The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-11-19
THE CIRCUS DIALECT.
A VETERANS RECITAL OF OLD rIml
EXPERIENCES.

Il
A veteran circus man wandered into the /
tent Of one Of the great and only" COM
binations which appeared In Rochester not |
long ago, and as a rehearsal was In prog
ress he entered into an easy conversation |
with such Of the performers a. had time TO
converse.
"Of course you sawdust hoppers have
moro room to dress In" he remarked,
ethan we had In the old days. and you
have better lights and all that. 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 oil and
stolen all the candNS And the crowd
roarcd, and there were lot Of fights, and
Il was a moonlight night, and the boss
squeeze had them rip of the hood, and
they finished tho performance by moon
light But 1t left bad name, for all the
'grafters' and guns were 30 busy they
couldn't tell whether they were touching
jays or people that belonged with the
show"
"Made good money then. didn't youi"
asked the equilibrist
Eyes, good money. was wise man
then-worked hard all the time for good
wages and never had a cent. There wasn't
half dozen men In the business who could
turn double. OF course, there were lots
of hair grabbers, but I guess was az good
as any of them. had a aide partner one
season. His name was VIM, and he was
q candy butcher. He worked that for .
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 pey any attention. He
got 90 careless quit him, and then he
took up with new man as we came into
Columbus, and q 'joey boy was coming
into the tent with q broad In his hand,
and the new man thought he was '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 AGAIN."
asked one Of his hearers.
"No. We didn't have any 'ollie, and
| the fixer had arranged 20 that all the Off
| GERS In Columbus should 60 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 a double
| and slide trick that made him lots of mon
ey.
"Thsrs was where we lost 'Peachy,'"
| continued the old circus man after pause.
"He was the making Of the greatest Of ali
hair Qrabbers, 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 q killing at fare
out west and was gay as bird Of paradise
when we came to Hannibal 1 was smok
ing Is cent punks-and they were punki
for that money In those days, tell you
And had silk 'mush, with gold handle
and steel ribs-paid 50 for 1t at st. joe
and hid 1t under box that night at Han
nibal, and some one reached IL and ooppet
1t while was hunting my rozin. 1couldn'
chase him, but the dame that ssvs the cos
tunes did, and he stepped In grumme
where the menagerie top had been all Ola,
and sprained his ankle. The 'mush' wa
broken when she brought 1t back, but sh
told me his 'glimmers' were as black a
his top piece. But bowed myself all tn
way up to Independence, and by the tim
we got there l had to hook my spark
Good timesp' And he chuckled enjoyably
Funny thing" said one Of the acrobat'
HE brings up tho old style show SO plair
IL can see 1t again as 1t was when wa
, q boy"
"And many year before" interjecte
the ringmaster.
Eyes, many a year before. I remembt
once In the old days tho layer out wer
] ahead and rallied the road out OF Niles, an
some kids took up all the sticks, and whe
: our wagon came along we had to hunt Il
!, the elephant tracks 1t was raining, an
: we couldn't find anything, and We g
lost"
: miles," said a younger performer r
= fiectiyely. "There's where we had kick
: from Kickerville. He had washed h
k pumps In the hotel and hung them .
a there to dry. He and his wife did doub
act on tho horses, and he called ACROSS
!, her in the dressing rooms and asked n
y where his pumps were, and she t)ld hi
she had forgotten to bring them, and
ripped out an oath and cursed the manag
ment and declared he would leave the sho
u the next day"
= "What's a 'broads' asked one Of 81
!. more youthful listeners who didn't undo
lt stand all the vernacular OF the Veterans.
"a broad is ticket TO the show, " W
the reply.
"And 'mushf'
D A .mush' IL an umbrella, and top
q tent, and the hood 10 the double pie
D. that covers the canvas about the cent
rs pole"
h And 'bloomers' are''-
=. "Yes. sbloomers' are trousers, and
, razor back Is man that loads the wago
!. A shoopecackel wagon carried the unms
70 ried performers. IL was q sort OF hg
y wagon, q pickup A gun Is pic
L. pocket, Q 'joey' n q clown-one kind
ic another--and an ollie Is policeman.
'hairgrabber' IL horseback rider. so
h, ia paper money. A 'spangler' 10 . p'
" former-any kind Of performer W
i, wears a costume And double q
- slide trick is used by dishonest ticket Sc
- ers to cheat people who come with I
:" BILLS"
II, "Say," cried the veteran ~ he return
q, from his tour of "the back OF the house
ur ~ don't know anything about this bu
or ness. There's q real property room,
Q dressing room and lot Of other room
all safe as q store. And these canvosm
wear linen collars might as well bre
n, away altogether. Give me broad g
he won't be stiff In the push at the 40
- and I'll como in at the front Ike stra
'' ger. don't know the circus business
moro, and I'm going to forget that o.
I, did" 80.
ID The manager gave him "broad"-o
ervise a ticket-and the bit OF pasteoos
was weighted with coin sufficient Tor a 81
a, meal or two. And. with the blessing O
" younger generation, tho old fellow hurr
g. acknowledgements Union and Advertise
-, Paris Models.
ow In Paris, at an inn near Place Roc
ate chouart, there is a regular exchange
led the hiring of artists models, and II
= assemble there every Monday and Tu