The Portland daily press., 1899-06-02
FoREPAUGH s. SELLS BROS. CIR.
CUSES.

Charley" Davis, special agent Of the
famous Forepaugh-S Brothers Circus
Federation, which scored such sensa-
tional triumph at Madison Square Gar.
den, New York, in April, is as full of
reminiscences as a yellow canins is full
Of fieas. Last night at the Falmouth
House he RECALLED q party of congeniaI
spirits with variegated collection of
circus. stories. Among them was the tale
of the fierce struggle between the old
Forepaugh show and the aggregation of
Phineas T. Barnum and James A. Bailey
during the season of "a. This campaign
has been dubbed the white Elephant
War by the circus people. To quote the
veteran Davis;
ut will be remem bered each show pos
sessed sacred white elephant of Siam. ;
Not content with its possession each
endeavored with tiger-like ferocity to dis
credit the genuineness Of the elephant of
the other. All the other attractions were
lost sight.of insthe advertisements calling
attention to the sacred elephant attended
by retinue of Siamese priests. Each
management expended thousands Of dol.
lars in efforts to establish the genulneness
of his animal and to disprove the claims
of the other. 1t was without doubt the
hottest circus fight that ever came of, in
this country. No agent who participated
in 1t will ever forget it, and it was
case of work night and day for six
months. At the close of the season of "a,
the public had become fatigued with the
Fight, and the.up-to-date managers imme-
sacred pachyderms and number of
prayer-ohanting Siamese priests were
minus their jobs.
notwithstanding the fact that the
stery of the death, by the pneumonia
route, of the Forepaugh white elephant
In November, "a was, telegraphed all
over the country, ana generally believed,
that very volatile and versatile animal is
still with the troupe The winter follow
ing his extinguishment as a sacred els-
phantine deity, he was taught to do
boxing act with his trainer, big, black
'Eph' Thompson-a very remarkable
negro, blythe way, who Ia now running
a circus of his own in Germany. Thomp-
son renamed the elephant John l.. Sulli-
van, in honor of the Boston boy, and by
that name he was known for several seas-
ons until the no velty of the thing wore
on with.him and he began landing knock
out blows in place of the gentle taps he
was supposed TO deliver. This led to his
second retirement as feature, but it was
not for long. An elephant is not worth
much to sawdust imEressario unless he
can be utilized for other than exhibition
purposes.
:" Transformation number three found
John l.. Sullivan answering to the name
o, Othello, and the Jealous Moor he is
today, being one of the Shakespearian.
named elephantine cavaliers in the group
OF eight big pachyderms that form
quadrill set and tread the measures of the
old-fashioned country-barn dance. Othel-
10 is still the star elephant of the county.
Patsy Msagher and other experts pro.
Mt unos him the wisest OF sall elephants.
He is only twenty two yearsold now and
has time for many more careers. Bar
mum and Bailey,s Albino pachyderm
was burned to death in the Bridgeport
fire of 's7.
The dancing elephants created furore
wherever Forepaugh and Sells exhibit.
The big dual show Is scheduled for ex-
ploitatiOn in this city next Yuasdav