St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-06
Something Of the Scenes
Which Characterize a
Big Show.
Circuses in General and the
Forepaugh in Par
tieulap.
An Idea Of the Vast Maehin-
cry, Men and Material
Necessary,
Together With the Capital
and Expense Account
Of a Circus.

A couple of sawdust rings, several
piles OF ashes, marking the location of
the vanished cook tent, miscellaneous
assortment of lemon peel, paper and
broken stakes are all that remain to
mark the spot where yesterday $4,000
people sat and gaZed and wondered at
the breaKneck performances OF Fore
paugh's Wild West cowboys, the scouts,
the Indians, and the bucking bronchos.
There's queer soft of fascination
about a circus.
People who never, enter theater re-
gard ballet as the essence of wicked
ness, and dance on the waXed floor as
a passport to sheol for the dancer, have
no fault to find with the circus. The
fesh-colored tights of the slack-wire
lady are different from other tights; the
song of the speciality man is laughed
heartily at by people who wouldn't go
to hear him in hall for worlds; and
though the canvas-covered thousands
are packed together like dried herring
in barrel there is not word of COM
plant, I'D apparently there is even
found charm in the clouds of dust
kicked up by Custer and his men i'll
their desperate struggle with the
nt-bedaubed redskins"
Every one was al the circus yester-
day. That is to say, that all classes of
society were represented, and there
was no favOritlsm shown as regarded
the best seats. 1t was case of
FIRST COME FIRST SEATED.
and Mrs. Plantagenet de TOmplkiDS
Smythe, who came in late, had to
wedge herself in between colored
washerwoman and Cedar street
Chinaman. and seemed to rather enjoy
the situation than otherwise. And now
1t is gone; the canvas city with its ele-
plants and emus. lions and tigers,
monkeys and mandarins, its glarlng
naphtha torches and myriad shouting
and hurrying helpers. THERE'S butone
opinion among the people who saw the
performance. 1t was good show.
Every man, woman and child present
found a weird sort of attraction in the
maneuvers of the thirty Sioux Indians,
who shrieked and yelled as only
Indians can yell. and went through the
motions of wiping Clusters men out of
existence in manner ''Startlingly real
istic." as the bills say. The most re-
mafkable feature of the Wild West por-
ton of the combination is, it would
seem, the perfect drilling of the ponies
engaged in it. Many of these, at the
conclusion of the struggle, lie motion
less and apparently dead upon the field
of action, though the first note from the
band is signal for general activity
among the shot and mangled steeds. and
away they scamper each to his own par
f;anlur in tho ctal,ln
its purpose we'll, does the Wild West
exhibit. Back to the memories of grey
headed men it brings a recollection of
early pioneer life in the Western states.
70 them the cowboys and plainsmen,
the scouts and vaqueroS are but vivid
reproduction OF scenes from their early
lives. To many an aged woman
in that canvas arena the Indian war-cry
brought shudder of remembrance. and
perhaps feeling of thankfulness that
the dread sound so inseparably coupled
with her early life on the plain has no
longer its
FORMER AWFUL SIGNIFICANCE.
To add to the interest of the wild
scene, the actors therein are Just what
they seem. The cowboy is the genuine
article, culled from the ranches and
plains of Montana; the Indians are full
bIooded Sioux. obtained from the gov
eminent for the purpose; the scouts are
genuine scouts, led by Sergeant Charles
G. Wagner, the only survivor of Clusters
immediate command, who carried the
generals dispatches to Maj. Reno on
that fatal day. A vivid idea of the
mode in which mail was transferred
in the early pioneer days was presented
in the pony express exhibition, the
lightning rapidity with which the cow
boy mail carrier left his supposedly
iaded steed and mounted fresh one
being surprise even to the old timers
who remember all about this somewhat
risky method of mail transportation.
The thing that caught the young men
and maidens. however. was the Vir-
GINA reel on horseback by a bunch of
jolly Western girls and long haired
the reel were gone through in a manner
at once correct and captivating, and the
crowd was just getting ready to applaud
when it's attention was arrested by the
arrival of the Deadwo0d stage, and III
close pursuit thereof band of bloody
Sioux i'll full cry, with Bull Tail, the
painted biackguard who lead the final
assault on Custer, in the lead. Bucking
horses, the capture of horse thief, who
is unceremoniously hung; the burning
of scout at the stake, and
HOST OF OTHER SCENES
make up the queereSt combination of
attractions ever seen by mortal man.
The hippodFDme races were the best
going, and the fellow who managed to
watch the two rings, the trapeZa. per-
forming elephants and India rubber
man, all going at once, had pretty sharp
visual capacity. Eclipse, the wonder
full little pony who jumps in mid-air
from one swinging platform to another,
attracted lots of attention from the nov
city of his performance, and is thought
lots Of by his owner, Adam Forepaugh
Jr, who remarked while the little ami
NAL was going through his tricks that
there wasn't money enough mlnted last
year to buy Eclipse The high trapeZe
work was one Of the best features of the
entire show, and took the fancy Of the
Y. 81. c. A. young Glen present, who go
in for that sort of thing.
But little conception can be formed
by the ordinary observer OF the enor-
nous expense and equally enormous
profit connected with the management
of large circus. The torepaugh show
which was with us yesterday, and
of last night, TO be known no more for
a year to conc, at least, represents an
invested capital of s77J0. COO. aud the ex-
penses aggregate somethin g like
$500 A WEEK,
OR close on IS, ??0G day.
The services of the Pinkerton de-
tectives accompanying the show to pro-
tect its patrons from pickpockets
amount to SIS day, and the license
paid in the various towns varies be-
tween s75 and $3.50 a day in small towns,
and sometimes as high as $500 and
81 400 in large places like st. Paul and
Minneapolis. The average receipts
are from $1,000 to $1,000 for each
performance. though occasionally as
much as $4,000 or $4,000 is taken in
from a single performance. Big Kelly
is the boss OF the canvas gang. and as
soon as the signal comes TO break up
camp. he and his $50 helpers begin their
daily task Of tearing down and setting
up. So perfect Is the system under
which the canvas gang work that the
entire circus, tents, animals, and every
thing e Ise are slowed away on the ears
and ready to move, one hour from the
time the first stake is drawn. Adam
Forepaugh. the qniei-loOking young
IL III