoe bend, or curve, similar to the well-known one on the main +line. While standing on the platform, about the time the last car was +being loaded, I was accosted by the engineer, who inquired if I had +ever traveled on a locomotive and if I would like to take such a trip. +I replied that I would like to do so, and boarded the engine with him. +A few moments later the signal bell was rung and we pulled out into the +darkness. I placed myself so as not to be in the way of the engineer +and fireman and was soon lost in meditation. + +The sensation was indescribably weird and thrilling. The scene was +shrouded in darkness, and, as we flew along the road, the only +discernible objects were the trees, which seemed to me like giant +sentinels saluting as we flew past. Now and then we caught glimpses of +lights in the mountain valleys, but they passed by like a streak of +lightning, so rapidly were we going. + +"How far can your practiced eye discern objects on a night like this?" +I asked the engineer. + +"Only a rod or two," he answered. + +"In that case," said I, "you could never stop the train to prevent a +collision should an obstruction present itself?" + +"No--not with these brakes," he replied. + +As he said this his face blanched and he whistled hard for down brakes. +Finally I heard him exclaim: "God help us! We're running away!" + +On, on we sped down the decline at a speed that was something +frightful. The engine rattled and shook, and several times appeared to +be almost toppling over. It was impossible to stand, and I held on by +the window ledge for dear life. Down the mountain we sped altogether +helpless! We had no control over the train, loaded down, as it was, +with toppling chariots, with horses, animals, elephants, camels and +human freight. + + +PANIC AMONG THE ANIMALS + +Evidently the animals instinctively knew the danger, for above the +rattle and roar of the train could occasionally be heard some of those +strange trumpetings which proceed from an animal only in moments of +danger--often just before a storm or cyclone. Momentarily I expected +the whole train to be thrown from the tracks and down the mountain +side. By the occasional streaks of light that flew past us I could see +the blanched faces of both the engineer and fireman, and knew that they +fully realized our awful danger. Both of them, however, kept perfectly +cool, and I tried to imitate their example. How far I succeeded I do +not know, but I do know that my nerves were strung to a higher pitch +than they ever were before. + +A blinding rainstorm added to the horror of the situation, and, with +the speed at which we were traveling, each drop seemed to have the +penetrating power of a shot. Quick as a flash the thought passed +through my head: What if we meet a train? Just at that moment we sped +past Blairsville at the junction of the branch road and the main line. +The station lights seemed mere specks. As we struck the switch the +engine jumped and almost left the track. Looking back we could see the +rear lights of our train swaying in the path like a ship tempest-tossed +at sea. Our speed seemed to increase as we flew along the main line. + +We had gone twenty miles when a whistle was heard ahead. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"Another train," replied the engineer; "it will pass us now," and as he +was speaking the reflecting lights of its engine appeared, apparently +not six rods from us. With lightning rapidity the trains passed each +other and the "windage," to use a nautical term, nearly took my breath. + +During all this time, which positively seemed hours, my thoughts were +not of the pleasantest. On, on we dashed, the engine frequently jumping +as it struck something on the track. It seemed to me a miracle that the +train did not lurch sheer over some one of the terrible embankments. +The fireman was not engaged in tending the fire. It was unnecessary. We +were all mute spectators of the scene being enacted by this silent +machine--the marvelous and lifelike invention of man. Gradually, at +last, our speed began to slacken. We had reached a grade. The danger +was past and our lives were saved! + + +A SINGLE TRACK AND A BROKEN RAIL + +We were still moving ahead at the rate of thirty miles an hour +when--crash! through the window came some object. Once more the whistle +sounded "down brakes," and in less than a mile the train came to a +stop. Shortly afterward we heard shouts in our rear, and the man who +had flung the missile through the cab window came running breathlessly, +and said that less than a mile ahead of us was a broken rail that would +undoubtedly have wrecked our train. Knowing that the express train was +due in about an hour he had been running back to the station to detain +it, when he had met our "wild" train and, realizing the danger, had +done all he could to prevent a catastrophe. + +Back sped the man to the station to warn the express, leaving us +between what were undoubtedly two horrors. The station was fully a mile +away. Suppose he could not reach there in time! There we were on a +single track, a broken rail ahead of us, an express train due at any +moment behind us. Slowly we pulled up to the broken rail and at once +replaced it with a new one, for we always carried extra rails on our +train for cases of emergency. The track walker succeeded in getting to +the station in time to stop the express, though luckily it was not +quite due. We ran back to Blairsville and switched on to a side track. + +There we found that the second section of our circus train was due at +nearly the same, time as the express train, and it was an anxious +quarter of an hour that we spent in righting things. When, however, the +second section did come in, I found they had been more fortunate than +the first section. They had taken the precaution to add to their train +several cars belonging to the railroad company, which were fitted up +with better brakes than ours, some of them being supplied with both new +air and common brakes. Then as a consequence of these precautions the +train had descended the mountain under perfect control. I learned a +lesson from that experience, and lost no time in fitting all our cars +with air-brakes. I wish I could remember the name of the engineer. A +braver man never handled an engine or went into a battle. + +It may not be generally known that all well-regulated roads employ a +certain number of men as track walkers, whose constant duty it is to +patrol every inch of the road and report the slightest irregularity of +rails, road-bed, etc. On this particular night the track-walker's +lantern had gone out, and the only expedient he could think of was to +throw a stone through the cab window. I have often shuddered to think +of what the consequences might have been had not his aim been a true +one. + + +THE BRONCHOS' CHARMED LIFE + +On another occasion, while going into Clinton, Iowa, with the biggest +show I ever owned, we were running about twenty miles an hour, when the +locomotive jumped the track and struck a tree. The shock threw all the +cars of that section on their ends. The Mississippi River was on one +side of us and a springy hill on the other. Here in this narrow place +stood the cars, laden with animals of all kinds. It was truly an awful +situation. We began to break up the cars in order to extricate the poor +dumb brutes. We were compelled to hitch ropes about the horses' necks +and pull them out, only to find perhaps that their legs were broken or +that they were otherwise hopelessly injured. No fewer than thirty-five +of my best horses were thus lost. The reader must remember that, as the +cars had been thrown on their ends, in each horse car twenty horses +were thrown into a struggling heap. Strange to say, the bronchos seemed +to have charmed lives, for not one of them was hurt, and I was enabled +to give a performance that day in spite of the accident. + +The elephants were piled up in much the same way as the horses, and in +order to extricate them it was necessary to strip the cars +completely--a labor in which those huge animals assisted us. The camels +were unhurt. The loss, in crippled animals and destruction of cars, +amounted to several thousand dollars. + +I cannot leave the subject of moving the big show without going back to +some of my earliest pioneer experiences. + +No other human being can realize like the showman the volume of dread +hardship and disaster held by those two small words, "bad roads." At +the time of my breaking-in we were passing through a section of the +country in the southwest, over such wretchedly constructed highways +that the slightest fall of rain was sufficient to convert them into +rivers of mud. The heavy wagons would sink to their hubs in the mire +and the whole train would be stopped. + +Then followed a scene too picturesque to escape the attention of even +the poor fellows who were half dead from lack of sleep. By the light of +flaring torches a dozen big draft horses would be hitched to the +refractory wagon. Inspired by the shouts, curses and sometimes the +blows of the teamsters, the animals would join in a concerted pull that +made their muscles stand out like knotted ropes. But often a battalion +of six teams would fail to start a wagon. + + +OLD ROMEO TO THE RESCUE + +Then the shout would go down the line for Romeo. In a few minutes the +wise old elephant would come splashing through the mud with an air that +seemed to say, "I thought you'd have to call on me!" He knew his place +and would instantly take his stand behind the mired wagon. After he had +carefully adjusted his huge frontal against the rear end of the vehicle +the driver would give the command, "Mile up!" Gently, but with a +tremendous power, Romeo would push forward, the wagon would start, and +lo! the pasty mud would close in behind the wheels like the Red Sea. + +So vividly did this oft-repeated picture impress me that it is as +clearly before me now as it was forty years ago. Sometimes, when an +elephant was not available, the wagons would be literally pulled apart, +and when the break came the horses would fall sprawling into the mire, +only their heads visible above the surface of the mud. + +But the poor horses were not the only sufferers from bad roads. The men +came in for their share. Very distinctly do I remember the night when +we were about to cross a slough. Some of us were dozing in our saddles, +others sleeping soundly on the tops of the wagons which carried the +tents. Suddenly the shout was heard from the man in the lead, "Help, +there, boys! I'm going down in the quicksands! Throw out a line, +lively!" + +We knew the voice. It belonged to Hickey, the wagon boss, who was a +favorite with the men. Instantly the fellows tumbled from the wagons +and rushed forward. The torches showed Hickey sunk to his armpits. A +man of ready wit and action threw a rope and the sinking man caught it +and passed the noose over his head and under his arms, knotting it so +that it could not slip and cut him in two. By that time a team of +horses had been hitched to the other end of the rope. + +[Illustration: "THEN THE SHOUT WOULD GO DOWN THE LINE FOR ROMEO."] + +"All right! Easy, now!" came the order from Hickey, and the team was +carefully started. Watching those horses strain on the rope made me +hold my breath in expectation that the poor fellow would be actually +drawn in two. But, finally, the grip of the mire loosened and he was +hauled out to safety. + + +AN UNEXPECTED MIDNIGHT BATH + +Perhaps the most disheartening of all bad-road experiences is that of +losing the way--a thing which happened with perverse frequency. Just +imagine yourself a member of such a caravan. You have slept four hours +out of sixteen and are crawling along in the face of a drenching, +blinding rainstorm--soaked, hungry and dazed. The caravan has halted a +dozen times in the forepart of the night to pull out wagons and repair +breakdowns. But it halts again, and the word "lost" is passed back +along the line of wagons. This means retracing the route back to the +forks of the road miles in the rear. Many an old circus man has wished +himself dead on hearing the word "lost" under these conditions. + +After one of these disheartening experiences, when we were obliged to +"right about face" and drive the poor, jaded horses back over the same +road along which they had made their useless but painful pilgrimage, I +clambered up to the top of the tent wagon, stretched out on the +jolting, shaking heap of canvas, and was soon oblivious to fatigue and +discouragement. My next conscious impression was that of a sudden +crashing of timbers, the squealing of frightened horses and the +sensation of falling. Then I felt myself plunging into the icy waters +of a little stream into which the heavy show wagon and all its contents +had been precipitated by the breaking of a bridge. It seems almost +miraculous that I should have escaped falling under the mass of tents +on which I had been sleeping, but in some way I was thrown to one side +and contrived to reach the shore in safety. + +It is usual, in arranging the season's route, for a circus to make all +the "big jumps" on Sundays; and it not infrequently happens that from +three hundred to five hundred miles are covered between Saturday and +Monday. This arrangement is very convenient in many ways. It may take +you out of a country that is overrun with opposition shows into one +where you may have the whole field to yourself, or it may take you to a +part of the country where the climate has forced the harvests and +therefore placed more money in circulation than usual. + +As a general thing circus employes are not in love with Sunday runs +for, commodious as their cars are, they are not exactly fitted up to +enable all occupants to loll lazily around and enjoy a luxurious ride. +If the day happens to be rainy, most of them lie in their beds and +content themselves with reading, with an occasional chat, argument or +light lunch, and in this way endeavor to pass the time as best they +can. If, however, the day happens to be a fine one, then at daybreak +comes a mighty exodus from the sleeping cars. Cozy nooks are singled +out and made comfortable by pressing into service all available shawls, +rugs, etc. Those physically strong enough to brave the exposure make +for the tops of stock and box cars where, lolling at ease, they discuss +sundry topics of interest and revel in the ride through the country. +Others select places underneath the chariots and cages which are loaded +on the flat cars, and thus, sheltered from the sun, spend a delightful +time. Once, at least, during the day, a stop of a couple of hours is +made to enable the horses and animals to be fed and watered, and +advantage is taken of this interval by the performers and other +attaches to stretch themselves and also to cater to their own personal +wants. Both comic and serious accidents are frequently the result of +carelessness during these runs, as the following examples prove: + +In one long run between Springfield, Mo., and Mattoon, Ill., one of our +men was standing erect on the top of a car, when a telegraph wire +caught him under his chin and cut his head completely off, as though +done by the surgeon's knife. On that same trip my watchman, Nelse, had +the misfortune to have his straw hat blow off his head. The hat rolled +gently along the top of the flat car and finally rolled off and fell on +the side track. Immediately the watchman jumped to the ground, snatched +up the hat, and leaped unhurt on the last car, although the train was +making nearly twenty miles an hour. Probably the hat cost him +originally fifty cents. + +Of all the Sunday runs I ever took, however, I recall one that was +especially pleasant. It took place back in the seventies, and was a run +of some three hundred miles across an Indian reservation between a town +in Kansas and another in southern Texas. The day was beautiful, and as +we bowled along the prairie I felt that the "stillness"--comparatively +speaking--(so seldom enjoyed by circus people) was most refreshing. I +don't suppose there ever was a country-bred boy who lived long enough +to forget how, in his younger days, the Sabbath seemed, always, a day +of stillness and quiet. The cessation of all business and the chiming +of church bells produced an effect that could not fail of indelible +impression; and that Sunday morning ride over the reservation brought +back the scenes of childhood to many a rough and rugged circus man. +Towards noon we halted and erected cooking tents and stables. The +horses and animals were looked after and a dinner was cooked by the +attaches. After dinner they formed congenial knots and strolled around +while the "hash slingers" washed the dishes and the men once more +loaded up. We carried at that time an excellent troupe of Jubilee +singers, and with the light heart and impressionable feelings of their +race, they burst into song, alternating their quaint camp meeting songs +with others in which the majority of the attaches could join. The band, +too, caught the infection and produced their instruments and we enjoyed +a vocal and instrumental feast. Just at dusk, when the stars were +beginning to appear, before starting for the night's run, the "Jubes" +sang "Nearer, My God, to Thee" to the full accompaniment of the band +and with a refrain swelled by every one able to sing. I have, in the +course of my travels, visited many grand concerts and operas, but their +most solemn and sacred effects are dwarfed into absolute insignificance +compared with that of this impromptu performance. The rolling prairie, +the beautiful trees, the perfect weather, the joyous spirits of every +one present, the melodious voices of the Jubilee singers, and the grand +strains produced by thirty skilled musicians, combined to produce music +such as man seldom hears--that, on account of its spontaneity, thrilled +the hearts of all present, then seemed to go right up to heaven, and +"die amid the stars." + +"All aboard!" is shouted, and every one climbs into the car. The +whistle sounds and off you go, past miles of beautiful scenery and +occasional Indian villages. Everything is quiet and every one seems to +be "drinking in" the beauty of the scene or sits lost in thought. No +more singing or playing. All seem to be so solemnly impressed with that +last grand hymn that the silence is unbroken. That Sunday run will +always stay in my memory! With quiet "good-nights" one after another +slipped off to bed to awake to another day's hurry and bustle. + + + + +V + +THE PRAIRIE FIRE + + +One of the most terrible and impressive experiences of my entire career +came to me very shortly after I had become well settled in the circus +harness. Sleep was the dragon which pursued me then with a relentless +and irresistible power. There was scarcely a moment when I was not +under its spell, at least to some degree. It was like a vampire that +took the zest and vitality out of my very life sources and I went about +almost as one walking in a dream. This condition arose from the fact +that under the best of weather luck, a showman's hours are very long. +But when roads were bad and journeys long, the poor wretch attached to +the old wagon show had practically no sleep at all. After a stretch of +hard traveling I was for weeks like a person drugged. My mind seemed in +a state of miserable torpor, while my body went about in a mechanical +way and did its work. The change from a regular life, which saw me +snugly in the same bed at nearly the same hour every night of the year, +to the painful excesses of a circus man's hours told on me very +severely and I was long in becoming acclimated. + +At the painful period of which I speak my main object in life was to +sleep. For this I lived, and my idea of Paradise then was a +consciousness that I was in the act of falling asleep in bed with clean +sheets, and that I would not be awakened until the end of eternity +unless I should chance to get my sleep out before then--and this +possibility seemed deliciously remote. + +While I suffered more keenly than the others from the tortures of +longing for sleep, all the men who had anything whatever to do with the +moving of the show were under the spell of this dragon. They, however, +rallied more quickly than I, when dry roads and good weather fell to +our lot for any length of time. + +Well, weeks of terrible traveling, of getting lost, of fighting our way +through the mire and floods, was followed by a fortnight of fair +weather. My associates had "caught up" in the matter of sleep, but I +was still in a half torpid state and thought only of the blessed +privilege of closing my eyes for an hour or two at a stretch. + +But, one morning as we started north from the small Missouri town in +which we had given a very successful performance, the scene was so +novel and impressive that I held out for a few minutes against the +demon that was pulling my eyelids together, and really aroused to the +picturesque features of the scene. + +We were winding our way to the northward, our caravan being fully a +mile in length and stretched out like a long serpent. The elaborate and +gilded chariots, the piebald Arabian horses, the drove of shambling +camels and the huge swaying elephants gave a touch of genuine oriental +picturesqueness to the scene strangely out of keeping with the wild +western landscape and surroundings. + +On every hand the prairies were carpeted with wild flowers in the +greatest variety and profusion. Their fragrance even reached me as I +stretched out at full length on the top of a lumbering chariot. The +almost endless vista of prairie, the serpent caravan, the gay colors +and the fragrance of the flowers all combined to refresh and impress +me, and to give me more cheer and courage than hours of sleep. The +pleasant picture haunted me after I closed my eyes and mixed in my +dreams after I dozed off into a half conscious slumber. + +Later the lurch of the wagon aroused me, and I started up with a sense +of unaccountable alarm. The first object which met my eyes was a +jackrabbit, sitting on his haunches not more than two rods from the +trail we were following. Knowing the habitual timidity of these +creatures the boldness of this one surprised me greatly. He sat there +with his ears cocked straight up, his nose working nervously and his +heart pounding so heavily that its pulsations shook his gray sides. Not +until the wagon had passed did the rabbit stir. Then he dropped upon +all fours and vanished in a gray streak traveling in a line parallel +with the course of the caravan and keeping only a few rods from our +trail. While I was still pondering over the strange conduct of the +animal I saw a "rattler" emerge from the grass into the beaten trail +only a few feet in front of the "off leader" of our four-horse team. +Naturally I expected to see the snake coil and strike the horse, but he +did nothing of the kind--simply avoided the horse's hoofs and then +slipped away into the grass beyond. What was the meaning of the strange +spell which seemed suddenly to have taken possession of the wild +animals and reptiles of the plain through which we were traveling? +There was no escape from the conclusion that some peculiar influence +had seized upon them, blunting their ordinary sense of fear and +precaution. Had I been more accustomed to prairie life I would probably +have realized at once the nature of the trouble; like all of the men on +the wagon with me I was a rank tenderfoot. + +In the course of the next ten minutes several flocks of birds passed +over us, flying low but very rapidly. The grass on both sides of the +trail seemed suddenly to swarm with animal life. + +Before I had arrived at any conclusions regarding the peculiar actions +of the prairie creatures the captive animals in the darkened cages +began to show signs of unusual restlessness. The lions and tigers began +a strange moaning unlike their ordinary roars and growls. From the +monkey cages came plaintive, half-human cries. These sounds were taken +up by all the animals big and little. The elephants trumpeted, the +camels screamed, and every animal took part in the weird chorus, which +rapidly increased in volume. Then the air seemed to take on a hazy +appearance, particularly in the direction from which we had come. + +Finally the truth dawned upon me--the prairie was on fire! By turning +backward and straining my eyes I fancied I could make out a cloud of +smoke far in the rear of the caravan. In a few moments this dim vision +became clear and tangible. I told my fears to the driver, who laughed +at me for my pains. Then I caught sight of a man on horseback on the +crest of rise in the prairie. He was riding towards us as fast as his +horse could carry him. Passing us like a whirlwind, he shouted: "Whip +up, man! The prairie's on fire! Move for the river straight ahead!" In +a second he was gone, shouting the same word to every startled driver +he passed. His approach had been noted by the boss, who was at the head +of the entire procession. That grand marshal of the day, for that was +substantially his position, came riding back to meet the courier. +Instantly, on learning the tidings, he wheeled about and rode like the +wind for the chariot in the lead, drawn by six splendid horses white as +milk. + +Sharp orders emphasized by a liberal sprinkling of profanity were +sufficient to impress the driver of the magnificent leaders with the +awful gravity of the situation and with the fact that he must set the +pace for the remainder of the caravan. It might be thought that the +greatest drag on the speed of the terrified procession would have been +the camels and elephants. So thought the boss, but no sooner did the +driver of the elephants get into position on the back of old Romeo and +give that knowing creature an idea of what was expected, than he saw +his mistake. + +The way in which both the elephants and camels swung themselves over +the ground was a revelation to all who saw them. Which was the more +pitiful and terrifying, the trumpeting of the elephants or the +squealing of the camels, was difficult to tell. + +As the awful scroll of the fire rolled closer upon us the ungainly +bodies of the camels and elephants swayed from one side to the other +until they seemed fairly to vibrate. + +"Where is the river? Are we nearing the stream? Can we make the water?" +These were the questions in the mind of every person in that long wagon +train. Sometimes they were yelled from one driver to another, but the +only answer was to lay the lash harder on the backs of the poor horses +pulling the heavy wagons and chariots--leaping and straining like so +many modern fire department animals responding to an alarm. It was a +genuine chariot race--in which the stake was life and the fine death by +flames. Nearly every vehicle was drawn by either four or six horses, +and the scene was one of the grandest and most terrible that human eye +ever looked upon. + +Suddenly I saw the boss put his horse into its highest speed, leading +on ahead of the six whites. Then he leaped from the saddle, struck a +match to the grass, remounted and rode back a short distance. As each +team approached he ordered: "Wait till the flames spread a little and +then break through the line of the back fire I've started and form a +circle." + +The grass which he had fired was considerably shorter than the general +growth of the prairies; then, the fire it made had not acquired the +volume, intensity and sweep of that hurricane of flame from which we +were fleeing. One after another of the teams reared, pitched and +plunged, only to find that the back fire had gone under their feet +leaving them inside a charred, blackened circle fringed with flame. + +No sound I have ever heard approached in abject terror the awful +symphony of roars, growls, screams, wails and screeches that went up +from the maddened beasts in that caravan as the great sky-reaching +cylinder of flame and smoke rolled down upon us and was met barely +forty rods away by the rapidly spreading line of our own back fire. + +Just as we were wondering if our next breath would be flame or air, the +leaders of the white chariot horses leaped into the air like rockets. +Instantly the whole six stallions became absolutely crazed with fear +and made a plunge directly for the oncoming storm of fire and smoke. On +toward the furnace of fire they ran, the driver tugging with might and +main on the reins. + +"Jump!" yelled the boss. And jump the driver did. He was not a second +too soon, for an instant later the white charioteers had disappeared +under the great red and black barrel that was rolling upon us. Then +came a moment which was a dizzy blank to most of us, I guess. The +fearful strain of the long race, the moments of awful suspense after +the charred ground had been reached--it was enough to have dethroned +the reason of every man and woman in the charmed circle! Small wonder +that a few fainted dead away and the rest of us were stunned into +momentary confusion. + +But we had scarcely recovered the use of our faculties when the wag of +the circus broke the long strain of the flight and escape by the +remark: "I reckon there's been more genuine praying done in circus +circles in the last hour than since Noah let the elephants out of the +Ark!" The truthfulness of the remark hit home to every one in the whole +group. Probably there was not a choicer collection of "unbelievers" on +the face of the civilized earth than our company contained--yet only a +few moments before every man, woman and child had been praying for dear +life--some fairly shouting their supplications, others kneeling quietly +in the wagons, and still others mumbling their petitions as they helped +to hold the horses in check or performed some other imperative duty. +But there was not a single individual in the whole wagon train who had +not, under the awful pressure of the trial through which we passed, put +up some kind of a petition to the Almighty for deliverance from the +devouring flames. + +One of the first things we did, when the burning ground became cool +enough, after the tornado of fire had swept around our little oasis of +burned ground and passed on towards the river, was to go out and look +for the remains of the chariot and the six white stallions. We had not +far to go before we came to a heap of wheel tires and other ironwork +from the big vehicle. A little beyond it were the blackened remains of +the splendid horses which had dashed into an unnecessary death. These +animals had been the pride of the show, and there was scarcely a man +connected with the equestrian department of the circus who did not +deeply lament the loss of the noble creatures. As for myself, I could +hardly keep back the tears, for my fondness for the beautiful, +intelligent horses amounted to a passion. + +Slowly we made our way to the river. On the other bank were gathered +the inhabitants of the prairies who had been fortunate enough to reach +this refuge. They had immediately extinguished the fires started on the +far side of the river by the sparks which the wind carried across the +stream. Some of them were almost raving with grief over the fate which +they firmly believed had overtaken their relatives and friends, while +others put their whole energies into caring for all who needed +help--thus forgetting their own distress and afflictions in ministering +to others. + + +A CHANCE MEETING WITH A GREAT MAN + +After relating one of the most stirring and tragic episodes of my life +as a showman, my thought turns instinctively to the other extreme--to +an experience quite as typical of the wandering existence of the +pioneer showman of the old wagon days. I refer to a chance meeting with +one of the greatest men who helped to make the history of the United +States, a splendid, picturesque giant of the pioneer type whose life +was an unbroken romance. It may be asked, What has this kind of thing +to do with circus life? I answer: Everything! Much of the success which +I have achieved in this peculiar field of effort I owe to the contact +with men of large capacity with whom I chanced to "fall in," as it +were, while on the road. These meetings were as bread to my mind. They +made the bright spots in my life, and, from the very beginning of my +career, gave me the inspiration which helped me to see things in a +larger way, to persevere in the face of all obstacles and to take +advantage of every opportunity. Of the hundreds of experiences in this +line, no other approached in romantic interest that which came to me +very early in my southwestern tour. + +I was then a young man and was traveling in Louisiana. I put up at a +hotel in a rather small town, where hotels were as rare as other +evidences of civilization. I had just gone to my room on the night +succeeding my arrival when I was honored with a call from the landlord. + +"Mr. Coup," he said, "there'll be another feller up to bunk with you in +a few minutes. You'd better wait up and arrange with him about the side +of the bed you are to sleep on. If he walks in and finds you sleepin' +on his side, there might be a coolness spring up between you." + +At that time I was a stranger to southern customs, and their manner of +doing things struck me as being a trifle irregular. However, I offered +no objection. It has always been a rule with me to maintain the silence +which is said to be golden when I am among strangers in a strange land. +I afterwards discovered that it was customary for this landlord to put +as many as three in one bed when he happened to be cramped for room. In +about ten minutes my bedfellow came up. He was an elderly man with eyes +which seemed to pierce one. + +His bedroom candle lighted up a face which I have never since been able +to eradicate from my memory. It was one of the most interesting faces +it has ever been my good fortune to gaze upon. When he smiled, I was +somehow irresistibly drawn towards him. It was the saddest, tenderest, +sweetest smile that I have ever seen upon a man's face. He spoke to me +kindly as he placed his candle upon the little table, then drew his +chair up close beside me in front of the open, wood fire. Twenty +minutes afterward I could have sworn that I had known the man all my +life. He was a brilliant talker; and his stock of knowledge regarding +men and affairs of that day seemed to be inexhaustible. + +"By the way," I said, after we had talked well into the night, "I see +Gen. Sam Houston is billed to speak here to-morrow night. I shall +certainly go to hear him." He glanced up at me quickly. + +"Are you an admirer of him?" he asked. + +"I will answer that question by saying both yes and no," I replied. "I +greatly admire him for his sturdy independence, his political ability, +and his apparent hatred for all shams. But there seems to be another +side to his character which I do not admire. The manner in which he +deserted his Cherokee wife after he had left the nation and returned to +civilization, I regard as wholly contemptible. Do you know him?" + +"I have seen him," he replied, quietly, smiling the sad smile which had +before struck me so forcibly. + +"Well, don't you agree with me?" I asked. + +"Before I reply to that question I would like to tell you a little +story," my roommate replied, and it seemed to me that his voice +trembled a little. + +"I once knew a man who held a prominent office in the State of +Tennessee. He was a young man then--not older than yourself, and with +just as quick a tongue when it came to condemning all sorts of wrong +and injustice. His position gave him admission to the best social +circles, and he wooed and married a beautiful girl. On his part it was +wholly a love match. He worshiped her as he had never before worshiped +anything on earth. For a time he was happy--after the manner of men who +place their entire lives in the hands of one woman. By and by he +noticed that his beautiful young wife was growing dejected and unhappy. +Often, when he spoke to her in terms of endearment when they were +alone, she would burst into tears, tear herself out of his arms and +escape from the room. On one of these occasions he followed her to her +room and insisted upon an explanation. At first she refused, but +finally yielded, telling him a story which crushed him to the very +dust. She said she had never loved him, but had been persuaded by +friends to marry him on account of his position. She told him more than +that. She told him that long before the marriage occurred she had loved +another man. + +"That night the husband left his home and his high official position +and disappeared. Shaving the hair from his head and tearing the +broadcloth garments into shreds, he donned the scanty apparel of the +savage and became a member of the Cherokee nation. The members of the +tribe treated him with the greatest consideration and respect, and he +became a sort of oracle among them. In time he married an Indian +maiden, thereby widening the breach between himself and the past. After +a number of years had passed, however, he grew weary of savagery and +his mind often reverted to the life which had been his before his great +trouble came upon him. Finally he bade his wife and her untutored +friends a temporary farewell and drifted into Texas. Here he soon rose +to recognition, and in a comparatively brief space of time once more +held an important official position. But he had not deserted his Indian +wife. On several occasions he returned to the tribe to see her and +tried to induce her to return with him to civilization. But the poor, +untutored Indian squaw was a thousand times nobler than the beautiful +society woman who had ruined his life in early manhood. She loved him +passionately, but positively refused to accede to his requests. 'I +would only disgrace you,' she said. 'I am not fit to go out into your +world.' Finally the husband returned without her--very much against his +wishes, remember--and a few months later word reached him that his +Indian wife was dead. She had loved him too well to accompany him into +his changed life for fear of disgracing him, and had loved him too well +to wish to live without him. She was found, said the messenger, at the +bottom of a cliff, and the manner of her death was only too apparent. +The white wife represented what is popularly called the highest type of +civilization and social culture--the poor Indian girl what is best +known by the name of savagery. That, young man, is how General Houston +came to desert his Indian bride." + +I had been deeply interested in the old man's story, and when he had +finished I thought that his keen eyes were filled with tears as he sat +gazing into the dying embers of our fire. I hastened to assure him that +I was glad to be set right regarding General Houston's character. "I +shall listen to his speech with renewed interest to-morrow night," I +said. "You must have known him well?" + +"Yes," was the reply, "I have seen a good deal of him. But, my young +friend, don't let your enthusiasm run away with your discretion. +General Houston has his faults like the rest of the world--plenty of +them." + +"By the way," I said, as we pushed back our chairs and prepared for +bed, "I believe you have omitted telling me your name. I have spent +such a pleasant evening that I would really like to know to whom I am +indebted for it." + +"Ah," he said, with the same smile, "I believe I did omit that little +formality. My name is Sam Houston." + +We did not quarrel regarding the side of the bed he was to occupy. +General Houston could have had both sides had he expressed a wish for +them. + + + + +VI + +BOOMING THE BIG SHOW + + +It may not be generally known to the public, but it is a fact, that +nearly one-half of the entire expenditure of a circus is incurred in +the work of the advance brigades. The advertising material, its +distribution, express, freight and cartage, together with the salaries, +transportation and living expenses of seventy-five to one hundred men, +amount to vast sums of money. The largest number of men I ever used in +advance of my show was seventy-five, and for this people called me +crazy. + +Though, of course, there is a limit to possible receipts, there is no +doubt that the business secured is in proportion to the sum used in +advertising, and it is almost impossible to draw the line at which +judicious advertising should stop. This is demonstrated by the fact +that the dressing-room tents of the present day are larger than were +the entire old-time circus canvases, when the advertising was done by +one man on horseback and all the paper used was carried in his +saddle-bags, and the salary of any star advertiser now is as much as +was required to run the entire show of years ago. + + +NOVEL ADVERTISING FEATURES + +I early learned, by experience, that big receipts at the ticket wagon +followed big advertising expenditures. In 1880, in order to boom the +"Newly United Monster Shows," I arranged some very peculiar and novel +advertising features in the way of three cars especially fitted out for +the use of my advance agents. The first brigade was accompanied by an +enormous organ, for which a car was built, the latter being drawn +through the streets by an elephant. This organ was a masterpiece of +mechanism and was specially built by Professor Jukes. Its tones +resembled the music of a brass band and could be heard at a great +distance. This, of course, attracted the people, and the brigade would +then advertise the show by a lavish distribution of hand-bills. + +Unfortunately the elephant and the music combined to frighten many +horses, and I soon found myself defendant in numerous damage suits. +Indeed, that single elephant seemed to frighten more horses than did +the entire herd with the show. + +At one place temporary quarters for the elephant were secured in a +stable which could be reached only through a private alley. When we +came to take possession of the barn, the owner of the alley, with +several policemen, stood on guard and undertook to stop the progress of +the huge animal. Their efforts, however, met with no success, for, with +the most sublime indifference, the beast moved quietly forward. For +this I was sued for "trespass" and "injured feelings." As the elephant +was the offender, my lawyer proposed to bring him into court as the +principal witness, a proposition which caused considerable amusement. +As no damage had been done, the "laugh" was decidedly on the owner of +the alley. + + +THE "DEVIL'S WHISTLE" + +My second advertising car was fitted up with another enormous organ of +far-reaching power, and attracted much attention, while my third and +last advertising brigade rejoiced in the possession of an engine to +which was attached a steam whistle of such power and discordant tone +that it could be heard for miles. This the men would blow while going +through the country. Professor Jukes had christened this diabolical +invention the "Devil's Whistle," and so well did its sound fit the name +that the people must have frequently thought His Satanic Majesty was +near by. + +As that car with its whistle would steam into a town, the inhabitants +would flock as one man to see what it was that had so disturbed their +peace, and thus we were enabled to advertise more thoroughly than any +show before or since. I have often thought that I really deserved +punishment for thus outraging the public ear. + +Between these three advertising brigades I had smaller companies, +accompanied by a colored brass band, which discoursed pleasant music +while my bill posters decorated the dead walls and boards. The band +also gave concerts at night upon the public square and, between pieces, +a good speaker would draw attention to the excellences of the coming +show. + +A uniformed brigade of trumpeters was also sent through the country on +horseback, and a band of Jubilee singers marched through the streets +singing the praises of the "Newly United Shows." Added to these +attractions were two stereopticons that pictured, from some house-top +or window, the main features of the show. This, together with perhaps +the most liberal newspaper advertising that ever had been done, made +the whole advance work as near absolute perfection in show advertising +as possible. + +One of the picturesque features with the advance show was Gilmore's +"Jubilee Anvil Chorus." The anvils were made of wood with a piece of +toned steel fastened at the top in a manner which secured a volume and +resonance of tone that could be heard much further than that of an +ordinary anvil. At intervals, to strengthen the chorus, cannon were +fired off. This, though a great novelty, caused some dissatisfaction, +especially amid crowded surroundings. My excuse was that the chorus was +a free feature furnished by my friend Gilmore, and that, as it cost the +public nothing, the latter should be satisfied. Never before nor since +was a country so startled and excited over the coming of a show. + + +"SPOTTERS" + +A great circus uses large quantities of advertising paper--so much, in +fact, that it is difficult to keep track of it. True, the +superintendent of the advertising car gives each man so many "sheets" +in the morning and the man at night hands in a statement which is +supposed to show where and how he has placed the paper. These brigades +are followed by "watchers," or, as the railroad men term them, +"spotters," who look carefully over the ground. But the impossibility +of detecting all crooked work may be readily understood when I say that +from eight to twelve wagons containing bill-posters and paper start out +on country routes in as many different directions, so the "spotter," +not being ubiquitous, cannot follow every trail. One of my "spotters," +however, did once ascertain that a party of my men had driven into the +country and dozed comfortably in the shade all day, had not put up any +paper and had not fed the hired horses, although they did not forget to +charge for the "feeds." The horses were thus made to suffer and the men +pocketed the money which should have gone for oats. Of course my +superintendent discharged the entire brigade, although, when the season +is well under way, it is very difficult to obtain skilled bill-posters, +for it is quite a difficult craft and experts are in good demand. + +The reader, however, can easily see what a great loss such doings +entail on a show, considering the cost of the paper at the printer's, +the freight or expressage, the cartage, and the money paid the men for +putting up the sheets. The printing bills of a first-class show are +enormous. My lithograph bill alone, the last successful season of my +show, amounted to $40,000, and this was before the days of extensive +lithographing. I believe I ordered the first three-sheet lithograph +ever made, and also the first ten-sheet lithograph. This was considered +a piece of foolishness; but when I ordered a hundred-sheet bill and +first used it in Brooklyn it was considered such a curiosity that show +people visited the City of Churches for the express purpose of looking +at this advertising marvel. How things have changed! The Barnum and one +or two other shows now use nothing but lithographs, and many of their +bills are beautiful works of art, some of them being copies of really +great pictures. + +I can remember when one-sheet lithographs cost one dollar each, and for +several years later they could not be bought for less than fifty to +seventy-five cents apiece. They can be had now in large quantities for +about five cents or less the sheet. As shows nowadays frequently use +hundreds of sheets in a day, imagine what would be their cost at the +price paid in the pioneer show period. + +The circus of the present day is judged by the quality of its paper. +One season I arranged with a publisher to use a folded quarter sheet, +three sides of which advertised our show and the fourth side contained +the first chapter of a story about to be published in his magazine. +These were furnished to us in enormous quantities and our agents +distributed them. In Boston we had four four-horse wagons full and +these followed our parade. The men tossed the folders high in the air +and the wind carried them in all directions. While this style of +advertising surprised the people, it was soon stopped, and properly, +too, by city ordinance. I think circus people would be better off if +ordinances were passed wholly prohibiting bill posting; but +unfortunately such a movement would go far toward breaking up a +profitable industry, since many of the bill posters are rich men, some +making as much as $25,000 a year and a few fully $50,000. I believe Mr. +Seth B. Howes, the veteran circus manager, was the first one to order a +billboard made or paste paper on the outside. Previous to this all +bills were hung or fastened up with tacks. + + +RIVALRY IN EXPLOITING OPPOSITION SHOWS + +There was always a sharp rivalry between the advance brigades of +opposition shows, and many are the tricks which they play upon each +other. Perhaps the most serious and daring trick played on me was when +the agent of an opposition show actually went to the railroad office +and ordered a carload of my paper, which was on the sidetrack there +waiting for our man, to be shipped to California. Believing him to be +representing me, the freight agent did as requested, and my advance +brigade was delayed until a fresh carload could be sent on from New +York, which could be done in less time than it would have taken to have +brought the original carload back from San Francisco. After +accomplishing this contemptible trick the fellow escaped, and, although +I had Pinkerton men closely on his trail, I was never able to get +service on him. Of course the scamp's employers were legally +responsible; but in those days we never thought of bringing suit in +cases of that kind, although I was strongly tempted to do so in one +place, where an opposition show had covered my dates with their own and +had greatly damaged us by misleading the people. + +Of the many other sharp tricks played on me by opposition shows, one of +the best, or worst, was that of equipping men with sample cases, and +sending them in advance of my show in the role of commercial salesmen. +These men would step into prominent stores and, after a short business +talk, incidentally mention my name and then impart the information that +my show had disbanded and gone to pieces. This, of course, would set +the whole town talking, and the news would soon spread over the entire +country, thus doing me irreparable harm. + + +COSTLY RIVALRY + +The general public has very little idea of the extent to which +opposition tactics are carried by the representatives of circuses and +menageries. The rivalry between two shows often costs thousands of +dollars and is sometimes kept up by the agents long after the +proprietors have become reconciled. Once we became involved in one of +these contests, and the opposition, in order to harass us, actually had +four of our men arrested in different States on a charge of libel. The +Indiana libel laws were very severe, and in each instance we were +compelled to give a heavy bond for the release of our man. + +That year the train of a rival outfit ran off the track, and one of the +proprietors, in the course of time, became my agent. One day, in a +confidential chat, he alluded to the mishap, and told me that at the +time it occurred he fully intended accusing us of having had the +switches turned, thus causing the disaster. To that end he had even +gone to the length of swearing out warrants for our arrest. They knew +that we were perfectly innocent, but their object was to gain notoriety +and sympathy. At the last moment, it is to be presumed, their better +natures asserted themselves; at all events, they weakened. + +[Illustration: "WHEN RIVAL SHOWMEN BURNED A BRIDGE TO PREVENT THEIR +KEEPING A DATE."] + +Another party in opposition warfare copied our money orders. Orders of +this kind were given by our agents and paid by our treasurer on arrival +of the show. They were given for services rendered or goods bought, and +covered the expenses of livery teams, distributing bills, flour, feed, +advance brigade supplies, newspaper advertising, etc. They were made +out something after this style: + + "On presentation of this order and ten issues of ---- Newspaper, + containing advertisements of the Coup Show to exhibit at + ---- on the ---- day of ---- pay Mr. ---- $----, amount due him. + + "(Signed) ---- ----, Agent." + +These orders were extensively used by the opposition for some time +before we discovered it. Its object, of course, was to make the +newspaper proprietors and the public think they were advertising the +Coup show, while of course their own dates would be inserted instead of +ours. + +At a certain place in Ohio a bridge was burned in advance of us and +entailed the loss of our next "stand," or date. We could not safely +accuse any of our competitors of this contemptible and incendiary +trick; but we knew they were driven to desperation and were capable of +resorting to any such outrage. + +There were agents so utterly unscrupulous as to receive pay from +opposition shows for disclosing to them information that should have +been jealously guarded, even betraying the advance route. I knew one +agent who was an expert telegraph operator and able to take messages by +sound. He would scrape acquaintance with the regular operator and pass +his spare time in the telegraph office secretly taking our messages as +the latter were being sent over the wire, the local operator being +ignorant of the loafer's telegraphic skill. + + +IDLE BILL POSTERS + +These opposition fights greatly benefited the local bill posters and +were frequently urged on by them. Sometimes a show would send a brigade +over the country at night, placing its own dates on the paper of its +rival, thus getting all the advantages of the first show's paper. +Sometimes the indolence and laziness of my own men have annoyed me +greatly. I am reminded that, while my advance brigade was billing +Texas, one of my agents became utterly disgusted with the sleepiness of +his men. They were mainly of corpulent build, and their captain +actually sent me this message: + + "WACO, Texas, July, 1881. + + "W. C. COUP, + + "Sturtevant House, New York City: + + "There is one more shade tree in Texas; send another fat man to sit + under it." + +On numerous occasions I have had to pay dearly as a result of the sharp +practices of unscrupulous people, and it is a well-known fact that a +circus man has to deal with a great many of this class. Our advance +agent always engaged the lots on which we were to exhibit, and he did +so at Austin, Texas, renting the necessary ground at a most exorbitant +figure. As usual, he gave an order on the company which was to be paid +immediately on our arrival. But the owner, or pretended owner, inserted +a clause in the agreement that the lots were to be used if still in the +possession of the signer. Immediately on our arrival the bill was +presented, and as promptly paid. Imagine my surprise when, as the show +opened at night, another bill was presented for $150. It seems that +this sharper had made a fraudulent sale of one of the center lots on +purpose to swindle me. Of course I paid it, under protest, in order to +enable the performance to proceed, as, anticipating a refusal on my +part, they had illegally attached some valuable ring stock. + +Some years ago when George Peck was struggling with Peck's Sun, long +before it had been recognized as a "leading comic paper," I visited +Milwaukee with my show. My invariable instructions to my agents were +to advertise in every paper, but especially to place an extra +advertisement in all young papers struggling for recognition, provided, +of course, that they had merit. For some reason, or through oversight, +George Peck's Sun had been entirely forgotten. Nevertheless, I found on +reaching Milwaukee that Peck had, on several occasions, good-humoredly +alluded in his columns to my coming, and had not "roasted" me, as many +other editors so slighted would have done. Accordingly I sent him a +check which would have more than paid for the advertising he should +have had but did not get. To my surprise he returned the check, saying +I owed him nothing. I declined to receive it, and once more sent it to +him, telling him not to come any of his "funny business over me," and +to reserve his jokes for his paper. This brought him around to my +hotel, and I was delighted to become acquainted with one of the +cleverest men I have ever met. Later he became Governor of his State. + + +COURTESY OF EDITORS + +As an example of the courteous treatment I have invariably received at +the hands of the newspaper editors I cannot refrain from giving the +following incident which occurred when the show was in North Carolina. +In a town in that State one paper, through an oversight, had been +skipped altogether in the distribution of the advertising. When the +second brigade of the advertising army arrived in town, it found that +the issue of this paper had already been mailed to its subscribers. +Nothing daunted, however, this agent arranged with the publishers for a +special issue which, teeming with praises of the Coup show, was issued +and mailed to all subscribers. As a result excellent houses greeted us +when we exhibited in the place. + +The rivalry between the great shows extended to the newspaper +advertising as well as bill-posting department. I remember that once, +at Pittsburg, the opposition was very strong, and I had as press agent +a brother of the man who held the same position in the employ of my +rival. They were both excellent newspaper men and thoroughly understood +their business. We would take whole columns in the newspapers, and my +men with the show would telegraph to the papers at Pittsburg after this +manner: + + "WILKESBARRE, Pa. + + "The W. C. Coup show did a tremendous business here to-day; the + largest and best show ever seen here." + +These telegrams would be used to head our other notices in the +Pittsburg papers, and whole columns would follow, setting forth the +merits of the show. With more solid indorsements these telegrams so +worried my agent's brother that he was at a loss to know how to +overcome them. He finally hit upon a novel and dashing plan. After our +columns had been set up in the various papers, he would then engage the +adjoining columns. In this space, in display type, he denounced our +telegrams as bogus, stating that he had seen his own brother write them +at the hotel. This announcement completely took the wind out of our +sails. + + +JUMBO'S FREE ADVERTISING + +Many amusing things of this sort occurred in the war of opposition, but +others of a more serious nature would, of course, come up. + +The greatest amount of free advertising ever received by a big show, +within my knowledge, for any one thing, was that which was incident +upon the purchase of "Jumbo." The elephant was bought by Barnum, Bailey +& Hutchinson from the Zoological Gardens in London. When the day +arrived for his removal, the elephant lay down and refused to leave his +old home. This created a sympathy for the dumb creature, and the +children became so interested that petitions were signed by +hundreds--yes, thousands--of children and adults of Great Britain, +protesting against the delivery of the animal to its new owners. +Jumbo's stubbornness proved a fortune to his new owners. Taking +advantage of the opportunity they began to work upon the sympathies of +the Humane Society, which made every effort to prevent Jumbo from being +sent to this country. The news was cabled to America by the column. I +happened to be in the editor's room of a daily paper in New York when +one of these cables came into the office. The editor laughingly called +my attention to it and threw it into the waste basket. I said: "What, +are you not going to use this?" He said: "No, of course not." + +"Well," said I, "you will use Jumbo matter before the excitement is +over." + +I saw how the excitement could, and surely would, in such able hands, +be kept up. I left that night for St. Louis, where my educated horses +were being exhibited, and made a call on my old friend Col. John A. +Cockrill, then editor of the Post Dispatch--when another associated +press Jumbo dispatch came in, with which they were delighted. I then +related my experience with the New York editor who had refused to use +the cable that came into the office while I was sitting there. The +colonel and Mr. Pulitzer said: "Well, we are glad to use it--this and +future dispatches." + +The next day the colonel handed me a New York paper, which proved to be +the same that I had mentioned, and in it appeared a double leaded +account on the Jumbo excitement. Their show agents in London did +wonderful work in keeping the associated press filled with new matter, +and the free advertising they secured would have cost at regular rates +a half million of dollars and even then would not have been as +effective. + +The agents succeeded in working up this opposition to Jumbo's removal +until they induced the editor of the London Telegraph to cable Barnum, +asking what price he would take to leave Jumbo in his own home, +explaining the feeling of the people, especially the children. This +editor had no idea then and perhaps does not even now know that he was +made an innocent agent in the big advertising scheme. The children of +Great Britain had ridden on Jumbo's back, fed and fondled him for +years, so that it was easy to arouse this feeling of indignation and +sympathy. The multitude even threatened violence if he was removed. The +excitement had purposely been kept up to such a pitch by these people +that it became international. + +There was also much excitement about Jumbo's wife, Alice. Elaborately +written articles were cabled over, expressing the sorrow of Alice at +the enforced departure of Jumbo and her consequent separation from her +husband. The feelings of the people were so worked upon that sympathy +for Alice and Jumbo almost equaled that aroused for the slave by the +description of Uncle Tom in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The advertising matter +for Jumbo--the lithographs, etc.--had already been printed, and in them +he was called "Mastodon." When he refused to be moved his right name, +Jumbo, was used, as the dispatches had gone out in that name. The +strategy used by these managers and their agents to get all this +notoriety did no one any harm and made good sensational reading for the +newspapers. + + + + +VII + +PARADES AND BAND WAGONS + + +Shows thrive best on bluster and buncombe. Years of experience have +taught me that the traveling show business handled by capitalists who +have been trained in other lines of enterprise can never succeed. I +have often been reproved by business men who were astounded at the +lavish and apparently wasteful expenditures of the circus for "show and +blow," and who have insisted that these expenses should be cut in half. +It is true that such reckless expenditures in any ordinary commercial +undertaking would be disastrous, but it is the life of a big show. When +it is possible thoroughly to arouse the curiosity of the public, +expense should be a secondary consideration. + + +THE FIFTY-CENT RIVALS OF THE $10,000 HIPPOS + +I recall an incident, however, which goes to show that the most +expensive attractions do not necessarily prove the greatest drawing +cards. Among the rare animals which I had one season were some +Memiponias, or tiny deerlets--"hell benders," as they were commonly +called. One of the opposition shows was making a great feature of a +pair of hippopotami, or river horses, from the Nile. I had made +arrangements to receive, at stated intervals, regular numbers of "hell +benders," and I would wire my agents ahead, "Another living hell bender +arrived to-day." This he would advertise with great gusto, getting out +special bills and keeping up the excitement. + +One day, while one of my agents, who happened to be back with the show, +was sitting in my office, a bill to the amount of six dollars was +presented for "One dozen hell benders." Seeing this he inquired what it +meant. + +"Don't you see?" said I. "'One dozen hell benders, six dollars.'" + +"Do you mean to say," my agent exclaimed, "that I have been advertising +fifty-cent hell benders?" + +"You have," I laughingly replied. + +"Well," said he, "if that doesn't beat the deuce! These fifty-cent hell +benders have knocked $10,000 worth of hippos higher than a kite!" It +certainly was a fact that our fifty-cent articles had been so +judiciously advertised as to create more excitement than the costly +"hippos" of the opposition. + +In the course of the same season I made a discovery which proved to be +a valuable drawing card. I owned some young elephants which I had lent +to a showman on the Bowery. On going to see them one day I noticed a +man holding his finger in the mouth of one of the smaller ones. I +placed my finger in the mouth of another and found that the creatures +seemed to derive pleasure from the action of sucking. Immediately I +sent out for an ordinary infant's nursing bottle. The young elephant +drained the bottle as if to the manner born. It was passed from one to +another of the infant class. Finally they fought in the most +indescribably comical manner for possession of the bottle. + + +A SKILLFUL APPEAL TO PUBLIC SYMPATHY + +Then I fitted a large glass jar, holding a gallon, with rubber tubes, +so that all could use it at the same time. Invariably they would empty +this bottle before loosening their hold on the nipples. They had +doubtless been taken from their mother when too young, or perhaps she +had been killed at the time the young were captured. So effectively did +they appeal to public interest and sentiment that by dint of skillful +advertising the celebrated "sucking baby elephants" made quite a +fortune in a single season. They would be led into the ring, where they +would take their nourishment like human babies, their over-grown size +making this infantile operation very comical and absurd. The sight +captivated the heart of every woman who attended the show. + +[Illustration: THE HERD OF YOUNG ELEPHANTS.] + +The eagerness of circus proprietors to procure animal monstrosities for +exhibition purposes has called forth many laughable communications from +persons who have curiosities of this kind to sell. I remember going one +morning into the office and reading a telegram which came to Mr. +Barnum. It was as follows: + + "BALTIMORE, Md. + + "To P. T. BARNUM: I have a four-legged chicken. _Come quick._" + +The circus of the present day is not complete without the side shows +and the after concerts. For my own part I can honestly say that I never +in my life heard a concert announcement made in my show without feeling +like getting up and leaving in disgust; but all classes of show-goers +must be pleased, and there is one class which demands the concert and +another class that wants the side shows. + + +A SILENT PARADE FROM ALBANY TO THE STATE LINE + +I am glad to know that the circus man who speaks of his patrons as +"gillies," and who endeavors to obtain his wealth by fair or foul +means, is becoming more and more rare. I recall an illiterate circus +man of this description who employed every "privilege" known to the +circus world. For example: when traveling by wagon the whole caravan +would pass through a toll-gate, stating that the "boss" was behind and +would pay the toll. The last vehicle to go through would contain this +dignitary and his treasurer, who, when confronted with the long list of +vehicles on which he ought to pay toll, would declare that the +toll-keeper had been imposed upon, and that half of those vehicles +belonged to a gang of gypsies having no connection whatever with the +show. He would then cut the bill down according to the easy or hard +nature of the custodian of the toll-gate, and in this manner evade +payment of what, in a whole season, would aggregate a large sum of +money. + +On one occasion, when about to exhibit in Albany, and knowing that his +whole outfit would that day be attached for debt, he ordered the parade +to start early, as he intended to give them a "long ride." The +procession accordingly started on what has passed into circus history +as the "silent parade," for, leaving the city in all the glory of +spangle and tinsel, the showmen never rested until they had reached the +State line, while the sheriffs, waiting at the tents in Albany for the +parade to return, had the poor satisfaction of attaching the almost +worn-out and quite worthless canvas. + +I have often been asked what it costs to start a circus and menagerie. +This is a most difficult question to answer, since it depends entirely +upon the size and pretensions of the enterprise in question. Shows vary +in size from cheap affairs, capable of being carried in three railroad +cars, to the elaborate institutions which require two long special +trains for their transportation. The expense of running a large show is +enormous, although in advertising this expense is usually exaggerated. +There are a great many traveling tented exhibitions which "bill," or +advertise, like a circus, and in the eyes of the general public pass +for circuses, but which, in reality, are variety exhibitions given +under canvas. + + +THE FLUCTUATING LEVELS OF CIRCUS VALUES + +In the eye of the law a circus must have feats of horsemanship in its +program, and such shows have to pay a "circus" license, which in some +States and cities is very high. If, however, the shows do not give any +riding, their performance simply consisting of leaping, tumbling, and +athletic feats, then a license may be taken out at a greatly reduced +price; and this accounts for the almost numberless small shows which +annually tour the country. Of the circus and menagerie show proper I do +not think there are more than twenty in America; but of tented +exhibitions, billed as "railroad shows," there are several hundred. The +tented exhibitions employ from fifty to six hundred men each, and the +capital invested in them runs from $5,000 to $250,000. + +Many of the smaller shows are fitted out economically by purchasing +from the larger ones paraphernalia that has been used a season or two. +For example: the canvases used an entire season by a large show may be +purchased cheaply, because it is essential to the attractiveness of a +really great amusement institution to have each season a new, white +"spread." The old canvas, if not sold to the smaller showmen, is +disposed of to the paper manufacturers at about one and one-half cents +the pound. + +The same rule of enforced replenishment applies to wardrobe and general +paraphernalia. In this way a beginner in the circus business may, by +judicious investment in second-hand bargains, start out with a very +fair outfit secured at a much smaller cost than if he were compelled to +purchase everything new. And, in this connection, let me say that I +know of no other business enterprise in which new material costs so +much, and when sold at second-hand realizes so little. One of the +largest shows ever organized in this country, and which was reputed to +be worth more than half a million dollars, was inventoried on the death +of one of the proprietors, with a view to selling the estate of the +deceased, and, to the great surprise of the executors, was found to +reach in value only about $200,000. + +Twenty years ago a show with a daily expenditure of $250 was thought +extravagant, while fifty years ago a circus whose receipts averaged +sixty dollars a day was considered to be doing a good business. To-day +there is one show the expenses of which are undoubtedly more than +$3,500 a day, although it is surprising what wonderful displays are +made by others at a cost of less than $1,000 a day. The reason for this +is that, above a certain amount, the expenses depend largely upon the +amount of advertising done. It is amusing, however, to note the manner +in which all of them, big and little, claim to be the largest and most +expensive attractions in the country. Many smaller showmen use the same +billing matter as the largest ones, and scores of lines can be read in +the circus advertisements of to-day that have done duty for many years. + + +WHAT IT COSTS TO RIDE WITH THE BAND WAGON + +It is almost impossible to give an intelligent idea of the cost of wild +animals, since this depends entirely upon the operation of the law of +supply and demand. The cost of cages varies, of course, according to +size and decorations, and the same observation applies to the railroad +cars. The most expensive of the latter are the highly ornamental cars +used for advance advertising. These are comfortably, and even +elaborately, fitted, and are provided with a huge paste boiler and +other conveniences. They cost anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000. The flat +and stock cars used by circuses are much more substantially constructed +than the ordinary ones used in the railroad freight business, and are +considerably larger, most of them being sixty feet in length and fitted +with springs similar to those of passenger coaches. Cars of this +description cost from $500 to $800 each; passenger coaches from $1,500 +upward, according to the quality of interior, fittings and decorations. + +Some circus proprietors also have their own private cars, fitted with +every imaginable convenience and luxury, and such a car costs high in +the thousands. The expense of the wardrobe depends, of course, on the +amount used and its quality, and whether the costumes are intended for +a spectacular show or for an ordinary circus. The wardrobe and papier +mache chariots used in the production of our "Congress of Nations" cost +Mr. Barnum and myself more than $40,000, and I am told that Mr. Bailey +expended a like amount on his "Columbian" display. + +The price of the canvas has been wonderfully reduced within the last +few years. We paid $10,000 for our first hippodrome tent alone, and +this did not include dressing-room tents, horse tents and camp tents. +Afterward, however, we had a larger one made for very much less money. +The small circuses that hover around Chicago and the larger cities of +the West in summer usually use a tent about eighty feet across, with +two thirty-foot middle pieces. This, equipped with poles, seats and +lights, costs about $800. These tents are made of light material. The +larger canvases have to be made of stouter stuff, and a tent suitable +for hippodrome or spectacular shows, which must be about 225 feet in +width and 425 or 450 feet in length, would cost about $7,000. + + +REQUIREMENTS AND COST OF THE CIRCUS HORSE + +As an evidence of how circuses have increased in size, I will say that +the seventy or eighty _quarter_ poles which hold up the main tent of +the Barnum & Bailey shows are each larger than the _main_ pole used +years ago. The present system of lighting, which, by the way, I was the +first to use, is the patent of an Englishman, improved by an American +named Gale. It first took the place of kerosene lights, so far as +circus illumination is concerned, in 1870. In experimenting with +these lights, when I first introduced them, I several times met with +accidents which threatened to terminate my career. Once I purchased an +electric light plant with the intention of doing away with all gasoline +illumination, but was compelled to abandon the attempt after expending +$8,000 for a portable electric plant. + +The item of tent stakes is quite a formidable one. Fitted with iron +rings, they cost about fifty cents each, and hundreds of them are +required by every circus. Harnesses require an outlay of from ten to +twenty-five dollars each, according to decoration and material. + +The draught horses used by circuses vary in price, some of them being +purchased cheap from horse markets; but I have always found that the +best I could get were the most economical. Those bought by me averaged +$200 each; the usual circus horse, however, costs much less, and so +long as it does its work all right the main purpose is answered, for, +in passing through the streets, its faults do not attract the attention +of the ordinary observer, but only that of the typical horseman. Ring +horses, whether for a "pad" or a "bare-back" act, must have a regular +gait, as without it the rider is liable to be thrown. They are +frequently and generally owned by the performers themselves, and I have +known a crack rider to pay as high as $2,000 for one whose gait exactly +suited him. The performing "trakene" stallions brought from Germany by +Mr. Barnum cost $10,000, and my first troupe of educated horses, ten in +number, were purchased at the same figure. These, however, were +unquestionably the best and most valuable ever seen in a circus. + + +A PAGE FROM THE INVOICE BOOK OF A BIG SHOW + +Though it would be comparatively easy to start a circus and menagerie +equipped almost entirely with second-hand paraphernalia, the reader +will see from the following figures that the cost of starting a new +first-class circus and menagerie is another proposition. Here are a few +official figures on the cost of a first-class circus and menagerie +which have never before been made public. They are taken from my +private record, or invoice book: + + 20 Cages at $350, $7,000.00 + 2 Band wagons at $1,500 each, 3,000.00 + 3 Chariots at $3,000 each, 9,000.00 + 1 Wardrobe wagon, 800.00 + 1 Ticket wagon, 400.00 + +The above for the parade. + +Animals to fill these cages will average about: + + 2 Lions, $2,000.00 + 2 Royal Tigers, 2,000.00 + 2 Leopards, 400.00 + 1 Yak, 150.00 + 1 Horned Horse, 500.00 + 2 Camels, 300.00 + 2 Elephants, 3,000.00 + +(As small elephants have been delivered here for $1,000 each, this is +probably a fair average.) + + 1 Hippopotamus, $5,000.00 + 1 Rhinoceros, 5,000.00 + 2 Cages of monkeys, 1,000.00 + 1 Kangaroo, 200.00 + 1 Cassowary, 200.00 + 1 Ostrich, 500.00 + 1 Giraffe, 1,500.00 + + Other small animals including + hyenas, bears, ichneumon, birds, + etc., $2,000.00 + + 12 Baggage wagons at $200, $ 2,400.00 + 4 Roman chariots, 1,000.00 + 125 Horses at $125 each, 15,625.00 + +This price is above the average. + + 125 Harnesses at $15, $ 1,875.00 + 2 Advertising cars, 5,000.00 + Wardrobe, 3,000.00 + 2 Sleepers, 5,000.00 + 10 Flat cars at $400, 4,000.00 + 6 Horse cars at $400, 2,400.00 + Elephant car, 500.00 + Tents, 4,000.00 + --------- + $88,750.00 + +This could be reduced by eliminating the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, +giraffe and other very expensive animals, but to this must be added +considerable money for stakes, shovels, picks, stake pullers, extra +ropes, tickets, blank contracts and all necessary printing, which would +bring the cost of the usual "million dollar" circus and menagerie up to +about $86,000. + +On all this property there is not one dollar of insurance. Once, when +on the road, a live stock insurance company came to me to insure our +horses, but at the rate at which they wanted to insure them I soon +convinced them that we could not make any money. + +I might add that a circus and menagerie at the figures I have given +would be far better and larger than the average "million dollar show" +now on the road, there being certainly not more than three aggregations +that cost more than the amount I have given. No man should attempt the +show business who has not a fortune, and also plenty of that other kind +of capital quite as essential to his success--long experience on the +road. + + + + +VIII + +ANECDOTES OF MEN AND ANIMALS + + +ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS + +The first circus in America was started by Nathan A. Howes and Aaron +Turner under a top canvas in 1826. Previous to that time others had +shows in frame buildings and some simply with side canvas in hotel +yards, and in theaters in New York City. The full tent circus +originated in the towns of Somers and North Salem, Westchester County, +New York, and Southeast and Carmel, Putnam County, New York. The +original showmen were Raymond, Titus, June, Quick, Angevine, Crane, +Smith and Nathans, and so far as I have been able to ascertain, June, +Titus and Angevine were the first to import wild animals on their own +account. + +Previous to this the Raymond and Titus companies were in the habit of +purchasing wild animals from sea captains who, in a spirit of +speculation, would bring them to our shores. There existed a great +rivalry between these companies and they soon became possessed of more +animals than they needed. They toured the East during the period from +about 1826 to 1834, with but indifferent success, and then Titus & +Company took their show to England, where John June had preceded them. + +The circus and menagerie in those days were separate and distinct +attractions and, while the menagerie had the greater drawing power, it +was only exhibited in the daytime. In the case of an opposition circus +the attendance would generally split up, but would result in a benefit +to each attraction, for the same crowd which gazed at the menagerie +during the day would also be able to enjoy the circus which exhibited +at night. It was not until 1851 that a circus and a menagerie were +exhibited together, at one price of admission and owned by the same +proprietors. + +At that time George F. Bailey induced Turner, who was his +father-in-law, to purchase an elephant and some other animals from +Titus & Company, and others from incoming vessels at New York, Boston +and Charleston. Mr. Bailey had six cages built, and these, together +with the elephants, he added to the circus in order to reach the +church-going element which would go to see the "menagerie only," but +invariably remained, when the band commenced to play, "because the +children wanted to see the circus." + +To Mr. George F. Bailey must also be given the credit of devising a +tank on wheels in which could be exhibited the hippopotamus. This +animal proved a wonderful drawing card, and was then advertised as it +sometimes is to-day as "the blood-sweating Behemoth of Holy Writ." This +animal made several men wealthy. L. B. Lent, the well-known circus man, +afterwards hired it and paid for its use no less than twenty-five per +cent of the gross receipts of his show. From the death of this +hippopotamus until 1873 there was none in the country; but in that year +Mr. Barnum and I secured one from Reiche Brothers, whose men had +captured it from a school on the river Nile. It cost us $10,000, and we +had previously spent several thousand dollars in sending our own men to +Egypt on a similar errand that proved fruitless. + + +THE FIRST ELEPHANT BROUGHT TO AMERICA + +I am informed by the best living authority that the first elephant +brought to this country was imported by Hackaliah Bailey, an uncle of +George F. Bailey, the retired circus manager. It was exhibited in barns +in the eastern country and was considered a great curiosity and +sufficient in itself to constitute a whole show and satisfy the people. +It traveled altogether at night--principally that the country people +should not get a free glimpse of the wonderful animal, and also +because, in Connecticut, there was a law prohibiting the driving of +elephants through that State during the daytime without a license, the +neglect to obtain which entailed a fine of $100, half of that going to +the informer and half to the State. The law was passed in 1828, and, so +far as I know, has never been repealed. This piece of information will +doubtless astonish a good many showmen. + +At some place in Rhode Island this elephant was fatally shot by some +malicious person, and no one at the present day seems able to explain +the wanton outrage. It may be that it was done out of curiosity, to see +whether a bullet would penetrate the skin, but I think it is more +likely to have been the spite of some countryman who was disappointed +at not being able to obtain