National Republican., 1883-05-11
A CIRCUS CANTICLE.
How the Sawdust Arena Has Descended from
Old EtrusCan Times.
A FanoifuI Pilgrimage Through the
Great Menagerie.
The Crowds and What They Came 10 See-The
Animals and the Countries They Represent
Jumbo and the Flying Trapezo-The
Monkeys and Their Misery.

Inc Clrcus ls legacy lrOu u ueau anu gOho
race to tho children of modern civilization
Along with the Roman legion, the round
arch, and the genius for organization it
descended from the Etrurians to the Romans
and from them has como to the rest Of the
world. Its inventors have long since de-
parted their very language is problem
more inscrutable than the sphynx; their
battle line has given way before the newer
but not higher genius of the Aryan their
faces live only in their canoes; the very
proof of their existence can be found
only in their graveyards; nothing but
their circus remains. Dust is their splendid
cities their beautiful fanes, their magnif-
cent palaces q phantom and shadow too
vain and spectral TO be questioned are their
power and their civilization, even the earth
refuses to give up their remains, or to tell
their story, only from the tomb and the
charnel house can you learn that Etruria
existed, yet still is she triumphant over
Teuton and Ket and Slav in her circus, as of
old she ruled over Latium and Hellas and
Egypt in her legion, her law. and her art. 1t
is not strange that the mysterious realm
which swayed forgotten races by the spells Of
its genius no less than by the force of its
power should still dominate the fancy and
enthrall the will Of modern nations by her
amusements.
But If Etruria invented the circus, Barnum
has perfected It..
All in the opaline sunlight of yesterday
moved horses and carriages and people on foot
TO the circus The gray-amber air grew yell
lower still in the dust that countless feet trod
and kicked on the circus grounds. Around
the vast extent of canvas were tethered hun
dreds of horses with as many vehicles The
sideshows were in full blast. Strange, un-
couth cries rent the air as the vendors of a
thousand articles proclaimed their wares in
jargon that was ineligible only to those who
wanted to purchase. Around the circus en-
trance stood half dozen policemen, quiet,
silent and vigilant, keeping order among tho
dense throngs that flowed into the canvas
harbor without ceasing Standing just on the
inside of the entrance aisles you had a
good point of observation How the crowds
flowed ON in reauent tides Steadily, cease
lessly, one after another, SO constant and so
rapid you could scarcely pick out any indi-
vidual identity, their passage gave you no
figure but that of wave motion to describe
them. Onward and still onward, like the
swell of the wave, each crest passing out of
sight behind the canvas walls, which fur
nshed the idea Of foam. flowed the human
currents-surging waves of eager humanity
swirling to break upon the circus reef. And
the eye wearied at last, as IL wearies of watch
ing the breakers wash and comb on tho sea
shore in bright sunny days, and you turned
with a sense Of grateful relief to the cool,
darkling shade oil the canvas. ~
Once inside the tapping walls you find the
outer works only are gained the citadel is
yet to be stormed. For this canvas city is q
double one. In the outer are ranged the ami
mails, the inartculate companions of man.
They are not dumb, for q confused murmur
of voices, medley Of brute communications,
fills the air. They are not voiceless, for there
are tones in every key that strike upon your
ear with peculiar spell. The chatter of the
monkeys and tho grunt of the elephants,
the whining of the zebras and the "spit of
the lamas, are the chords in the octave that
sounds in strong melody. The Spell of the
Curious is upon you, and you give yourself
up to its guidance. The winds that lift the
flaps of canvas and whistle among the tent
ropes breathe strange African odors to
your senses, and you fancy them ladened
with Ujiji, or KuTecthane murmurs. For
you stand by the cage of giraffe, and bit of
African scenery stares into sight with this
graceful yet grotesque animal before you.
Strangely curious, but on the inner walls of
Etruscan vaults tombs buried out of sight
and of memory for thirty centuries until sud
denly revealed by an earthquake, in the
sculptured amphitheater, stalks this same
graceful beast, as he appeared to the crowds
in an Etruscan circus-perhaps remote an
cestor of this very quadruped that now looks
down upon you with half human but
wholly melancholy look in his lustrous eye
But step further on and q vision of the
Andean peaks rises cold and rugged
before you with the wide sweep of the con-
dor wings cleaving the distant air, and a
winding thread OF path glistening far up the
rugged height, where little moving specks
are fitting and turning and sometimes fall
ing down abysmal precipices. For 1t is a
cage of llamas that you are looking at slender
limbed, column necked brown-eyed, with
their soft sibillant speech sounding in sus-
urrant whispers. What purblind, fancyless
block of stolidity called them the American
camel ?"' For in those harmonious outlines
of contour, in those light limbs and swelling
curves, instinct with grace and harmony of
motion, no less than in the tender intelli-
gence of the deep, dark brown eyes, the llama
shows not atrace of resemblance to the hump
backed deformity of the camel.
On, still on, you stroll, now in reedy AT
rican river bottoms with the hippopotamus,
now watching the coquetries of the bubuphi
with the rhinoceros, now coursing along the
desert sands on the feet dromedary, "with
the silent bush boy alone by your side !" now
hunting Glands around the falls of the Zam-
besi, or riding white elephants up and down
the narrow streets of Benares, with the chat
ter Of monkeys and the lowing of the sacred
buffalo commngled; oh you go till you enter
the circus tent proper, the grand amphithea-
ter, and stand for moment at the entrance
of the bewildering spectacle.
And now, indeed, do you give up yourself
wholly to the guidance of the imag
ana uWell u WllllnB guesJ IN Ine realms oil
fancy. The Etruscan spell is over you, as
strongly as was ever felt by the Hellenic
mariners when sailing over the rain-swept
seas and telling with bated breath of the
wonders they had seen in the haunted Pc
lasgic cities. OF verify it is slice out of
Tusculum life, 5000 years ago, that you are
thrust into, and the necromancy of the Etrus-
can mingles and mixes times and peoples and
unites in strangeness of proportions. All
around you sweeps gigantic amphitheater
OF seats, hundreds Of yards in circum-
ference with row rising upon row in
regular graduation to Il giddy height, and
the whole circle filled, crowded pack ed
with people. The vastness ofthe amphitheater
the magnitude of the assembly, the warm, hot
sun pouring its fiery floods of heat upon the
canvas dome, the stiffness of tho expectant
multitude, all fold themselves around you
like sentient atmosphere, whispering of the
strange sights that will speedily crowd
upon your vision. Then a blast of bar
barian music, long drawn chord from
the trombone and the triumphal pageant
bursts in full glory and brilliance upon
you. Murmurs of surprise, Of admira-
tion, of complete and satisfied qualification
float up around you from every side. You
enter into the small boys spirit and learn the
spell of the circus. The old-time racers were
boys in heart. They melted away before they
had outgrown their youthful enthusiasm
They lived in that far OFF golden age, which
after all is only the youth of the heart. And
hence their amusements live-live with an
enduring vitality that survives and surnrisns