The San Francisco call., 1898-06-19
AMERICAS BIG SHOW MEN.

Charles A. Davis, gray, sedate and scholarly, probably has more informa- ton about shows and showmen than any living man connected with amuse- ment enterprises.
 Jim Bailey" said MT. Davis, started about thirty years ago as a billposter with his little armful of 'one-sheets' and can of paste, and to-day he Is far and away the greatest figure in the amusement field of both hemispheres, and probably doesn't know himself how much he is worth financially. James A. Bailey-to give him his full cognomen-is now sole owner of the Barnum- Bailey, nearly half owner of Buffalo Bills Wild West, and has a large interest in the Forepaugh- Sells clrcuSeS, the three largest amusement enterprises the world has ever known. Jim Bailey Is to-day a bigger man than Barnum was in his prime, and old Phineas would open his eyes if he could come back to earth and get a squint at Jim and his rolling-stock shows
 And the best of it is that Bailey to- day is about the same as he was at the start-quiet, unassuming and demo- cratic. Jim wears just the same size nat he did thirty years ago and pays about the same price for it."
 Of W. W. Cole MT. Davis said:
 Billy Cole Is more like an Episco- palian minister than a snowman. but Ill his way he is a wonder. He is a scholarly, dignified, distinguished per- sonage, who always did and always will insist on the highly moral and 'edu- cationaP value of his aggregation;' and this isn't mere buncombe, he means It. Cole was originally a schoolmaster In the South, who somehow came into possession of an insignificant wagon, one-ring circus. In few years he was sole owner of the Mammoth New Orleans Circus which simply coined money on tie Southern circuit ] also organized seVe. Il circus enterprises for Europe. retaining the principal owner snip. About twelve years ago, when less than 40 years old, he retired from the American field with a colossal for tune; and only since the organization of the Forepaugh- Sells has he re-en- tered It."
 Of the Sells Brothers-Ephraim, Peter and Lewis: ''The Sells boys are the typical American round-top hustlers,' and theirs was no royal road to suc- cess. Cleveland, Ohio, was their jump ing off place, and they got into the show business almost with their first
 
 ago the boys got tocether some sort of a tent show, with a few freaks, a ma gician, big drum, a bigger gong, like wise one superannuated mule and a nondescript wagon made by themselves from jetsam and fotsam from a wagon makers scrap heap; and so started out to make their fortune in the Middle West.
 For good many years their prog ress was almost as slow as their motive power-the mule-but they kept on hus- tling and adding to their Aggregation bit by bit until they had the nucleus of real show In the winter months they took to anything or everything to tide them over and add to their cap ital; and during these periods Peter gained some valuable experience as a newspaper man In his native city
 And so they struggled on, hardly known in the business,' but growing month by month and year by year, un- til about ten years ago The Sells Brothers Colossal Circus, Menagerie and Hippodrome' became factor and had to be reckoned with by the route makers of the Barnum and Forepaugh concerns. In 1891 the Sells boys took their colossal for years trip to Aus tralia and the East Indian archipelago, and returned to take their place as one of the three great circuses of the United States. Three years ago they. with Bailey and Cole. swallowed up the en- tire Adam Forepaugh collection"