a free glimpse of the animal. I am +encouraged in this opinion because it is a matter of record that the +farmers would gather on the road over which the elephant was to pass at +night and build huge stacks of faggots, straw and brushwood which they +would ignite on the approach of the beast in order to secure a distinct +view of the wonder; but the showmen would blanket a horse and send him +ahead, shouting "Mile up! Mile up!" when approaching a party of +nocturnal spectators. This command has been used in handling elephants +as long as these creatures have served the white race. On hearing this +call the farmers would light their bonfires only to discover, on the +approach of the draped horse, that they had been fooled. And bitter +would be their disappointment when, after the last flickering ember of +their fire had died out, the huge object of their curiosity would pass +unseen in the darkness. At the death of this elephant Hackaliah Bailey +went into the hotel business at Somers, N.Y., and erected, outside of +his tavern, the cast of an elephant in bronze, mounted on a stone +pedestal more than twelve feet in height. The elephant monument may to +this day be seen in perfect condition, although placed there nearly +seventy years ago. The first drove of elephants seen in this country +were brought from Ceylon to America by Mr. S. B. Howes and P. T. Barnum +in 1850. The exhibition was in charge of George Nutter, and the +expedition was about six months en voyage. After losing one or two on +the way they finally landed in New York, about 1850, with ten +elephants, and they proved a very great attraction. + + +THE FIRST DROVE OF CAMELS + +The first drove of camels was, likewise, brought into this country by +S. B. Howes, and, being broken to drive in harness, they also proved a +powerful drawing card. This first drove he imported in 1847 from Cairo, +Egypt. Mr. Howes then sent Augustus Crane to the Canary Islands, in +1848, in search of camels, and in 1849 he landed in Baltimore with a +drove of eleven. No more camels were brought in after this for several +years, until a lady in Texas, the owner of a "slaver" or slave ship, +brought some over as a subterfuge. Her excuse was that she wanted them +to use as beasts of burden on her plantation; but, although the camels +were on deck, she had a lower deck on which were huddled together, +after the inhuman fashion of the time, many poor blacks, who were +really the "beasts of burden" of greatest value to this feminine slave +trader. + +The government also imported a lot of camels and made the experiment of +carrying the mails from Texas to California by "Camel Post"; but, this +proving unsuccessful, the animals were turned loose to shift for +themselves until showmen created a demand for them and bought most of +them for very little money, in some cases paying only $80 apiece for +them. It is said that even now there are a few camels running wild in +Western Texas and Mexico. + + +THE FIGHT OF THE OSTRICHES + +For the opening of the Hippodrome we had imported a drove of nearly +forty ostriches and had quartered them at the American Institute. The +birds attracted a great deal of attention, not only on account of their +rarity, but also on account of their magnificent plumage, some of them +being marvels of natural splendor. They would walk around their +enclosure with the most majestic gait imaginable. Among the +professional spectators one morning was Mr. J. J. Nathans, a retired +circus proprietor. Mr. Nathans wore in his scarf a very valuable +diamond stud, and the stone evidently attracted a great deal of the +attention of the birds. They would turn their heads around and the +gleam in their small eyes would rival that of the stone. Suddenly one +of the ostriches made a vicious peck at Mr. Nathans. That gentleman +immediately drew back, but too late to save the precious stone. The +bird had swallowed a $400 solitaire! Mr. Nathans ever afterwards +admired ostriches from a distance. + +At the American Institute we had placed the ostriches in charge of an +old employe named Delaney. This man had noticed that for some time two +of the male birds had been pecking at each other and, to use his own +expression, were "spoiling for a fight." This increasing viciousness +one day culminated in a battle royal. + +The morning of that day both seemed to be in a particularly ugly mood, +and the rest of the drove gave them a wide berth. Every now and then +one of them would stretch out his long neck and, with head uplifted, +give vent to a sharp hissing sound. This was evidently a challenge, for +it would be immediately taken up and answered by the other. They would +follow each other around the wooden enclosure, striking viciously at +each other. As by concerted action all the female birds huddled +themselves together at one end of the enclosure and eight or ten males +took up positions just in front as if to protect them. This left the +enclosure almost clear for the two belligerents, and they went at it in +fearful earnest. + +Word was immediately sent me, but neither I nor any of my employes were +on terms of sufficient intimacy with them to justify a personal attempt +at arbitration. Delaney, however, armed himself with a stout club, +deliberately threw himself into the breech and attempted to separate +them. In doing so he only exposed himself to the risk of sustaining +severe bodily injuries. The birds took no notice of him whatever, but +continued to fight, uttering at times a series of piercing screams and +hisses, They would swing around each other and land fearful blows. + +Their mouths were wide open, their eyes red and hideous, and their +magnificent plumage ruffled, until the spectators, while deploring the +fight, could not help admiring the splendid appearance of the birds in +their rage. The smaller of the two was the more cautious. After a +severe blow he would with some difficulty recover his equilibrium and, +running off a little distance would suddenly wheel about and deal the +big fellow two or three blows in rapid succession. + +Delaney jumped between them and used his club on their long necks, but +without any effect, for the birds seemed tireless. Their cries grew +harsher and louder and the resounding blows fell like the beats of an +automatic sledgehammer. Suddenly a most peculiar cry was heard. The +others of the herd seemed to manifest more attention; and the two +principals spread their wings, like the dragons of old, and made the +final onslaught. Screaming with frightful shrillness and with their +little bloodshot eyes gleaming hideously they made the crucial rush. +Just as they were within a few feet of each other, Delaney managed to +strike the larger bird a severe blow on the neck. The creature wavered +for a moment and then fell prostrate. Another peculiar cry came from +the smaller bird and both principals receded from each other. They were +about to resume hostilities when a second blow brought the larger bird +to the floor and the other one seeing this, evidently adjudged himself +the victor, for he walked proudly away, followed by many of the +admiring female birds. We immediately took steps to prevent a +repetition of this remarkable fight by keeping the combatants in +separate pens. + +The fight, however, was most stirring and splendid, and the birds +themselves seemed to be the very embodiment of knightly pride, so +manifestly aggressive did they look in their ruffled plumage. Alas for +vanity! Scarcely twelve hours had passed when a message was brought me +from Delaney to come at once to the ostrich pen. I did so, expecting to +hear of another combat of feathered gladiators. Instead a sorry sight +met my eyes. During the night some vandal had plucked the brilliant +plumage from the birds and left them miserable and dejected specimens +of despoiled pride. I would cheerfully have given $1,000 to have +discovered the miscreant. As for the birds, the life seemed to have +left them. They would gaze sadly at each other, peer at their own +denuded bodies, and with an indescribably piteous expression, slink +away into corners as if inexpressibly ashamed of their appearance. + +Every possible inquiry was made in the hope of finding out the vandals +who had plucked their feathers, but in vain. I dare say, if the truth +were known, some of our own men secured the plumes. The birds did not +regain their beauty for many moons, and all we got that season for our +big outlay was the thrilling spectacle of the ostrich fight. + + +THE BELLIGERENT ALLIGATORS + +During the whale season we utilized the whale tank, which was empty +owing to the death of the whale, by placing in it a number of +alligators from Florida. Our agent had just returned from an +expedition, with forty of these creatures ranging in length from one to +twelve feet. Although the tank was an immense one, these forty saurians +did not have as much room as they would have liked. This overcrowding +was doubtless the cause of a most terrible fight between them, which +occurred very soon after they were installed in their new quarters. It +is impossible for me to describe this conflict. Nearly all the larger +"gators" took part in it, springing at each other and locking their +jaws with a resounding, crashing noise that could be heard all over the +building. + +While thus locked together they would toss each other about and swish +their tails with such vigor as to completely destroy the tank, breaking +the thick glass. Our attendants were almost paralyzed with fear and +confusion at the strange battle, and vainly endeavored to separate the +combatants. There seemed, however, to be no way of doing this, as they +would snap at each other so violently as to break each other's jaws, +and this horrible snap really sounded like the report of a gun. To +prevent their escape into the exhibition room a temporary barrier was +soon erected and, when they became exhausted in attempting to kill each +other, we determined, for fear that returning strength would bring +about a repetition of the horrible scene, to dispatch all save the +smaller ones. This was done by sending bullets into their eyes. We +buried the carcasses on Long Island, much to the regret of an eminent +taxidermist, who would have been glad to have secured them; but we were +eager to be rid of the monsters. The fight was not down on the bills +and was one we were entirely unprepared for; but it was the most +exciting and at the same time most terrifying combat I ever saw. Had it +not been so horrible and could it have been advertised, I am sure it +would have drawn together more people than a Spanish bull fight. The +tank, which was totally destroyed, was made of glass one and one-fourth +inches thick, embedded in cement and bound with solid iron columns. It +was erected at a cost of $4,500, and yet was destroyed in ten minutes +by these vicious alligators from the slimy depths of southern swamps. + +I remember vividly the time when (in Winchester, Va.) Charles Dayton, +the Herculean cannon ball performer and general gymnast, was attacked +by hyenas just after entering the den for the street parade. Only such +a man of strength, undeniable courage and great presence of mind would +ever have escaped from the cage alive. Apparently for no reason +whatever and without the slightest warning these hideous creatures +sprang upon Dayton on this particular occasion, though he had been in +the cage many times. The expression of mingled hope, fear and +determination depicted on Dayton's countenance as he nobly fought his +way to the rear of the cage can never be forgotten by any witness of +the thrilling scene. Death stared him in the face and blood flowed in +streams from his frightful wounds. Seemingly every portion of his body +was lacerated. At last after a fearful battle he reached the rear of +the cage and the door. The latter was quickly opened, and the brave +fellow fell bleeding and exhausted into the arms of his attendants, +narrowly escaping a death too horrible to contemplate. We succeeded in +getting him to his hotel, where physicians were called, but they gave +no hope of poor Charlie's recovery. They said the hyenas had done their +awful work too thoroughly. The citizens, especially the noble women of +Winchester, volunteered their aid and did everything in their power for +him. We left him with our own doctor and in the hands of these good +people, as we thought, to die. Notwithstanding the fact that his body +was so terribly lacerated, however, in a few days Dayton gave signs of +improvement and he eventually recovered. Ultimately he returned to the +show. + + +PARROTS AND COCKATOOS + +I have always watched animals with a great deal of interest, from the +bulky but docile elephant to the smallest bird that flies; indeed, I +believe my love for animals, especially the horse, was the incentive +that led me to continue so many years in the circus business. Although +I never had a natural taste for the circus, and for the details +connected therewith, still I always enjoyed organizing and putting +together different drawing attractions. All my other work was given to +the care of assistants. + +During our exhibitions in Fourteenth Street, New York, I became very +much attached to many of the birds and animals, and would spend my +leisure time in playing with and feeding them, besides studying their +characters and dispositions, for even among the lower animals there is +character just as there is in mortals. + +Among my collection of parrots, there was a white cockatoo. When I +entered the building in the morning he would set up such a noise and +racket, unless I came immediately to speak to him for a few minutes, +that he would soon have the entire menagerie in an uproar--the monkeys +chattering, the lions roaring, and, in fact, a regular pandemonium. But +as soon as I had complied with the wishes of the cockatoo, quiet would +be restored. Some time later when I was in New Orleans, I received a +telegram announcing the Fourteenth Street fire and the complete +destruction of the menagerie. + +These beautiful birds are very easily taught. I once knew a man named +Prescott who had trained one of these white beauties to sing the Star +Spangled Banner, to crow like a rooster, bark like a dog, cry like a +child, and so on; and in this way he could entertain a crowd of people +for hours together. Unlike most of its feathered brothers, this bird +enjoyed pleasing its master, and would repeat his performance whenever +called upon to do so, and he seemed to take a pride in his wonderful +acts. + + +EDUCATED DOGS + +At one time in Fourteenth Street, I had a troop of educated dogs; one +of their acts was in the nature of a mock trial. One dog, a very little +fellow, steals a collar of another. A trial takes place, in which there +are judge, and jury advocates. The little culprit is convicted and +condemned to be hung--which the dogs proceed to do. The little fellow +is hung and drops apparently dead, is placed in a hearse and rolled +away to the music of the "Dead March." Several complaints were made +against this by citizens and kind-hearted women; and Professor Bergh, +president of the Humane Society, came to me about it. I had the +performance repeated for his benefit, and further said that it had been +repeated twice a day for several months. After the professor saw that +the dogs enjoyed it, he laughed and said no more about it, and nothing +more was heard from the Humane Society. + +I have seen many acts done by dogs; and, as a rule, there is nothing to +appeal to their intelligence; but in this case they certainly showed +reasoning powers. I wish space would permit me to give my experience +with the canine family. A short time before I left the show business I +heard of a dog in California that could talk. I sent for the owner, +Professor Madden, and bargained for this dog. When he reached Chicago I +found he could actually say, "Oh, no." Sometimes it was easier for him +to speak than at others, and invariably he would have some trouble in +talking the first time. + +Of all the dumb creatures the dog is by far the most faithful to his +master, and it is said to be the only animal that has ever died of +grief on his master's grave. + + +A WOUNDED HORSE IN THE GRAND MARCH + +In 1880 I met with a very severe railroad accident, in which many of my +valuable horses were injured; and among them an "entry" horse which, +being of considerable value, I ordered to be taken on the train again, +after the wreck was cleared away; but we could not use him for several +days as he was so bruised that he presented a horrible appearance. One +day, however, just as the "grand entry" was going into the ring, our +head groom was surprised at the entrance of this horse. The creature +had dashed into the ring with the others of his companions, and without +bridle, saddle or halter, he went through the figures as he had been in +the habit of doing before he was injured. The music was stopped, and +our groom wanted to have the horse taken out, but I refused. Hearing +the familiar music by which he had always entered the ring and +performed his acts, habit was stronger than bodily pain, and, +unfastening his rope in some unaccountable way, he had burst upon us. +There is no doubt that a horse does know when his particular music +strikes up, for I have often watched them at that time. They will rear +and prance and if secured will make every endeavor to get loose. I lost +this horse later in a wreck and few similar losses have grieved me +more. + +Hearing once that Professor Bartholomew had some wonderful horses I +determined to purchase them, although I had really retired from the +circus business. I saw the owner and paid him $10,000 for the horses +and exhibited them in the New York Aquarium, where they drew great +crowds. Among this troupe was the well-known Nettle, the most beautiful +animal I ever saw, being of a cream color and about fourteen hands +high. He was remarkable more particularly for his jumping feats, being +able to jump over an eight-foot gate and six horses, doing this act +twice a day for four years. Finally he was able to jump over a gate and +eight horses: but this feat was too great a strain and I would not +allow it to be repeated. Like a human being he would never undertake +this jump until he had first examined the horses carefully to see that +all was as it should be, and then, with apparent pride and confidence, +he would make his leap. The act performed, he would trot to his trainer +with all the pride of one who had accomplished what had been expected +of him. + + +INTELLIGENT BRONCHOS + +I once concluded that it would be good policy to buy a herd of untamed +bronchos and educate them for the circus business. Thereupon I hired a +young fellow named George Costello and sent him to Colorado, Texas and +New Mexico in search of handsome bronchos and Pintos, as this was the +same breed of horses that I first owned. They are certainly the wildest +and hardest to break, but with these untamed animals I concluded to +make a start. It was more difficult work to find exactly what I wanted +than we had hoped. Finally, at Pendleton, Oregon, we found a herd of +about 3,000 head that were white and spotted and belonged to a tribe of +Indians. We bought about forty of them and then shipped them to +Chicago, where we sold all but sixteen. We engaged a celebrated trainer +and built a training stable, where we watched them work. + +The bronchos at first refused to take the food which we gave them, and +would blow the oats out of the trough; but hunger finally subdued them. +They were very curious, investigating everything around them, and it +did not take long to learn the customs of civilization. They not only +learned to eat tame hay, and whinny for their food, but each horse also +learned to know his own name and those of his companions. We would +place these horses in a row and call out the name of one of them. If he +did not immediately respond the other bronchos would bite him to remind +him that he should obey orders. + +As is usual to a herd, this band of ponies looked to one of their +number as the leader. The leader's name was Duke, and when the herd was +turned loose in the yard for exercise Duke was evidently commander. In +my experience with these wild animals I became convinced that they had +different intonations to express different feelings--that they have a +language of their own. Their whinnys when happy, when frightened, when +angry and as a warning differed greatly, and by careful study could be +easily distinguished. + + +THE KING OF THE HERD + +Mr. Cross, a celebrated animal painter, who owns a ranch in Montana, +told me that his horses had, at one time, disappeared in great numbers, +much to his astonishment and wonder. He finally discovered that +whenever a herd of wild horses, headed by a certain spirited stallion, +came near the ranch, some of his own horses were sure to be missed. +Setting a watch over them he found that the big handsome stallion was +the thief. This magnificent animal would approach the tame horses and +by some mute eloquence would induce them to follow him. Mr. Cross +determined to capture this noble beast and thief, and procured the best +lasso throwers. After following the stallion for many days they were +compelled to give up the chase. Finally they decided to shoot the +animal if he again interfered with the tame animals. Some weeks passed, +but no more horses were lost. Suddenly, however, a number were again +gone. With great compunctions of conscience, Mr. Cross at length +decided that the leader must be shot. His death struggles were +noble--he died as befitted a great chief whose power, strength and +beauty had made him the leader of his kind. Next to the dog I believe +the horse to be the most intelligent of creatures. + + +AN ELEPHANT'S HUMOR + +The humor of elephants is sometimes almost as remarkable as their +intelligence. In 1887 I purchased an elephant in New York to send to +Australia, and as we were in a great hurry to catch the steamer from +San Francisco, I arranged to have the animal brought as far west as +Chicago by passenger train instead of freight. He was loaded in a +special car which was placed just behind the baggage car, and in due +time started from the depot in New York. Shortly after leaving Albany +the conductor was surprised to have the bell rope pulled violently. The +train, of course, stopped, but the conductor could not find that +anything was wrong or discover the man who had pulled the rope. Another +start was made, and when nearing Syracuse a second violent tugging +brought the train to a stop. The conductor instructed the brakeman to +keep strict watch on the passengers, thinking all the time that some +one had been playing a joke on him. Nearing Rochester, however, the +same thing occurred again, to the great fright of some of the +passengers, notably one old lady, who declared the train to be haunted, +and averred that spirit forms were tugging at the rope. As the rope +continued to be pulled thorough investigations were now made and the +train crew experienced little difficulty in tracing the cause of the +trouble to the elephant. On opening the door of the last car that +animal was discovered sitting on his haunches and deliberately pulling +the cord, and the elephant seemed to derive as much pleasure from it as +a child would from a new toy. The passengers were reassured and the old +lady was convinced of her error when she learned that the spirit form +that pulled the cord weighed about three tons. + +In India where elephants are kept at all military barracks for +transportation purposes, it is no uncommon thing for the officers to +leave their children in the elephants' charge for hours together, the +huge animals taking the most tender care of their little friends. +Elephants have a great dread of rodents and even insects. The presence +of a rat or mouse will greatly excite them, and even the gnats or fleas +annoy them exceedingly. + +One of our largest elephants took quite a fancy to the son of a rider, +and the boy used to spend every afternoon in the menagerie lying on the +hay close to the animal. The lad never displayed the slightest fear, +and the elephant invariably showed its pleasure when its pet came +inside the inclosure. It would entwine its trunk around him and gently +draw him close, then settle back in a recumbent position, allowing the +child to take whatever liberty he liked. The pair attracted great +attention and were called "Beauty and the Beast." + + +ZULUS IN LONDON + +But it is not always animals that make the success of a circus. An +unfamiliar type of the human species will occasionally make the fortune +of a showman. Mr. N. Berhens, one of my ablest agents and a great +traveler, at the time of the breaking out of the Zulu war was connected +with the Royal Westminster Aquarium in London, an institution at that +time celebrated. These Zulus had made such a bold resistance to the +British government that the excitement ran high and the press of the +world contained daily reports of England's conflict with this now +subdued people. Their bravery in battle and gallant defense of their +homes attracted widespread attention and made them objects of deep +interest and curiosity. Being satisfied that their exhibition would be +everywhere heralded with approval, he determined to visit Africa, +although at the risk of his life, and secure a band of these sable sons +of the tropics, that the world might know more of their laws, customs +and characteristics. He reached Africa after a very perilous voyage +early in the spring of 1878, first visiting Durban, the headquarters of +the English army and the coast outlet to Zululand. Letters of +introduction to the British officers and the experience of three +previous trips to that country soon placed him in the way of attaining +his object. First securing the services of an interpreter and buying +his horses and supplies he followed in the rear of the columns of the +British army en route for "Ulundi," the royal Kraal of King Cetewayo of +Zululand. + +When the Tugela river was reached he was surprised by the sudden +appearance of what proved to be a band of about four hundred Zulu men, +women and children, under the leadership of Oham, brother of King +Cetewayo and lieutenant-general of the Zulu army. They had come to +surrender to the British authorities, having rebelled against the rule +of King Cetewayo, who was then in the British prison at Cape Town, +Africa. This surrender was instigated for revenge growing out of the +subjugation of Oham, by the Zulu king in a strife for the rulership of +the Zulu people. + +This band of natives contained three genuine Zulu princesses and the +daring chief Incomo. Negotiations were at once begun, and through the +influence of the British officers were finally concluded. Being at the +mercy of their captors a reasonable consideration was agreed upon. The +following day the Prince Imperial of France was slain by the formidable +assigais only a few miles from where he was stationed. On hearing of +his death the Zulus exhibited signs of sincere sorrow, as he was +regarded with great admiration on account of his valor. It is +characteristic of this tribe to admire and applaud courage in their +opponents, so much so, indeed, that they seem to take pleasure in +acknowledging their masters after defeat. + +Arrangements were at once made for their voyage. At first the Zulus +were frightened at the idea of going on board a ship and refused to go +to the "white man's country" unless they could walk. Further +persuasion, however, induced them to yield, and they agreed to +undertake the voyage. They embarked at Durban in May, 1878, on board +the royal mail steamer "Balmoral Castle," en route for London. The +length of the voyage and the absence of land filled them with +superstition and fear, and they insisted that the captain had lost his +way; that their food would soon be gone and themselves thrown into the +sea. Indeed, so excited did they become that they visited the