Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-10

time was nothing but a barren piece OF
ground on which the circus men set their
tents and threw up one ring in which the
performance took place. The farmers used
to come to town and hitch their wagons
on Sixteenth street all the way from Capt.
toll avenue to Chicago street. and let hem
stand there while they went in to see the
performance. When the Jefferson square
site was deserted, the circuses moved down
to Lower Farnam street and showed on a
vacant plot on Ninth and Farnam, opposite
the Union Pacific headquarters. remem-
Der going to see Dan Rice's show down
there, which was a pretty good circus, al
though he carried no menagerie and kept
the free street parade down to the mini
mum.
"a few %circuses showed on the top Of the
hin, in the neighborhood of Twenty-ffth
and Dodge, and then they settled down for
several years to the old Kountze tract, in
the hollow near st. Mary's avenue. 1t was
there that the Coups' big consolidated cir
Gus aggregation used to display Itself, and
Barnum and Forepaugh's and all the lesser
circus lights. After the St. Mary's avenue
grounds were converted into a base ball
park the circuses went to the northern part
of the city, sometimes going as far as
Kountze place. More recently they cam
Dack nearer Town ana made the site OF
Twentieth and Paul their f~avorite.
81 remember about fifteen years ago the
first electric arc lamp I ever saw was
brought out with a circus, / think Fore
paugh's, and advertised as the greatest
novelty OF the age. The engine and dynamo
by which the electric current was generated
was hauled round the streets In the parade
and afterward set up outside OF the tent
and connected with the wires which fed
three or four arc lamps on the inside. The
engine kept putting away all through the
performance and sounded much like a fire
engine. I notice, however, that the circuses
have now all discarded the electric light, al
though they could have II without any such
inconvenience by simply connecting with the
city lighting company's wires. Just what
the reason Is for going back to gasoline is
not apparent.
while the three or four-ringed show Is
simply a multiplication OF the old o~ne-ring
circus, to most people 1t Is too much OF a
bewilderment. When they had one or two
clowns we could enjoy their antics. When
the clowns come out in herds It is too much
work to keep track OF them. In connection
with the clowns one thing that Is missed
is the head clown, who used to come out
and stand on a barrel and sing one or two
topical songs Of the day, after which he
would announce that this vocal gem, to-
gether with a great many others bound In
a book with his picture on the cover, would
be presented to members OF the audience in
exchange for 10 cents.
Another thing which was missed was the
final windup OF tumbling by the entire COM
pany, In which everybody ran down along
an inclined platform and turned somersaults
over the elephant. This was really an en-
joyable feature of the show. but 1t seems
to have been discarded for some reason or
another.
"A real improvement in the circus lies in
the trained animals and their acts, which
are certainly marvellous. ! remember when
the old ~circuses had one trained elephant,
but this last one had a whole troop divided
into squads OF five, and they put them
through the same performance simultane-
ously in three different rings, The horses
and the trained steer were equally fine
specimens OF patient animal teaching. The
OF the circus everyone must admit,
has kept up with the advance of other
branches OF the amusement business