Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-08-10
HOW a CIRCus Is RUN.


Each circus has its general. Talk to
him of any city or town il the country,
and the thought Immediately occurs 70
him: ssAh, YES; town OF 81, 900 &C.,
coo, $40, 600 or $4,000, as the case
may be) profit He knows almost to
a unit the population and how much
can bo made out OF 1t He knows also
the character Of the inhabitants. and
he is acquainted with tho railroad and
other facilities for getting into tho
place. He maps ont tho route &c the
beginning of the season, OF courses
changing It as much as possible every
year. There are twentv-four advance
agents, who follow each other Ia reg
ular rotation. They look after the ad-
vertising, the provender for the AMI
mails, the lodgings, and contrncts OF
various kinds. These agents are pro-
vidod with checks. They check on
the show for tho amount contracted
for. Tho treasurer takes up and pays
the checks SO that when tho show ar
rives it has no trouble In any direction.
1t has happened fow times that tho
firm has been swindied. but ID never
refuses To honor d check, ssto keep up
the credit OF the circus. Not ono Of
the great exchanges in New York is
better posted as to the monetary
condition OF any town or city than the
managers of the circus. The circus
managers wcll know it is useless going
into place where there is much COM
mercial depression The characteris-
tics OF town are studied before going
into it For instance, 1t is known
when the miners Of Pittsburg ore paid
of, and right on top of the event,
comes the show It very rarely
happens that miscalculation Is made.
but IL money Is lost anywhere that
place is given a widc berth next sea-
son.
The Weather. too, = Watched
as carefully as It Is by the signal-ser-
vice bureau. The great aim of the
circus is to strike fair weather every
where. When it is extremely cold in
the North, the circus is enjoying the
warmth of the South aud the dollars of
the genial Southcrners. When 1t be-
comes too hot in the South. then il
wends its way in the opposite direc-
ton. Moreover, it never attempts TO
compete with caperentertainmcnt
IL Barnum ID billed for MMyville,
Miss, and d twenty -iiye cent show gets
ahead of it the big circus passes on.
The general knows. too. how long IL is
profitable to stay In Il town.
Tho army OF employees Is divided in
to five divisions-thc performers, the
ring attendants, the stable and men-
agerie attendants, the trainmen, Gin
circus parlance 'srazor-backs' y, and
the canVasmen. The canvasmcn num-
Der two hundred out Of seven hundred
IA large number, but not too many
to cope with the huge tent which Is
put UP in the country On tile trains
there Is special place for everything
and everybody. Indeed the trainmcn
could load the train almost blindfold-
ed, the arrangements are SO precise,
and have been SO long III em0oth.Works
ing order. The canvasmen are tho
first to be packed off. They touch
nothing until the tcamsters have ar
rived on the ground with the canvas,
and then, when the tent is up, they sit
down and just watch the others '.do-
ing their BIZ. So it Is with the train
men when they have loaded or unload
ed the cars they will not put q hand to
anything else, and perhaps If they did
they would only be in the way. Every
employc has special duty TO perform
aud does not consider himself engaged
for anything outside of that
One Of the heaviest items in the en-
pense is the bill for advertising. The
huge c0lorcd posters seen everywhere
in the vicinity Of the show are costly.
The advertising bill in the season av-
eragcs daily, &2,700. Yet the expen-
ditnre results ia good return, The
salaries vary all the way from SO to
$500 q week. What acircus perform-
er with an income equal 10 I've times
that of the secretary Of stateP ',Ah,
but recollect," says tho circus man,
that this does not last All the year
round. RecoIIecs. TOO. The risks that
are run. II q limb Is broken thcn the
occupation Of the performer il gone,
and Ii he or she has not saved enough
for rainy day, poverty i tbp result
These high priced performer also have
to engage others to assist khems and
sometimes The engagement Of quite
family. The stars provide their own
costumes and apparatus. - It'd BIS.