Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-09-25
GOING TO THE CIRCUS.

THE CIRCUS.
over, corn needed no more plowing.
There was a midsummer lull in all ac-
tiyity. Even in a time when few men
remained at home, and when women
and boys did much of the farm work,
there was still time and inclination to
visit ''the show.'., The proportion of
men in blue uniform was greater than
1t had ever been. The army pervaded
everything. Men home on furlough
We're guests Of honor and were feted
royally-they, too, had money and
They were sought continually. And
they told when the war would cease.
The circus was there. All lurking fear
that at the last something might hap
pen to disappoint me was dispelled
when we came to the courthouse square,
for there, just beyond the temple Of JUS
tice, in the vacant lots, was spread the
mighty tent. Sure those vacant lots
had been doubled in size since last I
saw them, for no common space could
entertain an establishment so vast as
this. Why, there were walls of canvas
on the right hand and ON the left hand
Of the mammoth tent, and there were
successions of smaller tents that
stretched away into bewildering vistas.
and before them all everywhere tugged
the great advertisements, wonderful in
picture, exotic in text. There was a
noise, hustle, hurry, a nervous ten
sion, unknown in the town. No man
had more time than sufiiced for the
scantiest of greetings, unless accosted
by soldier, in which case he would
talk interminably. or sharper. in
which case he Would invest disastrous
~. The only calm, contained men were
those law-defiers who looked with such
honest faces into the wavering eyes Of
honest men and beguiled them to their
ruin. For there were three card games
and "chuck-a-luck," popular among the
soldiers, and wheels of fortune and
straight faro. Only the most beggarly
pretense of secreting all this crime was
made. The "short change" man, who
flourished in one place and disappeared
to rise in another, was on the ground
and was remembered. There were as
sistant marshals with large stars, and
they walked in and out of all tents at
will. But they saw nothing less than
quarreling men, and reused to activity
nnIu fn A~hk
Just before noon the parade started.
We watched the wonderful aggregation
of marvels form into line. To youths
bred in an environment where some Of
the odor Of sanctity might reach them
IL seemed most shocking that SO much
profanity was needed in assembling a
great moral aggregation. Furthermore,
there was {. quality about that profan-
ity I have never known equaled. It was
intense. incisive, terse, emphatic, sui
phurous, full Of murder and flashing
with the lightnings Of blasphemy. I
have ridden behind mule whackers"
on the plains and have spent vacations
where the voice of the first mate of q
river packet could assail my ears. But
have found no man whose profanity
matched the splendid wickedness of the
circus employe in the old days of wagon
Transportation.
The parade was thing to marvel at.
In the front was carriage resplendent
above above anything in the town and
bearing the dusty human who was vet
more than mortal, for he owned "the
show"
Then came the band in a golden char
lot that quite satisfied me. If anything
In my reading equaled that could not
recall 1t. How many there were in the
band, what they played, or whether
they played well, these things did not
impress me. For behind them came the
elephant. He walked alone, stately
or sore-footed, and how was l to know?
He swung like the rocking of hay
stack In storm and his driver prodded
him. Then came the cars. Upon the
sides of each were painted such pictures
as must have whetted the curiosity Of
the unlearned. But two were opened.
In one was "the massive and blood
sweating behemoth Of holy writ"-a
hippopotamus! In the other man sat
in safety with unclaimed lions on his
every hand.
What more there was in the parade,
how many ladies in remarkable skirts
and gentlemen in the armor of knights,
how many clowns and how many cages,
do not know. But 1t was magificent
spectacle. 1t wound about those streets
that had always before been common
place. and 1t grew more wonderful as it
advanced. know, for followed it.
II And then 1t vanished into the spread
'ng walls of the canvas city and was
J. st. The beauty and the loveliness
ould have vanished from the earth
It for the glare and flare and marvel
that circus day.