The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-06-07
THE CIRCUS IN THE SOUTH.
Amusing distances of Attempts GO
Evade the Ticket Wagon.

Ah'a1C tao 'BoAA@
"In the north" said the old circus man
to a reporter, "the desire TO get into the
tent by crawling under the canvas is con-
fined to the small boy. But in the south
the entire eolored population comes to
the ground aud hangs around day and
night looking for an opportunity to get
In free. And to crawl under the canvas
seems to them to be the easiest way. Men
and women tramp around and around the
tent looking for an unguarded point. We
always put extra canvasmen on watch
when we go TO the south with our show.
l have witnessed more than one amusing
and exciting incident growing out of this
desire of the negro to get into the circus
without buying ticket. They go literal
ly circus mad when the show comes to
town, and they won't do a tap Of work
until 1t leaves. One reason why they
don't step up to the ticket wagon and
hand out their coin is that they never
have any. There may be other reasons,
but have never inquired further into
the subject.
fall when be took his show TO the south
for an extended season. Two new can
yasmen nearly precipitated a riot for us
at A1tAhukiOus ny. 4htJ hdu bttn VI
for the special purpose of keeping ne
groes from crawling under the tent, and
they saw an opportunity to make a little
money for themselves on the side. They
were able to work out their scheme
through the fact that they were favor
ably stationed for 1t. One was on the
outside at the connection between the
main tent and the menagerie and the
othar IN tba fDs;1a xuithin fba cnnnan-
ton.
among the vast crowd OF negroes
hanging about the show was a large num-
Der who had come to town expecting to
get in for 10 or % cents. The outside
canvasman gave out a quiet tip that IL
any one had any change in his pockets by
giving it to the right person he could get
into the show at cut rates. They began
to crowd around him. rendering varied
amounts OF money from one cent up to
As. He accepted all tenders. He told
them that he wtuld have to put them in
one at a time. He did.
1.-The inside man was waiting for them.
Just as soon as a black head would APP
pear under the canvas he would grab it.
drag the rest Of the person owning il in
side and shove him out of the other side
OF the narrow connection. From here it
was long way around to the man who
got the money. IL one of the dupes
found his way back, which was uncer-
tain, and wanted his money returned. he
was promptly showed under the canvas
again and just as promptly kicked out
on the other side. 1t was a kind of an
endless chain.
"Why didn't the two men let them
stay in? Well, old Adam Forepaugh was
about, and IL he saw an unusual num-
Der Of negroes in the tent he would at
once have made the rounds TO find where
they were getting in. That was why.
The show was about half over that night
when an unearthly racket started at the
connection. A minute or two passed.
and we saw two convasmen running for
life around the hippodrome track with
an angry yelling crowd of negroes after
them. The audience enjoyed 1t inn
mensely; thought 1t was part of the
show. We knew different. A lot of US
jumped in and headed the negroes of.
That gave the canvasmen time to es-
cape. After we learned the cause of IL
we regretted our interference. We lost
two promising canyasmen at Lexington"
--piftehurO News