The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-15
GREATEST OF ALL GIANTS.
The Old Circus Man Gives Further
Particulars Concerning Him.
New York Sun.

New 4OrK sun.
"One thing that the great giant. of whose
size / have been trying to give you some
idea by these little Stories used to do that
impressed the people nightly Was Was his his
Circus circus man. ''He'd sit down on the roof
of a house, with his feet on the ground,
just anybody might sit In chair with
his feet on the floor. If course, don't mean
that he could sit down that way on one OF
these twenty or thirty-story buildings that
we have nowadays i'll cities, but an Ordinary
two-story-and-attic house did make seat
of just about a comfortable height for him.
and always, when we could, We used to
have him sit down on such house some
where along the line of the parade.
1.-THE great giant used to march In the
street parade, and we always managed to
stop the procession somewhere to give the
horses a. rest or let the animal cages catch
up, or something, and at Sucn a time the
giant used to take the opportunity to SIT
down and rest himself a little. He step
out of the line and look ahead to see that
the stop wasn't simply incidental, but
regular stop where they were likely 10 STANG
for a minute or two or more, ana tnen ne
keep right on and step over the renee OF
whatever house he happened to be IN 'front.'
of and sit down on the roof with MS reef
in the front yard. We We're on the ROAD
mostly in the summer, and 1t was likely TO
be warm and the giant would take or ms
hat as he sat there and take handkercnle1
as big as a tablecloth out OF MS pocket
wipe his forehead, and then put MS nat pack
on and put his handkerchief back In ms
pocket and put his hands down on each side
of him. on the edge of the roof, and look
down I,,'i at the people. And you ought to have
seen the people gawp and stare at him!
''You know it always used to look as
though all this, the hating and the giant
sitting down, and all that was purely ac-
cidental; but, as matter of fact, 1t was al
carefully arranged in advance. 1t Wouldn
do of course, to let the giant sit down on
any fiinisy house he might come to; ne
might smash it down and do himself some
injury: and so we used to have the mouse
for him to sit down on all picked out ahead.
One of the first things the old man used 10
the line of march and pick out a good, old
fashioned, solid. Square-UmDered, suDSlan-
tial house. and one that was open to the
road-that is, with no trees in front TO pre-
vent the giant from getting to 1t easily. or
that would much obstruct the vleW--and then
we used to have everything arranged SO that
when the procession happened to stop 1t
would so happen that the giant was brought
right in front of this house. And we never
had the slightest trouble over 1t of any sort
until one day when the show made an extra
stop and the giant, really tired ana not
stepped out of the line and sat down on the
first building that came handy.
I'VE made that extra stop for a very good
reason. BY one of those unaccountable ac-
cidents that will happen in the very pest
regulated outfits. the king bolt of the band
wagon had broken and made mess OF
things there, and, of course we had to stop
right where we We're 70 repair daIna az anu
and it took some little time; and all hands,
except the men that were up at the front
at work made themselves as comfortable
''Right opposite to where the giant hap
pened to be there was a big new barn going
up. There was only the frame up yet none
of the boarding on it, but 1T was built of
heavy timbers and it looked good and solid
and strong enough to hold up anything,
and when the procession halted and 1t was
seen that it was going to stay there for
some little time the great giant stepped out
of the road and over to that frame and sat
down on it. He'd just sort of settled him
self and thrown one foot over the other
on the ground in front Of him when the
frame began to give way under him. / don
know what was the matter, but probably
the pins that held the frame together hadn't
been driven yet, but, anyhow, when one
thing started the whole thing went. The
giant tried to get up to his feet, to get away
from it, but he couldn't. He went down with
it, scattering timbers and joistS and beams
in all directions; for about a minute you
could see the legs and arms of the giant
as he went down. flying around among the
flying sticks. Well, it was a pretty serious
business, really. But the knights and ladies
on horseback, and the drivers of the wagons
that was within sight laughed till they cried,
and / don't know as there was any reason
why they shouldn't, for the men had all
jumped for him on the minute, but every
thing was down before they could reach
him. and they saw the giant himself, who
was as good natured as he was big, smiling
in the ruins, and not harmed bit, and
when he got up and stood up in the road
and said he guessed he'd stand UP now till
they got ready to start they laughed again,
We'll, do you know, that farmer de-
manded pay for the barn? He did, for sure;
1920. If anything had happened to the great
a hundred times that wouldn't have made
good the damages to us But the old man
said pay 1t, and be thankful that nothing
had happened to the giant, for his sitting
down on q building like that was certainly
a careless, incautious thing for him to do"