Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-03

some Experiences Of Tened shows In the
Lakewood Towns.

Some Experiences of Tented shows IN the
Baskwood Towns.
Milwaukee Sentinel.
''The good old days Of circus fights
have gone, but there is an occasional
row between canvasmen and tough cit
liens that brings back most vivid rec
objections of the lively long ago"
The speaker was Charlie Bell, the
lecturer at the dime museum. Mr..
Bell has been identified with tent
shows ever since he was three years
old, being descended from circus
family.
,'Why, it was no longer ago than
last summer" continued Mr.. Bell,
chat | was compelled to take hand
in about as lively fracas as ever
witnessed. There was no one killed
outright, but there was some fearful
hard knocks given. 1t was in a town
called Wall Lake, out in Nebraska.
The day before the riot we showed in
another town. forget the name now
about twenty miles from Wall
Lake. After the afternoon per-
Torrance there was a party OF
us sitting on the hotel stoop, when
we heard cries for help. 1t seems that
four toughs had set on the Sheriff,
and it was his shouts eheard. Well,
we went to the officers assistance,
and with our aid he managed to give
the thugs a terrible humping The
news Travelled ahead of us to Wall
Lake, and by the time it reached
there it was magnified into g. state
ment that the circusmen had cleaned
out town just below. This put the
Wall Lake rhumpers on their mettle,
and they decided to make mischief.
Before the show opened in the after
noon | noticed roueh-looking, red.
whiskered fellow, who had come into
town especially to make trouble. Sure
enough, during the afternoon show
the fellow with the red whiskers was
on hand, primed for row. Hestood
up in front of the reserved seats, so as
to obstruct the view of some OF the
people. | was playing clown, and ]
courteously asked him to sit down,
but he refused.
"'See here said /, you sit down OF
you'll be knocked down
els that sou said he 'Mebbe
you've cleaned ont one town, but you
can't clean out Wall Lake
"He no sooner had the words out
of his mouth than 'biff' went can.
crimson bearded desperate was kicked
out of breath beneath the canvas"
and the speaker laughed heartily as he
recalled the scene.
"While the evening show was going
on" continued Mr.. Bell, 1--WE had the
canvasmen all ready for a fracas.
The manager gave out instructions to
fight if necessary, but not to kill any.
body. Well, we were little surprised
that they did not interrupt the show,
but when we were packing up the
tough citizens clustered around and
watched us, but made no attack.
noticed the red-headed chap saying
something to the crowd, when they all
hurried off. We had left our band
wagon down town in front of a livery
stable, and the minute | saw thai
gang wheel off | surmised that they
were going to break up the wagon
Now, it was a very elaborate affair,
and we did not propose to allow it tc
be sacrificed, so we hurried after then
and sure enough, they had almost
torn one side off the wagon when W,
reached there We sailed into tn,
gang. The -whiskered leader, al
soon as he saw real fight ahead
made break for his horse to get out
OF town, but he didn't get far. One o.
the boys fired at the horse and killed
it, and then jumped on Mr.. RedWhis.
kers and just caressed him with
stake until his mother wouldn't have
known him. Well, we got the best o;
it, and we had twenty-five OF our as.
sailants stretched out on the hotel
stoop, all unable to walk after the
licking we had given them. And the
beauty of it was that the sheriff ar
rested the whole twenty-five and they
all went up for couple of months for
disturbing the peace.
eyes, circusmen generally get the best
of such fighCs, because they are better
organized, and then they are fighting
for a principle. They are just like men
defending their homes, and that makes
them hit hard. Still | have heard o.!
crcusmen getting the worst OF the fra.
cas-. Did you ever hear how Dan Rice
got square with the Troy thugs? Well,
I'll tell you:-
''Troy has yet the reputation of be-
ing the toughest town in New York
state, and twenty years ago it was a
terror. Well, Dan Rice's show was
mobbed there one night, and the cir
cusmen were all quite roughly handled.
The next day Dan telegraphed to his
advance agent to go back and bill Troy,
as the show would go back there again.
When the Troy rowdies saw thereturn
OF the show announced they smiled
grimly, and promised to demolish it
entirely this time. In the meantime
Rice went to New York and engaged 100
sluggers, regular short-haired brutes
who would rather fight than eat. He
brought them to Troy with the show.
In the evening the tent was filled, but
there wasn't a single lady in the entire
audience. Dan had his hundred pugil-
lists scattered through the audience,
and had the canvasmen ready to
Jump in at the word. Well, the show
went along all right until Dan was in
the ring doing his famous act with his
blind horse. There was something
thrown into the ring by one OF the
spectators. That was enough. Dan
yelled, Hay, Rube.' and those hun
dred pugilists began their work in roy
al style. 'Biff!' bang went their pom
derous blows right and left, and you
could see men falling in all directions.
The circusmen were soon into the
melee, and how they did pulverize the
Troy toughsl 1t was four or five
years before the bad men of Troy
ever tackled another circus"
YanceY Killed nv Rem Hill