The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-05-25
A Child Rider in q Circus.

hibition in Detroit gives, in the Free
! Press, the following account of one por
| ton of the performance:
| A couple of very brisk little ponies came
/ galloping in and took up my attention.
AT first it seemed as if they were riderlesS
but as they came dashing around the ring
| saw on one of them a little child about
four years old, tightly clutching the shag-
| gy name with both hands. He was a
| handsome little boy, with fair, curly hair
and bright, winsome face, which was
now deeply marked with lines Of fear as he
swept past, clinging to his perilouS posi-
! ton. After going around the ring he
tried to stand on the pony; twice he
/ failed, and each time savage snap from
/ the rinrmaster's whip encouraged the lit
! tie fellow to try again. AT last he stood
erect, and then amid the applause of the
crowd, he managed to get a foot on each
| pony, and, waving one hand he hurrahed
| in answer to a warning whip-snap, and
and his shrill, childish voice was tremu-
lous with terror. AT last one foot slipped,
and he fell partly down between the po-
MES, but saved himself by getting al arm
over the neck of one and tightly grasping
the name of the other, as he hung between
them while they galloped more wildly
than ever. l expected to see dozen
ring men spring to his rescue, but no one
| stirred-only vicious cracks of the
whip as amid the breathless silence Of
the crowd the little boy vainly tried
to regain his place on the pony's back.
Twice around the ring he went, and then
the tiny hands loosened, and the poor lit
tie fellow fell between the ponies. Every
body wondered why he didn't reach the
ground, but it was 'no fall" The child
was tied, not quite as tightly as Mazoppa,
to the ponies; and as they raced around
the ring he dNngled within few inches
of the ground, without the luxury of fall
ing andlhaving the agony over. 1t seemed
a wonder that the life was not crushed out
of him when his fiery little steeds jammed
together as they swung around the circle.
At last they were stopped, and the child
was taken by the arm and set on the pony
with an emphasis that spoke palmer than
words: "There, stick on next time"
Hurdles were then placed before the
horses, and, after wild canter around
the ring, the little boy again fell off and
hung in his ropes while the ponies leaped
over the barriers, each time jerking the
breath out of the unfortunate little child
that hung between them. l have heard of
dead criminals being hung in chains in
time past, and don't suppose they made
any complaints about it, but to hang a
living creature, and that child of four
years, with ropes between two galloping
ponies, seems to me a trihe more barbar-
Gus. l would be pleased to see the ropes
and the hanging applied, but in differ
ent manner, to those who force him to do
this dangerous work. They also made
the child walk tight rope, and, as might
be expected, he slipped and this time fell
to the ground, the heavy pole striking
him in the face, but he smiled and said
"All right" kindly persuaded 10 do sol by
the iron grip of his master on his puny
arm, and had to repeat the performance.
How many go to a circus in the fond
hope that they will see somebody kill him.
self. This is very laudable desire, and
have nothing to say against it, for if a
man, rather than learn some useful trade,
chooses to perform and break his neck,
thus manning himself for life, it is no.
body's business but his own; but when
poor little child is forced through such a
terrible ordeal it is time either to stop
talking about civilization or to bury the
men who risk their lives to fill their
purses. When they use him so inhuman'
ly before the people, what must be the
treatment he gets behind the scenes, where
he is sworn at, whipped and kicked into
doing what his child nature must hold in
terror ....