St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-11
SHOW LIFE ON THE BORDER.
Dressing Boy as Woman and TAX
ing the Consequences.
Going on With the Circus With Two Dead
Men Under the Seats and the Tent Full Of
Smoke. What the Boy Turned out to

Dement,, now laid up here temporarily, was
once the manager of a circus in which Henry
Iollifer, performer in the concern at pres
way they came to be separated was developed
In the course of an extended comparison of
notes at the hotel the other evening. The
performance at the circus now here was in
FULL progress. The striped mule had just
been led around the ring for young woman
to mount, and the clown, who had got off a
few jokes with a local application had taken
his position on barrel to- await develop
ments, when voice was heard coming from
one OF the top seats:
rs that you, Hank Tallifer?"
Everybody turned toward the speaker, who
proved to be Dement,. He was standing up
with his head, which otherwise would have
gone into the canvas, slightly inclined. The
clown jumped down from his perch, and
looking up to the man who had addressed
answered.
That's the name l used to carry"
Come up here, then, and shake.''
The clown made his way up to Dement,,
recognized him in time, and after hearty
Interchange of salutations, resumed his place
In the ring. When the performance was
over, the two men met at the hotel, and re-
neWed their acquaintance.
"How did you know me with my paint
on?" asked TaIlifer
Know you! I'd know you in Alaska.
Your voice was familiar, in the first place,
and IN the second, that gag of yours about
the placer diggings gave you away. hadn't
heard that joke since the time the land slide
struck us at Las Animas."
crowd quickly assembled on the porch of
the tavern, and all hands, having had some
thing in the way of liquor, Dement, OBJ
served: 'sWe meet some very queer men
in this business. Now, Tallifer and l cam
paigned it in this country when there were
precious few people here but Indians and
prospectors. We were broken up finally, and
haven 'tseen each other until now. The circus
that we were with was organized over in So
nora, and we drifted northward until, finally,
we got across the line into the territory
we had what was considered good show
ana big show in those days. Twas the
manager and the ring master, and some
times did a little tum bling. I sold tickets,
TOO, and bossed things generally. Tallifer
was the clown. There were two or three
| other performers, besides few greasers who
did the heavy work and took care of the
stock. One OF the performers was young
man named Defining. We picked him up
in Sonora but we didn't pay him much. In
those days nobody asked where anybody
came from. He was there. We wanted a
man and he said he could do few acts and
could learn others, and so we hired him.
He kept pretty quiet most of the time, but
that was not unusual in this country.
''He did good work for US until we crossed
the line. When we struck American soil he
began to drink. At first his dissipation was
not enough to bother us much, but the night
we opened at camp near where Calabasas
now stands he took us all off our feet. We
had about two hundred men in the tent, and
the first ride around had been completed.
had been selling tickets, and, having fin
ished that business, / went into the dressing
| room, and was preparing to make my appear
ance in the ring when / heard d couple of
shots followed by two more. There was
nothing extraordinary about that, although
must say | was somewhat surprised. l was
going out to see what the trouble was when
Tallifer here came running into the dressing
room, with his eyes bulging out and
gasped
Denning!'
"'Well, what's ups' says I, 'drunk!
81 ran out into the ring just in time to see
Denning in full costume, with revolver in
| each hand, make jump for the seats on the
left of the dressing room door. The tent
was full Of smoke, everybody was yelling.
and most Of the men had guns in their
hands.
Fair playp shouted somebody, and then
all tool the cry, aud there was perfect roar
flair play!'
''That was almost as much of poser as the
other one, but we made up our minds that
the next young fellow we came across would
have to be Sonora Somebody or other. and
travel with the show. We did not have long
to wait. At one of the mining camps where
VIC stopped we noticed Slender young fell
low with big eyes and curly hair and fair
complexion. He was sort of hanger-on,
and didn't seem to have any regular business
though he worked around more or less for
the men, and made himself useful. He ac-
cepted our proposition after good deal of
persuasion, and we agreed that he was to go
with us when we moved on, and on his part
it was stipulated that from the time we start
ed he was to be a woman. The next place
we opened at was Las Animas. We had no
bills or anything of that kind, but we took
pains to give it out that we had a lady per-
former who was celebrated the world over for
her beauty. 1t was a great scheme The tent
was crowded. not only the first night, but ev-
cry night thereafter, the same men coming
night after night The boy looked well in
the costume which we gave him, and under
the lights he made really pretty sight. The
first night, as soon as he entered the ring,
the whole crowd got up and yelled, and then
every man of them made rush for the cen
tire bowling and saluting him. They all had
to shake hands, and say word or two, and
get some response. Two or three times we
tried to clear the ring, but unsuccessfully.
Most Of the men would go out, leaving few
behind, who, improving the opportunity,
would engage her in conversation. Then
the others would struggle back again, until
the hubbub was as bad as ever. They all had
to tell her where they came from, how many
sisters they had, the tender regard they en-
tertained for them, and two or three even
went so lar as to assure her that they had
mothers back in the states somewhere, as if
she might get the impression that they had
grown on sage brush on the alkali plains.
We finally persuaded them to leave, and.
with many God bless youl' and Just call
on me If you get scared, they resumed their
seats This sort of thing went along for a
week, and we were looking upon our fortunes
as made when trouble came upon us.
some of our greasers got ugly, and, after
fight or two with different members of
the company, We dismissed him. He then
circulated the report that our lady was neither
more nor less than a boy picked up by US on
the border, and that we had been playing a
mighty mean trick on the camp. A delega-
ton was sent to us to make inquiry, and in
an evil hour, believing that we might as well
pull up stakes and move on any way, adj
mitted that the fair performer was lad. The
men went away laughingly, and we thought
nothing more would come of it. We deter
mined, however, to move on, and that eve
ming we passed in packing up, giving no ex-
I. IT, Io,- hoI IL, ..I1.t.