Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-15
THE sAwDUsT HUMoRIsT.
A Profession Which Has Lost tho
Eciat That Once Belonged to II.

The circus clown has become a nonen.
uty. He is no longer featured in, the
snow bills. Within the sawdust, arena
Mr. Merryman" is lucky if in town he
raises laugh at his threadbare Joke. In
the country he still retains his prestige
Tor there his sallies OF wit seem fresher,
In the rural localities his part of the per
Torrance is larger and the difficult acts
are more abridged, but in a city, a clowns
business has got to be aninfinitesimal
point. The old clown is a pitiable object
tie recalls the early DAYS of the circus.
| when he set the benches roaring with the
slightest motion, word or grimace. Even
IN those days, no doubt, he wondered
secretly why the crowd persistently
laughed at Jokes that had never seemed
funny to him, except so far as they CON
trlbuted to his support. In early DAYS,
clowns were leading circus attractions
and were sometimes paid huge salaries
because they were known, and their pres
| ence was great card. Dan Rice, now
roaming about the country in INDECENT
virtue, got as high as ZOO week for
dong clowns business, and his presence
contributed more to the success of the
show than the acrobats, the trapeze
slack-wire, bareback riders and Japa-
nese jugglers combined Year by year
the clowns part in the performance has
decreased, beaten back and hemmed in
by the advance of the woman with the
iron jaw, the performing elephants, and
thousand and one other novelties. and
now the old clowns influence on the
audience is but q shadow of his former
reign. They are a sect by themselves.
Some perform in the Winter with panto-
mime companies The best clown is one
who is good at singing, good at panto-
mime and equally good at tumbling and
acrobatic feats. Forepaugh has two
clowns. The best of these, and probably
the best i'll the country, is Andrew Cole
man, the great English pantomime clown
He gets about $50 week Last Winter
he was in London and appeared at the
Drury Lane Theatre in the great panto-
mime. Another celebrated clown is
Whimsical Walter The Adams family is
family of professional clowns. Geo.
III. Adams and five brothers-all clowns
draw their origin from from an old Eng
lish clown. Old Dan Rice was the first
celebrated American clown He made
his entrance into the ring in 1888,
TstH Il CHCuS vi Ills OWL, Ulduc great
deal of money and squandered it.
His wit was sympathetic and his manners
were popular. Old doc" Thayer was
another early clown, and very popular
III his day. He had a show OF his own
which went into the hands OF the sheriff
five years ago at Chester, Pa. The tent
was bought at the sale and converted
into a tabernacle. Thayer was in bust
ness somewhere in Pennsylvania the last
that his acquaintance heard from him.
Ben Maginley, rare clown, left the pro-
fession some years ago, to adopt the
mimic stage as a profession. He failed
as star. Now he is with Madison
Square company somewhere. He played
in the "May Blossom" last winter Pete
Conklin is great singing clown. He is
an old timer and is with Forepaugh this
season Tony Pastor was circus clown,
and his brother, Billy Pastor was rider.
Then in the annals of clowndom appear
the names of Billy Burk, with Doris
Tony Denier, quite funny in his time
Johnny Patterson, "the Rambler from
Clare" the irish clown. who made hit
of tee song, Bridget Donahue, y and
host of others more or less worthy of
mention The best clowns of to-day are
English and American. The singing
clowns are apt to play out. Their voices
fail from the effect of singing in damp lots
and exposure.