ship +officers in a body and insisted on knowing their whereabouts. It was +with great difficulty that they were pacified; they were all violently +seasick and believed they were under the influence of the "evil one." + +This embassy consisted of three Zulu princesses, a Zulu baby, the +celebrated chief Incomo and twenty-three swarthy warriors. Their +arrival in London was greeted by over one hundred thousand people on +the docks and as far up the street as the eye could reach. Deafening +cheers ascended as they passed through the crowd, many going so far as +to pat them on the back in recognition of their bravery. Anonymous +letters were received threatening death if they were exhibited. + +Mr. Cross, Home Secretary of England, issued an order prohibiting their +exhibition, but public opinion was so much in favor of their being +shown that the authorities were defied, and they were placed on +exhibition at the Royal Westminster Aquarium, London, three times a day +for two years and four months. All London came to see them. Their +performance consisted of songs and dances commemorative of marriage, +death, hunting, joy and sorrow, changes of the moon, rain, sunshine and +war. They gave exhibitions of the throwing of the assagais, that +formidable weapon which is thrown with unerring precision and with a +force capable of penetrating a horse at a distance of four hundred +yards. + +The making of fire by means of friction, produced by rubbing together +two pieces of wood, was practiced nightly. Here one could see the +exhibitions of the witch doctor, his means of ascertaining disease and +his method of curing. They showed also their methods of fencing and of +conducting battles, their sports, pastimes and strange characteristics. +Among their strange customs was that of offering prayer to their king +every time they smoked. Their marriage relations are strange. When a +man becomes enamored of a girl he immediately begins negotiations with +the parents for her purchase, the price being from six to ten cows, +according to her beauty and age. A cow is worth about five dollars in +our money, so a pretty and attractive Zulu maiden is worth from forty +to fifty dollars. A man of any other nationality is at liberty to buy +them as if he were a Zulu. A man may have as many wives as he has cows +to purchase them with. Their marital laws are very strict and worthy +the recognition of many races graded higher in the scale of +civilization. + +It was the intention to bring this group to America to join my show, +but owing to their enormous success in London they were not brought +until early in the spring of 1881. After their arrival in this country +they were visited by many African missionaries. In this way the +whereabouts of two missionary families supposed to have been killed +during their war were ascertained. + + + + +IX + +TRAINING ANIMALS AND PERFORMERS + + +The awe inspired in the breast of the average countryman by the "daring +act" of the lion-tamer is well founded. Long years of familiarity with +this feature of the show business have not served to dampen my sense of +admiration for the grit of a man who does not flinch to enter the cage +of any fierce animal and prove man's mastery over the brute creation. +In justification of this sentiment I have only to point to the +professional animal-trainers of long experience. If there is one of +them who does not bear on his body the marks of his encounters with his +savage pupils he is a rare exception to the rule. The whole fraternity +is physically ragged and tattered--torn and mutilated by the teeth of +beasts they have trained. I have never ceased to marvel that men will +deliberately choose to follow the subjugation of animals as a +profession, particularly when they have only to look upon the veterans +in the business to behold a ghastly and discouraging array of ragged +ears, of split noses, of shredded limbs and lacerated trunks. But at +these substantial warnings the novice and the past-master in the art of +"working" animals alike only laugh and scout the idea of danger or +dread. At least, this is their attitude in private conversation, when +not attempting to make an impression on the minds of their auditors. + +If all animals subjected to training were even in disposition, and did +not have their ugly moods, the same as their human lords, the principal +element of danger to trainers would be removed. Unfortunately, it is +the universal testimony of the men who have devoted their lives to the +training of fierce creatures that the most docile, obedient and +friendly carnivorous creature is sure to be in an ugly humor sooner or +later, and then is the great time of test. These sudden, unexpected and +abnormal moods in the animals handled are responsible for having sent +scores of good trainers to early graves. + + +THE PERILS OF A TRAINER'S LIFE + +Let us suppose an animal to be even-tempered. This means he is always +at his maximum of ugliness. He shows every day the worst that is in +him, and the trainer knows the limit of what to expect in that +direction. But animals are not constituted that way. They are generally +on their good behavior, or at least have an astonishing reserve of +ferocity to be vented on the hapless trainer when the day of abnormal +ill-humor comes--provided, of course, the trainer is not discerning +enough to detect the gathering storm. + +In no other profession is eternal vigilance so surely the price of +safety. There is nothing more certain than the fate of the trainer who +once relaxes the intensity of his vigilance. Just as surely as he +throws himself off guard the animal he is working will get him. This is +an accepted rule among those who train and perform with animals. Of +course, it often appears to the outsider that the men handling +ferocious animals are off their guard and nonchalantly indifferent to +the creatures in the cage. But the experienced animal-man knows better. +The fact that a trainer or performer allows two or three lions to pass +behind his back might seem to indicate that watchfulness is not +necessary, and that creatures naturally ferocious may at least +sometimes be put absolutely on their good behavior--trusted with a +man's life without being subjected to the slightest surveillance. In +nine cases of every ten a momentary adherence to this departure would +result in disaster. + + +WHERE STEADY NERVES ARE IN DEMAND + +The best men of the profession I have ever known have all assured me +that the stupidest animal is quicker to detect the slightest relaxation +of a trainer's watchfulness than is the keenest trainer to observe the +abnormal and hostile mood of his pupils. For this reason no trainer or +performer should be allowed to enter a cage unless he is in a normal +frame of mind--sober, in full command of all his faculties, and not +subject to any distracting influence. + +Most of the tragedies of the profession are chargeable to a +disobedience to this rule. The unfailing brute instinct at once detects +the fact that the trainer has let down the bars of his mind, and then +comes the long-delayed attack! + +Never do I tire of watching a good trainer work his animals, especially +those fresh from their native wilds and full of snap and spirit. What +sport more splendid and royal can man imagine than that of placing his +life in imminent peril for the purpose of putting a wild beast--a +creature far his superior in strength, in swiftness of movement, and in +all-round fighting power--in complete subjection to his will! It is +truly a sport for a king! + + +CAPTURED ANIMALS PREFERRED TO CAGE-BORN + +The only universal rule for working animals recognized by all trainers +is this: First, _show_ the creature what you wish done; then _make_ him +do it. Easily said, but sometimes almost impossible in practice. I have +yet to find any other line of human effort demanding such unwearying +patience and application, shifty tact and unflagging alertness. All of +these mental qualities are brought into activity during every moment +that a trainer is working his animals. And not for an instant may he +safely slacken his courage or control. A stout heart is his only +safety. To go into a cage in a state of fear is recognized among these +men as a fool-hardy undertaking. + +My observation is that trainers almost universally prefer captured +animals to those born in captivity, so far as working purposes are +concerned. This preference is founded on practical experience--for your +animal trainer is little inclined to theorize or experiment in his +work. The answer which my trainers have invariably returned to +questions on this point of animal nature has been: The wild animal is +afraid of man, recognizes him as a strange, dangerous enemy, and is +willing to make a safe retreat from him. The carnivorous beast born in +captivity is accustomed to the daily sight of man, and has not the +wholesome and instinctive fear of him that dwells in the breast of the +free-born denizen of the jungle. On the other hand, the cage-born +creature seems to retain all the mean, treacherous and savage traits of +its race. + +Then the trainers declare that the jungle-reared animals are more +intelligent and active, and therefore make better performers. This I +have no reason to doubt. Leopards are the least in favor among +trainers, and the latter prefer to undertake the education of lions +rather than tigers, as the former have more stability of disposition, +and lack the element of treachery which seems so universally a +characteristic of cat nature. + + +THE EDUCATION OF A YOUNG JAGUAR + +The first active step which a trainer takes in the education of an +animal which has never been handled is to test its temper. I recall +very distinctly watching an excellent trainer working a leopard and a +jaguar from start to finish. No man had ever been into the cage along +with these vicious brutes before "Frenchy," as we called this crack +trainer, laughingly took up his tools and slipped gracefully through +the iron door which closed behind him with a sharp bang. Realizing that +these animals, which were full grown, belonged to the most spiteful and +treacherous of the cat kind, I scrutinized the face of Frenchy to see +if I could possibly detect the slightest sign of inward anxiety or +disturbance. Not the slightest evidence could I see to indicate that he +approached his dangerous task with a particle more excitement than any +business man feels in going to his daily work. + +[Illustration: THE EARLY STEPS IN TRAINING WILD ANIMALS.] + +As he slipped into the cage he thrust before him an ordinary kitchen +chair of light, hard wood. This was held in his left hand by gripping +two of the central spindles of the back, thereby obtaining an excellent +purchase which enabled him easily to hold the chair outstretched with +its legs pointed directly at the animals. In his right hand he carried +a short iron training-rod. The only other article which he used in his +first lesson was a stout, movable bracket, which could be instantly +hooked upon any of the horizontal bars which extended the length of the +cage in front. + +The instant the trainer faced his pupils there was a regular feline +explosion--a medley of snarls, growls and hisses. And the way those +spotted paws slapped and cuffed the rounds of the extended chair which +served as a shield to Frenchy's legs was something to be remembered. +Never before had I seen such a startling exhibition of feline quickness +as in this preliminary skirmish between master and pupils. The latter's +claws seemed to be everywhere in a moment and played a lively tattoo on +the shield and against the point of the rod with which the trainer +protected himself. During all this excitement the trainer was as calm +as if standing safely outside the cage. However, he did make some +lively thrusts with his rod as the leopard attempted to dash under the +legs of the chair. + +While one of the beasts was engaged in carrying on an offensive +warfare, the other would invariably attempt to sneak behind the +trainer. How alert the latter was to the movements of the creature +which apparently claimed little of his attention was impressed on me by +the fact that every time the crouching animal attempted to steal past +the trainer he was met with the quick, sidewise thrusts of the prod, +which sent him back spitting and hissing into the corner. + + +THE LEOPARDS AT KINDERGARTEN + +In less than half an hour the leopard and the jaguar seemed to realize +that they, and not the man, were on the defensive. Their savage dashes +were less frequent, and they were more inclined to crouch close to the +floor and lash their tails in sullen defiance. Then it was that Frenchy +began his first attempt at teaching them. Hooking the movable bracket +upon one of the lower rounds about three feet from the floor of the +cage, he made a forward movement toward the animals, veering a little +to the side opposite the bracket. The creatures had long been +attempting to get past him, and now their opportunity had apparently +come. + +Together they made a rush to run under the projecting bracket. Quick as +a flash, however, the trainer was back again in his old place, and the +head of the foremost animal struck the rounds of the chair. This +checked the leopard's progress for a moment, but the creature was not +given a jab of the rod as before. Instead, the chair was slightly +withdrawn, with the result that the spotted cat instantly bounded upon +the narrow bracket--precisely the result at which the trainer had been +aiming. + +Before the leopard was fully aware of what was transpiring, Frenchy +reached forth his training-rod and rubbed it caressingly along the +creature's back from head to tail. Of course the animal struck out +spitefully with its paw, but the blows were received by the chair and +did no harm, while the trainer had been able to bestow upon his +ferocious pupil a caressing touch of approval. + +Even at that early stage in the education of the animal I fancied I +could see an understanding of this commendatory stroke. Certainly +within a week this sign was clearly understood, and never did one of +the animals leap upon the bracket without receiving this token of +approval. Before Frenchy came out of the cage on the occasion of this +first experience with these two creatures his chair was splintered +beyond repair. Backing out as deftly as he had entered, he leaned up +against one of the posts in the winter quarters and remarked: + +"Those cats will make good performers. They've got just enough fight in +them. I don't mind working a leopard that's been captured, but I don't +want anything to do with cats that have been born in a cage. By the +time an animal has cuffed one chair to pieces I can generally size him +up and get at his disposition. I don't mind a creature that's ready for +war right at the start. The sulky, sullen brutes are the ones that keep +a trainer in a perpetual state of suspicion." + + +HOW THEY PUNISH UNRULY PUPILS + +Most of the training is done while the animals are in winter quarters, +the cages being generally arranged in a semicircle or along the wall, +while the center of the main room is occupied by a big ring or circular +space inclosed by a very strong and high fence of iron bars. At first +the animals are worked in their cages, later in the ring. Lounging +about in front of the cages is a man with a long iron rod having a +sharp point. The duty of this guard is to keep watch of all the cages +where animals are being worked, and to be ready to come to the instant +relief of any of the trainers who happen to get into trouble. +Occasionally he assists them from the outside in various ways; as, for +instance, by slipping his rod between the bars and heading off an +animal which is attempting to sneak out of doing his trick. In the +main, however, he is there to do heroic service in times of emergency. + +Should a lion, tiger or any other savage creature get a trainer down or +fasten its teeth or claws into his body, the watchful guard on the +outside is expected to plunge his spear into the animal, or get into +the cage with hot irons, if necessary. The use of heated irons is, of +course, only justifiable in cases of extreme peril, but more than one +trainer's life has been saved by recourse to this weapon, which quickly +cows an infuriated creature which has had a taste of blood when nothing +else will avail. + + +PUNISHMENT OF TREACHEROUS BEASTS + +I have already cited one cardinal rule recognized by all animal +workers. There is one other just as universally accepted by the +fraternity of trainers. This is, that any animal which has inflicted +injury on a trainer must be punished until completely subjugated. This +punishment must be given, if possible, by the one whom the creature has +injured. + +No doubt more than one trainer who has been half killed by a +treacherous animal has been inclined to overlook this chastisement +after recovering from his injuries. This, however, is regarded as +professional treachery, for it is practically certain that the +rebellious animal that is not chastised in this manner will kill the +next man who enters its cage. To neglect to show the brute which has +injured you that you are its master is therefore, according to the +ethics of the profession, a deed of cowardice, and a sure way of +bringing disaster upon any other person having the hardihood to trust +himself in the power of an animal that has "downed" its trainer. + +Of course some trainers are killed outright, and others are so disabled +in severe encounters that they are absolutely unable to continue in the +service. Then the duty of inflicting the chastisement falls upon a new +man, and you may rest assured he never looks forward to the job with +any particular pleasure. There is but one course, however, and that is +to beat the creature until it howls for mercy. Occasionally an animal +famed for its splendid performances is suddenly and without any +apparent reason retired from the program. As a performing animal is +worth many times as much as one that has not been trained, this would +seem a strange and unbusinesslike course on the part of the management. + +The outsider would immediately ask: "Why not continue the performance +with this animal so long as it does not kill a man or conduct itself +more savagely than many others of its kind which have the confidence of +trainers and performers?" + +The answer is very simple: The man handling the animal and knowing well +its character has been able to discern a radical change in its +disposition. He declares that the brute is no longer to be trusted, and +any wise and humane showman who receives this kind of a warning from a +reliable and efficient trainer or performer will retire the brute in +question to a cage and leave it there. On the other hand, some animals +which have tasted blood, and even "killed their man," are continued in +the service. Why? Because the trainer who goes in to chastise them +believes that he has been able to beat the animal into a permanent +state of penitence, humility and wholesome fear, and to effectually +obliterate the sense of triumph in the mind of the creature. + + +A SINGLE-HAND FIGHT WITH FIVE LIONS + +Occasionally a foolish and intermeddling spectator will endeavor to +show his brilliancy by experimenting with the animals. More than once +this tendency has well-nigh cost a performer his life. I recall one +instance when a performer was doing an act in a cage containing five +lions. He had just begun his work, and the lions had taken their +positions. In the middle of the cage, facing him, was one large lion, +and at either end sat two others. Of course a big crowd had collected +in front of the cage and was pressing heavily against the guard ropes. +Suddenly a countryman of the smart kind was seized with a desire to +distinguish himself and attract a little attention. Slipping inside the +ropes, he stooped down and took up the ragged little dog that was +crouching at his heels. The instant he lifted the cur up to the level +of the cage every lion gave out a roar and made a wild leap for the +yellow mongrel. + +[Illustration: "EVERY LION GAVE A ROAR AND MADE A WILD LEAP."] + +For a few moments the performer was completely lost to view, buried +underneath the writhing bodies of the infuriated lions. Of course the +animal men outside made a rush for the cage door, but before they could +reach it with their irons in hand the plucky performer was on his feet +again and fighting his own battle. A tooth or a claw had split his nose +and upper lip, and the tattered condition of his clothing indicated +that he had suffered severely. Although his face was bathed in blood, +he stood his ground and plied his rod on the heads and noses of the +growling beasts until they were momentarily driven back. But they had +tasted blood and were furious. Before he could reach the door they were +at him again, and in the onslaught his right arm and hip were +frightfully lacerated. His grit, however, was indomitable, and he +struck and jabbed right and left like a gladiator. Finally the howls of +pain from the lions revealed the fact that he was getting the upper +hand of them, and at last they were driven howling and whining into the +corners of the cage and he backed out of the door. No sooner was he +safely outside the cage than he became unconscious. + +It was a good thing for the countryman whose folly had stirred up the +lions that he contrived to make his escape from the grounds before the +circus men got hold of him. This incident is simply typical of hundreds +of others perhaps more interesting and exciting. It will, however, +serve to indicate the constant perils that surround the trainer or +performer, many of which arise from sources over which he has no +control. + +I have often been asked if the training of animals does not quite +generally involve considerable cruelty. This, it seems to me, may +fairly be answered in the negative, although one exception should be +made. Though great firmness must be shown in working wild animals, and +frequent and severe chastisements are called for, there is nothing +essentially cruel in the method of training. This, however, cannot be +said of the methods generally followed by the trainers of horses. + +I can never forget how forcibly and painfully this exception was +brought home to me. In company with Mr. Costello I had brought from +Texas and New Mexico a herd of beautiful pinto ponies, or bronchos. +They were handsome piebald creatures, and apparently very intelligent, +although desperately wild. From a herd of about forty we picked out +sixteen to be educated for the ring. About ten miles out of Chicago we +put up a convenient stable and engaged one of the most celebrated +trainers in the United States. In the course of a few weeks the animals +became accustomed to having men about them, and then I told the trainer +to begin his work. + +I had never watched a trainer work horses for the ring, and I was +greatly interested to see how it was done. The method was so cruel that +I told the trainer if he could not invent a method which inflicted less +torture he might quit and we would have the horses sold. He had not the +ingenuity or patience to devise a more humane method, and consequently +retired from the field, leaving his assistant to work out the problem +under my directions. This we finally succeeded in doing with fair +results, but the method followed by the trainer is a more general one. + + +TEACHING A HORSE THE TWO-STEP + +In teaching a horse to dance, the master would strike the poor animal +above the fetlock, and this would produce a painful swelling. The +result was that in a very short time the motion of the stick, in time +with the music, would cause the horse to raise its foot. Before the +swollen limb was healed the performance was repeated so frequently that +the animal did not need the incentives of fear and pain to cause him to +keep step with the music. + +Jumping the rope is taught in nearly the same manner, a chain being +attached to two long sticks swinging back and forth, striking the horse +just below the knee. As a man was stationed on each side of him, the +poor horse had no way of retreat, and was compelled to jump in order to +escape the blow from the swinging bar. A horse is taught to roll an +object or to push open a door in a very simple manner, and without +cruelty. One man stands in front of the horse and another behind him, +the three being stationed in a passageway too narrow for the horse to +turn. After standing a bit in this way, the man behind the horse gently +slaps him on the back and urges him forward. Instinctively the horse +pushes against the man in front, and the latter quickly moves along. In +this manner the horse soon learns that by pushing against an object in +front of him it may readily be forced out of his way. An intelligent +spectator can always tell by the attitude of a horse toward its master +whether it has been ill treated. If fear seems to be the governing +motive it may be depended upon that the horse has been harshly dealt +with; on the other hand, the very nature of the trick performed by the +animal goes far to indicate whether fear or intelligence has been the +main factor in acquiring the accomplishment displayed. If you see an +animal open a trunk or drawer and pick out some article for which it +has been sent, you may know that this feat is the result of an appeal +to the creature's intelligence and not to its fear, for no amount of +punishment could ever teach a thing of this kind. + + +RING PERFORMERS TRAINED WITH A DERRICK + +Ring horses are generally irritated when the rider first stands upon +their backs. Probably the action of the foot pulls the short hair; but +the irritation ceases in a short time. Riders are first trained to do +their tricks on the ground. When complete masters of themselves on the +ground they are put upon the back of a horse having an even gait and a +reliable disposition. To the performer's belt, at the back, is attached +a stout rope which runs to the end of a strong arm or beam running out +from a post set in the center of the ring. This arm is swung around by +a helper, who keeps the loose end of the rope in his hand in order to +regulate the slack and prevent the young performer from having a heavy +fall should he lose his footing. Again and again the rider is pulled up +just in time to prevent him from falling under the hoofs of his horse. +He is swung forward, dangling from the arm of the derrick, until he +regains his balance and his footing upon the back of his horse. + +To describe in detail how every feat and specialty is taught would +require a volume, but on general principles it may be said that all +tricks are first learned on the ground, or at a safe and minimum +elevation. Then when the performer has attained absolute +self-confidence and is wholly without fear he is allowed to swing +higher, until he finally reaches the height required in the public +performance. + + +CIRCUS PEOPLE A LONG-LIVED CLASS + +In the old days it was the general custom for the circus proprietors to +put their own children into the business, teaching them to do +everything in the acrobatic line, from bare-back riding to trapeze and +bar work and slack-rope and tight-rope walking. Many of them were also +skilled musicians and could play several instruments in the band. + +At the present day many persons not familiar with the inside life of +the circus will no doubt be horrified to think that a man wealthy +enough to own a big circus and menagerie would train his sons, and +particularly his daughters, for the ring. Let me say on this score that +I could name a long list of families in which this custom prevailed, +and must say that the private and domestic life of these people was far +above that of the average families in fashionable society. Almost +invariably the members of each family were devoted to each other and +were refined and intelligent. Many of the young women of these families +married wealthy and cultured