The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-10-30
BARNUM'S IN ENGLAND.
Five Big Ocean Steamers Required to
Take Over the Show

| steamships were required to carry
] across to England only so much of the
| Barnum & Bailey show as was to be
used in the one winter season of 18S9-90.
/ Now the entire show is going over, for
/ it is to remain in Great Britain two
| years, and possibly an additional year
1 or two on the continent.
| Consequently its moving is one that
may well call the British Lions atten-
| ton, and fix it, with amazed concern,
! upon the dOings of the American Eagle.
/ Nearly all the thousand employees who
/ are to be taken over will be carried on
| passenger steamers, and the last of
/ them Will have taken their departure
| ON Nov. r.
| OF the material of circus and menag-
erie there is so much that it loads to
| their utmost capacity five of the
| largest freight steamers a1oat. These
| Will be sent off as rapidly as possible,
! the last-scheduled for Nov. 12-taking
| the menagerie and horses.
Preparations for this move have been
making all the past summer. Reserve
cages and wagons at Bridgeport have
| been cut down and rebuilt to exact di-
mansions, fitting them for railway
! transportation in England, and like
| changes have been steadily going on in
| adaptation of the cages actually in use
| during the tenting season. The English
! railway tunnels and bridges are lower
! than ours, which necessitates all this
work
At the same time a large force of cos
| tuners have been constantly employed
making three complete sets of new
costumes of the most gorgeous and
costly kind, for all the performers, at
| tendants, ushers and others connected
| with the show. Even yet, 40 seamstress-
| es are engaged in this work. And all
| this is in addition to the costumes for
| 1,ZUO persons, VINO are to appear in the
| great spectacle of THE Mahdi," which
will be produced in London. Those are
| now in process of construction on the
| other side.
| New harness and trappings for 400
| horses and a vast quantity of parapher-
! MALTA, properties and appliances for the
/ ring performances are made and ready
| for shipment. And another tremendous
| item in the list of new provisions is
| the outfit of tents-200 of them-one of
| which will be the largest ever seen any
| where.
The Olympia, in which the show will
| appear in London, is at least one-third
/ larger than Madison Square Garden,
| and has a stage APO feet long by so feet
/ IN depth. The Mahdi," being gotten up
| on scale suitable for that gigantic
| stage, the tent in which the spectacle,
/ with the rest of the show, will be pre-
scented after the London season, must
necessarily be of size to accommodate
| it. So it is 595 feet long and 210 feet
| wide. No such tremendous structure of
| canvas has ever been reared before.
/ 1t viii not only have space along one
! side for that huge stage, but will seat
/ $4,000 persons, and present an arena
| large enough for the long line of rings
| and stages to which the patrons of the
/ big show are accustomed, and a hippo
| drome course surrounding them, on
| which three chariOts, with four horses
| harnessed abreast to each, may be
| driven side by side. The poles and
! seats, even the pegs, for that big tent,
| are made here Then there will be a me-
! nagerie tent 1856 feet long by 1876 feet
wide; two horse tents, one 2S5 by 14O
! feet, the other 235 by 40; side show
| tent and "curiOsities'' tent, each $50 by
! go feet; cooking and dining tent, $50 by
! IS feet; blacksmith tent. dressing room
/ tent $50 hW 60 wardrobe a
| tent, public refreshment tent, etc, 20
| in aIl-literally a canvas city. The mag
| zeal celebrity with which the city springs
| into being, the overwhelming magni-
! tude of it when erected and the sud
/ denness with which it is made to van
! ish, viii undoubtedly amaze the people
! of England, who have never seen any
| thing at all approximating to it. And
/ a show that travels by rail will be an
! other startling novelty for them.
| The firm of William Henshaw & Co.
] of StOke-on-Trent, have constructed an
/ entire new railway outfit for the Bar
/ mum & Bailey show, consisting of so
| long, and these will be suited for use
! on any of the railways of Europe eX-
/ cept those of Russia, where a different
] gauge is maintained as a precaution
/ against the possibility of invasion by
| rail with the rolling stock of other
! countries.
| The building of these so cars and the
| erection of permanent winter quarters
! at Stoke-on-Trent, where a series of
/ buildings $40 feet long has been put up
! for the show, have together cost Mr.. J.
A. Bailey little over $4,000
| All the printing for use in England
| has been done by the StrObridge and
! Buffalo Courier companies and amounts
/ to about $500, 900, so much of it at least
/ as will be taken along now. Two or
! three times as much more will be re-
! quired by and by as the present stock
| is used up, and all will be obtained in
this country Small house bills. pro-
m ms TJ1E 17scf re1x-
| important work, may be procured in
| England, but such great cOlOred posters
! as this show employs could not be got
over there, and the display it makes
/ will be as much a surprise to English
| color printers as to the general public
Taking into account the $10O, 900 nee
| essary for expenditure in fitting up the
! Olympia for the extraordinary require
| ments of the big show the outlay for
| printing, new costumes, trappings, tents
| cages, wagons, cars, winter quarters.
| etc, the investment actually made in
| transferring this show to London, not
| including whatever the cost of the stu
pendous ''Mahdf' spectacle may be,
| viii very closely approximate to ST.
| OO0,0 900, if. indeed it does not exceed that
| sum, before the doors of Olympia are
| opened to the public.
! To carry out his plans, which includes
| the keeping of one show in Europe and
! two in this country, permanently, Mr..
| J. A. Bailey has associated with him
/ one of the oldest, and by long odds the
| richest men of the United States, Mr..
! w w. Cole.
over s1,5OO,OOO worth of most profit
| able real estate in ChicagO-One plot of
/ which brings an annual rental of S1O0-
/ 000-belongs to Mr.. Cole. and it has
! been supposed that he had definitely re-
! tired from active business. Such mag
/ nificent schemes as Mr.. Bailey's have
| tempted him into the hurry -burly again
J however. While Mr.. Bailey manages
/ the big show in London, Mr.. Cole will
! direct the wild West and the Sells
aFaa1 1r~f1 CHI in
| in the eastern and the other in west
/ ern circuit.
BACCHANTE FINDS A HOME.