St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-07-01

end of his career. But Barnum. prince
of humbngs, as he himself aeknOwl-
edged, was unique character. The
| country was young when he began his
career. He was many times million
4 aire when he branched out into the
circus business. Indeed. it was his
| millions alone which made the big show
of Barnum's era possible. Now Is il not
remarkable that five Wisconsin boys,
without single dollar Of capital ten
years ago, should at this day own a
bigger circus than Barnum ever
| dreamed of? How have they done ite
Well; this is question | have heard
| asked good many hundred times
| in the last fortnight. They
were familiar with Barnum's career
| His capital had been Humbug. They
decided on
NEW DEPARTURE.
and they called it Integrity. And they
have lived up to 1t. That is to say, they
never billed fake as wonder. They
never claimed to give a performance
that they did not give. They vigorously
sat down OH fakirs. ''grafters" and all
| that array of confidence sharks who
have done SO much in the past-rand
still continue to do it with some shows
| to bring discredi5 on circus and its
best people of every community visit
the Ringing shows. Tney are clean
shows, meritoriOus, interesting. And
so 1t has come in the fullness OF time
that the qulntette have got to the top OF
the ladder in ten short years.
During the recunt little opposition"
in Winona, the Herald, of that city, pub,
lished three-page story of tho Ring
ling Bros career. It Is so Interesting.
and in places so amusing, that am sure
your readers will agree with me that
the following extracts are good summer
reading Oh Sunday in July. The yer
racious chronicler, VINO interviewed
one of the Ringing brothers in my
presence, writes of the boys first at
tempt as show managers:
The very beginning of the Ringing
Bros career was as small boys with a
pin show. The five lads. ranging in age
from four to fifteen years. erected their
mammoth pavilion" consisting OF an
ola rag carpet, borrowed from the ma
ternal kitchen, in the back part OF the
parental abode. The parade consisted
of one little boys express wagon
which did duty is band chariot. On
this were seated one of the boys as
the band, while the elder brothers
hitched themselves In front and eonsti-
tuted the team. The admission was
TEN PINS.
The performance consisted of divers
handsprings. juggling and balancing
acts and coutortions, in which the boys
were assisted by some of their acrobatic
boy friends. The brothers soon found
that they could charge as much as
penny admission, and IN a short time
had accumulated 1887, with which they
bought sheeting aud made tent-their
first real tent. This, of course, was all
of school hours. Their next venture
was a panorama, painted by an
artistic neighbor boy on the back
OF brown wall paper and mounted on
wooden rollers. The best laid plans of
mice and men att gang aglee," says
Burns, and this venture of the ambitious
boys went the way of all things mortal.
for they had hardly given one perform
ance with their panorama when some
larger boys in spirit of coltishness
tore it to pieces. The young showmen
did not yet know the meaning OF the
words
'sHEY, RUBE."
and could not resent insult nor pro-
tect themselves against the onslaught
of their enemies, and so had to suffer
the destruction of their new show be-
fore it had taken in more than SO cents.
Their next effort, however. was not
| weakened by this. their first misfortune,
and in few weeks they had organized
a circus to which an admission of five
cents was charged. For boys 1t was
| a really good show. An old silver
! watch, all the jack knives possessed by
| the five boys, skIff (for river ran by
their native village) and number of
| other things that constitute boys
| stock In trade were exchanged for an
| old black Mexican pony that had been
| brought back from Vera Cruz by a
veteran of the Mexican war. This was
the Ringing Bros. trst horse. To des-
| ignate il as horse would be mis-
nomer, however. for it hardly bore any
resemblance to anything of the equine
family. Nevertheless, the future ow,-
ers of hundreds of the very finest blood
ed horses felt as proud. or perhaps
prouder, OF their poor bony old nag than
they ever have since over their aristo-
cratic assemblage of horsefesh." g
The entry over. the circus show be-
gan in real earnest; and such showl
| The band had been reduced to jews
harp and drum, for the other members
were billed for important acts In the
ring. But it was music for the juvenile
portion of the audience. while for ths
grown people who had besn attracted
to the boys show,
| IT WAS A JOKE ~
that ELECTED many hearty laugh, and
to this day many reminiscent citizen
of Ringling Bros native village delights
in telling of the odd and comical cir
cumstances of their five-cent circus.
| Each act was announced by one of the
| boys after the prevailing grandiloquent
style of tie then existing Dan Rice type
of circuses. First on the programme
! was Albert Ringing in plate and hat
! spinning. He did very well with the
hats, but the plates acted contrary To
his wishes and kept falling to tbs
ground. The result was that the six
| plates borrowed from his mothers cup
board by hours Of earnest pleading
were one by one converted into a mass
of broken eSrthenware, frail reminders
| Of the things OF the ..rarth
earthly" and TO the ambitious youth
fnI manipulation of plates and un-
1 fertunate defer of the laws of grayi-
tatien and breaker OF plates and