Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-26
TO JOIN THE DODO.
The Travelling Circus Be-
coming Extinct.
SAD NEWS FOR YOUNG RUsTICS.
The Interstate Railroad Law is
Forcing the Big COmbina-
tiOns to Give up.

now. The big travelling circus must
go! The great tented shows will be
seen no more for the present, at least.
In the country, where the summer
season brings the circuses as regularly
as it does war NTH and sunshine, this
will be fully appre-
ciated. The Interstate Commerce
law, which has caused SO great
revolution in the matter OF transporta-
ton, is the cause of thus depriving
the people of one of their cherished
and established institutions. This
law prevents discrimination in favor
of any one class of patrons on the
part of the railroad companies, and
the circuses will hereafter be COM
PEELED to pay full tariff for the trans
portation OF their gilded cages of wild
beasts, their carloads of curious things
and their thousands of tons Of para
phernalia, as well as for their small
armies of performers and laborers.
This the circuses cannot afford to do,
and as the law is inexorable, they
must stop travelling by rail.
The big concerns cannot return to
the caravan system, for the locomo-
ton between the show towns is too
slow for profit, and they will have to
abandon the business or transfer their
immense properties to foreign lands
where there is no interstate commerce
law and where the public will pay
their dollars just as freely as in this
country for the prililege Of gazing up
on the pomp and circumstance of the
modern American circus. The Amer
ican railroads having decided the in
ter-state commerce law applies to
circuses as we'll as to theatrical COM
panies and Individuals. the veteran
Snowman, P. T. Barnum, has decided
to take his greatest show on earth"
to Europe Immediately after the
conclusion of it's engagement
at the Madison-Square Gardens
in Mach. Mr.. Barnum sighed
heavily yesterday morning, as he
remarked that "this action on the
part of railroads simply amounts to
prohibition, and that is all there is to
be said." He had far-away look in
his eyes, and was probably rejecting
upon the advantages enjoyed some
years ago by the first of all showmen,
who had the greatest collection of
animals ever gathered on the face OF
the earth, and whose expenses for
transportation and subsistence were
probably less than those Of any other
menagerie that ever travelled. Per-
haps he envied Noah his collection
and his ark, but little later he smiled
again, apparently at the thought that
Noah had no public to patronize his
great ancient aggregation beyond his
own immediate family, and that the
maintenance of the greatest show on
earth" for private inspection would be
as improbable as carrying it over the
country under the Interstate Com
merce regulations.
When it is considered that the 43
circus companies in the country pay
the railroads annually several mil
lions of dollars, and that the people
patronize the circuses to the extent of
other millions, it will be understood
how great an influence this applica-
ton of the law will exercise. 1t is
likely that the smaller circuses will
return to the caravan system, and in
some part of the country they will
doubtless continue to exist, but there
will be no shows with performers in
three separate rings going through
their evolutions at one and the same
time. Mr.. Barnum explains that,
under the Interstate Commerce law,
his transportation expenses would
amount to over $4,000 day. His ex.
penses for subsistence and salaries is
$1,000 per dry, making a dai-
ly total sum of about $4,000.
This, he says, is more than
any show on earth, even the
greatest" could take in receipts, and
renders travelling by rail out of the
question. In former years he OBJ
tanned special rates of transportation,
making it possible to show at profit,
even with his heavy regular expenses,
but it will be impossible to do SO in
the future. He will soon, it is believ-
ed, send an agent to London for the
purpose of arranging to transfer the
show to England early in the spring,
with the intention of keeping it there,
or on the Continent, for at least two
years. He stated that the cost of
transporting the entire show to Eng
land would not exceed $135, 900, and
the cost of transportation after its
arrival there would be trifling. On
the other hand, if he kept the show
here he would have to pay railroads
for the season an aggregate Of about
81 ,200, 900. Mr.. Barnum claims that,
as he owns the sixty cars in which
his show is transported, and he simply
hires locomotives from the railroad
companies and the use of their tracks,
the interstate law shou d not apply to
his circus, but the railroad companies
do not agree with him.
What Forepaugh will do is not
known, but it is stated positively that
Sells Brothers. circus will 60 to Au-
stralia in a few months.
A prominent official connected with
one of the great trunk lines said to
Times reporter yesterday that the ap-
plication of the Interstate law to cir
cusses was imperative. He could see
no reason why they should be ex-
empt, but would be sorry if the
higher tariffs would prevent the big
concerns from travelling. He did not
believe that, under the law, they
could travel by rail and show at q
profit, bat the application of the law
was compulsory. In former years,
he said, the railroads con-
tracted to transport the circus cars for
an entire season at bulk sum for the
entire period. This made a very
cheap rate of transportation. In
those times, too, he said, hundred
men could be crowded into single
car, if necessary, and no charge was
made for their transportation. Now
the local tariffs will be applied, and a
regular frst-class passenger fare will
be collected from every employee of q