The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-05-26

How a Circus Winds Up.

How q Circus Winds Up.
"Fat Contributor" in the Cincinnati Times,
makes the following excellent hints at the clos
ing performances of a circus:
People who patronize the circus see gentle
man enter the ring, hat in hand, at certain
stage in the performance, and announce the
grand concert and minstrel performance that is
to come off in the ring at the conclusion of the
regular show, for the amusement of all who
choose to remain and invest an extra quarter
for ticket Then the voluble young men in
the employment of the candy stand vary their
cries of "nice peanuts, just baked" "here'
your ice-cool lemonade" &C., with entreaties
to buy ticket to the grand concert. The con-
cert business don't pay very well In the city,
where there is usually surfeit of minstrelsy,
and the best there is at that; but in the coun-
try it is big business. The privilege of run
ming the concert usually goes with the candy
stand, and sells for from one thousand to three
thousand dollars for the season, according to
the drawing qualities of the main show. Some
times the candy stand and the concert make
more money than the circus itself, and there
have been instances where they have cleared as
high as 1000 in single season.
There is an opportunity for displaying gshrewd-
ness and tact in conducting this business so as
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showmen in the country got their first start run
ming candy stand. Ames, of Ames' Circus
and Menagerie, is case in point. The young
men who move about among the audience ex-
hibiting tempting displays of candies and pea
nuts and dexterously managing trays of lemo-
made, generally get per centage on what they
sell, which accounts for their importantly.
They keep their temper under all manner of
slurring remarks from "Smart Alecks," and are
generally able to wind them up with sharp
retort. They learn to be good judges of human
nature and know who to press their merchan-
die upon, and who to pass by. One of them
detects bashful young man sitting by his girl,
q handsome, pouting, red-cheeked beauty. he
fills her lap with candies, needless of remon-
STRANGE, keeping up bewildering flow of COM
pliments, which pleases her as it excites the
envy of her lout of beau, who inwardly wishes
he could talk like the circus man. Then the
candy fellow appeals to him direct-asks if he
will sit there like bump on l6g, and a hand
some young woman like that suffer for the want
of little candy to sweeten the asperities of life
he would keep her in candy himself for year,
for he really felt sweet on her already, were it
not for the fact that he had fourteen young and
helpless grandmothers to support. The young
woman bushes and TITLES, and her beau buys
the candy, if for no other reason than to get rid
of the good-looking and smart-talking candy
man. he is equally successful in pleasing
mammas by praisiug their children, and, if he
understands his business, he will talk cash out
of the most crusty, and peanuts into the most
penurious
We watched one of these "candy butchers"
as they are called in the techncality of the cir
Gus, the other night and were much amused by
the way he worked up business. While urging
party to invest in peanuts he turns his head
as though he had been called by another party
and shouts-"pm coming Don't be In hurry,
I always wait on the ladies and children first"
Of course no one has called him, but the peo-
pie don't know that, and as he repeats it often
it gives an appearance OF his wares being In
great demand.
Ever stop to hear the "Grand Concertf"
You ought to do it once. There Is as little de-
lay as possible after the people who are not at
tracted by it or who haven't spare quarter are
gone. A portable platform is brought in and
placed in the ring, facing the audience, who are
got together in q group. a board, supported at
each end by chair, furnishes the orchestra ac-
ed on the platform for the minstrels. Then en-
ter the orchestra, madeup from the circus band,
who receive an additional compensation for be-
coming Grand Concert. After q brief over
ture, which is played standing, the minstrels
appear. The two end men have their faces
biacked, 1--WE are describing the Grand Concert
attached to James Robinson's show the otherS
wear their natural skin. The troupe is render
ed additionally attractive by the presence of
good-looking female minstrel, wife of one of
the performers. We recognize two of the men
as trapeze performers in the regular perform
ance. There is the usual minstrel business In
brief. Brother Bones is asked chow is ye?"
and brother Bones replies that he is "salubri-
ous." There are comic songs that make you
weep, and pathetic ballads that make you
laugh, sung by q young man whose voice Is rem
.dered weak and sepulchral by sleeping at night
on the top of circus wagon. The pretty fe,
male minstrel appears again in fancy attire, and
sings "Girl of the Period" song with a voice
too sweet to follow in the wake of circus, and
then Dutchman sings a song and tells story
very laughably, through whose comicsl disguise
we recognized the "ring-master' OF the big
show. We might say for him that he succeeds
80 much better in his comic Dutch business
than he does in the ring that we would advise
him to give up the ring g-masters whip and stick
to his pipe and wooden shoes.
The Grand Concert lasts about an hour,
when it closes with the inevitable "Shoo, Fly,!".
and the people retire apparently satisfied, or II
they are not, they make no fuss about it, which
is all the Snowman asks of them.
AMERICAN WONDERS. greatest cata-
ract in the world is the Falls of Niagara, where
the water from the great upper lakes forms 9
river of three-quarters of mile in width, and
then be;np suddenly contracted, pmnges over