Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-05-09

The battle Cry Of the Circus Man-Oc
casions Upon Which It Has Beeu
Raised.

1ne hattie Cry Oh the Circus Man-Oc-
casions Upon Which IL Has Been
Raised.
From the New York sun.
A few evenings since, the class in experimental
study, then In session upon the subject of .bock
beer, diversifying and relieving it's earnest
labor by light and discursive conversation,
CHANGED to discuss the recent attack by mob.
In Dover, Del, upon the people Of O'Brien's
circus, and the question was raised whether or
not the cry Of Hey! Rube" is, as was affirmed
i'm the published accounts Of that occurrence.
the circus mems rallying cry TOR war; Mr. VIC.
Coup. the veteran circus manager settled it,
Just as he came in, some one Of the party tested
him by an experimental yell of Hey. Rnbe!' at
his back. and his instantaneous jump and look
vi comDlned alarm and ferocity were reply
enough for even the most skeptical. He said:
THAT Is terrible cry to any man who has
ever seen its consequences, and it gives me a
cold feeling down my back even to hear it in
conversation. 1t means savage force desper-
ate combat and too often death man who
has heard that yell sounded in earnest as
have. will not monkey with it even in parlor,
among ladies and children. l don't know what
Its origin was, or how it came to be SO univer-
sally recognized 1 only know that ever since
have been in the business or known anything
about 1t that has been the circus mems slogan
1t used to be equal to immediate discharge for
man to yell that about my show. Why. I'd
rather have given thousand dollars any min
ute than hear 1t from one of my men. Fire 1t
up in the air once and it brings together "A II
by magic, two or three hundred men, all there
are about the show. generally powerful and de-
termined fellows, armed, perhaps, only with
stakes and clubs, but stakes and clubs are ter
rible weapons in the hands of such men, all
Wild with excitement, and ready for a des-
perate and pitiess fight. for they know that Is
what the rallying cry means. 1t signifies to
them, You have to fight for your lives. and to
stand by one another or be killed. Thank
God. 1t Is less necessary now than it used to
be In early days Of circus life in this country
say necessary, for there was time-and some
times it comes nowadays-when circus men had
no other recourse than to fight or be slaughtered
and then they had to stand together. Very sell
dOm if indeed ever, have the circus men begun
row. 1t was against all their interests to have
one. Aside from the very likely chance of being
killed in it, the best they could hope for would
be wounds, injuries, and consequent illness in
strange and hostile community, or arrest per
haps where bail would be out of the question
and fair trial very prOblematical; and if they
were overcome by the mob, their tent and
wagons might be destroyed, and the show to-
tally ruined and all its people thrown out of en-
piOyment.
But the fights would be started by country
r0ughs, who would come in gangs out of the
woods to the towns, attracted by the rare ex-
element of the advent OF circus. They would
assimilate with the worst town roughs and
they would all fill up together on fOrty-rod'
and 'chaln-lightning.' They would come loafng
about the circus. They preferred to spend their
and seeing the show in an orderly manner.
And the sight of number Of strangers would
have upon them q similar effect to that
which red flag has upon bull. Among them
would be some fellows of the type of the
chap who said OF himself: I'm tough citizen
and bad man. I'm from Bitter Creek The
men from Bitter Creek they all fight The
lurther up the creek you go the wuss they are.
And I'm from the head waters. I'm wolf and
to-night's my night to howl. Whoop!' Those
pilgrims would constitute themselves leaders of
the mob and the first thing anybody about the
show would know the fight would be forced
upon them. Some poor canvasman strOlng
about alone, or doorkeeper, would be the first
to eaten it. but as he went down he, or some
one near him of the shOwmen, would raise the
yell, Hey! Ruben and the exercises would
begin. You can hardly form an idea how ferO-
ciOus and determined those mObs sometimes
were in their devilishness. / remember once,
down in Mississippi, they cut down trees across
the road in front OF us, and destroyed the
bridges to keep US from getting away, swear
ing that they would kill us all. Why, in old
times circuses were compelled to carry along
SIX or eight tough fighters to act as leaders in
such desperate emergencies and it Is said that
when old John Robinson took his show through
dent to carry along supply of arms, cutlasses
and rifles, for his entire company 1t wasn't
necessary TO go away down south to find the
dangerous places, however. Why, Paterson n
j.. right out here, only few miles from New
York, near enough to have been civilized good
many years before she was, used to be town
where circuses had to take along gangs of fight
ers for protection. / never went to it but once
and never afterward wanted any more Of it,
they almost took possession OF US. would not
a m mo f3.rhf nv,1
work getting out without it. l have always
opposed fighting, because it frightens women
and children and keeps them away from the
show, and it is likely to do damage to the prop
erty of the show, perhaps to result in the killing
of somebody on one side or the other. and to
wise.
1.-TWO causes are making circus fights more
rare now than they formerly were. The first is
that the public is becoming more civilized, and
there is less local federation for the rough than
there used to be. The second Is that shows now
are OF such magnitude as to Overawe the mob
element In most cases. 1t will have to be very
numerous as well as wicked mob that will
tackle circus company composed Of 400 men
presumably able to take care of themselves in
moderate weather, and big show nowadays
carries that many; but in old times it would be
big show that carried 100 men, The main tent
was then no larger than the dressing room of
big show Is now, and only = or 10 canvasmen
WCic lcquucu. NHcFedS We now nave TO carry
IS or 100 men to handle the enormous tents.
''Yes, I've heard Hey! Rube' good MANY
times. heard it once at Manchester. N. H..
when was running the Barnum show On
the morning of our arrival there l found
hastily constructed shed, used as a whisky
saloon, on the lot we had contracted for. I
asked the man to remove it, but he refused.
and def1ed me to move 1t. l found that he was
backed up by a fearful crowd of roughs and
the marshal of the town told me had better
not get into a row with the saloon keeper: so
rather than have a disturbance let him re-
main, but requested him not to allow any of
the circus employees to have liquor In his
saloon. He promised that he would not. but
he lied, as subsequently discovered Ali day
my men were getting liquor there, coming in
contact with the town rOughs, and gradually
the trouble grew. Just before supper l saw a
gang OF fully hundred men, armed with
clubs come out OF the woods near the horse
tents. which were some little distance from the
others. Some one raised the old yell of Hey!
kuoe: and In a minute the circus was ready for
attack. In those days nobody carried pistol.
In the north, at least but we all had stakes and
clubs: l managed to get between the two
crowds