Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-10-25
TOLD BY THE OLD CIRCUS MAN
The Greatest of All Giants Lettes
Writing and Its Uses Out
ON the Road.

'"Theg greatest of all giants" said the
old circus man, relates the New York
Sun, twas not what you would call a
great letter writer, but he did write
now and then, and, of course. he had to
have suitable writing materials. The
old man provided these more than will
ingly; in fact, he never let the giant
lack for anything that he wanted,
whether it was something that he
really needed OF only something that
he just fancied. AT the same time
the old man never hesitated to take adj
vantage of anything that the giant did
with these things to help advertise the
show; and one day when he saw the
giant sitting out back of the main
tent before the show began, writing a
letter, and realized for the first time
what a really wonderful sight hat was,
he made up his mind OH the spot that
he'd introduce the giant writing let
tiers in the show, in a little act that
he'd have made for that purpose. It
was a simple little scene, between the
giantand the clown, just enough to per
init of Juggling in the letter writing
business, but it proved a great attrac-
ton.
THE clown acted the part of a boy
in the giants employ. He had been dis
charged for cutting up some sort OF
capers, but he had nevertheless asked
for a letter of recommendation. The
giant being a man of tender heart, was
willing to give him this, even if he had
discharged him; and it was this letter
+ha+ tho rio1,f xyro&o in he rirr IVhon
the boy had made this request the gil
ant would turn to one of the ring at
tendants and say:
Bring in my desk and writing mate
rialsl"
"And the man would gossip, and
come back in a minute ahead of two
four-horse teams driving abreast and
each hauling a big box wagon big as a
great big van. They'd drive these two
teams along side by side into the CEN
ter of the ring and halt 'em there with
the ans standing hub to hub together.
BY this time there'd be a swarm Of men
around the van, and they'd open the
rear doors and haul out from the in
terror of the van three or four timbers
and what looked like sections of board
flooring such as you might build plat
form of; and that was just the sort of
thing they did build of them; On top
of the vans; this platform served there
as the top of the giants desk, of which
the two al formed the base.
"Then from out of one of the rams
they got the giants travelling inkstand,
which was about like a square trunk
for shape and dimensions, or as much
as anything like avitriolcarboy They'd
hoist this up on top of the desk and
then get out of the vans the giants
pen rae and pens; the pen rack being
a contraption about as high and as long
as a section of a fve-barred fence with
folding-in supports at the back that
could be opened out to make it stand
up. and having hooks on the front to
hold the penholders, these being, I
should think, about ten or eleven feet
long, while the pens were about the
size of the blade of a spade. They'd put
a couple of these penholders and pens
on the pen rack and then hustle out for
the giants portfolio, which was too
big to be carried in the van. They
could take the desk top apart and fold
hat up, but they could't do that with
the giants writing paper and port
folio. The portfolio holder was like a
gigantic sawbuck or like those holders
they have in art stores to put port
folios of pictures in, only about II
times as big, and they'd stand that,
with the portfolio in it, up near the
desk.
"Otker men had brought in mean
time, a chair big enough for the giant
to sit in, which they placed in front of
the desk and when everything was
ready for him the giant would sit down
in that chair and twist around to where
he could reach the ribbon by which the
two parts of the portfolio were tied
together, give them a little yank and
pull the bowknot united, and throw
the cover of the portfolio back and
take out a sheet of that paper. Then
he'd reach forward and pick up one
of those pens from the pen rack, and
spread his feet just a little bit more
and settle himself down a little bit
more in his seat, all ready to write.
Then he'd turn his head and look down
at the clown standing on the ground,
and say, holding the ten-foot penholder
with the pen all ready TO dip:
"tHm-m; femme see, little boy. How
old did you say you was"
well, now, as / tell this to you,
it may seem like a dreadful paltry
thing for people to go nutty over, but
that's what they used to do. When the
clown said '12' or 'I3' or whatever the
answer was, and b giant dipped his
pen in the carboy inkstand and threw
his head just the least little bit to n
side and began to write, why, the peo-
pie would just simply holler. OF all the
odd things the giant did, there was
nothing that pleased them more"
Brave Man.