American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-08-07
PHILEMON'S CIRCUS.

. S1nSOSe
"'-Together with flies and drums.
The gigantic procession, headed by the
stupendous gilded chariot. will move
through the town at seven O'Clock A.
m. precisely" ended Tom Tadgers,
quoting from the handbills.
Through this town." asked Phile-
mon, much excited.
Tom Tadgers gave him a whitening
glance.
do you suppose that N. Ticeum and
b. Phoolum's Great Moral Show
with six tigers, five elephants, gil
raffe, hippepotamus, kangaroo, in-nu-
mer-a-ble monkeys, wild men of Bor-
neo, living skeleton, educated bull and
ship of the DESERT would come to a
mean little village like thisP Skowhe-
gan's the town it's going to move
through, and it will pass fuckers Cor
ner at five o'clock tomorrow morning.
So Silas Elder says to me, You get
into the back OF my milk cart, Tadgers'
CTommy felt deeply the dignity of be-
ing Tadgers''), land I'll give you
a lift as far as the Corner, Tadgers.
Then you can follow the procession,
and go to the show at Skowhegan,
Tadgers,' says he. Now, Philemon,
how would YOU like to come along tooP"
"And Romeo Augustus with me?"
questioned Philemon, eagerly.
Tadgers shook his head.
Come by yourself. or not at ALL"
said he, firmly. What's more. you
must be on hand by four o'clock to-
morrow morning."
How could Philemon wake at that
early hour? 1t was his wont not only
to ''sleep like a top all night" but
also to "sleep at morn"
Tom, however, agreed to manage
that. So when Philemon went to bed
at night, it was with one end of a piece
of stout Irvine tied to his ankle, while
the other end hung out at the open win
dow.
Neither Elias, John nor Romeo Au-
gustus, who shared his chamber, spied
the cord. Philemon waited till they
were sound asleep before he arranged it.
The sun had not begun to show his
face above the horizon when there came
a brisk twitch on the Irvine. Philemon
was broad awake in q twinkling, and
rolled out of bed to dance a one-footed
ballet, by reason of series of jerks
given to the cord by the sprightly
Thomas below. 1t was only after
Philemon had knocked over two chairs
and q cricket that he managed to hop
wildly to the window and call in a
hoarse whisper, You'll wake the
whole house if you don't quit" that
Tom condescended to desist; and few
minutes later the two comrades were
climbing into the back of Silas Elders
cart. all ready to start for 1.-The Great
Moral Show"
The cart was not spacious, and its
springs were few and far between, as
Philemon's bones bore witness. He
began, all at once to wonder if it might
not have been polite to have mentioned
to his parents that he intended to be
absent the greater part of the day.
He recollected, with pang, that it
was his mothers custom to be anxious
when one of her six precious boys was
long out of her sight.
Suddenly, look there! therei
therer' shouted Tom Tadgers.
Sure enough; there-there-the in
the distance, was a caravan moving
slowly toward fuckers Corner. It
must bet is N. Ticeum and B. Phool-
um's show.
Nearer and nearer it came. Tom and
Philemon jumped out of the cart, that
they might be ready to join the ''gigan-
tic procession"
And now they were in its midst. To
be sure, the glories of "the stupendous
gilded chariot were shrouded by
brown canvas; the monkeys, tigers
and the hippopotamus were shut up in
their cages; neither were the giraffe
and kangaroo visible as yet. But here
were the elephants marching majesti-
cally along; here was the educated
bull, with a ring through his nose; and
SO near that Philemon could have
touched him was the living skeleton in
all his enchanting leanness.
Philemon actually danced up and
down in ecstasy. The man who seemed
to have charge of affairs caught sight of
his beaming face, and broke into a good
natured laugh.
"Hallo, my little chap, would We like
. ride to-day?' says he, and before
Philemon knew what was going to hap
pen, he found himself astride of the
back of huge gray elephant.
Was there ever such morning. 1t
did seem as if the sun fairly outdid it
self, such pillows of light did it pour
forth. The rollicking breeze danced
round about the caravan, and would by
no means be left behind. The corn in
Farmer fuckers field waved its silken
tassels in q delighted frenzy. ALI the
gU)den-rod and asters were alert to see
the sight.
At last the coverings were taken from
the gilded chariot; flies and drums
struck up a tunee All the Skowhegan
boys came focking out of town to meet
the caravan Some one put an Ameri-
can flag into Philemon's hand. What
an honor! The lads heart swelled with
pride. He held his head high. He was
actually a part of "The Great Moral
So absorbed was he in his new dignity
that he did not notice that they were
nearing the bridge which stretched
across the Kennebec River, just outside
of Skowhegan. Neither did ne observe
that the elephants were separating
themselves from the rest of the train,
until, just as the gilded chariot passed
on the bridge, the animal Philemon
rode broke into a trot-and what a
trot!-starting down the river bank,
followed by the other four elephants.
Philemon chung with both his hands
Into the stream plunged the beasts,
wading clumsily along until the water
was breast-high, when they began to
swim. Philemon stuck like a little burr
to the gray back
At last the elephants gained a foot
hold-once more. But they were by no
means ready to give up the cool water
They snorted they tramped they
plunged; they sucked the water into
their trunks, and poured it out again in
great streams. Never had Philemon
had such a shower-bath. One of the
elephants lay down and rolled playfuly
over and over. Philemon was fright