The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-24
WITH CIRCUS PEOPLE.
THE ROMANCE AND NOVELTY or
THE NoaIRDIC LIFE.
Advance Agent of one az the Old
Time .AggreEatfonS" Tells Of Hi~
Experiences From the Time lie Be
cnm,. a CnndN Rutchcr.

From the Chicaea Record
St Louis 40. nov 1l-'Talk about
tho excitement Of life ia the newspaper
business remarked the colonel scorn-
fully. as he turned his glass of beer up
side down and called attention of the bar
tender 10 the fact that the preponder-
ace of foam held she paucity Of amber
fluid il the glass 1.-THE newspaper man S
life Is existence ia a graveyard compar-
ed 10 life that Is lea by the advance agent
o. circus.
Was I ever the advance agent of a
circus9 Well 7 should smoke a ham.
was the advance ascent Of the largest
circus on the face Of the earth for its
size IL was run by a man named sam
afaedun and was called the Anglo
Egyptian Circus. Hippodrome and Me-
nageries.' Where Macdun got the name
/ never could find out. but Macduff was
a man that could so out and dig up
something from the unfathomable depths
OF the Intangible. There were twenty-one
performers i'm our cirucs. nine OF which
were Macdum and four of which were
his wife. Macdun was three clowns, the
singing clown. the acrobatc clown and
the clown with the trained dogs and
ponies He was also the Japanese jug
gIer. the heavyweight litter. one Of the
O'Nen brothers. horizontal-bar perform
ers, the slack-wire walker, the Egyp-
tiau contortionist and the man with the
iron jaw. His wife was the snake-charfn-
e.. the queen OF the flying trhpeZe, the
graceful and fascinating WiLch OF the
swinging hoops and Mdle. de LoIu OOLly
GOOft. the marvellous bareback rider. IN
this turn she rode a draught horse with
a back as broad as the top or a freight
car. In addition TO his other duties, Mac
duf acted as ringmaster and took tick
cts at he door, while ms VIE was mis-
tress Of the wardrobe and TOOK care OF
her two babies. Everybody hustled win
that circus-especialy on salary DAY. All
the CanVassmen We're knights in the parade
and the performers outside or Mac used
TO double in brass. ln the great street
parade. which consisted OF band wagon,
a spawned elephant. Il rheumatic camel
which two animals formed our menagerie
nine battered cages that looked like
pie wagons and "a cailiope that saw its
best DAYS playing the wedding march
when John Smith married POcahOntas,
Macs wife was the goddess Of liberty
and Mac rode ahead in buggy with the
mayor of the town, generally, annOunc-
ing as follows:
Follow the parade 10 the show
grounds, good people, and see the grand
free eXhibesheeun. Nine Manhattan
Beach, the most renowned ayeereonaWt
the world ever saw, viii, at the FISK or
her life, make a grand FIRE balloon as
in the air, after which she Will cut loose
and come down again, holding on the
handle of an umbrella. II she don't land
within ten feet of the place where she
goes up we will forfeit TO the charitable
institutions of this fair city tho sum OF
$1,000 Besides this marvellous and blood
curdling feat. there are others. Remem-
Der, good people, that we give TWO per-
fOrmances every day we are in your city,
the afternoon performance commencing
at p. m. and the evening performance
DIV aICaH
10 cents, reserved seats % cents and every
seat it a reserved seat. Come early and
stay till the show is out. All youse peo-
ple with horses hitched along the street
CLOSELY followed by Gumbo, a brother TO
TIE famous Jumbo, the largest elephant
N captivity.
'1'Se whole town used to follow the
parade to the show grounds. and Mac
used to get up and announce that the bal
loon ascension was off because the town
didn't have the right kind of gas TO fill
the balloon with. And so il went day after
I'VE Travelled up branches by rail on one
little train and played towns that are
not on the map. / forgot to mention
feature o. the circus that was cOnsid-
cred by Macduff the best we had 1t was
a quartette. consisting of Slim Gaffney,
Mike the Chaw, Kelley the Rat and the
German gladiator expert second-story
workers, porch-cl!mbets, filters strong
arm men, body snatchers and gold-brick
cupied houses during the parade spiel
the nuts on the show ground. or lot as
we used TO call IT,. rob dwellings and
stores at night when the town was at
the show, hold up people on the highway
and endeavOr TO sandbag the town Off
ctal we had paid our license money to
and take 1t away from him. In this en-
deaVOr they We're often successful, and /
know of one time down in Kansas when
we paid the same license money in five
different places. The quartette worked
on commission and gave a per cent of
what they stole to Macduff. In return
for this he protected them in case they
got arrested, and furnished them with
transportation with the show Don't YOU
think with this aggregation that man
in his right mind ought to have a snort
ing time?
q Joined the show as a candy butcher.
selling carmine lemonade on the high
seats. / Joined also under false pre-
lenses, because ] assured Mac that I was
a circus man, whereas | was honest TN
first day with the show. The boss of the
candy butchers was a fellow we called
Saltzmann, which was not his name
This day he had made a mash on a nice
red-cheeked country girl, and it being
principle iE the circus business never
10 overlook bet. he started in early 10
make himself good. To do this he went
out with the girl in the morning leaV-
ing me to make the lemonade and fix M
the stand. / had never made any circus
lemonade, but / had drank some and ]
AilEN Llidl IL wanted TO ne anOuL as lNln
as a buffet sandwich. / found i'm the
stock fourteen lemons, two pounds of
sugar, half a barrel of citric ACID and a
bucket Of annHne. After considera BILE
figuring around for some time | made
a barrel of lemonade. using therein thirty
six gallons of water. nine lemons, about
fourteen ounces of sugar, a hatful of cit
Tic acid, and enough aniline TO make the
decoction as red as the awning in front
Of a country drug store. ! stirred it up
well and took my life in my hands to the
extent of tasting il. 1t tasted like a mix
ture of asafoetida, Belcher water, clam
juice, New Orleans mOlasses and eX-
tract Of green persimmons. j wasn't
near as bad, however, as some circus
lemonade / had poisoned myself with
and / fattered myself that after 1 put
about a quarters worth of ice in it,
would have about the best and least ex-
pensiVe mass Of lemonade ever shown
under canvas. Just as ! was getting a
curve in my arm from patting myself
on the back, Saltzmann made his appear
ance in rare good humor. He Waltzed
up to the barrel whistling a gay tune
and took p taste of the lemonade. Then
he looked at me for a fun minute before
he did a thing, after which he slapped me
on the side Of the head. left side and
right side, alternately. until l thought
j was one Of the component parts of
fanning-min When 1 recovered con-
sciousness Saltzmann had purchased two
more barrels, into each Of which he poured
about oDe-third of the lemonade l had
made. Then he filled all three barrels IN