The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-04-26

novelty in the way of a cat show.
Most people are familiar with cat sere-
Dades, and have often listened to the
melodious warbling of rollicking
Thomas under their windows at the
dead hour of night, but people are
not plentiful who have had the good
fortune of witnessing a cat show.
Your correspondent has at different
periods of his earthly career been
serenaded by well-organiZed and skill
fully trained cat quartettes, but the
pleasure of his taking in cat show
was deferred until he became resi-
dent of New York. He having seen
the different operas and theaterS, and
paid his respects to the Chinese
giant, eight feet high and weigh
ing over 400 pounds, and
to a whale sixty-five feet long and
weighing fifty tons, his curiosity next
led him to the cat show. There he
saw cats of all kinds and colors, cats
natives of every country from the
torrid zone to the north pole, inclusive
of the pure-blooded Maltese, the Tor
toise-shell cat and the French cat with
silky hair down to our own dear,
shaggy, scratch-faced, familiar, ever
present Thomas cat with the combi-
nation voice. The largest cat on ex-
hibition weighed thirty-five pounds,
and the oldest had survived forty
three severe winters and regiment
or two of posterity, so to speak. One
cat has the oddity of making play
mates of canary birds, never harm
ing them, and another possesses the
power of charming rats. Then there
is a pair of cats that are
regular circus performers, doing tricks
at the word of command like trained
dogs. Double-footed, three-legged
and peculiarly marked cats were in
the collection, and the feline show
made fellow inclined to begin feel
ing around for an old boot or bottle.
The cats exhibited belonged to differ
ent people and had been leased for the
occasion. Cats are noted for low cum
ming and loud cursing, and when it
comes to making the woods ring with
spasmodic bursts of eloquence they
are the peer of the average office
seeking politician without respect to
party, race or previous condition.
New York is never at a loss for
shows, good, bad and Indifferent.
They flourish here at all seasons of
the year and are never out of
season. The Bowery, at the
termination of Chatham street, is
literally lined with ten cent museums
in which monstrosities in great varie-
ty are exhibited day and night. There
may be seen huge snakes, alligators
and strange fish and animals of the
sea; giants, dwarfs, living skeletons
and fat women; men with elastic
skins, bearded and tattooed women,
giratfes, monkeys and the what-is-it.
Also delusion exhibitions, in which.
by the use of immense mirrors over
head and in the wings Of the stage,
the audience is made to believe they
see people acting on the stage when
really there is nothing there but
shadows, but they are so lifelike that
the beholder cannot detect the fiction.
In one of these exhibitions man and
woman will walk on the stage, take
their position near the footlights,
within ten feet of those occupying
front seats, and while standing there
will fade or dissolve out of existence.
Many other decisions of this class are
also given, some of them int resting
and remarkable, TRAMP.