Omaha daily bee., 1897-05-03
RECOLLECTIONS OF DAN RICE
The Veteran Snowman Talks of the Early
Days of the Circus. 'i
A FAKE SPANISH MAN, OF IRON
Cannon Balls of India Rubber, the
Hooded Python, lnebrinte Bear,
and other Famous Fakes
of the Business. D..

category" said Dan Rice, the veteran clown
and Snowman, to a representative of the
Philadelphia Times. I'm all my career l
guarded against impostures aud fraud of all
kinds. we'll knowing that l had a reputation
to maintain, hut in spite of all my strenuous
efforts my agents would occasionally trick
me and succeed in cleverly humbugging the
American public, which, as all howmen
know, loves to be humbugged. One instance
of the kind in particular occurs to my mind.
1T was while playing the eastern states In
the early sos that l picked UP Bill Turner,
who, l am safe in saying, is the shrewdest
Snowman l ever saw, but he was unscrupu-
lous, and as ingenious as he was unscrupu-
lous. Bill was a likely looking young Yam
kee, smart and active, and quickly rose from
one position to another until he became
assistant manager of my circus. At New
buryport, Mass, Sig. Gustivo, the Italian
Samson, otherwise Bill Smith of Benefits
Mills, N. j., who had been astonishing circus
goers by his prodigious feats of strength,
got angry at something and deserted the
show.
That put me in a serious predicament, for
he had been widely advertised, and l had
no one to take his place. 1t was at tlat
j%uncture that Bill Turner appeared and
sought an interview with me at my hotel,
which ended in my engaging at 500 a week
Don Sebastian, the Spanish man of iron,
lOSe sptCldlly was " lIS Will idl sc NdAi
non balls
Turner was engaged at a moderate salary
as attendant upon Don Sebastian, who was
as bright a looking Irishman as l ever saw.
The engagement began at an afternoon per-
Torrance. when 1t took four men to carry
Sebastian's chest, containing four cannon
balls, into the ring. The ringmaster an
bounced the performance of a few feats of
strength and endurance by the strongest man
in the world, who handled cannon balls OF
200 pounds weight as easily as a woman
could handle balls of yarn. Sebastian picked
up the balls from the chest and laid them
with a deep, dull thud on the platform,
Then he placed a ball upon each shoulder,
where he balanced 1t, while he lightly tossed
a third to the top Of the tent and grace
fully caught it in its descent. The audience
went wild over his performance, and mani
tested their enthusiastic appreciation In a
tremendous outburst of applause as he ran
lightly from the ring. l was more than
satisfied with his success.
A RANK FRAUD.
Don Sebastian proved to be one OF the
strong drawing cards of my circus for sew
eral weeks, when to my surprise | one day
noticed that when he laid the balls upon the
platform the sound of their fall did not ring
out until a suspicicusly long time after
ward. l at once realized that there was
fraud concealed in the strong mans per-
formance; the therefore unrivaled reputation
U ILL., CllCuS d at Gldht, Nv 81 at ohSS L
quietly began an investigation, with the re-
suit that the Spanish iron man was salts
factorily proven to be a rank fraud.
THE cannon balls proved to be made of
rubber and were inflated with air like foot
balls. The dull, deep thud which r~esounied
when the balls touched the platform were
made with a heavy hammer in the hands of
an %accomplice behind the curtain. / felt
outraged at the deception and sorry for the
duped public, and hauled Turner vigorously
over the Goals, while Don Sebastian was re-
duced in rank and made a candy butcher.
Had I known that Turner was a party to
the deception" said the old Snowman,
earnestly, II would have Immediately dis
charged him. In view of subsequent events
I concluded that Turner was the leader in
the iron man fraud. Upon entering a Ken
lucky town, after a few days absence from
the show, 1 found one OF our most ex-
tensively advertised attractions to be the
Great Hooded Python of the Amazon, thirty
eight feet in length. The only specimen
ever in captivity 1t was further repre-
this reptile it was necessary to keep the
monster constantly under the influence Of
opiates. Upon entering the circus l found
4 great crowd of people viewing the python,
which was coiled in apparently deep slumber
in a glass-enclosed case. 1t was a great,
loathsome reptile, eight inches through.
Turner satisfactorily accounted for It's pres
ence and it drew crowds until | accidentally
discovered that it was cleverly made Of
linsey woolsey and stuffed with sawdust.
THE INEBRIATE BEAR.
I'm calmly looking back now over the
years l can plainly see that Bill Turner
lacked conscientious scruples,' said the
veteran clown, with as mile. There was the
inebriate bear, for instance. That was his
continuance. 1t was somewhere in the south
that l learned such a creature was exhibited
in Dan Rice's slow and lavishly advertised
as "A great animated temperance lecture,
approved by pulpit and press | saw the
attraction. 1t was a black bear that at
every performance waddled into the ring and
drank copiously from a large bottle OF cheap
whisky until thoroughly intoxicated, when
it would ludicrously stagger back to its cage.
One day | was Mortified to hear the drunken
bear burst out with a torrent of profanity,
Which was followed by the maudlin singing
of Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl while
the disgusting creature was led to a cage
behind the curtain. l humbly apologized to
the audience and said that there was no
accounting for the work of whisky.
"Withoat delay / went behind the curtain,
stripped the bearskin from the insulting
drunkard and gave Ben Dole, a canvasman,
the worst licking Of his life for his part in
the most outrageous fraud ever perpetrated
And the matter didn't end there. for the
newspapers got hold of the affair and vigor-
ously denounced me. and that was the first
stain ever cast upon my character as a moral
How did you settle with Bill Turner"
Colonel Rice was asked.
discharged him at once" was the reply.
Fl wandered to the west and became a
missionary or something or other among the
Indians. 1t took me some time to recover
from the ill-effects OF the inebriate bear
episode, which was one of the best paying
attractions l ever had on the road. 1t was a
pity that to me was attached the blame Of
foxy Bill Turner's imposture.l But ] got a
lot of free advertising from 1t, whether
profitable or Improbable. ail
HOoDOOS IN THE BUSINESS.
you may not know It, but there are
hcodoos in the circus business, as well as in
other lines of trade, said the voluble jester.
The only difficulty is I'd be able to know
what the hoodoo is and to get rid of ii. /
once old John Robinson's circus
constantly lost money on the central states
circuit, where two seasons before 1t had
made an unusually successful tour. Old
man John couldn't understand II, but finally
that he had a hoodoo somewhere
In his company. He knew that 1t could
not be among the members OF his stan,
neither was 1t one Of the performers, for
every one on that side of the circus had been
with him the season befufe, Which was one
of unequaled prosperity IN perplexity he
began to reorganize the other parts OF his
and new hands were discharged
by the Wholesale. At last he discovered the
hoodoo. 1t was a side show lecturer, who
always wore an alarmingly red necktie,
As soon as the lecturer was discharged the
circus prospered.
4".N