Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-08-23
CLOWNS AND THE CIRCUS.
Important Part which the Funny Men
Play with the Tented Show.

The Ringling Bros. circus will ex-
hibit in Davenport Saturday, Aug. 20,
and the clown will blaze forth in all his
glory. You could no more have a
circus without clowns than you could
have a masquerade without masks, or
pink lemonade without any pink in it.
Clowns are even little more impor-
tant in a circus than the animals or
the acrobats. In Ringling Bros. cir
Gus the time-honored clown is given
the full prominence he deserves in the
eyes of everyone who ever attended
the performance of 10 allied shows in
ope."
The circus clown dates his origin
back to the very beginning of the cir
Gus itself, and from time immemorial
he has been one of its most important
features. During the growth, devel-
opment and improvement in every
thing else he has by no means been
left behind. He is funnier now and
can do more tricks than ever before.
In the old days one clown sufficed to
satisfy the demands of all show-goers.
Today even an ordinary show needs
two Marks, two Topsies and four ST.
berian bloodhounds. In the early
days the one clowns star performance
consisted in his entrance in the char
acter of drunken man, staggeringly
mounting a steed and then standing
and shedding four suits of clothes in
every direction as he gallops about the
ring.
That accomplis hment single-handed
would not go far today. The clown of
the present must be frst-class hui
l., nd 10
ian all com ined. Clowns must be
great masters in the ''knockabout"
act. If they were not there would
be few dozen broken bones every
afternoon and night. But the aero
batic work is only small part of the
clowns performance. You can scarce
ly find 4 humorous phase of life
which the clowns do not touch, o
heroic feature which they do not bur-
lesque. Every character of any in
tercst whatever is initiated or carica-
tured policemen, politicians, capt.
talists, speakers, musicians and art
lists are given attention which delights
the crowd, for one of the things
which most pleases an American au-
dience is to see some one made fun
of. Probably no one ever enters a
circus ring to whom the clown does
not appeal. To the older folks there
is more fascination about the clio yn
than they would like to acknowledge,
for there is enough of the boy and
girl in every man and woman to riv-
ct the gaze on every antic of the
clowns. Circus people keep their
finger tips pretty close to the public
pulse, and the ever present
clown is a sure indication tina t
his presence and his didos are i'm
mensely pleasing to show goers. For
many years clowns never appeared
without the traditional whitened face |
and baggy costume, which the brill |
liant mule afterward used to pretend |
to mistake for hay, but with the bur-
lesquing of the former and every body |
else the clowns who do the caricatur- |
ing find it necessary to lay aside their |
white paste and ghostly attire and
adopt exaggerated limitations of the |
striking points of the dress of the |
characters they are initiating.
So popular have become the clown |
features of great circus in recent |
years men are beginning to have |
rivals and competitors in the field that |
are not to be snoored at. 1t goes |
without say that there must be plenty |
of fun and merriment at a successful
circus. and the proprietors are willing |
to adopt any expedient or to go to any |
expense to obtain it. So anxious are |
they to widen and improve the field
that they have drafted other than hu-
man material. so we have animals of /
the more intelligent families taking
hand in doing "stunts" that will
amuse human beings. No circus is
now complete without number of
animals trained to do funny turns in
to a full quota of human
clowns. So intelligent are some of
these clown animals that they almost
appear to see the humorous side of
the tricks they are performing.