Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1898-05-14
A CLOWNS HATE.

Toulon was focking to this farewell
representation. At the doors beneath
the Pickering CLEAN of the rows of gas
lights there was oeaseless crush and
movement--an endless line was slowly
winding it's way in, hating at every
step and hammering the sounding
planks with a confused clatter All
around on the notice boards stuck in the
ground the colors Of the flaming posters
were displayed and, bathed in the garish
light, dazzled the eye. In the crowd Of
spectators and idlers every one was
reading aloud the placard which stood
conspicuous in 'front.'
Positively the last time this even
ing. Last performances of Prince Icarus,
the flying man, of Mile. Rita and of
Hsop, the grasshopper clown"
Within the circus the seats were al
ready OVERLOOKING, and the same names
repeated from mouth to mouth blended
into a general murmur deadened by the
canvas roof over the ring. Some of the
circus men were raking the sawdust Oh
the track, and above the door to the
stables the musicians were languidly
tuning their Instruments or at times
addressing friends who passed beneath
the gallery. "That you? Marius, how
goes it," etc. In the upper rows the
audience was alive with impatience for
the expected spectacle and irritated by
the passing of the young fashionable
first nighters '-envied frequenters be-
hind the scenes-who pressed in a
crowd to the narrow entrance leading
to the greenroom.
Officers in civilian dress and students,
ship brokers and idle handles, all wish
ed for the last time to get near the fair
Mile. Rita, the celebrated equestrienne,
who for a month had been the subject
of conversation III every messroom and
every club. They stepped along, the Ell.
bowed and he elhowers, between the
walls that were covered with sets of
vanished harness and begged pardon
every time they jostled groom. They
stopped at the stalls of Blue Devil and
Djinn the two trick Arabians, and I'M
der preteXt of giving some sugar to the
horses fluttered about the extemporized
dressing room where Rita, tranquil and
smiling, was donning her attire Then
came in succession the commonplace
compliments to which the star of the
circus, unheeding. scarcely deigned to
give an answer, without seeming to
note the ardent gaze Of her admirers.
She was a handsome girl. careless
gypsy, with the sun in her eyes and her
blood, accustomed to the atmosphere of
admiration, aud she finished her toilet
without hurrying. At times however,
impatiently, and with pretty, rebel
hous movement, she gave her shoulders
"a shake and made the pearls of her
necklace rattle. 1t was when the little
clown Hlsop, her husband, who, all be-
Toured and painted, was walking before
the room, his huge topknots swaying at
every step, drew near, and with his
sharp falsetto voice launched some
taunt at the artists couItiars. They
laughed, they even applauded, but more
often they lowered their eyes before the
cutting, cold gaze Of the dwarf, whose
wan and grotesque face, in spite of the
smile of his blood red and too large
lips, seemed at some moments TO be
fraught with evil.
This evening the manikin was in a
worse humor than usual. His jeers were
more biting and more bitter and beneath
the coat of flour covering his scanned
features he appeared not pale, but livid.
His eyes had a sharp and menacing fash
In them and never left Rita, who, gayly
posed before her mirror, was having her
bodice laced by the handsome gymnast
Icarus.
In the circus the orchestra was finish
ing o waltz by Metra. The curious were
gradually quitting the stable and re-
turning to their places. The sharp cuts
of the Iingmaster' whip were cracking
in the arena. The show had begun.
Icarus placed last rose in the hair of
the equestrienne and ran to chalk her
shoes. He stumbled against bis dwarfish
oomrade.
The clown seemed very busy in exam
ming the gas meter aud pushed him
away with an oath. Then without more
ado the acrobat sent him reoling and,
leaping on ladder, cried, with a laugh,
"Out of the way, you pitiful pygmy!
Asop uttered a roar of rage and an
ger; then, suddenly calming himself re-
turned to the meter and, after having
followed with an eye Of hatred the as
cent of Icarus, began fumbling with the
mechanism of the stopcocks,
A great clapping Of hands, frantic
ovation. Two hundred pretty women
dropped their fans and leveled their