Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-09-19
The Greatest on Earth.

Inc GTeaC Barnum and London Show
is winning the most stunning and merit
ed golden opinions and its exhibitions
appointed for this city, on Thursday,
September 27, afternoon and evening,
are eliciting most uncommon attention.
The Chicago daily Herald of June 5,
writes as follows:
Phineas T, Barnum started his ten
days festival at the lake front in the
presence of at least twelve thousand peo-
pie. The show is cramped up in the
limited space, about six acres, but it con-
tains nearly everything in the way of
curiosities that the various Kingdoms of
life afford. The circus is very complete.
The menagerie, occupying the baseball
grounds, is in splendid condition. Mr..
Barnum and his associates claim that
they have made specially of procuring
not,only rare animals, but with them have
sought good keepers. Many of their
men, they say, are as famous,as the ami
mails The result Of some such policy is
very plain, and excepting the evil effects
of an unfavorable climate the animals
appear very well. Jumbo aud the baby
occupied stalls i'll the same ring, and
were the center of attraction. The in
FAINT IS cunning little fellow, but has a
few of the naughty traits of a spoiled
child. Jumbo is a remarkable animal.
He is nearly twice as large as the ordin-
airy elephant, and has several features
that are very distinct. He has been pro-
nounced by students of natural history
to be of rare and distinct species-if
an elephant at all. His head has a shape
different from that of the ordinary ele-
plant, his back is convex instead of con-
cave, and the proportionate size of the
joints of his limbs are unusual. A tall
man can easily walk beneath his chin,
but with his great height he is we'll pro-
portioned. He has an exceptionally good
temper.
very common fault found with the
circus is that it is too large Mr.. Barnum
in his address to the audience yesterday,
said that it had been his aim to get at
the top of the ladder in the show bust.
ness. In his menagerie he may have
stopped at his ideal, but in the circus he
has overdone what he undertook, and has
transformed it from place of amusement
to one of work. At times there are seven
distinct acts being presented in the three
rings, the stage or in mid air, they are all
of superior character. and rivet ones
attention.
A very novel feature was the racing.
The first was of five entries, and accord
ing to the rules of the race-track. 1t was
very exciting, and was meritoriously won
The race in which the ladies rode was
thrilling, and the intensity of its excite
ment was much increased when, in
turning at the quarter pole, horse fell,
carrying beneath it the plucky little
riuer. She was not much hurt, and after
the race, resumed her place in the saddle.
The wheelbarrow race, twenty entries,
produced a good deal of fun. The most
ridiculous part of the programme was an
obstacle race, by twenty-five boys, in
which they were compelled to climb over
or creep through various obstacles and
run a long ne of large meshes which
was suspended in the air. An Indian
maiden set herself up as the target of
the cow boys lariat, and was taken in
after an exciting race. The acrobatic
and equestrian feats were in the ordinary
line.
Mr. Barnum has made some very COM
mendable changes in the modes of treat
ing the guests. All vendors are abolish
ed, and the clown who opens his moutn
is shot or sight. The ringmen all dress
as dudes, and dude clown dressed in
the most approved style creates a great
deal of innocent mirth in trying to force
his way into seats for which he has no
check. The part is played well by one
of the acrobats, M Girard, whose efforts
were so successful that an officious police
man led him out of the Show and failed
to recognize in the burst of applause that
the audience was ridiculing him instead
of approving the fate of the dude.
THE MANHATTAN MAGAZINE for September,
1888, has the follow ing table of contents: Fro
sions of Red Sandstone, Colorado Plateau, From
tispiece; The Phenomenal in Western Scenery,
by William H. Rideing; On the Eve-poem, by
Herbert E. Clark; Beatrix Randolph, by Julian
Hawthorne; To Slipper-pOem, by William T.
Peters; A Grave Matter Fifty Years Ago, by Ben
jamin Taylor My Diary in the Engadine, by
Kate Field; My MaSters-Sonnet, by Louise
Chandler Moulton; Excommunicated for Lag
mess, by William M. Baker; Cape Anna poem,
by Elizabeth A. Alderdice; Dante Gabriel Ros-
setti, by Joel Benton; In Vain the Tinsels-a
poem, by E. A. Grozier; A Voyage of Discovery,
by e. R. Shaw; Sailors Gone Astray, by FTeder-
lex R. Story: American Literature and Authors,
by Kinahan Corvallis; Charles Dickens His
Own Trumpeter, by Cornelius Matthews; Envy,
"a poem, by A. E. Lancaster; Over the Wine,
by Mrs G. A. Sherburne Hull, Recent Litera-
ture; Town Talk; Salamagundi. The Manhat-
tan Magazine Company, Temple Court New
York.