Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-10-21
THE OLDUTRCUSsMAN AM
HIS TALK ABOUT THE FIRST eouvE-
 MRS GIVEN BY SHOW PEOPLE.

raffe = Thrilling Incident Which Att
 tended One Performance-How the Peo-
 pie Stood on the GirafTe's Shadow.
 "The first souvenirs ever knew of being given out in the show business, said the old circus man, five gave away in our show at the time we had the big IS foot giraffe. We never had an att traction that beat the big giraffe. The people were just carried away with him. There wasn't anything about him but what interested them, even the slightest little things. On clear days, when we were where we could do it and the sun was right for us, we used to get the giraffe out in front of the entrance of the main tent and have him stand there like a great sentry. People used to stop and look up at him, and then the first thing you know somebody d dis. cover his shadder. Anybody'd cast long shadder at that hour of the day, of course, but the giraffe's shadder reached as far as you could see. And as soon as one man begun to look at it 40 others 1 LOGO people at a time line up long that shadder and just stand along the edge of it down past the main tent and the sideshow tents, just standing there lcokin at it. The giraffe was great, but his shadder fairly staggered lem. And there they q stand till the sun dropped down under the edge of the earth, and the first thing they knew there wasn't any shadder. Then they'd stare at each other for minute, and then all bunch up together again and look at the giraffe till we took him in.
 " We used to have a line on the pro- gramme saying that at clock and at o'clock the great giraffe would hand around ice water. That's where the sou Yenirs come in. We used to give away the glasses the water was in. The glasses were marked, Souvenir of the Great Giraffe, and whoever got 'em could keep lem. The seats in cur circus were divided into four sections. We used to 1 give away four dozen tumblers at every performance, one in each section. When the time come, we'd march the giraffe around the edge of the ring, and in front of each section his keeper would hand him a wire holder holding dozen glasses, which he would take by the handle in his mouth. Tail as he was, he could reach easy to the highest back seats. It's astonishing how people used to grab for those glasses. It seems as though the whole section would stand up on the seats and all grab for the holder when it come near lem. They q spill the water and get wet and have the greatest time you ever heard of, bur nobody got hurt, and so we just let her buzz along. But finally something did happen,
 At one evening entertainment when ne was serving out the souvenirs, when xe come to one of the sections, there was 5 man sitting on the fourth tier frOni the top who picked up his boy, brigh, looking youugater about 10 years old, who was sitting alongside of him, and sat him up on bis shoulder. The giraffe lifted the holder up and swept # al9ne the seats with the people grabbing, and when 1t come near this man with tht boy or his shoulder the man just lifte6 him up so that the boy could stand o1 ais shoulders, lie was going to get oni anyway, and when the holder cani along the boy made a grab for il. Therl was only one glass left in it then, hu the boy got it, He upset it lifting it o1 of the holder and scattered the wat1 all over everybody, but that didn
 count. He got the glass and was com ing down with 1t when his father, in stead of feeling him jeunce down on hi
 shoulder, felt his weight growing light er, and the next minute be and every
 body else saw the boy suspended in tn
 air. When tho giraffe saw the last glas
 go, he lifted the holder, the way he al ways did, to clear the people befor
 swinging it around and down to tn keeper. This time when he lifted it tn
 buttons on the outside of the cuff of tn
 boys jacket got caught in the wires They were sewed on tho way mother
 sew on buttons, and they held th youngsters weight easily, and whel the giraffe lifted the holder up he lite,
 the boy with it.
 ''Then there was 6 scene. We knev
 tuS SlIauS NOuAuH uulb uys Uub 1 looked to the people as though he hal the boy in his teeth and was going t. sling him through the other end of no where. The whole audience rose up an, stood leaning forrard, watchin anc never sayin boo, but tho giraffe swung his neck around as gentle and easy a the arm of crane and lowered tht holder and tho boy hanging to it saf'
 into the arms of the keeper in the ring The boy hadn't even dropped the tum bier.
 linen the people did holler, and tn giraffe walked off as stately as yol
 please, the boy climbed back up to hi pop, and the show went on. Nobod, hurt, but when wa run out of the Eum blers we had OH hand we adopted an