The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-09-05
SKETCHES OF SHOWMEN
Bailey is Modest, Cole PiOus Looking
and the sells Bros. Swift.

Bailey is Modest, Cole PiOus Looking
and the sells Bros. Swift.
Colonel Charley Seeley, scholar.
Snowman and seer, undoubtedly pos
sesses more information about shows d3i
showmen than any living man connected
with amusement enterprises.
Colonel Seeley Is a special agent IF tie
Combined Adam Forepaugh and Sells
Brothers Circuses, which organization Is
scheduled for an early appearance in
Wichita. James A. Bailey ,ona d the
most interesting, picturesque and sue
cessful arenic chieftains the world has
ever known, now in England with the
Barnum and Bailey show, IS Associated
with Sells Brothers and ". W. Cole in
the exloitation of the Forepaugh-Sells
Brothers Combination.
Jim Bailey" said Colonel Seeley last
night at the Hotel Carey, 'broke into the
business thirty-four years ago as a bill
poster, and today he is far and away
the greatest figure in the amusement
field of both hemisDheres, and probably
doesn't know himself how much he Is
worth financially. James A. Bailey, to
give him full cognomen, is now sole own
er Of the Barnum-Bailey outfit, half own
er of Buffalo Bits Wild West, and has a
large interest in the Forepaugh-Sells cir
Gus. Everybody knows. of course, that
these enterprises are the largest amuse-
ment institutions on earth. Jim Bailey
has out-Barnumed the late Phineas T. in
every way, and the old guy would open
his eyes in amazement If he could come
back to earth and get a sauint at Jim
and his three big show plants.
"And the best of it is that Bailey today
is the same as he was at the start
quiet unasuming and democratic. jim
wears just the same size hat he did
thirty yeas ago and pays about the
cess: Brains, originality, hustle and
strict attention to detail-the smallest as
well as the most important.
Bailey was the first man who had
pluck enough to take glib show around
the world, and made his first 800, 900 when
in 1876 he took the CooDer-Bailey circus
to Australia, India and South America.
He then, in 1878, bought the English
Howes-Cushing circus, and became a
formidable rival to Barnue. In
1881 he united his outfit with that of
Barnum, which was the beginning of the
gigantic circuses of today"
OF w. W. Cole Colonel Seeley said:
BILLY Cole is more like an Episcopal
minister than a Snowman, but in his way
ne Is a wonder. He Is a scholarly, digni-
fed, distinguished parsonage, who always
did and always will insist on the highly
moral and 'educationaP value of his 'ag
gregation.' and this isn't mere buncomb;
he means it. Cole was originally a school
master in the south. who somehow came
into possession of what would nowadays
be called a liSht-waisted, one-ring circus.
In a few years he was The sole owner
of the Mammoth New Orleans Circus.
which literally coined money on the
southern circuit. He also organized sew
eral circus enterprises for Europe, re-
tanning the principal ownership. Twelve
years ago. when less than 10 years of
age. he retired from the American fed
with an enormous fortune and only since
the organization of the FOrepaugh-Sells
establishment has he re-entered it,
THE Sells boys are the typical all
theirs was no royal road to success,
Cleveland. Ohio, was the jumping off
place. and they got into the show bust
ness almost with their first long pants.
Twenty-Five years ago the boys got to-
gether some sort of a tent show. with
a few freaks, a magician, a bear and a
couple OF monkeys, a big drum, a bigger
gong. likewise one superanuated mule
and a nondescript wagon made by them
selves from ietsam and iotsam from "a
wagonmaker's scrap heap and so they
started out to make Their fortune in the
middle west.
For a good many years their progress
was almost as slow as their motive pow
er-the mule-but they kept on hustling
and adding to their aggregation bit by
bit, until they had the nucleus of real
show In the winter months they took
anything or everything To tide them over
and to add to their capital, and during
these periods Peter gained some valua-
BILE experience as a newspaper man in his
native city.
And so they struggled on. hardly
known in the business but growing
month Dy month ana year DE year until
a dozen years ago The Sells Brothers
Colossal Circus, Menagerie and Hippo
drome' became a factor in the tented
world. and had to be reckoned with by
the route-makers OF the Barnum and
Fo-epaugh concerns. In 1891 the Sells
boys took their Colossal for a years
tri oto Australia and the East Indian
archipelago. and returned to take theiY
place as one Of the three great circusas
OF the United States. Three years age
| they with Bailey and Cole swallowed