The Portland daily press., 1882-11-16
Circassian Girls.
How They are Got UP for Circuses and
Shows.

A "Circassian girl' in a Chicago side show
has talked thus frankly to an interviewer
$50 you want to know something about Cir
cas,isn girls, do you? Well, 1 can only tell
you of the circus genus, for to the best of my
knowledge never saw a genuine one"
The reporter was deeply grieved. His hopes
had long ago, when he visited the side show,
been blasted as to the beauty of Circassians,
but he wasn't quite prepared to give up the
idea that some of the girls exhibited around in
tents were from the wales of Circassia, and
that they had been ruthlesssly snatched from
fond lover, perhaps by mercenary specula-
tors, and brought to this country to help en-
rich the greedy circus man. But the woman
again asserted that she did rot believe there
was genuine Circassian in the business.
"How do they make up, then?" asked the
scribe, for there was in his recollection of Cir
cassian girls a Wonderful luxuriance of tresses
and an almond shaped eye coupled with
shining, dusky skin, that did not suggest the
evident daughter of Erin before him.
you've got to have the material to make a
Circassian in the first place." declared the Gu
riosty, as she settled herself for a chat on what
was evidently charmed subject to her. 'It
takes black-eyed, brown or black-haired wo-
man, while art does the rest. have seen blue
eyed Circassians, but they did not take. There
is a regular market in the Summer for Circas-
sian grjs, and they make up early in the sea-
son sometimes. There is an oil woman in
Blocker street, think, in New York, that can
take any girl of good shape, with plenty of hair
and black eyes, and turn her out daisy in
about two days. They commence by shaving
the eyebrows at the ends down to point, then
taking pencils and painting them on out to a
line with the corner of the eyes, only on the
forehead. They pencil the corner of the eyes
so as to give the eyes an almond shape. Then
they dye the face nut-brown with prepare
ton that do not know anything about The
a ar dow xu1f
c,rmine. Most of the girls have the lips
stained at first, when about to hire out to the
manager of a side show, and afterward color
them with carmine. Then the hair has to be
treated. You know how a Circassian girls
head looks, all bushy, and with the hair stand
ing out all over the head. Well, that's done
by means of stale beer and molasses. 1t is ap-
Piled every hour, and the hair cOmbed out
straigh and allowed to stiffen in that way. l
have seen girls sleep on little rolls of cloth or
wooden blocks under the neck SO as not to
muss up the hair, until it has set, all kinky
and beautiful, in its bed of beer and molasses,
and then they were Giro asian girls"
1t was not such an artistic operation as he
had before imagined, and the reporter re-
marked that he should think the woods would
be full of Circassian girls.
There are too many to make it pay much, +"
she candidly remarked, shut it's such fun to
travel with circus, sleeping on the baggage
when travelling and eating in the hotel tent
tudh dCCOm pdulcS Tile SilOWs DOm6 u tue curl
osltles, as they are termed by the showmeD,
are fed by themselves at separate table, and
others who get good salaries, like Twin skel-
elton, eat at a hotel in the town where the cir
Gus stops. Bachelor q Doris feed their side
show people at one table, performers at anoth-
er, and candy butchers at a third table in the
hotel tent. And tell you the chuck with
that show is good.
"How about the pay of curiosity?"
swell, Circassian GIRL. if she's cute, gets
from $12 to $50 week and expenses. Then
the manager gets lot of photographs taken at
some good studio, and she sells them and gives
him royalty. A good many of the girls are
married to performers, jugglers, cannon-ball
tossers, snake-charmers, or something of that
sort, and he looks after her affairs and mon
ey
The latter was said SO maliciously that the
reporter asked her what she meant.
well, sometimes at the. end of season,
when curiosity should turn up in her own
city for the Winter with $500 ahead, her hus-
band skips out with the dust, and you bet she
gets left''