The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-09-13
A, american Circus in Brittany.

mountainous, jutting out into the sea
between the Bay of Biscay and the
English channel. Tt is the country of
the Bretons, people whose history is
full of incident, whose lives are pictur-
esque, and wild, and who have an old
fashioned way of being guided by the
ways of their fathers. In every part of
France the word Breton stands for all
that is quaint and uncouth in French
life. 1t is there somewhat as it would be
here if the little band of Puritans who
came to our country had kept themselves
separated from the rest of America,
holding to their traditions and supersti-
tons, and had brought the surroundings
of the gallant Miles Standish down to
our nineteenth century unchanged. How
they would be studied, and what an in
teresting study they would bel
To-day the Bretons are very much
what they were century ago-yes,
more than that-perhaps two or three
centuries ago. They are superstitious,
bigoted and picturesque. They come to
the markets clad in skins in winter and
n sackcloth In summer. They cultivate
the soil in the rudest manner with wood
en- plows, and are content in all the ways
of life to live as their fathers lived.
We often hear of the son standing in
the shoes of the father, and this may be
said literally of the Bretons. 1t often
happens that pair of leather shoes is
handed down from father to son. These
shoes last long time, for they are only
used on rare occasions, rude wooden
shoes, or sa6ots, being commonly worn.
Not one in ten of the grown people can
read and write, and newspapers are q
luxury enjoyed only by the rich. The
people are supplemented and credulous,
but in money matters they are not too
simple to make exceedingly shrewd
bargains.
Now. in country like this, in town
like this quaint, old-fogyish Quimperle,
just fancy an American circus
making its appearance. Here, in the
public square, a tremendous yellow-and-
red poster has been displayed for a week
past, and crowds of admiring peasants,
more picturesque than tidy, have stood
before it in admiring wonder from morn
ing till night. Its long trains of notified
horses, its hump-backed camels and
bulky elephants, have been commented
4c
known to every peasant within ten
miles. A commotion was created one
day by cynical old one-eyed beggar
declaring that the proprietors of the cir
Gus were emissaries of the Prussian
Government, aud from that suspicion If
came to be pretty generally understood
that the man who drove the triumphal
car I'D the painted cavalcade was Prince
Bismarck, although the bill announced,
in plain English, that it was the Anglo
American circus that was coming. The
people didn't quite take in the word
Anglo; but American was plain
to such of them IS could read
French, on account of its similarity
to the same word in that language.
AS the writer was known to be an
American, he was called on many times
to give explanations of the figures on
the bill and any ignorance regarding
them would have thrown doubt at once
on his nationality. Was that like an
American elephant? Does the Presi-
dent of the United States ride in coach
like that pointing to the musicians
carr How many ostriches could good
sportsman shoot in America? Do all the
people in America wear feathers like
that red Indian on the bill D?
All these questions and many more
were continually put and faithfully an
swered.
At last the circus came. Bright and
early on that wonderful morning all
Quimperle was up and dressed in its
best clothes to see the grand entry OF
the circus. Tramp, tramp, tramp into
the town, from all quarters, the people
came. All the sabots clattered in one
direction toward the great square, Were
busy hands were putting up the tent.
Every town in Brittany has its distinct
i've Golf, or women's address, and
every variety was here represented
The men came with their huge pockets
stuffed with great buekwheat cakes, and
women brought loaves as big as the top
of q pail, by way of slight refreshment
at midday. Every man and woman who
had children brought them all, from the
carefully wrapped-up infant to the gawky
boys and girls who are always tumbling
over their own or somebody else's
iabots.
And the beggarsi 1t was "corn in
Egypt" for them. They came like
bees round a cask. There were blind
beggars-at least they said they were
blind. There were lame beggars, and
sick beggars, and palsied beggars :
N fact every kind of beggars but clean
beggars. They beset one at the doors.
They peered into windows, followed
carriages, and stuck to every stranger
until he was forced to empty his pocket
Of coppers to be rid of them.
And the boysl Some of them had
saved their sous till the necessary franc
had been reached, and they were happy.
Some of them hadn't sou to their
name, and they were plunged into the
depths of misery. In an unlucky mo-