The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-20
THE SEDUCTIVE CIRCUS.
How Two Boys Worked Hard to Earn .
Disappointment.

How Two BOYS worked EAAr1 " 6SEH =
Dfsappoin tmeuf.
The news that a circus was coming
to the little town OF y reached that
out-of-the-way place even before the
advance agent with his glittering post
ers, and created a genuine sensation
The whole countryside was stirred up
over it, more or less, but proba bly, the
excitement reached its highest pitch IN
the minds of ''Tom" and Jerry" twin
brothers, aged thirteen, the leaders OF
most of the boyish mischief that made
the school of Y terror to teachers
far and wide
These two had never seen circus
though they were familiar with them
from hearsay and dime novels, and the
idea that a real, live one was coming to
their town set them wild. They at once
laid plans TO procure the price OF adj
mission, fifty cents each, a small fort
une to them Their father was dead,
and their mother could not afford, they
well knew, to spend one dollar on them.
They at once organized an amateur cir
Gus among their companions. and. after
a good deal of rehearsal on parallel
bar and trapeze, gave a public per-
Torrance, charging one cent for admis-
sion. This netted only fifteen cents,
and Jerry" got a sprained ankle, while
Tom" burst his only pair of trousers
where it did the most harm
By that time the advance agent ar
rived aud proceeded to cover the town
with posters that took the boys breaths
away. For carrying an immense pail
of paste all day, they got ten cents each
from the agent, and they had consider
able difficulty in ungluing their clothes
that night sufficiently to ges them off.
But the posters were an unalloyed de-
light, and tom" and Jerry" played
hockey in order TO stare at them till the
teacher came himself from the school
and dragged them away. On these
wonderful posters all the wild animals
of the universe were engaged in
bloody battle to the death A hippo
potamus ripped up an elephant which
with his trunk was strangling tiger,
which was chewing lion, which was
in turn clawing tender gazelle that
had rushed foolishly into this terrible
struggle. In the same jungle polar bear
was devouring walrus whose tusks
were dangerously near tall giraffe
who was browsing on a tree top all I'M
conscious Of the fact that between his
very legs an immense boa-constrictor
was strangling tapir.
This scene fascinated Tom and Jerry
and they fully expected to see 1t enacted
at the circus. 1t divided the attention
that otherwise would have been devot-
ed exclusively TO the pictures of aero
batic young women in pink tights who
leaped through flaming hoops held at
least twenty feet above their bare
backed horses and the fat girl who was
said to weigh one thousand pounds
In the course of time the circus ar
rived, and Tom and Jerry procured the
job of carrying water for the animals
to drink, from distant creek, up a
steep bill in heavy buckets, under the
broiling sun, and for this they got
twenty-five cents each The camel
must have filed all his stomachs twice,
Jerry thought. before he got through
his task, and the elephant must have
had hollow legs, Tom said, to drink SO
much, beside filing his trunk with
water for some future occasion. How
ever they got through at last, and with
blistered heads and aching backs, the
boys perched themselves proudly on
the hard, narrow seat and waited for
the glories to unfold.
The circus might have once been
fair side-show, out it had lost it's chief
attractions, one by one, along the road,
through sherifs' attachments and other
unkind people, and what was left was a
SORRY lot indeed. as the show proceed
ed, Tom and Jerry's faces fell and grew
longer and longer. Finally Tom nudged
Jerry violently.
Whats the matter with yer?" asked
Jerry, angrily, for his heart was sore
with disappointment
Lets go out and look at the posters"
replied Tom, sadly.
And they went-N Y. Tribune