The Portland daily press., 1878-06-10
BARNUM.
His Greatest Show on Earth i'm Port
land.

even, the holiday of all others, has brought
such crowd of people to Portland as visited
the goodly city on that day. Not only did the
trains come heavily laden, but private teams of
every description came fockipg in to witness
the great exhibition which was promised by
one who never fails to fulfil his promises. The
day opened fair and beautiful, and it was lust
the day to tempt the honest granger to leave
DIS nocks and herds and for day to give him
self to pleasure up Weather is sometimes de-
ceitful, but the great Snowman never and if
the former had carried out his programme as
well as the latter, the thousands who fiocked to
the city Saturday would have returned to thei
homes with dryer skins aud happier hearts.
AT 9 o'clock when Barnum's great show
started down through West and Pine to Con-
gress street there was perfect jam of people
at every crossing, while every window was &C.
cupied from garrett to cellar in each house on
the route. AT State Street Square, Congress
Square and Market Square the throng was SO
great that in one or two instances the band
wagon was obliged to wait for the street to be
cleared before it could pass. The procession
was very long and made a fine appearance.
There was large number of cages of wild ami
mails drawn by prancing steeds, while the six
or eight great elephants shnfd ed along in their
usual careless gait The team of little ponies
pleased the little folks immensely. The train
| ed stations paced down the street with the
proud consciousness that they knew half as
much as large portion Of their admirers.
1t is understood that the "annex" of the pro-
cession does not belong to Mr.. Barnum, but it
is engaged by private parties to interest and in
| struct the people. Directly behind the last
carriage of the procession came Robinson's
barge, which was decorated with notices call
| ing attention to the fact that y. D. B. Fisk &
| Co. were not only selling clothing very cheap,
| but that they were also giving away tickets to
| Barnum'ss great show. Within the barge was
the Skowhegan band of eleven pieces and they
turned out the music by the mile. The result
| was that Fsk's store was overrun with custom
| ers all day.
As early as IL o'clock the crowd in the streets
began to move in the direction of the Western
| Promenade, where the great show was to be
given The ticket wagon was besieged not
withstanding the fact that the office opened at
| Stockbridge's had been crowded during the
morning. In passing through the main en-
| trance the visitor finds himself in the first of
the three great tents which cover the entertain
ment The first tent is the museum, where
Col. Goshen, the giant, and Col. Costentenus,
the wonderful tattooed man, hold receptions.
These two gentlemen had falling out in New
York few weeks since and for few moments
the museum was a very lively place. 1t is un-
derstood that Capt. Costentenus came out of it
with flying colors. but the friends of the Col.
say that he was preparing to sit down on the
captain when they were parted. In this tent
there are numerous things to admire. Auto
maton bands discourse music, gIoups of auto
mata perform various evolutions, and myste-
rious woman appears, in van of her own. In
the second tent is the menagerie. There are
six elephants, rhinoceros-a scaly chap who
meditatively munches hay; three camels, two
buffaloes, two elks, grizzly bear, polar bear,
and several other varieties of this species, no.
BILE Beng al tiger, lions of several sorts, includ-
ing three young ones with their mother, the
whelps being but six weeks old, leopards, ia
guars, hyenas, sea-lions, monkeys, and many
other interesting specimens of wild animal life.
Among the birds are an ostrich, pelican and
a cassowary.
In the third tent is the circus. This tent
will seat 5000, and in the afternoon not only
was every seat taken, but some 1000 persons
were turned away In the evening there were
between 5000 and 5000 in attendance despite
the rain. Such crowds have never before been
seen at circus. The performances both after
loon and evening were of very high order and
pleased the audience immensely. Mr.. Barnum
appeared ia person and addressed the people
from the arena. He was received with great en-
tnusiasm. The entertainment was as he prom
ised that it should be free from all objectional
features. The very best people in the city
were in attendance and every one of them will
be sure to 60 again when Mr.. Barnum shows in
Portland. The performance of the trained
ponies at the opening of the performance pre-
pares the audience for the good things which
follow. While Mr.. Reed is an excellent rider
! he does not claim to be as proficient as MIR.
| Charles W. Fish, who, Mr.. Barnum says, is
| the best rider in the whole world. This is a
| great deal to say, but Mr.. Barnum is prepared
| to place him beside any horseman in Europe
| or America for test Of skill. The general at
| fractions of the show are very numerous. The
| Vi AGO Brothers have a very comic act. Satsu-
suma and his companion give an illustration of
| balancing feats, which seems to set the laws of
gravitatiou at defiance, and there are some ex-
cellent gymnastic performances by the Leotard
| Brothers.
The main feature, however, upon which the
principal interest centred, was the twenty
| trained stations from the royal stables of
| France, Germany, Russia and Italy, and for
which Mr. Barnum paid $4,000. These ami
mails are really the most carefully trained
| specimens Of equine beauty ever exhibited in
| America, and respond to the mere waving of
| the whip by their trainer, Prof. Carl Antony;
| with an accuracy that is simply wonderful.
| They walk and run backward and forward on
| four feet and two; they climb on pedestals;
| they wheel and prance and march and dance;
| they break up in squads; they perform singly,
in couples, in sections and all together. Finally
| all left the ring but one, and he, after mo-
| ments pause, put his head against the trainers
back, and with every appearance of satisfac-
ton, pushed the trainer out of the ring and
| then out of the tent. The school of educated
| Russian stations, recently the property of
Prince Lenchenberg of st. Petersburg, are per-
| feet models of the equine race, Faust, the APP
parent leader, executing number of graceful
| nan@uvres. 1t would seem almost impossible
| to believe thai these animals were not capable
| of reasoning and approaching the applause
bestowed upon them. The clowns, james
Holloway, G. Seeley, and A. Arbuckle, were
| good, and what is unusual 10 circus clowns
| generally, had new jokes. Mr.. Charles Fish,
among other daring things, performed the
| difficult act of double front and backward
| somersaults on horseback without single
| miss The nerformanca concluded with batOute
| leaping by the entire company, Mr.. John
Bachelor distinguishing himself by double
somersault over six large elephants, said to be
the greatest feat of tumbling ever attempted in
| America
AN EXCELLENT IDEA.-There has long been
feeling that there should be some place where
medicine could be procured at night in this
city. There has been a number of cases where
life itself depended upon the procurement of