men, and retired from the circus business +to become the mistresses of refined and happy homes. Many old showmen +whose children were star performers carried accomplished teachers with +them on the road, and the children were as well educated as if the +entire time had been spent attending school. + +Their training and work in the ring not only afforded them splendid +physical exercise, but taught them patience, application, alertness, +and many other valuable lessons which made their progress very rapid +when it came to their lessons from books. It is a fact worthy of notice +that the circus people are a long-lived race. I can name almost a score +of famous performers who have attained an age of more than eighty +years. This would tend to show that circus work is quite as healthy as +any other. I may add that the charge so frequently brought against +showmen, that the training of children for the circus ring is cruel, is +not well founded. + +While I have seen many instances of cruelty in this connection, there +is nothing in the work itself which necessitates hardship or harshness. +In fact, quite the reverse is true. + +The child is the sooner trained into an ability to do a dangerous and +daring feat through gentleness and encouragement. In other words, the +more they overcome their fear in every direction the better able are +they to swing from one trapeze to another, to walk the tight rope at a +dizzy height, or to turn somersaults from the back of a galloping +horse. + + + + +X + +MOBS, CYCLONES AND ADVENTURES + + +In a lifetime spent with the circus I have learned the heart of the +people. I have felt the pulse of the multitudes who have made the +history of the West. This insight into conditions of things in the West +brought me many and varied experiences, some of which were rough and +severe. They had their interesting sides, however, and many of them are +worth the telling, if for no other reason than to throw light upon the +character of the people with whom we had to deal. That the show was +appreciated by these frontiersmen there can be no doubt. + +In the earlier days it was the custom to have a concert in a side tent +before and after the regular performance in the circus. At one place +where we stopped the people paid their money and went in and enjoyed +the concert; but so well pleased were they that they insisted upon a +repetition of the performance. At the point of their pistols they +compelled the poor minstrels to continue their antics nearly all night, +until ready to drop from sheer exhaustion. + + +FORCIBLE ARGUMENT WITH A CITY MARSHAL + +At one time, while in Texas, we were doing an act called An Indian +Chase for a Wife, in which we used several guns with blank cartridges. +The act opened with a lively fusillade and the reports brought a great +crowd to the tent. The Texans appeared to come from every direction, +many of them with revolvers ready cocked. The fact that many of them +had been drinking greatly increased the perils of our situation. After +careful consideration of these facts I decided not to give a night +performance, and ordered an early supper so as to be able to load by +daylight and, if possible, get out of town before nightfall. The seats +were soon taken out and the side wall was dropped. + +I sat in the cook tent, eating dinner, when a great crowd suddenly +surrounded us. The leader, who claimed to be the town marshal, had his +revolver pointed directly at my head, and I could see by the inflamed +condition of his features that he, like the rest, had been drinking +heavily. Realizing my danger, I knocked the pistol down and it went +off between my feet. This was taken as the signal for a rush toward me, +the crowd evidently thinking I had shot at the marshal. The noise +attracted the concourse that had just left the circus and they drew up +in line with revolvers cocked. A slaughter of showmen was clearly +imminent. + +I leaped upon a box and tried to pacify the infuriated Texans, while +receiving, at the same time, their abuse. I was entirely ignorant of +the cause of the disturbance and demanded to be informed of the reason +of the uprising. Getting no reply, I appealed to them as law-abiding +citizens, and for the first time in my life this appeal was useless. + +By this time our entire force had collected, and as the show was the +"First Hippodrome" and altogether the largest circus ever in the south, +we had at least five hundred attaches, three hundred of whom were +powerful fellows and well armed. This was the first time that I had +ever thought of permitting my people to fight. Our gang was headed by +my boss canvasman, "Put." I momentarily expected the attack, but just +as I got down from the box a detective who was hired to travel with the +show rushed upon the scene and yelled: "In the name of the United +States Government, whose officer I am, I command peace!" It was +surprising to see that crowd scatter, and certainly this was a +master-stroke on the part of the detective. He earned more that day +than I ever paid the agency for his services. In ten minutes all was +calm and peaceful. + + +BREAKING CAMP UNDER A HOT RIFLE FIRE + +In 1859 two Philadelphia friends of mine were going to make a trip +South, and offered me big inducements to join them, which I accepted. +We started from Philadelphia, making our way slowly through the +different States, with the usual routine of wagon-show life. No event +of importance occurred until we reached Missouri. It was a most foolish +trip to undertake, for the people were then so embittered by the John +Brown raid that we were in constant danger. First came a tirade of the +fiercest abuse and this soon led into a regular knock-down fight, which +speedily developed into a shooting-scrape lasting several hours. We +were compelled to defend ourselves by every method at our command. Our +men were marshalled inside the tent and armed with long, heavy stakes +which looked like guns and were really formidable weapons. The wagons +and other available goods were grouped in a circle, and behind this +pioneer fortification the men paced with their long stakes at their +shoulders like the guns of sentries. In the dim light thrown by the +torches they certainly looked like armed men. So formidable was our +appearance the enemy thought us armed with Winchesters. By putting on +this bold front the canvasmen were able to get all the loose stuff into +the wagons, leaving the tents standing until the last. Finally these +also were taken down and loaded. Then came the most perilous +undertaking of all. To get our horses from the stables seemed at first +an absolute impossibility. It was the custom, at that time, to stable +our horses wherever space could be found for them, and as Granby was +only a small village, nearly every stable contained one or more of our +horses. We divided the men into two gangs, one of which was left to +guard the property on the grounds. + +Our show was situated in the public square and was thus surrounded by +houses and stores, all of which were filled with armed men. By the dim +light we could see our enemies running from house to house with guns in +their hands. The second detachment of our men was sent to gather in the +scattered horses. And a lively time they had accomplishing that +business! Shot after shot was fired at them while the horses were being +driven into the corral. Fortunately, however, neither man nor horse was +hit. + + +AMBUSHED AND SHOT AT ON THE ROAD + +We remained quiet until daylight, keeping constant guard, for we feared +an attack at any moment; but toward daybreak we could see that the +ranks of our enemy were thinning out. After careful deliberation I gave +the order to march. Just as the first team was leaving the square the +sharpshooters opened a vicious fire from the windows and doors of +houses and stores. Practically every shot brought down a horse. Strange +to say, we could not discover that a single man had been struck. Our +men instantly fell into line and began firing together, but as we had +only pistols the fight was against us. As our enemies were safely +concealed in stores and buildings, only a few exposing themselves to +our pistols, we fought at great odds. However, we kept up a rapid +fusillade, and under this heavy fire we managed to get out into the +open country, leaving our dead horses on the village square. Once +safely outside and beyond the range of the enemy we paused for +roll-call and found that three of our men were dead. This put the +spirit of fight into every man in the company, and there was almost an +eagerness to have another encounter. + +Proceeding cautiously on our way, we came to a stream spanned by an +old-fashioned bridge. The first chariot being a very heavy one, the +bridge was carried down, throwing the wagon, horses, driver and men +into the water twenty feet below. Soon firing was again heard, and two +more horses fell. This proved my suspicion that the beams had been cut +for the purpose of wrecking us and of trapping us where we could be +slaughtered. The next shots brought several of my brave men to the +ground--dead in their tracks! The enemy, being in ambush, had us at +great disadvantage; but my men were so thoroughly aroused and so +fearless that we soon drove our assailants back. This last plucky +onslaught won the day for us, although at sad cost. + +After a delay of several hours, during which we repaired the bridge, we +were again able to proceed on our way. Hardly were we fairly started +when a new difficulty was encountered in the form of big trees felled +across the roadway. This work had been cleverly done by the enemy in +order to retard our progress, and we had to stop and remove these +obstacles before we could pass. The time lost by the first attack, by +the bridge engagement and subsequent delay threw us behind a whole day. + +Although the people were all anxious to see our show they had not a +friendly word for us. Frequently large crowds would force their way +into the tents, pointing a cocked revolver at the doorkeeper's head. +Finally, however, we managed to reach the Arkansas line with +comparatively small loss of life. I am surprised that we were ever able +to do so, because of the extreme bitterness which then prevailed toward +all Northerners. + +At length we came to a town called Bucksnort, the scene of the hanging +described in one of Mr. Opie Read's short stories. Nearly every man at +the tavern was ready for any kind of excitement. They started the +quarrel by accusing our men of stealing their hats. A fight quickly +ensued; and we were forced again to defend ourselves by resort to arms. +At that time we were playing Mazeppa in which we used a number of dull +swords. These were instantly placed in the hands of performers and +canvasmen who knew how to wield them, and the result was a terrific +hand-to-hand encounter in which we came off victorious. + +At Lickskillet, another place on our line, the principal building was a +log tavern. We put up our tents, but shortly afterward noticed several +old men with long-bladed knives cutting slits in the canvas. The +canvasmen, on seeing the tent walls slashed, vigorously protested. At +once bullets began to fly from the corner of the tavern. One of our men +was killed at the outset of this melee. + +Previous to this episode our men had become pretty well discouraged and +would gladly have had peace, but this last outrage seemed to arouse +them to a perfect frenzy. Instead of shooting they went for the gang of +roughs with clubs, stakes and every other kind of weapon they could +find. The encounter was a terrific one. Our men knocked the desperadoes +senseless and seized their guns, and in a very few minutes we were much +better prepared to defend ourselves. I think during the battle our men +seized fully thirty rifles. Shotguns were seldom used in this section +of the country. Most unexpectedly we succeeded in getting some +recruits. A few Northern men who had come into the place to settle +permanently offered their services for our protection. + + +THE STUDIES OF THE STUDENT TO THE CLOWN + +In early days many of the young countrymen would be seized with a +desire to become "actors," as they called the acrobats. This led the +circus performers into the scheme of selling the ambitious wights +something to make them limber. A big trade of this kind was carried on +by selling an oil made from very cheap grease, the innocent victims +being thoroughly convinced that they would come out full-fledged +"actors" by the use of this lubricant. Frequently some young fellow +would apply for the position of student to the clown. When he presented +himself for tuition, the paint prepared for his make-up would be mixed +with grease and thoroughly rubbed on his face and limbs. He would then +be dressed in an old pair of tights and made to enter the ring, where +he would be ordered by the ringmaster to "act up." He would be so +embarrassed at this demand that he could not speak, whereupon the +ringmaster would lay the whip upon his practically naked limbs, telling +him that it was the only way by which to learn the acrobatic art. + +Another trick was to toss the students to the clown in a strong blanket +of canvas. I can now point to an ex-member of Congress who was thus +tossed until sore and exhausted. + +Among the various performances on our circus program one feat was that +of placing a large stone on a man's breast, as he lay on his back, and +then striking the stone with a sledge-hammer so as to break the rock. +The audience was invited to furnish a man to break this stone, and +although one would naturally suppose that such an act would hurt the +performer on whose breast the stone rested, he would, in fact, receive +no shock whatever. But one day, while exhibiting at a small town, a +drunken countryman, in attempting to break the stone with a +sledge-hammer, missed his mark entirely, and the poor fellow received a +blow that nearly killed him. He was obliged to lie in bed and have +medical aid. + +The following day we were compelled to move on to the next town, as +advertised, which was a keen rival of the village we were just leaving. +Our principal actor being unable to perform, we came near being mobbed, +for this rival town did not relish the idea that its competitor had +witnessed features which it could not see. All our remonstrances were +in vain; and we were finally compelled to allow the injured man to quit +his bed and actually go through the performance. These rough countrymen +would certainly have kept their word had we not complied with their +wishes, and it would have fared very badly with us. However, the sick +man went through his part as well as he could, and received the full +approbation of the audience. + +From this town we proceeded to a large Indian encampment. There we +obtained permits from John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and +erected our tents. The government had just made an Indian payment to +this tribe, all the money being in twenty-dollar gold pieces. Neither +the circus treasurer nor any one in the community could change these +coins for money of smaller denomination, and we were almost in despair. +Meantime some of the Indians climbed into a tree, seated themselves +comfortably in the branches, and prepared to witness the entire +performance free of charge. This exasperated me, and, seizing an ax, I +commenced hewing at the tree. Instantly I found myself the center of an +incipient riot, as there was a law in the Territory forbidding a white +person to cut down a tree. John Ross, however, quickly came to my +rescue and saved my scalp by an adroit appeal to his people. + +We adopted the plan of admitting the Indians in squads, charging them a +dollar each and taking a double-eagle from every twentieth man. The +Indians seemed to enjoy the performance hugely, but were highly excited +by the tricks of the magician, whom they regarded as a supernatural +being. + + +DEVOTIONAL SERVICES UPSET BY A DEMON + +At a certain town in Missouri a laughable circumstance occurred. Here, +for some time, a revival had been in progress. The revivalists had been +abusing the circus, its surroundings and influences, and had tried to +prevent us from exhibiting. However, we secured a lot adjoining the +church and opened our doors. John Robinson, the chief proprietor of our +show, was one of the best equestrians that ever lived, and at that time +was introducing what he called his Demon Act. In this act he dressed +and made up as nearly as possible like a demon. While riding his four +horses at breakneck pace around the ring, he would utter a series of +the most ferocious yells imaginable, at the same time working himself +up to a great pitch of excitement, until, as the auditors frequently +expressed it, he "looked like his Satanic Majesty himself." + +On this occasion, at the close of his act, he jumped from his horses, +ran out of the dressing-room and boldly entered the church, exclaiming +in the stentorian voice for which he was famed: "I am victorious! I am +victorious!" The effect was magical. The revivalist had been eloquently +exhorting on the subject of the Prince of Darkness, and the overwrought +congregation took but one glance at the theatrical Satan, and then, +leaping madly through the windows and doors of the little church, broke +for the woods. + +At Council Bluffs, Iowa, we had exhibited to a large afternoon +audience. The day was extremely hot and sultry, and in the evening, +just as the people were seating themselves on the benches, a cyclone +struck us without the slightest warning. In a twinkling the poles, +seats and canvas were being hurled through the air in all directions. +At that time we used an inflammable liquid for illuminating the tent, +and this ignited and added the horror of fire to the scene. + + +THE WILD BEASTS LOOSE IN THE BIG CROWD + +In those days our menagerie was exhibited in the same tent used for our +circus performance, the seats being arranged on one side and the animal +cages on the other. Imagine the scene! Several thousand terrorized and +screaming men, women and children rushed wildly in all directions, the +combustible tents and paraphernalia were in flames, and above all could +be heard the roar of the terror-stricken animals, beating madly against +their iron bars. Two of the largest dens had been placed together and +the partition bars withdrawn, so as to form one big cage, wherein the +lions and tigers were exercised by their keepers. The fire burned the +woodwork so that this double cage came apart and liberated the +ferocious animals. These lions and tigers escaped among the people and +added a new element to the general pandemonium of terror. Words cannot +convey an adequate idea of that awful moment. + +As the tents and cages slowly burned out, total darkness came upon us. +In the excitement, one of the men in the audience happened to jump on a +crouching lion and yelled that he was in the clutches of the beast; +however, the animal was as thoroughly frightened as the man. Some of +the animals were loose all night, and one Royal Bengal tiger +disappeared altogether. No trace whatever was found of his remains when +the debris was examined, and he probably escaped to the nearest woods. + +Near to the tent was one of those prickly osage hedges, and into this +hundreds of people ran, becoming so entangled in the thorny network +that it was almost impossible for them to extricate themselves. Many +were badly lacerated by the brambles. There was no sleep in Council +Bluffs that night. + +Several of our wagons disappeared and one carriage was never afterward +found. Four or five horses were lifted and blown into a lot some +distance from where they had been stabled. To add still further to the +misery that prevailed, the catastrophe ended with a cloud-burst and the +earth was fairly deluged, so that in a short time what little remained +undestroyed by wind and flame was floating around in a sea of water. +Dense darkness prevailed and nothing could be done till dawn. It was +then found that the cyclone had done even more damage to the city than +we had at first supposed. Though the circus was a complete wreck, it +was learned that both the city and its suburbs had suffered severely, +and it was considered providential that the performance had attracted +so great a concourse of the people from their homes. + + +THE MIDNIGHT STAMPEDE OF THE ELEPHANTS + +When we exhibited in Kansas the country was in such a state of terror, +resulting from the "border warfare," that all the towns and villages +had organized military companies. At each camping place we were obliged +to join these home guards, for protection. One day, while we were +exhibiting at Lawrence, a detachment of militia encamped about a mile +from us, the posts and guards surrounding the entire city. I had with +me a friend from my old home at Delavan, Wisconsin. He was a merchant +and had never seen any of the hardships of the camp or of circus life, +and all this rough experience was new to him. + +As we were obliged to travel through the country for weeks without +daring to take off our clothes, I had a wagon snugly covered and this +served as a sort of sleeping berth. In this wagon my friend and I spent +our nights. At our feet slept a faithful watch dog. On this particular +night we were sound asleep, when the dog made a sudden lunge, jumping +upon us and instantly awakening us. The moon was hid behind a cloud, +and it was, for the moment, very dark. As I jumped to my feet, I +indistinctly saw what appeared to me to be a body of men coming towards +us. I fired several shots from the big pistols I always carried swung +from my belt; but still the mass came forward. I soon heard a most +pitiful wail of grief, and then I discovered that I had shot into a +herd of elephants which had stampeded. + +The firing, together with the noise, alarmed the militia around the +city, who, thinking the border ruffians were upon us, came to our +assistance. It was some time before I could convince them of the real +state of affairs, as the elephants had made a wild escape and +consternation reigned. The militia hunted for the men who fired the +guns, threatening dire vengeance for alarming the post, but after a +full explanation we succeeded in pacifying them. Then we had a long +chase after the stampeded elephants, which were finally captured. + + +A POLAR BEAR HUNT ON FIFTH AVENUE + +One of the most exciting and amusing episodes connected with my career +as a showman is that which passed into Gotham history as "the bear hunt +on Fifth Avenue." And certainly nothing could be more strange and +picturesque than a hot chase after a ferocious polar bear along this +aristocratic thoroughfare! + +In 1873 there were no polar bears in America, and I thought it would be +a good stroke of business to obtain some of these beautiful and +imposing animals for my menagerie. Therefore I sent an expedition to +the Arctic waters to capture a pair. My men finally succeeded in +landing two enormous polars in New York. In the process of shifting +them from the shipping-box one of these monsters made his escape, and +started on a run down the middle of Fifth Avenue. His course was marked +by general consternation. Children playing on the streets, seeing an +immense white bear lumbering toward them at full speed, screamed and +fled in every direction for shelter; horses, frightened at this unusual +spectacle, became unmanageable and ran away; nurse-maids, wheeling +their small charges, were stricken helpless with terror, and even the +street dogs fled howling down the cross streets and into business +houses. Everywhere disorder and terror reigned supreme; the streets +became suddenly deserted, and one would have supposed that a plague had +instantly depopulated the city. The police were called out from every +adjacent station as soon as it became known that a white bear was loose +in the streets of New York. The poor animal, unaccustomed to the +strange medley of metropolitan civilization, was more frightened than +those who fled before him. + +[Illustration: A BEAR LOOSE IN FIFTH AVENUE.] + +Finally, by the aid of the police and some of the braver citizens, the +beast was driven into a basement of a private residence, and there +shot. Had the people only realized it, the creature could easily have +been captured alive; but fear reigned in every heart, from the child to +the policeman, and the latter would not consider anything save instant +death to the bear. The animal was very valuable and had cost me a large +sum of money, not only for its capture but also for its transportation, +and I was exceedingly sorry to lose him in this way. I considered +myself exceedingly fortunate, however, to escape as easily as I did, +for had the bear done any harm I should have had to pay heavy damages. +No person fortunate enough to witness the tumult of that exciting scene +can ever forget the bear hunt on Fifth Avenue! + + +AN EQUINE OFFICER OF ARTILLERY + +At one time certain towns in Pennsylvania were greatly dreaded by all +showmen, from the fact that the "tough" element there predominated, and +rarely did a circus escape without a pitched battle with these +desperadoes. Mahanoy City was one of the worst of these towns, and on +my last visit there nothing but the sound "horse sense" of one of our +trained animals saved the show from a conflict the result of which +might have been deplorable. I had wired my agent, weeks before, to drop +this town from the list, but he had written back that, under favorable +circumstances, we were sure of taking about $10,000 there, and +therefore, in accordance with my instructions, the town had been +billed. + +We had a fair afternoon's business, and at night, judging from the +appearance of the house, we ought to have had at least $5,000 in the +treasury. But, as usual in that town, the toughs had simply forced +their way in without paying, and, as a consequence, only about $800 had +been taken. On the outside were several hundred hoodlums clamoring for +a fight, and I am bound to say that "Old Put," our boss canvasman, and +his faithful followers were anxious for the same means of satisfaction, +and only refrained from an outbreak because they knew that instant +dismissal from my employ would follow any attempt on their part to take +the initiative in any trouble. + +At last, however, a fight did come off, and a hot one it was, too! +Right in the midst of it one of my horses, which had been trained to +fire off a cannon from its back, got loose and, fully accoutred, +galloped into the thick of the melee. The creature seized the strap +which operated the trigger and began firing blank cartridges in every +direction. If ever a mob of toughs was frightened it was then! They +stopped not upon the order of their going, but fairly flew in all +directions. + +One of them afterward told a policeman that they could fight any gang +of showmen that ever traveled, but when a horse commenced to unload on +them with a cannon, he knew it was time to quit. + + + + +XI + +STORIES OF OLD-TIME SHOWS AND SHOWMEN + + +Nothing can afford a better idea of the variety and picturesqueness of +a showman's life than the medley of odd incidents, of strange +experiences and homely happenings that crowd the thought of a veteran +when in a reminiscent mood. It is under this kind of inspiration that I +have jotted down, in this scrappy and haphazard way, the episodes which +sufficiently impressed me at the time of their occurrence to claim +frequent rehearsal when talking over the "old days" with other pioneers +of the tent and the ring. It is the clowns who in one way or another +furnish most material for anecdotes, and the greatest clown America +ever saw was Dan Rice, who at one time was the most famous circus +performer in America, and, with the exception of John Robinson, the +most daring. I have never met a more nervy man; he was without an equal +in trying emergencies. He would face a mob at any time and under any +circumstances. Besides being a natural fighter he