The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-05-03
How q Circus is Run.
THE RULES GOVERNING BARNUMs At
TRACTIoNs.

TRACTlON5.
The following statement of J. A.
Bailey, of the firm of Barnum 81 Bail
ey, the great circus owners, appears in
the current number of the Epoch:
"The amount of money invested in a
large circus like ours, and the daily ex-
penses are something enormous. Bar
mum 81 Bailey's United Shows repre-
sent an invested capital of $3,000,000,
and the expenses aggregate $4,000 a
day. A bill was recently introduced
in the Connecticut Legislature to i'm
pose tax on circuses-oDe in the ma
ture of an income tax. 1t my sur
prise the public (as it did the Solons of
the Nutmeg State, to whom We pre-
sented our books), to learn that we
make only three cents profit on each
ticket we sell during the season. Our
treasurer has made sworn statement
of this fact; our profit is small but it
comes from immense numbers. All
the expenses of the show are included
IN the So. 800; our advertising costs us
nearly as much as the show itself; our
bills for lithograph printing alone tor
the season will amount to Sl25,00O.
The smaller programmes are printed
by the million and scattered broadcast
| in every town we visit The salaries
of performers range from 800 to $3.50
a week; the riders aud the aerial per-
formers receive the highest pay. After
each show the receipts are counted by
the treasurer, whose account is balanc-
ed within half an hour after the per-
formance, our treasurer and our book
keeper being exceptionally quick at
their work As our business is for
cash, there is not much difficulty in
keeping the accounts. Every day is a
salary dav; the musicians are pa d one
day, the workmen another. Some per-
formers get their salary one day and
others on another day. Th're are
nearly seven hundred people connected
with the show One item of expense
which amounts to $50 day is the sys-
tenn by which our patrons are protect
ed from pickpockets and improper
characters. We have in charge of
captain four Plnkerton detectives, who
are on the lookout for suspicious charact-
ers of all sorts; they prohibit gambling
on the streets and work in connection
with the officers of the town as far as
possible.
The proprietors of great circus
calculate beforehand its popularity
from the business or money-making
point of view The number of cities
and towns that we visit during a sea-
son is determined by the financial con-
dition of each town, its general pros
perity, the number of cireuses it has
had in the past years and whether or
not it is railroad centre to which
people living wniifn a radius of sixty
or hundred miles can be easily drawn.
We prospect for the most eligible
places, the same as man does for a
business site. have an agent whose
special business it is to draw up plan
of the route, which is submitted to me-.
The selection of good route is the
result of years of experience.
"Some days of the week certain
: towns will be very bad for our busi-
= ness on account of a local cause; on
J other days, when factory hands are
paid off; our receipts will be very
large.
"The people of country town will
sometimes subscribe from, $4,000 to
; $4,000 for some local celebration
which will draw people from the sur
. rounding country, and so make a
Z 'boom' in business. The circus comes
,, along and draws bigger crowd thar
= any local celebration could possibl,
: = draw, and brings not one sort of peo
!, pie that would be attracted by the lo
> cal celebration. but all sorts and con
ditions of men.