The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-04-08
"BAB" GOES TO THE CIRCUS
AND THEN TO THE FoRTUNE-TELLER.
New York's Population ut Barnum's Where
Everyone Feels Young and Eats Pea
-ChiIdho"d's Greatest Toy
Woman's HarbInger of Spring.

years younger, while every small boy is
at least assured that there is some happi-
ness to be gotten out OF life. The elephant
is as stolid and funny-looking as ever
civilization has not added 10 the length of
his tail or suited it better to his size; the
tigers glare at you and give you the
shivers in most fetching way; the lions
look as dirty and smell as bad as formerly;
the performing horses and dogs are as
awe-inspiring as they ever were.
It's marvellous how young the circus
does make you feel You return to your
first ambition. If you are woman you
long to be the beautiful Lady who, wear
ing short skirts of tulle, rides white
horse bareback and jumps through paper
rings like fairy-at least, as you suppose
fairy would do. If you are man, you
don't know whether you would rather he
the clown or the ringmaster, with his
long whip; but you inc inc to the rings
master The circus is the one place on
earth where the rich and poor meet to-
gether andenjoy themselves alike. PrOvi-
dence made them all and Barnum achieved
the circus, at which the laugh of the
beegar is as keen as that OF the millionaire:
and the lion and the elephant gaze VITA
equal complacency on velvet or rags. pro-
vided both are accompanied by ah appi =.
You don't get one bit more pleasure out
of the riding, or the ponies. or the dogs,
or the trapeZe performers II you are III a
box than does the poorest Tagamufiin on
one of the highest seas. Talk about the
odors of Arabyl They are simply nowhere
beside that of the sawdust. White, if you
are real human being, the blood dances
in your veins, your eyes ieel rs If yOa
wanted TO see everything at once, and
your heart gives great throb OF ecstacy
when the first crack OF the ringmaster5
whip is heard.
regard the circus as a great moral
factor in society, and ] think with me IN
this opinion / have every small boy and
every large boy in the United States. One
great jov OF the circus is that YOU can eat.
All the men who have studied Arabic,
and know the secret of the Sphinx and
won't tell il, are yet unable to explain the
reason why sawdust gives an appetite but
you can consume peanuts by the quart,
apples by the dozen, and the most dried
up sponge cakes you ever saw are eaten as
if they had been fresh and dainty and just
from the oven of the gods. For myself, L
draw the line at mint-stlcks; but, once
within the Odor OF the sawdust and the
animals, feel like calling out, Give me
liberty to eat, or give me death J" ] gem
orally get the liberty to eat-at least, ! al
ways have.
Why Is the circus educating? 1 will
tell you. You see there are all the ami
mails that mesndered around in the ark,
and you get TO know great deal from the
anrnhafa ahnpf halapfsipfr xfntrrsalf N
ments of uncertainty, as for instance, when
you are on top of n ladder which is not
firmly poised. You learn the value OF
pleasant manner when you see the most
famous rider IN tho world hiss her hand
and smile ut the boys all over the house.
and then hear the applause tina: follows;
and You learn how valuable Il is to be gem
erous when you circulate among the ele-
plants distributing apples. for the next
elephant, who is expecting one, has bis
mouth open wide, and gives you the most
expansive grin you ever saw.
In your early life did you have an init
mate acquaintance with NOah's ark? And
in the best populated one did you ever zee
turkey? There are ducks beautiful
ducks, some red with blue spots on them,
and some bri liant orange dotted in =
minute away with purple; but never,
never blu you sec II TURKEY. lnab iillttfA-
BILE, dried-up bird wasn't recognized az
worth saving in the DAYS Of Nonh. With
out any exception he is the most tasteless
and the highest beast that ever lived; and
Noah showed that he was man who
knew good thing when he saw it when
he excluded the turkey from the ark.
However, perhaps lac didn't exist in those
DAYS, and he may be the result of ciyiliZa-
ton, il has adhered so many offensive
things. have always had an idea that
Noah was the sort OF a man who would
know how to order dinner.
You remember how he looks? In any
well-regulated ark he has on n yellow
frocK, while Shem wears green one and
Ham is radiant in pink one. He would
call them in and lie would say, Lets
have a good dinner tonight" And they
would say, "You order il; Won have got
good tasto;" and they would have Little
oysters on the half shell, turtle soup,
oyster crabs, chicken liyers en- brochstte,
an UNDERGONE duck, green salad with bit
of cheese, a cup of coffee; he would drink
q good bottle OF Burgundy during his din
ner, and he would finish up with n bottle
of cognac. Now, most OF these things
were on the ark. so they didn't have TO go
to market, and what they hadn't on board
Shem and Ham could fish for overheard.
You see, there was a good deal OF fore
| thought about arranging the ark-it is q
pity people don't give as much nowadays
to the possibilities of flats. / don't be-
lieve the boy or girl has had half
childhood who didn't possess a Noah's
ark. IL figured largely in mine, and that is
the reason | love il. i have seen numer-
GUS brothers made sick by their efforts to
get all the sweetness possible out of the
| Noah family when the German toy makers
put movable paint on them. and green
| mouths and blue ones, and tongues OF
| lurid red resulted. They never seem 10
hurt anybody; and, please goodness do
give your baby such things 10 play with,
and not what are known as educating
toys"-let them be blissiully ignorant for
! a little WHILE at least. Just fancy hear
! ing one child say to another: Il like you,
Madeline, but l can't talk TO you, because
my mamma is afraid that you will have a
! bad effect on my English" OF course,
want children to speak good English. OF
course, think the only way for them to
learn is to hear it; but when the hearing
OF it makes nasty little prigs like this
| should prefer that my daughter spoke
darby, or Bowery, or even Sixth-ave. The
children and the people who never have
days of ignorance never know days OF hap
piness Isn't that so?
With the spring young womans iancv
not only turns to thoughts OF love and
! Easter honnets but If drifts again to the