was a natural orator. +He had a sonorous, penetrating voice, his enunciation was clear and +distinct, and he knew the secret of flattering and delighting his +auditors. Dan had many competitors for the patronage of the river +towns, the most prominent of whom were two veteran showmen who owned a +floating palace. The "Palace" was simply a large boat fitted up as an +opera house with the most elegant appointments. It would seat several +hundred people and was provided with a complete stage and elaborate +sets of scenery. This was towed by a tug called the "James Raymond," on +which all the performers roomed and took their meals. They had, +besides, a steamer called the "Banjo," on which they gave a minstrel +performance. + + +DAN RICE'S ONE-HORSE SHOW + +Dan had formerly been "featured" as one of their attractions; but, some +trouble arising, he had left them and started in business on his own +account. He experienced the usual ups and downs of a showman's life, +finally "went broke," and was at last cleaned out to what he boldly +announced as "Dan Rice's One-Horse Show." With this little affair he +courageously fought his former associates and did a large business. +During the performances he was in the habit of singing a song entitled +My One-Horse Show, which took the popular fancy and materially helped +him. In this song he told how the opposition had placed false buoys in +the river, thereby misleading his pilots and throwing him on sand bars +where his craft stuck for days. + +For the information of those unacquainted with river travel I will say +that buoys are placed by the government in dangerous parts of the river +to point out the only safe channel. Now, whether or not the opposition +was really guilty of this trick, Dan's verses gained him the sympathy +of the people, and with that sympathy came their dollars. In fact, to +such an extent did Dan work upon the sympathies of the people that, at +many points, they actually refused to allow the opposition boats to +land. At some of these places the opposition had themselves incurred +the displeasure of the people by touching at the landing only long +enough to receive their audiences, and then going into the middle of +the river to give their performances, thus avoiding the payment of the +license fee. + +This lasted through the winter, and when summer came both shows took to +their tents and traveled toward New York State. There Dan's enemies +succeeded on some charge or other in getting him in jail. While in his +cell he composed the song "Blue Eagle Jail," in which he described the +jailer, whom he disliked, as "Dot-and-Go-One," from the fact of his +having a wooden leg. This song made the one-legged jailer notorious all +over the country. + +One thing I must say for Dan Rice: He was the only original clown I +ever heard--with the single exception of Dilly Fay. The latter was an +erratic individual who actually became a clown that he might save money +to complete his studies in Paris. Fay was educated and original, but +lacked the physical power and deep voice of Rice. I never heard of Fay +after he started for Paris, but presume he never reentered the ring. + + +TAN-BARK ORATORY AND HARLEQUIN PLUCK + +Once when I was with Dan Rice on the river circus we showed at Memphis. +At this place a certain fellow was loud in his denunciation of Dan and +the show. He was a source of great annoyance to the showman and had +also made himself very unpopular by declaiming against slavery. In +retaliation Dan entered the ring and returned the compliment in kind. +He capped the climax by singing a song in which he described his enemy +as playing cards with a negro on a log, and so boldly was this done +that the people believed it and the fellow became so exasperated that +he threatened to shoot Dan. The clown, however, defied him, and +continued ridiculing him until the man was actually obliged to leave +the city in a hurry. + +Dan also had trouble at Yazoo City, Mississippi. He had, it appears, on +a former visit, flogged a prominent man there, and the latter had sworn +to shoot him on sight. One night when Dan was clowning in the ring the +prominent citizen entered and drew his revolver to kill. A plucky +bystander, however, knocked the iron from his hand and prevented +bloodshed. The scene that followed I shall never forget. Dan stood +undaunted in the ring, called the man a coward and dared him to shoot. +His audience went into ecstacies over such an exhibition of bravery and +applauded to the echo. Whereupon Dan, stimulated to further efforts, +poured forth a torrent of the most stinging denunciation of cowards +that ever fell from mortal lips. I have often wondered where Dan picked +up such a command of language. + +[Illustration: "A SPECTATOR JUMPED INTO THE RING AND TRIED TO SHOOT THE +CLOWN."] + +At that time he was not an educated man, although years after, when +visiting him at his magnificent house at Girard, Pa., I found that he +had a well-stocked private library, and he had certainly become an +exceedingly well-read man. + + +AN IMITATION PATRIOT SHOWN UP + +My last experience with Dan Rice when he was in the circus business was +at Elkhart, Ind. It was a very stormy day during the war. The weather +was too windy to permit the hoisting of the usual flags, and one +pompous young fellow, inflated with conceit, appointed himself a +committee and visited Dan, demanding that the flags be hoisted. He +charged that Dan had made secession speeches in the South. With an ugly +mob at his heels the fellow declared that if the flags were not hoisted +he would burn the whole outfit. Dan truthfully told the crowd that he +had already erected, at Girard, Pa., a monument to the Union soldiers; +that he owned more flags than the whole city of Elkhart, and that he +would show them if they desired; but he absolutely refused to hoist a +stitch of bunting upon such a demand. Threats and arguments were alike +powerless to move him from his stand. I thought him rather foolish, in +those exciting times, and there appeared to me great danger in his +action. + +Dan, however, mastered the situation. He publicly announced that at the +night show he would give a full history of the leader of the mob, and +did so with a vengeance. He had learned by careful inquiries something +of the character of this fellow, who was a cashier in a bank, and at +the evening performance, and in the actual presence of the man and his +associates, Dan mounted a stool and gave his enemy such a verbal +castigation as few persons have ever received. As he progressed in his +speech he waxed eloquent, and in a marvelously deep, clear and +penetrating voice pictured the vices and foibles of this "patriotic" +cashier, until the audience was ready to mob the man. Suddenly a rush +was made to where he had been sitting. But he was gone and the eloquent +showman was a complete victor. + +That night I roomed at the hotel where Rice was stopping, and in the +morning he accompanied me to the depot, to see me off for my home in +the West. While waiting there the cashier appeared and begged Dan to +retract his assertions of the night before, declaring that otherwise he +would be run out of town. Dan replied that if he did not immediately +leave him he would receive the worst thrashing of his life--and Dan +would have kept his word, to the letter, had not the fellow beat a +quick retreat. I saw Rice but once after that time, but always regarded +him as a prince of the circus ring. + +At one time we started our show through Kentucky, where we did a +splendid business. On this journey through the South our horses were +all caught in a fire and so charred and burned that we had to shoot +many of them. In Mississippi we were greatly troubled and delayed by +the muddy roads. We were three days going a distance of only eighteen +miles. At one point, where there was only one house, our tent was +delayed on account of the deep mud, and we were forced to show without +it, putting up the seats in the form of a circle, thus making a ring in +which the performance was given. The people could see the performance +without paying, but nearly all of them had principle enough to pay. A +few ruffians, however, began abusing the showmen, and a genuine fight +ensued, which was a repetition of most of the others, and some of the +toughs were badly hurt. Our men had all gone to the farmhouse to bed, +and I was alone on the grounds to look after my property, when, after +midnight, a crowd began to gather and suddenly surrounded me, shoving +the muzzles of their pistols and guns in my face. This crowd hung about +until daylight, and I pleaded so heartily that they did not shoot. The +fact that I was then little more than a boy in years was, I think, the +only reason I was not instantly shot by the ruffians. + +When our company began to gather in the morning these ruffians left, +but I shall never forget that night sitting there surrounded by a +half-drunken mob, in a drizzling fall of rain. I was completely +exhausted and half frozen, and never before nor since was I so glad to +see daylight come. + +This trip led us through Georgia, Alabama, Florida and North Carolina. +In those States we frequently traveled at night, and sometimes all +night, illuminating our way by setting fire to the patches of gum on +the pine trees at the spots where they had been "blazed" for their sap. +In the mountains of North Carolina we encountered the "clay eaters." I +was assured that they subsisted to a great extent upon a certain kind +of clay which appears to be able to sustain life. The reader can +imagine the character and intelligence of these beings. There was also, +in a certain region, a strange people who held regular monthly fairs +where they met to barter. They were said to be descendants of a certain +Scottish clan, who, when they first came to this country, were fairly +well civilized, but instead of settling in the fertile soils and +lowlands, took up their homes in the mountains, because the latter +reminded them of their native country. Here they became more and more +isolated until, at length, they were governed solely by their own +outlandish laws and customs, knowing nothing of the usages of +civilization. Outside of the clay-eating districts these mountain +people grew to an enormous stature and possessed great strength. I +found them very hospitable, always treating their guests with marked +kindness. + + +IN WHICH CUPID WAS MASTER OF THE RING + +When we went to New Orleans to close up and pay off a show that had +been "flooded out" in one of my earliest ventures, it was our intention +to take the New Orleans company to New York, but I found it +impracticable. I thereupon called all the members to my rooms at the +hotel and explained to them the situation. I proposed to pay them all +off and let them remain idle until the opening in the following spring. +To this all agreed save two, our principal riders, a woman and a man. +These positively refused to make any compromise. The woman snapped her +fingers in my face and said: "No, I was engaged for a year and you will +have to pay me my salary just the same. You are able to do it, and do +it you shall." The man took precisely the same stand, and as they were +not only our star riders, but also the best equestrians in America, I +was at a loss to know what to do. + +I took a little time for deliberation, and learned that both +malcontents were very much in love with each other. This immediately +helped me to determine what course to pursue. I first sent for the +woman and told her to get ready at once to go to my farm in Wisconsin, +where I intended to build a ring around a tree, to furnish her with a +ringmaster, and to allow her to earn her salary by giving two +performances daily to the birds and squirrels. She claimed that her +contract did not call for such performances, but a reference to the +contract proved that she was to ride in any part of America I might +designate. Then I sent for the man and told him that he and his horses +must take the next steamer for New York City. He refused to do this, +but I quickly proved to him that his contract with us, though calling +for transportation for himself and horses, did not specify of what +nature that transportation should be; I had a perfect right to send him +by sailing vessel if I chose. His refusal to go of course canceled his +contract, and I accordingly left him. The woman expressed her +willingness to go to Wisconsin, but I knew she could not leave her +sweetheart--and I was right. In less than half an hour they proposed a +compromise, but I refused. Finally I agreed to take the woman to New +York and pay her half salary until the season opened. + +Among the many men employed with the Barnum show was one large, +handsome fellow who was superintendent of the equestrian department. As +showmen are fond of having nicknames, some one called this man +"Barnum." The poor fellow was wholly illiterate and tolerably fond of +whisky, consequently the name was decidedly inappropriate, but, as a +nickname will, it stuck to him hard and fast. One day, while Mr. Barnum +was visiting the show, his namesake was lying asleep outside one of the +horse tents on a pile of hay, and one of the hands, desiring to waken +him, shouted at the top of his voice: "Barnum! Barnum! Wake up!" Mr. +Barnum had been a witness to this scene and he came to me in a +tremendous rage, saying: "Have you no respect for me at all?" + +"What do you mean, Mr. Barnum?" + +"What do I mean?" he replied. "Why, I wish to know your intent in +calling that drunken, illiterate brute by my name." + +Of course, after an explanation, Mr. Barnum's rage cooled, but I think +he was never so much annoyed in his life. It well illustrates how +thoroughly he hated the vice of drunkenness. After that episode strict +injunctions were given to refrain from calling the man "Barnum." + +On one occasion when we had run to Joplin, Mo., the train was divided +into three sections, the first having been switched on a siding to wait +for the other two. I was sitting at the hotel, eating breakfast, when +the superintendent of the road came in and announced, "I am afraid you +will not show to-day." + +"Why not?" I replied. + +"Well," said he, "the section of your train that has already pulled out +has run wild down a steep grade over an immense trestle with nothing +but zigzags and reverse curves. We have to run over them with our +passenger trains at a very slow speed, and, as your cars are top-heavy, +I can see nothing but complete destruction for them." + +"Well," said I, "can't you send an engine after the runaway section?" + +He promised to do this and, as there was nothing more I could do, I +finished my breakfast at leisure. + + +BARNUM'S ONE UNCONQUERABLE SUPERSTITION + +The locomotive went out and caught the train. It had passed safely over +the trestle and had reached a heavy ascending grade. Here it naturally +lost its momentum and began to back down the grade toward the city. I +was unaware, at that time, that a passenger train was then due and that +the superintendent fully expected a collision to take place. I can +assure my readers that I drew a long breath when the operator looked up +from his key and remarked: "Thank the Lord! Number Six, the passenger, +is an hour late!" Thus a dreadful catastrophe was prevented. Two men +were asleep on one of the platform cars of the circus train, and one of +them, in the stress of excitement, jumped off and was instantly dashed +to pieces one hundred feet below. The man who stuck to the train was +saved, although nearly frightened to death. + +Mr. Barnum, although never particularly nervous about accidents, +usually refused to travel in the same train with me, giving as his +reason that should we both be killed the show would be without a head. +Really he regarded me as something of a "hoodoo." In the course of one +trip from New Orleans to New York we were compelled to ride together, +and on that occasion the sleeper caught fire and was very nearly +destroyed. Fortunately this happened in the daytime. + +Not only was Mr. Barnum quick to grasp a situation, but was also ready +at repartee. Once, at the hotel at Block Island, the dining-room was +crowded with people from all over America. One of the guests was a +somewhat notorious Mayor of a well-known Western city. During a partial +lull in the conversation, this politician had the temerity to bawl out: +"Barnum, what is going to be your next humbug? Your last one, the White +Elephant, was a failure!" Mr. Barnum, in a voice equally loud and +without a moment's hesitation, replied: + +"I think my next humbug will be the present Mayor of your city! I have +been twice Senator of my State and three times Mayor of Bridgeport; but +from what I have learned of politicians and their methods in the West I +have come to the conclusion that I am now in a far more respectable +business--that of showman--in which no man is either corrupted or +injured." + + +GULLIBLE PATRONS IN EARLY DAYS + +The people who were patrons of the circus in early days were very +"gullible." Every showman of ripe years has in his memory incidents +from his own experience which fully corroborate this statement. The +old-time show was an "event" of large importance in the life of the +small village, no matter whether that village were hid among the hills +or were a landmark upon the open plains--in either instance it was as +effectually separated from the rest of mankind as if it had been an +isle at sea. The circus, to the villagers and the farmers, was an +unending cause of wonder and curiosity. + +Strange reports floated ahead and behind the circus--and, for the most +part, were believed. The exact size of the coming wonder was a subject +for animated discussion. Of course the people did not believe all that +the billboards said; but they believed enough to credit the coming show +with being two or three times as large as it really was in fact. When a +circus proved to be smaller than the popular estimate, it was said to +have split or divided, one section going to some other "small" place. +As these rumors were never contradicted by the showmen they spread +rapidly and the circus became near kin to some fabulous, hydra-headed +sea serpent--a creature which has a habit of taking on more heads and +bristling manes every time it is seen. As a matter of fact it would +have been exceedingly impracticable to have divided a show and, so far +as my knowledge goes this was never done. Showmen did not deny these +reports for the simple reason that they had no time to answer +questions. Many inquiries had hardened them, and, if they ever relented +in this particular it was only to fill their auditors' ears with bigger +yarns because that course was the easiest way to get rid of the +questioners. In explanation of this I may say that the questions which +are "fired" at showmen in every town would go a long way toward filling +a volume. Showmen in the early days had a habit of agreeing, without +hesitation, to every story advanced by patrons. For example, I remember +that, on coming into a certain town we selected our lot and began to +pitch our tent. During the process of the work one of our men--a +strong, burly Irishman--was approached by an angry countryman who +demanded to know what had become of his calf which, it appeared, had +been stolen from him during the run of the last circus which had +stopped at the town. Of course the countryman had laid the blame at the +door of the circus men and, although ours was an entirely different +show, it was evident that all circuses looked alike to him, and that he +believed them all to belong to a strongly knit brotherhood whose +mission was for the accumulation of dollars and, incidentally, the +promotion of general deviltry. He threatened our men with many things +if they did not disclose the whereabouts of his lost calf. "Well," said +big Pat, when the countryman had ceased his tirade; "now you spake av +it, Oi balave Oi do remember thot calf. We took her down here to +Jonesville and--domn me--she's a foine big cow now." + + +EXPEDIENTS OF ADVANCE AGENTS + +In the days of the wagon shows--particularly before and just after the +war--the advance agent of the show usually had many experiences to +relate. Sometimes, when the show was traveling in the South, this +genius would come upon some old negro who, with ax over his shoulder, +was on his way to the woods to cut timber. When the agent came up he +would call out to the negro: + +"Uncle, where you going?" + +"Ise gwine to chop fiah wood, boss," would be the reply. + +Then the agent would say: "Did you hear about the fire last night? We +had a big fire last night, and all our animals got away from us and +took to the woods. They're running wild down there now, elephants, +tigers, lions--they all got away." + +Having finished relating this alarming bit of news the agent would +reach under the seat of his buggy, take up the halter and say: "Here, +Uncle, take this halter and if you see any of those animals catch them +and take them to the tent--we will pay you a good reward for each and +every animal." By this time the whites of the negro's eyes were the +most prominent parts of his countenance. + +"No, sah," he always managed to say as he backed off; "Ise not gwine t' +dem woods dis day." + +"All right," the agent would respond, and, taking the reins, would +start on his way. One of our agents had reached this point in the +program when he heard the negro calling to him. He immediately reined +in his horse and looked back. + +"Say, boss," called the old uncle, "what animal have de mos' preference +fo' a colored man--a lion or a tiger?" + +Whenever our advance wagons came upon a field in which the negroes were +picking cotton the negroes would immediately be observed to edge toward +the fence so that they could see the show go by. Then our men would +advance on horseback and cry out lustily: + +"Look out boys, de elephants am comin'; climb yore trees--dem elephants +get you shore!" The cotton-pickers seldom needed a second warning, but, +as one man, they would turn and make for the other end of the field as +if they were possessed of demons. They were a very superstitious and +impressionable race. The managers of our show had great difficulty in +preventing the candy boys from filling the negroes up with ghost +stories, hoodoo stories and the like, a course that tended to scare +them away and reduce our receipts. One day a young fellow, an attache +of our show, went up to a group of plantation negroes and commenced to +go through a series of outlandish contortions and crazy antics. Finally +one of the negroes asked: + +"What you all doin'?" + +"Now keep still," he replied, "I'm hoodooin' that girl there." Finally +the girl herself thought she was hoodooed and fell to the ground +kicking and screaming. The rest of the negroes did not care to linger +in so dangerous a quarter. + + +PLANTATION SHOWS + +In the early days in the South the country was so sparsely settled that +we did not content ourselves with showing in the towns, but were in the +habit of putting our tents up on any large plantation which appeared to +be centrally located for a region in which we believed we could make a +good "stand." It was invariably our custom to show in the afternoon. In +the evening the attaches of the show were quite apt to be invited to a +plantation dance or "hoedown." The "acting" at these impromptu +gatherings was of no mean order. The negroes would bring out all their +finery and there was sure to be a "Miss Sue" or a "Miss Lucinda" to +carry off the honors. + +Many people--and this was particularly true in the South--entertained +the notion that circuses secured most of their performers by stealing +children. One time when we were showing down in Texas an incident +occurred which will illustrate under what strong suspicion we were held +in certain localities. It so happened that at the time we were showing +in a certain Texas town, a little colored chap named "Josh" became +lost. Of course there was a great hubbub over this incident, and we +were immediately blamed for having a hand in the matter. A thorough +search of all our belongings, however, failed to reveal to the angry +inhabitants the whereabouts of the missing boy. At intervals during the +excitement the boy's mother, a great negro "Mammy," went about among +her people moaning and wailing: + +"Ain't dat horrible, ain't dat sorrowful, the old showman done stole +little Josh away from his paw an' his maw." This incensed the crowd and +for the time being we were in imminent danger of being torn limb from +limb by the enraged crowd. Finally, however, the missing boy turned up, +and, to make amends, the old negress went about exclaiming: "Little +Josh done got home; little Josh done got home!" + + +EXHIBITING "YANKEES" IN THE SOUTH + +Just after the war many of the Southern people regarded a "Yankee" as +an unending wonder. They had heard so much of Yankee ingenuity that +they came to regard a Northerner as a curiosity. We conceived the +scheme of utilizing our knowledge of this fact to swell our receipts. +We advertised that we had with our show a number of Yankees from +various States. The crier dilated upon the wonderful ingenuity of the +Yankee and told the people that if they had any old clocks or other +things which needed fixing that they might bring them and watch the +Yankees fix them. Our first attempt to put this scheme into operation +turned out somewhat disastrously. It was Saturday and the people +flocked to see the Yankees. When they saw, however, that Yankees are a +good deal like other people we narrowly escaped a riot. The attaches of +our show got into trouble with the quarrelsome element of the crowd and +ended by boasting that they were all Yankees. Only by the exercise of +great diplomacy was a combat avoided. + + +SLEEPING IN STRANGE ATTITUDES + +As I stated in the beginning of this chapter, our patrons at this early +day were very gullible. At one place the people had a great curiosity +to know how the circus performers slept at night. After filling these +questioners up with outlandish stories the attaches of the show decided +to have a little fun at their expense. To bring this about they bribed +the hotel keeper to let them have for a sleeping room one of the front +rooms which faced the streets. When it became rumored about the town +that the circus men would occupy this room a crowd composed of the +curious assembled on the sidewalk outside. When night came each and +every showman stood on his head. They ranged themselves in rows and the +countrymen who caught glimpses of them were told that this was the way +all showmen slept. + +The advertising agents for a large circus of the present day would, no +doubt, get a good deal of amusement from the tales of the experiences +of the advertising men who traveled in advance of the old-time wagon +show. One time when I was traveling with a show owned by a man named +Yankee Robinson we discovered that we were almost entirely out of +show-bills. We were for a time in a serious quandary--but we were not +to be downed in this manner. We finally hired a "democrat" wagon and +with a single bill in our possession started out to bill the country +from which we hoped to draw our patrons. At the gate of every farmer +we stopped and called loudly. When the king of the soil appeared we +would hand him the bill and allow him to read it; then we would take +the bill and ride on to the next house. It was tedious work, but we +succeeded in drawing our crowd and felt repaid for our efforts. + + +THE CIRCUS "CRIER" + +It is doubtful if there was to be found a more interesting character +than the circus crier in the days of the wagon shows. He was often a +man of ability--many men who were circus criers have attained +substantial success in the world of affairs. They were chosen for this +position largely on account of their good "talking" qualities, and +were, as a rule, resourceful and given to witty jests. The show once +had a "Little Man" whom they exhibited