The Washington times., 1895-05-17
GLORIES OF The CIRCUS.
They Came in Seventv-eiQht Car
Loads and Are All on View.
Barnum tS BaiIey's Greatest Show on
Earth is Anchored Here for Two
Days--To-day's Big Parade.

The four special trains be airing the
paraphernalia and equipment of the Bar
mum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth,
arrived in this city at a very early hour
this morning and the animals were quietly
unloaded from the cars and marched off
to the show grounds.
The belated individual who wended his
weary way homeward in the small hours
of the morning must have had sudden
and startling thoughts when, upon turn
ing corner he saw, moving silently
through the darkness, the huge forms of
twenty-four monster elephants, followed
by an equally silent caravan of camels,
dromedaries, Zebras, and other strange
looking creatures such as ordinarily dis
turb and haunt dreams due to an over
burdened stomach.
IL the belated gentleman loosed their
grasp from he frightened lamp-posts
for any length of time, while the caval-
cade was passing, it was only to get
firmer grip, to compel the friendly beacon
to stand its ground.
BY 4 80 the seventy eight cars had all
been unloaded and the vans containing
captive animals and the baggage of the
great show were started toward the
had thought of stirring about, the circus
had fairlycome to town. The white tents
which cover nearlyten acres ofground space
within their walls, began to rise about z
O'Clock and by O'Clock everything will
be in readiness for this afternoons per-
formance
The street parade, with its myriads of
new features, will have passed, the small
boy will have trotted bis little legs almost
off trying to keep up with the band wagon,
the side show man Will have extolled
the virues of his glorious exhibition, the
pink lemonade man viii have watered his
stock in trade, and the band viii begin to
play.
Circns comes but once year-thatais,
the big circus To be sure, there are
small affairs, with one ring and one clown
and q colhumptiVe elephant or Two. but
they do not count. The Barmn 4 Bailey
show is the show and everybody waits FOL
it.
There are three complete musical organ
izations with the big show this season.
Leading the parade VIII be seen Carl
Claire's military band OF fifty pieces; then
will come companies of fox hunters, in
appropriate dress, who, in turn, VIII be
followed by another chariot containing
another band.
Open dens containing tigers, lions,
panthers, leopards, bears, hyenas, wolves.
and pumas. each with a keeper, VIII come
in turn, and then other band wagons,
glittering in red and gold. A small army
of hippodrome drivers, Roman chariot
riders and q caravan OF camels, and ele-
phants bearing howdahs follow this por-
ton of the procession, and seated ia the
howdahs VIII be found strange people
from nearly all parts of the world.
The monaTchs of CHINA, Japan, India,
Bumab, Siam, Egypt, Persia, Turkey;
! Holland, Belgium, Germany, swede II,
Spain, Italy, Austria, Russia, France;
and England Will be represe nted i'll
proper costume, together with military
escorts correctly uniformed, represent
ing the armies OF each OF the countries
named There Will also be an allegorical
tableau chariot representing America,
which is one of the prettiest features
of the parade.
The great -erd of twenty -four elephants
will also be seen in the parade. These are
Mr. BaIey's particular pride, for the
herd not only numbers more elephants than
all the other elephants i'll the United
States combined, but il also contains the
four largest elephants in captivity. Big
Fritz" is heavier than Jumbo was and is
only six inches his inferior I'm height.
There is much of novelty and little
OF staleness in the Barnum and Bailey
Show this season. With the exception
of William Showles, the ackno wledged
champion bareback rider of the world,
William Demott, his only rival, and Josie
Ashton, the premier equestrienne, there
are none of last seasons artisss with the
company.
The chronological Congress is new
feature, in which there have been brought
together strange people from all parts
of the world. None of the tribes repre-
sented have heretofore sent representa-
tives out of their own countries TO any
civilized portion of the globe. The
American Indians are particularly in
teresting specimens, as they all come
from tribes most remote from CIVILIZATION
The big show will exhibit at the grounds,
at Third and p streets, this afternoon and
evening and tomorrow afternoon and
evening The doors will be opened at L
O'Clock in the afternoon and at Z O'Clock
in the evening.