The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-10-31
THE CIRCUS DIALECT.
A Veterans Recital Of Old Time Ex
periences.

pcIIcuCeS.
r,1d Tn words That Are Peculiar To H;.
Calling and Which the Ordinary Mortal
Cannot Understand-But the Youthful
listener Obtains Definitions.
A veteran circus man wandered into the
tent of one of the "great and onlyn COM
binations which appeared In Rochester not
long ago, and as rehearsal was In prog
ress he entered into an easy conversation
with such Of the performers as had time to
converse.
"Of course you sawdust hoppers have
more room to dress in,' he remarked
ethan we had In the old days. and you
have better lights and ali that I remem-
Der one night at Logansport when the
lights all went out when the show was
half over, and we had to dress in the dark.
Some one had put water in the coil oh and
stolen all the candles And the crowd
roared, and there were a not of fights, and
it was moonlight night, and the boss
squeeze had them rip off the hood, and
they finished the performance by moon
light. But 1t lefta bad name, for all the
'grafters' and guns were SO busy they
couldn't tell whether they were touching
jays or people that belonged with the
show"
Made good money then, didn't your"
asked the equilibrist.
Eyes, good money. was wise man
then-worked hard all the time for good
wages and never had cent There WASH u
half q dozen men in the business who could
turn double. OF course, there were lots
Of hair grabbers, but guess Twas as good
as any of them I had side partner one
season. His name was VIM, and he was
candy butcher. he worked that for a
blind, but he was q short change man on
the regular. More than once they told him
he'd better duck, but he thought he was
next, and he didn't pay any attention He
| got so careless I quit him, and then he
took up with a new man as we cazne into
| Columbus, and Joey boy was coming
into the tent with broad In his hand,
and the new man thought he was q 'reu-
ben, and he touched him for his roll, and
the Joey didn't get over kicking till his
leg was out of joint"
"Couldn't he get his soft back again2''
asked one of his hearers.
mo. We didn't have any ollie and
U1AC uAOE 1lnu dIGtbnSCu ~ UAalu OIL UAt0 JILL
GERS in Columbus should go to sleep and
stay there till the show got out Of the town.
| He did his work too we'll to suit the 'joey.
| But it made SO much trouble that we never
saw that gun again till we struck Wheel
ing In return trip In the fall And then
he was side show blower, with double
| and slide trick that made him lots of mon.
| ey.
There was where we lost 'Peachy,
continued the old circus man after pause.
"He was the making Of the greatest Of all
hair grabbers, think. He made up with
tart. the wife of one Of the spanglers-
| she did the snake act in one Of the side
tops-and they sloped with the plug.
Next season made aakilling at faro
out west and was gay as bird Of paradise
when we came to Hannibal was smok.
| ing Is cent punks--and they were punks
for that money in those days, tell you.
| And had silk 'mush, with gold handle
and steel ribs-paid $s for it at ST. joe
| and hid 1t under box that night at Han.
| nibal, and some one reached 1t and copied
| 1t while was hunting my rozin. couldn't
chase him, but tho dame that sews the COS
TUNES did, and he stepped tn grumme,
where the menagerie top had been all day
and sprained his ankle. The tmush' was
broken when she brought it back, but she
| told me his sglimmers' were as black as
his top piece. But blowed myself all the
way up to Independence, and By the time
we got there / had to hook my spark
Good Hmesr' And he chuckled enjoyably.
| Funny thing, said one Of the acrobats
"He brings up the old style show SO plain
| ~ can see it again as it was when was
boy"
"And many year before. :" INTERCEPTED
the ringmaster.
eyes, many year before. remember
once in the old days the layer out went
ahead and rallied the road out Of Niles, ant
some kids took up all the sticks, and wher
our wagon came along we had to hunt fol
the elephant tracks It was raining, an6
we couldn't find anything, and we go1
lost F"
miles,, said younger performer re
fiectiyely. "There's where we had kicker
from Kiokarville He bad washed hi.
pumps In the hotel and hung them III
there to dry. He and his wife dGda double
act on the horses, and he called across tt
her in the dressing rooms and asked he,
| where his pumps were. and she told hin
she had forgotten to bring them, and hi
ripped out an oath and cursed the manage
ment and declared he would leave the show
the next day."
whats 'broadr' asked one Of th,
more youthful listeners who didn't under
stand all the vernacular Of the Veterans.
"a broad is a ticket to the show" wa,
the reply.
"And 'mushp' /"
A 'mush' Is an umbrella, and q ttop' i
| tent, and the hood is the double piec,
that covers the canvas about the oente,
pole"
"And sbloomers' are''-
eyes, 'bloomers' are trousers, and Z
razor back is man that loads the wagon
A 'hoopecackel wagon CARRIED the unmaar
ried performers. It was . scrtof nsh
wagon, pickup A gum Is pink
pocket, 'toey' ia a clown,-one kind o.
another-and an eolhe' ia policeman. A
ihairgrabber' Is a horseback rider sSnfe
is paper money. A 'spanSley' II . Dee
former-any kind Of perfornnr VII
wears costume. And double aui
slide trick b used by dishoneeb tio,et sssaI
ers to cheat people who como With biz
bills"
"Say," cried the veteran az he returned
from his tour Of "the back Of the house, >