as Tom Thumb. He was in reality +a boy of about eleven years of age. But he was fitted out with a little +carriage and ponies, and filled the bill very well. When the crier took +his stand in front of the tent he would call out: + +"Ladies and gentlemen; we have little Tom Thumb inside. More than this, +we have the carriage which was presented to him by her Majesty, Queen +Victoria of England. Ladies and gentlemen, Queen Victoria gave this +superb outfit to him with the words: 'Here, Tom Thumb, is the little +carriage, together with the horses, together with the harness--here, +Thomas, take it. Take these to America; show it to your countrymen. +Tell the people of America that it cost three thousand pounds in our +money or $15,000 in their money. Take it, Thomas, take it.'" + + +SHOWMEN'S NAMES + +Showmen were often given names for the city or county in which they +were hired. Thus "Cincinnati Bill" or "Chicago Jim" would not only +serve as well as any other name, but they possessed this advantage, +that they indicated in a breath where Bill or Jim had been picked up by +the circus. When the show was touring Texas we chanced to hire a man in +Bastrop county. Of course we called him Bastrop. He proved to be an +"all around" handy man, and, while he had no professional training for +any particular feat or "turn," he proved a capable man in whatever +position he was placed. One of his early duties was that of driving; +but there came a time when he was given a chance to distinguish +himself. After we had "opened our doors" for business in a certain town +our crier was taken sick and we could think of no better man to take +his place than Bastrop. Our position was particularly trying from the +fact that an opposition show had started up soon after we had got under +way, and there promised to be some lively music between us before we +left the town. For some reason or other the opposition show seemed to +be doing the biggest business and we were unable to account for it save +by the fact that they had a big snake which seemed to attract the +crowds. In every crowd of countrymen visiting a circus there is sure to +be some sympathetic chap who is quick to catch the pathos of a thing of +this kind and try to console the one that is being worsted. There was +such an one in this crowd. This man came over to Bastrop, stood +watching the latter's lips and drinking in the marvelous flow of words +that proceeded therefrom. Finally he blurted out: "Wall, you don't +appear to be gettin' em as fast as that young man over there." + +"No," replied Bastrop, "I don't because I'm no d---- Yankee liar. But +I've got the best show. I am from Bastrop, Bastrop County, Texas. I +have got a human family--Master Eastwood of Ohio, the lonely star that +is now shining for you. If I had the merits and qualifications of +Master Eastwood [Eastwood could write and Bastrop couldn't] I would now +fill the President's chair. Then I have the "Little Man" with the +chariot and horses presented by Queen Victoria. Then I have the tall +man. The great curiosity is why one should _grow_ so small and the +other _remain_ so large. Why, ever since Adam, people have been of +the human family, and if it were not for the human family where would +the show be?" This sort of talk given out with a showman's gusto would +be sure to draw a crowd. + + +THE ESCAPE OF A LEOPARD + +In the days when one large tent answered for both the circus and +menagerie we once met with an experience that seemed to reverse all the +laws relative to the handling of animals. We were stopping at a small +place in Indiana. The crowd which we had managed to get under the +canvas was a large one, and they were taking in the show with all the +eyes they had. Suddenly one of our leopards, made uneasy by something +or other, managed to make his escape from the cage. With a snarling cry +the creature ran into the ring where the ponies were doing their +"turn." The presence of this ferocious animal almost threw the crowd +into hysterics--women screamed and men shouted; some of them made a +hasty exit under the canvas wall. Meanwhile the leopard had crouched +for a spring. All the wildness of the jungles seemed to have returned +to his veins and shone out in the flashes from his cat-like eyes in a +way to send terror to the heart of the veteran trainer. The crowd +seemed to hold its breath for an instant as the critical moment came. +With a peculiar scream the creature leaped into the air and landed +squarely upon the back of the nearest pony. At this exciting juncture a +drunken countryman was seen making his way toward the ring. People +shouted to him, but to no avail; the fellow swaggered on into the ring +and made straight for the leopard. The pony was rearing frantically and +crying piteously. As the madman ran he grabbed up a whip which had been +lying in the ring and approached the leopard with upraised hand. The +creature was too busily engaged with the pony to take notice of its new +enemy. Soon the air was filled with the sound of resounding blows, that +fell upon the back of the leopard. Soon the creature was compelled to +loosen its hold; but the man did not stop. With an awful frenzy he +rained the blows upon the creature until the animal whined with terror. +By this time the trainers had arrived on the scene and the creature was +driven back to its cage thoroughly cowed. But the madman was not +satisfied. He continued to prance about in the ring, kicked up his +heels and shouted: "Turn yer elephants and lions loose!" Of course he +was the hero of the hour. + + +HOTEL KEEPERS + +We used to have many amusing experiences with hotel proprietors, +particularly when we were showing in regions in which the Irish or +Germans comprised the greater part of the population. For policy we +made a practice of humoring these peoples and made it a rule always to +be friendly with them. + +One of our showmen once had an educated pig that he had named Bismarck. +The pig was carried in a sort of box cage on the side of which was +printed "Hotel de Bismarck." Coming into one town the population of +which was largely German we found that we had pulled a storm over our +heads. The German residents were insulted that a pig should be named +after the beloved founder of their empire, and threatened summary +vengeance. It was only by making many promises that we escaped with +whole skins. But speaking of hotels: In billing a town in which there +were several hotels run by Irishmen our advance agent usually promised +each hotel proprietor that his particular hotel should be patronized by +the show. As a result of this I usually found myself in an extremely +embarrassing position when the show arrived at the town. Of course I +could not patronize all of the hotels, and, at the same time, it was +necessary for us to keep the good will of the proprietors. I usually +went around to all of the disappointed ones, gave them free tickets, +praised their children, their wives; berated our advance agent and +promised better things for next time. In the end I managed to make +friends with them and left them with no bad tastes in their mouths. I +have always found them a jovial and reasonable people. Of course the +hotel that did secure our patronage always had something to look back +upon. It was a day of hustling, of real business, that came only once +or twice in a lifetime. In those days napkins were entirely unknown. At +one place some of our showmen asked the waitress to bring them napkins, +and she answered: "I am sorry, sirs, but the last show that was here +ate them all up." + + +EARLY BREAKFASTS + +It was often necessary for the showmen to have their breakfast at three +o'clock in the morning, and this, as the reader may well imagine, made +it impracticable for the keeper of the little country hotel to go to +bed at all. He usually stayed up all night on a "star" occasion of this +kind and cooked for his deluge of boarders. The following little +incident may illustrate the situation better, perhaps, than I can tell +it: We had just hired a man to travel with our wagons. He was a "green" +hand; but he felt it necessary, of course, to fill the proprietor of +the little hotel where we stopped with an appreciation of a showman's +importance. He got up about two o'clock to attend to the horses. As he +passed out he came upon the hotel keeper who, with sleeves rolled up, +was working for all he was worth. + +The new attache stretched himself, yawned and said: "I'll tell you +what, this is the last season that I'm goin' to travel with a show." +"Yes," replied the other, "I guess--next to keeping a tavern--the +circus business is about the hardest goin'." + +We once had with our show a woman whom we were exhibiting for her +immense size. To enhance her value as a feature in the eyes of the +countrymen she wore a gorgeous crown set with cheap but flashy stones. +The crier would tell the people that the crown had been presented to +the woman by the Prince of Wales and that it cost, in England, 5,000 +pounds. Then the people would go in, examine it, and exclaim: "See the +green diamonds and the blue diamonds and the red diamonds!" Once, when +I was in a hotel in Wisconsin, I heard two waitresses talking about the +show. One said she did not believe the crown cost such an amount. The +other said: + +"Well; we can't tell, of course; we only know what we hear--but wasn't +it beautiful!" + + + + +XII + +HOW THE GREAT NEW YORK AQUARIUM WAS MADE AND LOST + + +Every prominent showman has had some venture into which he has put his +whole heart. Nothing in my career touched and moved me like the great +New York Aquarium enterprise. Into this I not only put a fortune--more +hundreds of thousands of dollars than were ever put into anything of +the kind before or since--but I also invested the ambitions of my life. + +I was inspired by a profound desire to promote the interests of natural +science in what appeared to me its most picturesque and attractive +field--the marine world; and everything concerned in this mammoth +undertaking exercised a strange fascination over me. All commercialism +vanished, and I was as true and devoted a student of the wonders which +I had collected as was the most erudite scientist that had ever looked +upon that strange assemblage of creatures from the depths of arctic and +torrid oceans. + +Night after night I remained alone in the great museum for the purpose +of studying the habits of those fishes which displayed their most +peculiar traits while the world slept. The finale of this enterprise +was, it seems to me, in keeping with its remarkable character, and +anything less picturesque than that which actually transpired in this +connection would have fallen short of poetic justice. It is not too +much to say that never before had the scientific world been permitted +to view so comprehensive a collection of the varied and almost +numberless types of deep sea life. + +Neither money nor pains was spared to the end of maintaining an +aquarium approximating that of my fondest dreams. Early in the history +of this gigantic enterprise I became associated with a member of one of +the great animal importing houses, a German, my partner, although I +undertook the active management of the institution. + +The Aquarium was first opened in October, 1876, the year of the +Centennial, and I think I may truthfully say that the former received +as frequent mention in the press of the day as did the latter. + +My connection with the Aquarium afforded me an opportunity to meet and +become acquainted with the leading scientists and literary people of +the day. I know of no institution of the kind that has been opened to +the public under more favorable auspices. It was looked upon as an +institution of education, and public and private schools attended in +bodies. Men who have grown rich in the dime-museum business believe +that the public do not wish instruction, but prefer to be amused with +fakes. Nevertheless, the financial success of the New York Aquarium, +during the period when it received its strongest support from the +clergy and the men of science, has proved the allegation of the fake +museum proprietors to be false. + + +THE QUEST OF THE THREE-TAILED KINGIO + +On the first opening of the New York Aquarium I exhibited a fish from +Japanese waters which was no larger than a man's hand. The Japanese +name of this species is _kingio_, and the fish is very handsome in +appearance, having three perfect tails, and is so graceful in its +movements that these tails resemble folds of beautiful lace. It was +presented to me by a friend of mine in Baltimore, who was in the habit +of spending a portion of each year in Japan. Knowing how far advanced +are the Japanese in pisciculture, this gentleman succeeded in +persuading me to interest myself in their methods. I soon learned that +these three-tailed fishes were the result of the Japanese system of +breeding, of which they alone knew the secret, and when, on +investigation, I learned that their waters contain many varieties of +fish of gorgeous colors, I determined to spare no expense to possess a +collection from this coast, especially after I learned that even Nature +itself seemed reversed there, and that there are fishes in those waters +that swim on their backs. + +Supplying a trusty agent with the necessary money, I first sent him to +Yokohama, with letters of introduction to some friends of mine. Here, +assisted by the natives, he commenced forming his collection. The +captured fish were placed in a series of tanks swung from the deck of +the steamer, and so arranged that a constant flow of water from a +cheaply improvised reservoir should keep the fish in a healthy +condition. However, the use of this device proved the inexperience of +the agent, for, although the fish managed to thrive for about twenty +days' time, one after another died until, on the twenty-eighth day of +the voyage, on landing in San Francisco, he was obliged to wire me that +not a single fish had survived the passage. My answer was: "Take the +same steamer back to Japan and try again." This he did, with somewhat +better success, reaching San Francisco with eighteen live fish +belonging to rare and beautiful species. From his description I judged +that they could not be worth less than $1,000 each. My hopes were high +for the ultimate success of the undertaking. But my pleasure was +destined to be short-lived, as my agent arrived at the Aquarium with +only one living fish. The changeable climate and the overland journey +had been too much for the delicate beauties from Oriental waters, and +one by one they had expired, leaving "a sole survivor to tell the +tale." + +Just as a matter of personal curiosity I figured up the cost of this +precious member of the finny tribe from far-away Japan. He cost me more +than $2,200 in gold. This may be scoffed at by some as a very fishy +fish story, but when it is remembered that this specimen represented +the outlay of two expeditions from America to Japan, including expenses +for tanks, Japanese assistance, and all the ocean transportation, it +will easily be realized that this statement is within reasonable +limits. + + +HALF-HOURS WITH BASHFUL WHALES + +We were equally zealous in our efforts to obtain the largest living +creatures of the deep; and the fact that we exhibited live whales from +the Isle Aux Condries was proof of our enterprise in this direction. +Whales are timid, stupid creatures; in pursuit of small fish they run +up close to the shore, and are captured by a comparatively simple +method. Across the mouth of some deep bay a line of piles is driven +when the water is at low tide; then the fishing fleet only awaits the +arrival of a school of cetacea. These will sooner or later be seen +rushing madly shoreward in pursuit of the schools of smaller fish on +which they feed. When the whales are sighted the fishing vessels +separate and endeavor to surround the assemblage of marine monsters. At +high tide, when the line of piles is deeply submerged, the fleet crowds +in toward the shore, and the frightened whales take refuge in the bay. +Here they remain undisturbed, and are generally quiet until they feel +the tide receding. Then they become restless, and finally make a dash +for deep water, only to run against the line of piles. It would be +comparatively easy for a big whale to batter a great gap in the +improvised fence, and, in fact, there is frequently room enough between +certain piles for him to pass through unharmed, but he is naturally +timid and cowardly, and when within a yard or two of the piles, wheels +about and darts back in terror toward the shore. This fruitless and +exhausting manoeuvre is kept up until the tide has completely gone +out and he is left helpless and stranded. In all my experience in this +peculiar line of live fishing I have never known a whale to break +through the barrier of piles and make his escape. + +The boxing and transportation to New York of these big fish was a great +labor, and it often took fifty strong men several hours to get one of +the monsters into its traveling case. Once in its box, water had to be +poured over the back and blowholes of the imprisoned whale. The water +pouring, by the way, was a monotonous and tiresome job which had to be +continued without intermission during the subsequent ninety hours while +the whale was being carried by vessel to Quebec, thence by rail via +Montreal and Albany to New York. The water in which they lie must not +cover their blow-holes, for, having no room to move they would be +unable to rise and breathe and consequently would drown. Their boxes, +therefore, were tight from the bottom up only as far as their eyes. +Above that line there were cracks for the surplus water to flow off, +and it was necessary for a man to stand over the whale and constantly +drench him until the receiving tank was reached,--a difficult +undertaking. + +I contracted to send a living whale to A. A. Stewart, of the AEtna +Insurance Company, a speculator, who with others in Cincinnati decided +they wanted a whale. For a certain sum of money, therefore, I agreed to +land one alive in that city. This venture made me much trouble and +great expense, for, notwithstanding the great care exercised the animal +died en route, and it was not until three had been lost that I +succeeded, June 26, 1877, in landing one alive. This was considered a +great achievement and was telegraphed all over the nation. + + +A SLIPPERY DEAL IN SEA-LIONS + +In 1870 my men captured the first seals, or "sea-lions," as we termed +them. The hunters experienced no difficulty in ensnaring these +creatures by means of wire nets. This observation is a most interesting +one in view of the fact that later we found it impossible to procure +them by this method, showing that their intuitive sense of +self-protection had taught them to fear man and to avoid his devices. +No sooner did we find that these curious creatures had learned wisdom +from the experience of their unfortunate fellows than we set about to +originate some other plan by which we might make captives. + +Each of our first seals cost more than would five good specimens +to-day, and they died before we could perfect our arrangements for +exhibiting them. This was very discouraging, but we determined to try +again, and our renewed efforts were rewarded with better success. One +of the captives was an enormous creature and lived until the Fourteenth +Street fire, when he was burned, together with $300,000 worth of other +personal property. + +Some of these monster sea-lions are very deceiving when seen in their +native element and surroundings. At a little distance they do not +appear larger than an ordinary Newfoundland dog, but when captured are +found to weigh from twelve hundred to two thousand pounds, and to +measure from thirteen to fifteen feet in length. It is a splendid sight +to see these glossy creatures leap from overhanging cliffs into the +water fully fifty feet below. + +After our first capture there was a great demand for these animals from +superintendents of zooelogical gardens in all the large cities of this +and foreign countries. Realizing the large profits to be acquired by +meeting this demand, I greatly desired to replenish our stock of +sea-lions, and made an arrangement to that end with a man in +California. We supplied him with all the money he required, which +mounted high in the thousands of dollars by the time he had captured +about three carloads of the interesting creatures. The man then came on +to New York and delivered ten of the animals to us, stating that the +others were en route. We at once wrote to the zooelogical gardens at +Cincinnati and Philadelphia, offering to supply them with these rare +animals. Imagine my surprise and indignation when I received answers to +these communications, stating that the gardens had already procured +sea-lions--from our agent! Of course we instantly made an +investigation, and discovered that this crafty hunter had also supplied +various European institutions with sea-lions, for the capture of which +we had furnished the money. The fellow disappeared before we were +thoroughly alive to the extent of the swindle which he had carried +forward to such a brilliant success, and I have never seen him since. +As he was "a canny Scot," he probably retired to his native heath and +purchased himself a castle in the Highlands. Certainly he could easily +have done this on the proceeds of his nefarious enterprise, for at that +time the sea-lions commanded from $2,000 to $2,500 each in the European +cities, and the market could not be satisfied even at that price. Take +several carloads of sea-lions at these figures and the total would +represent a snug little fortune. + +Afterwards when I opened the New York Aquarium, I bought a large sea +lion, had an immense tank built, and a rock cliff made for him so he +could jump into the water and sport around; but he kept up such a +constant barking that he became a great nuisance. Having a showman +friend who intended to spend the winter in Bermuda I permitted him to +take the animal for exhibition purposes. Some few weeks afterwards I +was surprised to receive a note from my friend saying he had returned +the sea-lion and that he would follow on the next boat. No sooner was +the sea-lion comfortably ensconced in his old quarters than he again +began barking to such an extent that I heartily wished him in the +Atlantic. His appetite, too, was most voracious, and we could scarcely +get enough live fish to satisfy him. The strange thing about it was, as +I learned on the arrival of my showman friend from Bermuda, the old +fellow had refused food during the whole trip, and instead of barking +and attracting attention, as we had hoped he would do, he had silently +sulked until once more in the old home in the Aquarium. From this I +gather that the barking which was so disagreeable to us must have been +his expression of joy. The fact that he lived so long without food is +most remarkable. + + +AN EVENTFUL MONDAY MORNING AT THE AQUARIUM + +So far as I am able to learn, no enterprise of the magnitude of the New +York Aquarium was ever disposed of on the flip of a penny. This +transaction may not, at first thought, appeal to the church people of +the country as being right, and the average business man will doubtless +condemn it as unbusinesslike. The attending circumstances, however, +were peculiar. This true story was never made public by my partner or +myself, and the transaction always had a touch of mystery in the eyes +of the showmen of the country. + +From the opening of the Aquarium until a certain eventful day its +success, financially, scientifically and morally, was unqualified. +This, as I have already intimated, was in large measure due to the +enthusiastic support of clergymen, scientists and educators, whose +commendations brought us the patronage of the intelligent masses with +whom these eminent leaders of thought had the greatest influence. + +I received scores of letters from celebrated divines indorsing the +Aquarium, and these were, of course, made use of in the way of +advertising. My partner was a German and could not appreciate the +American feeling for the Sabbath. + +He was determined to open the doors of the museum for Sunday patronage, +declaring that this would bring in a very large number of people who +were naturally inclined to Sabbath-day pleasure-seeking, and were quite +generally interested in things of a scientific nature. He continued +this campaign of argument for two years, during which I steadfastly +urged that such a step would be an offense to the belief of the +majority of our patrons; that it would bring into the place an +undesirable element, from which it had been entirely free, and that the +enterprise was enjoying a steady prosperity with which it would be wise +to remain content. + +Then I repeatedly tried to buy his interest in the Aquarium, but he +steadfastly refused to yield a single point, and became more imperative +in his demands for Sunday opening. This persistency and increasing +aggressiveness at last wore me out. One Monday morning, as he dropped +in at the office and once more brought up the old contention, I +determined that it should be settled, in one way or another, before he +left the room. Instinctively I felt there was no use offering to +purchase his interest, for I had previously gone to the limit of reason +in that direction. + + +THE ULTIMATE FATE OF THE AQUARIUM + +Calmly and coolly I took a mental survey of the whole situation during +a moment of silence between his arguments for Sunday opening. In +addition to the Aquarium, we also had a joint interest in four giraffes +and five small elephants. The Aquarium was worth at least half a +million dollars, as it included the two acres of land at Coney Island, +on which was located our storage and supply aquarium, from which the +exhibition house was replenished with attractions. + +Suddenly, as if waking out of a reverie, I fairly startled my partner +with the exclamation: + +"See here! we can never agree on this Sunday business in the world. +I'll stump you to flip a penny to see which one of us shall take those +giraffes and elephants as his portion and walk out of this place next +Saturday night, leaving the other in full possession of all the +Aquarium property." + +"All right," he calmly answered, and led the way into the private +office. There he drew up a brief statement embodying my proposition. We +both signed it, and then I reached into my pocket and drew forth an +old-fashioned copper cent. + +"Heads I win, tails you win," said the German, as I poised the coin on +the nail of my thumb. As I nodded assent to this I realized that not +only my fortune, but the dearest dreams of my life depended upon the +fall of that copper. More to me than this, however, was the thought +that my wife had become intensely interested and strongly attached to +this undertaking--so much so that it was her personal pride and joy. +Still another consideration which flashed through my mind at that +instant was the realization that if I lost it would mean months and +years of the same sort of homeless wandering life that I had lived +while building up the fortune invested in the Aquarium. These thoughts +and many others flashed through my mind in less time than it takes to +tell them. After scarcely a moment's hesitation I sent the coin +spinning into the air. It dropped upon the desk, and I can now see just +how the light fell upon the fateful "head" which transferred my fortune +to my partner! Instantly I executed to him a bill of sale, covering my +entire interest in the concern. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sawdust & Spangles, by W. C. Coup + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAWDUST & SPANGLES *** + +***** This file should be named 36219.txt or 36219.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/1/36219/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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