The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-10-22
BARNUM'S SHOW HOMESICK.
4 TERT DTSTRxCrIHG PERFORMANCE
on BRITISH hOIL.

English and Scotch InteIlects Dazcd by an
American Neutrality-suspicious. In Second
| Piacc-American Ticket Takers and
British Crowd-Plensuro Taken Sadly.
CARLISLE, Eng. Oct a--Ycstcrday wo two
| American travellers being women and frivolous
minded. skurricd down hero from Dumfries and
! tasted new experience. We went to an Amcri
can circus on British soil There is no need TO
tell what circus it was, Everybody remembers
the wave OF emotions with which the United States
received the news that one Of Its proudest insti-
tutions had abandoned bridgeport, Conn, for
Stoke on Trent Yesterday one OF the managers
OF the great show produced a worn clipping from
his note book. 1t was the editorial In which
THE Sun commented on this nom len tous transfer
when get to the now spaper Offices over here,
he remarked. Il show EN- that editorial and they
howl"
He did not say why they howl After yoster-
days experience we hardly think they howl be-
, cause they see the joke. What VIC saw yesterday
confirmed a suspicion which has been gradually
growing in our minds; a suspicion that 1t is no
Joke to try to Joke with the average Briton. When
we returned to our mut.ons after yesterday s
show we had not tho faintest doubt that wo were
5000 miles from home Returned TO our NUT
tons, by the way, Is no empty phrase In this
land OF sheep After mutton chops for breakfast
roast mutton for dinner and cold mutton for
supper and four days out OF tho week at that 1t
Is phrase to mako nppettes tremblo. II 90 be
that they
We have been following in the wake OF tho cir
Gus for week, but ii always Just out OF reach
Yesterday morning, however, We arrived at Dunn
fries, where Burns died over q hundred years ago
and the circus showed the day before yesterday
Those two occurrences have closer relationship
than you might think. We got II from DUN
fries woman.
Was the great show here yesterday" VIC asked
They don't say circus in Scotland.
"Oh, ay" she said 1t was an awful day here
II was worse than tho centenary O. Burns!"
There you are. Tho celebration OF Burns's
centenary had been the high-water mark until
the American circus came to town. 1t was this
woman that told us the great show was at Car
lise the day" Al Carlisle7 Not much further
away than Sheridan was once upon timer Well
that was easy We took the noon train and landed
in a seven acre station swarmng with Border
country folk, for Carlisle is only ten miles from
Gretna Green. Out into the street We went with
tho rest our nerves all tngling with the pleasant
excitement which dates from the first circus we
ever saw and has been associated with everyone
We have seen since that epoch making event
The crowd was immense but as 1t simply took
possession of tho entire street. progress was com
paratively easy We had to dodge a drunken
man occasionally. but We had become experts al
that Performance in Scotland. where oppor-
tunitics for practice were never lacking Like
almost every British town. Carlisle has n market
place and TO this open square VIC drifted with the
crowd 1t was big paved place and its circus
day possibilities were enough to mako an Amer.
con Fourth of July fakir smack his Ups with glee
What place for pop corn stands and fountains
Df lemonade IN n
candy man who works great ropes Of sweetness
and swings them over an iron hook and oh! oh!
Discretion is the better part of description In
case like this
What had tho British mind done with this con.
junction of market place and circus? There
were a dozen stalls set up at one side Infants
dresses were displayed al tho first one; shoes al
the second: dry goods and notions at the third.
crockery at the fourth: but the sad enumeration
may as we'll stop here. We turned away with
dull sinking of the heart A group of men al
the curbstone attracted us and our hopes revived
Evidently something interesting was going on.
Yes, man was selling strings Of onions!
Then we began to have our doubts and to wonder
whether we were on the road to the show at all
The crowd there, but where was the color
the life. the gaiety, OF the usual circus tide2 We
asked a man II that was the way TO the circus
He stared and Grunted that he didn' know This
was strange but We hit upon another and sure
plan We sought out two half-grown boys and
asked them. They shifted from one foot TO the
other and said they didn't know! Then We fell
back stupehcd and began to have misgivings
10 whether there was any show at all. In Amer
lea. at p. NJ on circus day, would two half
grown boys mot know the way" TO the tents?
Clearly there was something wrong.
But there wasn't The circus was in town al
right and we found it by following the crowd,
which must have counted up into the thousands
good way, but II was orderly, in spite of the
drunken men. The latter seemed TO be regarded
as ships in distress and were obligingy towed
into harbor or helped along their cratic courses
Some of them hung. blinking and lettering, in
senlicircle in front Of the entrance to tho grand
tent They acted as if they were on blockade
service and meant TO do their duty at all hazards
They were match though for the American
ticket takers We secured COCO vantage points,
and watched one of the most ludcrous perform
ances we had eyer seen. 1t was the way in which
ten or dozen Americans got crowd of thousands
of Scotch and British into tent This sounds
very simple, but that is Just what it was not. In
OF tho big tent seemed to paralyzc them and they
stood gaping at it as il that was the whole show
Whereupon great big man at the outer end of
the entrance passages burst out:
l., o,b Io you Coming in or 90 you Just want to stand
get EN- We're taking EN- here, not selling EN-
G t out Ct here Eth? You've got tickets! We'll.
then. for heavens sake. 70 in"
And so on All Of which, it must he admitted
seemed TO make matters only worse The comy<nn
people over here can understand an American,
even when he speaks sUothngly and mildly
When they got into yesterdays hubbub, they wcie
like flock of sheep, bewildered and ready to bolt
after any leader. Once IN while some unusu,
ally confident youns man would swing up with
the demand.
where's the lour-bob place."
But most of them had to be pulled and pushed
along and treated as II they were children One