Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1878-05-23


r JONAH Mr.. Ellingham was in
! clined to be little more creduloul
: than his companion, and he assertec
that there were at least three mana
gers or ex-managers whose reputa
!; ton in this respect was great deal
below par. "
At this point a pale youth with q
wild look in his eye and an uncertain
style in his walk, as if the ghost of a
murdered somtrsaAlt had arisen to
plague him, came part way into the
room and mysteriously motioned Mr..
Robinson into an obscure corner of
the apartment. A lengthy converse
ton ensued, varied by an occasional
posture on the part of the stranger,
who finally took himself away with
the carriage of one whose mind has
been relieved of a load.
''He wanted to know what we diet
on, laughed Mr.. Robinson, when he
rejoined tie party.
"And you told him, of course?"
queried Mr.. Ellingham.
so, didn' 1? (with roguish twin
kle in his eye.) By the way, talking
of these fellows, there was a college
student at Charlottesville, N. c.,
who followed us for days and days,
trying to get bottle of timber
grease Well, at last the thing be-
came so monotonous that Ben NAL
lory and fixed up bottle of stuff
and sold it to him for $40. We rub
bed it on his knees and all over his
joints generally, and then sent him
for a seven rail fence. He hit about
the fourth rail, and we told him it
wasn't a good day for jumping"
"Yes," said Mr.. ElIingham.
''that's the way to trest them. A
Portland youngster, once, was bound
to be q tumbler, and he bothered us
terribly. So at last we daubed his
Joints with wheel grease and set him
to turning somersaults. The first one
nearly killed him, and he lay on his
back for minute with his hands and
feet like this" and Mr.. Ellingham
initiated the sprawling efforts of a
capsized turtle.
A number of anecdotes, illustrating
the tendency to practical jokes, were
then related, one of them showing
how an irate Dutch bartender in Al |
bany drove party of innocent circus
men from his house at the point of a
revolver, in the belief that they were
beats and blacklegs; and another, re-
lated with great gusto by Mr.. Robin
son, of Mexico, Mo-, told how he
had introduced q big clown us HIM
self in Virginia town, whereupon |
the said clown became the lion of the |
hour and was wined and dined, while !
the rest of the company were left to |
shift for themselves.
The number OF persons who want |
to learn to ride now is comparatively |
small, and a majority of those who
apply are girls-many of them hand
some and accomplished. The DAYS
when the fancy that bath in solu-
ton of oil and gutta perch, or n habit /
of sleeping between rubber blankets,
will make one timber and springy,
have passed away, and those who as
pir1 to success in the ring know that
hard work is the only magic of the
art. A great change in the charac-
ter of the circus has taken place with
in Il few years. Big combinations
have pushed the little ones to the
wall, and fortunes have been lost as
well as made around the sawdust cir
Gle. A show like the London costs
81, 800 q day to run, and a good
business must be done to make both
ends meet. Salaries range from $500
to S25 per week for performers.
Acrobats and tumblers command from
S25 to $40, or even $50 if, like Gard
ner, they are phenomenal; clowns
get from $50 to $50, and the riders
the higher ii ures. Stablemen, can
vasmen, etc, are paid about S25 "A
month. In all cases board and trans
portation are included.