Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-02

lie approval. With an eye to q sensation
1 engaged Wallet to play in my circus,
thus narrowing down the contest for
supremacy. AS result decided sensa-
ton was created; we played to enormous
| business, opening in New Orleans.
| Wallet and L are still great friends
though an ocean separates me from that
| grand merry maker, now eighty-two
| years old, but who to this day, occa-
sionally delights the English by appear
| ing IN the ring.
AS to his lack of wealth, Rice said
"There is money in the circus business.
| All that is necessary is to get il out. 1
have often been asked what was the
highest salary ever received. For my
services and the use of my name for nine
years, l drew $1,000 q week. AT the end
of that time 1 had to borrow my car fare
home.' From that he dropped into
"reminiscences. "In my time have been
the subject of many lies. Lately l saw a
paragraph going the rounds to the effect
that L at one time was q prize
fighter, and fought in Harrisburg
in 1899. l never was in the
prize ring, but ~ Harrisburg in 1889 [
spared at a benefit for George KiGzett
with Kinzett himself. The secret of
making money with q good show lies in
advertising. Several times in my career
struck the keynote accidentally and
sounded it well. The richest strike was
when in the New York Tribune in 1857,
'DOesticks' wrote some articles
criticising my show severely. The cir
Gus was crowded that evening, and 1
read the Tribune article in the
ring and made sarcastic comments.
The following day the 'Trib. made an
other attack on me, and the same even
ing, with the elder Bennett in a private
box with other journalists, l read the
second article and scared il well with sa-
tlrical remarks and alleged recounting of
Tribune sanctum scenes. All the metro
politan papers stood off and cheered me
on, and the populace bought the 'Trib.
in the morning and went to hear what I
had to say about it IN the evening. This
warfare was excellent working capital.
To crown all, Greeley himself was an
nounoed to lecture in a great hall up
town on MAN. He was faced by q
big audience, and was interrupted by
cries of Dan Rice Greeley was
amazed, and his eyes were not opened TO
the true situation until he discovered that
all his posters had been partly pasted
over by some rascals, so that they read
like this: 'Greeley on Dan Rice The
audience at Niblo's, and my advertising
doomed. The next day Charles A. Dana,
then Greeley's right hand man, had an
audience with me and peace was patched
up, but I had in the meantime gained
my point of free advertising.
"when on thesroad, found no pub
licity more profitable than that obtained
by me OF my circus being attacked from
ba was coTnnfjT1na no
case, though am, and for many years
have been, a staunoh supporter of the
Christian religion. Down in Tennessee,
in my money making days, caused to
be given a circus performance for the
sole benefit of a church in the town
where we lay. Then the pastor of an
other church bitterly attacked circuses
in general, and mine and me in
particular. His attacks were re-
verted to in the ring, and I did
my best to ridicule him, but not his
holy calling, and enlisted the people of
that section in the squabble. 1 shot sa-
tire at him until, realizing his mistake,
he withdrew his batteries. But the war
was so much inexpensive advertising for
me. Afterward 1 ran across this came
clergyman living in Grenada, Miss. l
opened on HIM in the ring there and he
soon left the field. Up in New York
state Rev. DR.. Durham, Baptist, began
a crusade against the devil and Dan Rice.
The latter looked out for himself, and
the fight went so well that neither DR..
Durham nor the devil have been in that
town since.
"Another method of notoriety was
forced upon my attention. 1t was being
arrested. Several times l have been IN
ill
finances. Once 1 was locked up in the !
old Blue Eagle Jail in Elmira, N. Y.
and the news was sent far and wide. I |
stayed there a couple of weeks, won the |
sympathies of the people, and when 1 |
emerged from the jail gave circus per- |
formanoes there until got nearly all the |
money in town. 1 had been arrested for |
q miserable little debt, but made it pay |
me big returns. This event doomed |
business and put me on my feet again. |
Several times in my life as a Snowman l /
was arrested in towns where fanatieism 8
fires burned high, charged with va
grancy. Mind you, vagrancy-and my /
possessions worth thousands. 1t took /
strong argument at times to secure my |
release, but always came of victorious
on the merits of the case.
s'My old circus also got great boom
when one of my canvasmen killed man
up in Y ork state by blow with neck
yoke. That affair cost me S13. 900. The
died a good Methodist q year
or so ago, and but few people ever knew
that he had killed his man. Where L
gained q great hold on the people of
half century ago was in composing songs
for the ring. l selected the name first and
wrote the song TO fit it, taking especial
pains to sectionaliZe them TO fit certain
portions of the United States. My great
harvest field was in the South 'befo' de
wah After the war 1 settled down at
Girard, Pa, having there magnificent
country place on the edge of Lake Frs.
Attached TO the premises was splendid
park of fine trees, and TO it, during a
temporary absence, l sent q party OF
titled Englishmen to shoot. never saw
Lhe.ra effar..ra,.lls hr,f I haard from Than |