The representative., 1900-05-17

ready to be fitted in when the stage man
ager, who Is one of the proprietors Of the
circus, is ready for him. Everybody must
be on time, and must not get into his place
before 1t is ready for him. Men with
bells and with whistles stand around giving
the signals for every move that anyone
makes. Every movement that everybody
makes is watched. Out in the ring it looks
as though the men with the tall hats
and long whips, which crack SO alarmingly
about the heels of the clown, were very
powerful men in the circus world. But
the circus people are not half SO afraid of
them as they are of the men with note
books who stand around watching things
behind the scenes and writing down the
names of those who do not get to their
places on time, and who do not step lively
when the march begins.
The big procession is arranged SO that
the last of it is just moving out of the
ring through the right-hand door when the
wagons and floats are swinging through
the door at the left. The horsemen and
horsewomen clatter down the runways to
the cellar, leave their horses and scamper up
show the dressing rooms are in storm
Brightly colored suits are skinging overhead
variously colored legs are kicking in the air
in the effort to slip into tights as expe-
ditiously as possible, trunk lids are slam
ming. All the time there is a steady
he has to keep the same horse through
the season either the horse viii Kill him or
he will kill the horse. You would never
thought from the stately way he bowed and
pranced around the ring that the horse was
anything but prince of the animal king
dam. But the man who rode him says
that he Is a murderer. The talking Is
never allowed to interfere with the Dress
ing, which goes on constantly. Nobody has
any time to rest between times Being tardy
second may cost q IS fine.
Everybody sees, of course. how the ami
mails are made to obey. The educated seals
give the finest exhibition Of that part Of the
circus discipline. The seals do not like to
be good. II they could have all the raw
fish to eat that they wanted they would
never be good at all. They would simply
slosh around in their tank in the basement
all day long, vaulting from one side Of the
partition to the other and splashing every
body within 40 feet, and when they were
taken upstairs and put on the platform
they would do none of the things which
their Instructor has taught them. But those
who watch the seals carefully while they
perform will see that none gets anything
to eat until he has earned it either by
performing trick or by keeping quiet while
the others are performing. The smallest
seal Of all Is not very good seal. He is
gfreedy and he has not learned yet that the
way to get fish is not to run all over the
stage after 1T, but to stay In his place and
be good. Sometimes when the rest of the
company are rendering their soulful SYM
phonies on the drum and the cymbals and
the big bass horn, he takes short excursions
after fish. When the music is over all the
rest get fish and he gets none. Sometimes
he gets a cut with a whip. There is so
little time for the whole show when there
is SO much to be exhibited that not even the
seals can be lazy about their performing
The other night two of them insisted on
going on a journey around the platform
before firing OF the musket and the cannon
which were waiting for them They waddled
up to the cannon and the musket after
awhile, but insisted on looking the audience
over little before pulling the triggers The
circus men cannot fine seal S. for this
J! sort of demonstration, so he fines him one
nice TAT fish and does not let him fire the
gun at ALL The seal goes on to his carriage
looking very cheap indeed.
The Great Dane dogs have the tightest
quarters Of all during the time the show
stays in the Garden. Down among the
horse stalls there Is a pile of CONN like
boxes. Each box is about is inches wide anal
just high enough for q dog to crouch in.
| The Great Danes live In thes most OF the
| time. Their trainer takes them. out for ex-
| ercise and water several times day and
| they 60 out for their performances. But
| they seem to be satisfied with what they
h'EIif h'Ei
| after the performance II over. In biz city
| like this the performers do mot eat and sleep
ct the place where the performance Il given.
Th4y I've = thelr homes - boardine