The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16
ONE DAY AT THE CIRCUS
HOW BRITIsHERs STORM THE DOORS
OF BARNUM's LONDON SHOW.
Best Writers I'm the Town Out to Re-
port the Opening at Olympia
The London Gay"
Correspondence Of the Journal.


LONDON, Jan. S-If / write again Of the
Barnum & Bailey show, it is because it is
the most prominent amusement feature in
the London eye, the most timely topic on
the London tongue, the pertinent paragraph
of the London press. 1t is not to say any
thing about the show itself but rather to
give pen picture as it were, of some en-
pertaining peculiarities of the British public
in relation thereto. We all know what the
big show is at home, all about its managers,
their methods of advertising, the slap-hang
of circus life. But there is something here
wholly unknown to our dear American pub
lic-much that would cause them to open
their eyes in wonderment-to crack their
sizes with laughter; so much, in fact, that
1 almost despair of my ability to place the
picture before them as it is unrolled before
me from day 20 day.
London is circus mad. To state the mat
ter gener9';v in any other terms would be
to put it t. mildly in expressing the situa-
ton. 1t is simply stark, staring mad-to
bowls, Mysteries, and idolatrous idiocy. You
must comprehend this first; then you will
be prepared to understand the amusing de-
tails that spring from the prevalent malady.
When 1 think of this proverbially cold, re-
served, phlegmatic race, and hear all this
whooping and bowling, and see all of this
dancing and prancng-and bear in mind
that London is the metropolis of souls and
brains, and business Of the world am
fairly engulfed in my own amazement. Yet
there are the long lines of Londoners
waiting outside in the fog and rain
from 10 in the morning till 10 at
night, unbroken-pressing upon the
mighty doors of vast Olympia. These
lines attack both sides of the building,
swelling at midday into thousands; at 1, the
hour set for the opening of the doors, be-
coming half frantic mob. Before the aft
ernoon crowd gets in, the night audience be-
gins to accumulate in the rear, and thus the
pressure from without apparently goes on
increasingly. And these represent mainly
the one, two and three shilling seats the
higher priced being disposed of largely at
various points in the city. To get inside
there is degree of hustling and showing,
and other phases of physical force that
would be impossible in New York, and is
rarely seen about the ticket wagon on the
road. This continues for an hour-and then
come the disappointment and rage of the
hindmost, who get into the lobbes finally to
find ''all seats for this performance are sold
promenade tickets only!'' The last-named
everything but the circus and spectacle. But
one afternoon 5000 of these were disposed of,
in addition to all seats and still there were
not less than 5000 persons outside! 1 have
seen the Barnum show under many favor
able circumstances in city and country at
home, but nothing like this. And the prices
are higher here, too--$15 for an arena box,
$3.50 for a box seat, against $12 and 81 at
Madison-square Garden.
NO FULL-PAGE "ADS."
The crush, however, is but an item of the
story. The London press has teemed with
notices, advance and contemporaneous, of
the big show. 1t will amuse every Ameri-
can journal and journalist, know, when 1
say that the advance of the great show
came down upon London strengthened by
special writer's from home and by skilled
local talent on the spot, and prepared to
take pages of advertising, and on the
strength of this valuable patronage unload
the customary notices" special stories,"
ETC., familiar to us at home. Well, few
of the papers kindly consented to give up
certain advertising space under certain con-
ditions, some would let the show in for one
fourth or less of what was asked and some
refused point blank to give a page under
any conditions. And as for those cleverly
concocted notices and those fascinating
Stories in which the name of the show
was merely mentioned as if by accident,
not line would be received or printed-not
a line. Not a line of such material has
been used by the London press before or
since the opening of the show. But it
proved very early that this was not because
Of any unfriendliness; it was simply not the
London way. This way was quickly demon
strated by the appearance of from seventy
to eighty reporters of the London press,
who have since then out-Heroded Herod in
show writing. And these. for the most
part are scholarly men in the prime of life
or past-more often past than of our home
types-whose cunning use of the English
language in the art of composition makes
me feel like laying aside the pen forever.
They took up the freaks with more avid
ity than schoolboy takes to pie, and with
a particularly of detail and picturesque
ness that were actually idiotic from
my point of view. They wrote up"
the whole show from day to day in a
style and with a strength of statement that
would put any advance man in America
to the blush. No press agent of our land
could put that overwhelming unanimous
ness of praise into, every line and para
graph, or evolve the unctuous laudatory
humour from trivial things as has been
done by those gentlemen of the London
press. OF the opening performances even
the heaviest papers gave columns that
could not be excelled by any press agent
with carte blanche. To the aid of the
dailieS came the pictorial weeklies with
pages of sketches, ad libitum, until one
would think the entire London press had
conspired to help the American Snowman
to put English money in his inside pockets.
The only term of criticism thus far is that
the show is bewildering-too much-too vast
for ordinary comprehension.
Now, 1 know you'll say they are circus
mad. Along the stations of the under
ground the guards add to the names of the
stations, "and to the Barnum & Bailey
Show" And Of all the pushing and hauling
and scrambling of men, women and chill
dren for places in these trains a couple of
hours previous TO the opening hour every
day, the like was never seen save on foot
ball day on the Sixth-ayenue elevated road
in New York, or in Chicago during the
worlds fair. After two or three disagreea-
Charing Cross and the Olympia. This thing
is calculated to make an American tired.
THE BRITISH JAY"
But 1t is within the immense Olympia it.
self that the London ''jay'-yes, L say
Jay" for no country town in the United
States could produce a collection Of human
ity more deserving of the appenation-is to
be seen in all of his well-dressad civiIi1ad