Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-14
THE ADVANCE AGENT.
Two Enterprlsing Gentlemen and
Their ways Described.

From the Virginia tNev.) Chronicle.
Last evening Chronicle reporter
overheard couple of discharged
stake-drivers relating their expert
ence in q saloon over their beer.
"Billy Simms," said one, twas the
bosa advance agent-.the liveliest cove
you ever saw to 60 ahead and work
up business. He could handle the
press, you bet. He'd keep about two
weeks ahead, and the papers would
60 wild over what was coming.
This was his game. He'd take the To-
cal editor off on one side and tell him
the boss wanted good, live man to
write up star notices at SIS . week
and all expenses paid, and he was the
man for the place. He would then
give him q letter to the manager,
strongly recommending him, and
slide off next day, leaving the local
editor confidant Of his being on the
eve Of . big thing. The letter was
just . guy and always addressed
wrong. The reporter would then
start in to show what kind of notices
he could write If he only laid himself
out to do it, and the paper would be
nearly all circus. The agent would
work the next newspaper man he met
the same way, and, by lingo, he kept
the country just blazln' with excite.
ment ahead with stories about lions,
rhlnoceroses, tigers and gorillas
breakin' loose and desourin' whole
families, He was buster, that ad-
vance agent, and when he died the
show business lost shinin'
light. The only man who ever came
any where near him was Bob Fill.
kin, who is travelin' now for Fore
psugh."
"Pshaw:" remarked the other,
"what was that along side OF Jake
Bradley? Jake and 1 started out dri-
vim stakes for Barnum in 81. When
Jake went ahead of circus the con-
Germ would have to be way up or he'd
be more of q show than the circus.
recollect one time he took bill
poster and made him slap bills RICH,
on the tombstones in the Presbyterian
Cemetery, and then he went and GOV.
cred the whole side of the Methodist
Church with elephants, tigers, lions
zebras and two-horned rhinoceroses
that is the sort of cheese-press hi
was. When the preacher came out Il
expostulate, says Jake: "Go in, yor
old duffer, don't the Bible tell us Il
beautify the sanctuary and make tn,
house of the Lord glorious? I'm
chuckin' little style on your old hen
coop-makin' up for Its glarin' archi
tectural deficiencies. Them's all Bi
Bile scenes anyhow, and represent
Noah getting his menagerie togethe
in the ark 1t just paralyzed the gof
T pelizer, and he took . walk. Jak
: had solid cheek, you bet, and nothin
alive phazed him . hair. He kney
when he plas,ered the Presbyteria
Cemetery with small bills, and tn
r Methodist Church with pictures, this
it wouldn't hurt business because tn
n Presbyterians never 60 to shows, ne
the Methodists neither, and the tow
was mostly 'Piscopalian and Unitar
d ans, who stood in with him. On
Q day he stood at the door Of Sunda
school and distributed small bills
a. the scholars coming out. At the to
% was a cut of Moses in the bull-rush'
i and some extracts from Scripture 81
0 propriately chucked in, and then Il
% advertisement of the circus perform
10 ance. Chiarim sat and cried like
I child when the trick mule kicke
0 Jake's brains out"
70 Here the two men asked the ba
70 keeper to trust them to another qua
o Of beer, but it was no 60, and tn,
y slid off to hunt up . dry-goods box
10 sleep in.