New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-04-01

A REAL, LIVE CIRCUS.
CLOWNS IN THE RING AGAIN.
OTHER THINGS TO DELIGHT THE AMERICAN

HEARTH f. HAMILTON, HISTORIAN
The ring habit is bad for men. but those
lovers of jewelry who insist upon wearing half
dozen golden bands their fingers can point to
: precedent. Barnum & Bailey have made the ring
fashion They six of them every day. and
each is set in the most astonishing and be-
wdering way. This multitude Of rings may be
seen every day and every evening In Madison
Square Garden. and whatever one may think about
the excessive display Of circets in everyday life
he must admit that in Barnums circus 1t Is the
more rings the merrier."
There is a mystery about the great moral show
this year Christopher Columbus longer dis
covers America. The Red Man doesn't parade
about the arena proud of his wampum and tobacco
and longing for fire-water Nero doesn't fiddle the
strings off his bow. and Rome. CASTLE and the
Aragons take a back seat but yet there is more
circus than ever before. It is bigger better and
more moral than its predecessors ali Jumped to-
gether and the heart OF the American. who loves
the sawdust ring. the paletinted lemonade and the
real circus Is glad. From the constellation or
rings to the glass roof the Garden has been packed
every night since the circus opened. and American
institutions forever indicated. 1t was contest
of efete Europe-Rome. SPAIN the Mediterranean
and other back numbers-against the American
small boy, grown up. who crawls under the
ten ia dcigh, his soul with clowns, bareback riders
and flying trapeze people and. as the American
small boy always does. he won.
enumeration Of what is to be at Barnum &
Baleys. First. there the menagories where
eve.y father In the city IA taking HIS children 10
see the animals In the six rings are horses and
their riders without number. and the name OF the
clowns Is legion. This is a wholesale circus There
isn't elephant several elephants. There ISM
herd; there two herds. In Il steel
barred cage trained animals, the iercest Of fierce
tribes brought from desert and jungle. play like
kittens under the watchful eye Of their trainers.
and perform tricks OF all kinds. AS In the good
old-fdshioned days women. "equestrienne perform
ers" give exhibitions OF wonderful horseback rid
ing There Is tumbling that Is so daring and reck-
less that some OF the men have been hurt The
flying trapeze performers take away the breath OF
ten thousand people every night 50 that when they
are hying through the air there IS vacuum in
the Garden. II has been necessary to place
heavy wire netting under the roof, for fear that
one OF these human skyrockets might 80 sailing
heavenward never TO return. They too val
liable to lose
On one occasion, a few years ago. circus his
tory recounts, this precaution was neglected. one
OF the trapeze performers. while taking merely a
little preliminary exercise let so his hold an in
slant too soon. That was the end of that man,
every one thought. The last Of him he was
speeding his way like a winged Mercury toward a
Months passed and nothing was heard OF him.
Three years later the same circus was playing in
the same place, when with a graceful curve,
1.-the body shot into the ring and landed easily on
the swaying bar high in the air. That ruin d the
circus for the performer insisted upon drawing his
salary, night and day ever day in the week. win
and summer. while he had been performing the
great aeral-lunar act The circus paid the bill. and
into bankruptcy. That's how Bsrnum x
Bailey got the
When the solemn truth first tod about this
wonderful by r. +. Hamilton the most
0erful press agent that ever graced and blessed Il
circus. newspaper cynics were inclined 10 scof and
but what Is the use Of discussing the subject
further Mr.. Hamilton Is known personally 10
every man in the United states. including Alaska.
Every woman who doesn't know him wants TO
know him. and every boy in North and South
America. with little sprinkling OF a few million
In Europe, wears his photograph in his brain. Mr..
Hamilton, from excessive mental activity, once
had attack Of brain fever. For six dull monOt-
onous and weary weeks not word went from him
through the newspapers to the wide world about
anything In that time thousands OF letters
10 The Tribune asking If the Democratic Congress
had passed bin prohibiting good circuses because
they not English while the Western Union
Telegraph Company in that year passed the biggest
dividend Of It's history. Mr. Hamilton is the his
torlan. and that settles II.
But about the circus. There about 1i79 other
attractions and besides. why. there IL the circus
every day and evening in Madison Square Garden.