The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-21
WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE CIRCUS OF
OUR YOUTH?

| 10 the Editor OF the Eagle
Gone! We know not whittier, but gone
with the appetite that encircled green
corn, and plum pudding DER, with halo
of heavenly Righteousness, the memory of
| which no after pudding can efface, the
reality of which no amount OF starvation
| bring back. The plum pudding OF today
may be fatter, the raisin attained more
perfect symetry. but where is the appetite
that delighted the palate of youth. Gone
with the romps, and tumbles. the blind
man s-buff," the monkey, monkey, bottle
o'beer" of school time days.
And out of this truth grew the remarks,
hich every husband is pretty sure to
make, some time or other. No matter how
much sugar-coating be does on the out
side, most women detect the pill Lovey
your cooking is entirely exquisite but that
don't taste just like mothers used to.
should say NOT, and wouldn't. cen tho
Venus cooked, and white winged angels,
served steaming hot upon bed of roses.
But don't blame your poor innocent little
wives when the trouble Is due this law
uualterable as that of the Modes and Per-
sians-"Ali things change" and our ap-
petites with them.
To return to the circus, which comes and
if on wheels pauses just out of town,
tricks out" giving people the impression
as it parades the street, that
twas born just that way.
stretches its tents: The girl walks
the rope; the side-showman, snaps
Right this way to get your
money back, The bearded lady, the snake
charmer, and the most wonderful freak on
earth-the two-headed calf-four eyes, two
noses-ali for paltry dime-all for ten
pennies-when the bearded lady alone Is
worth ten times the price of admission. /
remember its being vaguely limited that
the beard was pasted on the lady, that the
snakes were charmed by opiates; that you
must take several drinks before you could
see the calf 'as advertised. 1t eft a tug
ging at my heart that must drag myself
by. when the bearded lady alone was
worth ten times the price of admission, for
the orator al the door had said it, and /
believed him implicitly. and | longed to
enter If but to prove the falsity OF those
vile insinuations against the veracity of
the man who stated so openly, to every
one, that the lady. the charmer, the
calf, were within, just behind those
beautiful zodiac views which pleaded so
eloquently for your entrance.
The crircus comes the same, yet not the
same. Costller. grander in all appoint
longing that followed each caparisoned
horse and glitteriug amazon beyond the
little CAD into the side tent wondering
what they said, and what they did, waiting
breathless for the return OF those beautiful
ETHEREAL creatures. Now, / hope against
hope that l too might grow up 10 be
lovely miIk-maid, and ride a milkwhiue
bareback horse and have milk-white
lover follow upon another foaming steed,
capture my milk pail and heart at one fell
swoop. all the while sailing through the
air with never a thought OF earth and its
reality.
Yes the circus comes the same, inasmuch
as your friends (who know better than 10
refused buys her little girl all the candy
brought round, aid the little dearie puts
most Of ii in liquid form-upou half
your new gown, and The lemonade fxklr
slops lemonade on the rest OF II. The
same, only YOU notice such little pleasant
ries now, where as then the faklr might
have stood behind you, and Tor Z solid hall
hour poured his ice cold weak eyed con-
coction down your back, and never once
have drawn your attention from the clown
and donkey.
The same. yet where is the indescribable
something that come with, stayed with
until As the ring master announced Inc
circus is now only half over" you hear
the animal wagons Tumbllug on and you
know that the outside tent IS no more
And then as the concert drew to a
close mingled with the voice OF the
shors girl singing 'Leetle Fraud, Volts de
Matter" is the sound Of falling seats, and
ere you're scarcely out the mammoth tent
falls and the circus has goue-soee 10 de-
light some other village whose boys and
girls have been exhileratlng IN the mad
hops of the aeriaiists and have pasted
every poster upon their minds eye IN
til. sleeping or waking. the striped zebra
and the forty horse band wagon are per-
mauent fixtures of their brains.