The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1900-03-10
THE OLD CIRCUS MAN.
Tells How the Greatest OF All Giants
Entered I'm tho Farmers
Moving Matches.


IF anything" said the old circus
man, "thc great giant used to come
out strongest in competitive contests.
You see, there he showed not only for
what he was, but even greater, by the
contrast. OF course, he was always
In contrast, but here the contrast was
made more striking; and we never
failed to enter him in any sort Of
competitive contest that we could get
him into. Moving contests, for in
stance, the giant was very strong in;
and we never used to miss an oppor-
tunity to put him into one of these
when we could. The old man was al
ways on the outlook, sharp, for this
. SORT of thing, in any form, and IL
he ran up against moving match
coming Off, say the day the circus
struck the town, he'd get the giant
into II somehow, sure; not, of course,
entering him as giant or a big man.
or anything OF that sort, but just
simply as an unknown. We used 10
go equipped for this moving bust
ness.
i suppose that the average scytho-
nbouts in length, and the snath may
be four feet and a half long. Well.
now the giants scythe had a blade
about ten feet long, and handle
about Is. Those farmers would get
together in a grass lot to see what a
man could do, say, in half an hour,
everything to count; wide of swath.
forward cut, clcanness and evenness
of the moving, and so on. / suppose
that a man might cut swath five
feet wide, possibly more. but more
likely less, and his cut as he stepped
forward with even swing of the scythe
might be a foot TO is inches. The
young farmers, and some fine old ones
too, for that matter, would try, one
after another, in this competition,
every man swinging along in fine
style, till pretty much all of them had
had their chance at il, and then they'd
begin calling for the unknown, and
then we'd bring up the giant
"And he never failed to make a
sensation when he appeared; but when
he stepped into the field, and took
off his coat and tossed il into the
wagon in the road alongside the lot,
and took his scythe out of the wagon,
with its ten-foot blade and 15-foot
enath. and rolled up his sleeves and
grasped the scythe and set TO now
ing then there was a sensation. Talk
nh l.
you ought TO seen the giant The
farmers cut maybe five feet, the giant
Is. They'd step forward a foot or
q foot and half with every sweep,
the giant four or five feet. And he
was good mower, too; cutting close
and even, and clear from side TO side
just think of il, will you!--a man cut
ting path Is feet wide and going
forward five feet at every stroke!
'Pretty soon the giant would stop
and pull scythe stone out of his
bcotleg-this' stone was three feet
long, as long as an ordinary scythe
blade-and sharpen his scythe with
IL; and then he'd drop the stone in his
bootleg and go to moving again. And
pretty soon he'd get dry and want
some cider; AMI that's where we used
to come in again with business. We
had n jug that was as big around as
barrel in the biggest part of it, and
that was pretty near as tall, but n reg
ular jug in shape, and we used TO get
this over the fence to him wherever he
was, and he'd lift that up as easy as
could be, and turn il up, looking like
a balloon up there, turned up in that
way, and take good long drink and
then set 1t down and go to moving
again.
SWELL, when the giant had got
through moving there wasn't likely TO
be much grass left in that lot TO NOW,
and there never was any doubt about
who'd won the prize. And he used To cut
as wide a swath among the farmers as
he did in the grass. There wasn't
farmer for miles around but used TO
come &c the show and bring his fam
lily. Maybe they'd ha' come any
way. but the giants moving hit 'em
hard; and MS for the rest of the com
munity. why, II just simply got 'em
all.
my, my; but IL makes me sigh TO
think of the great old giant."-N. Y.
Sun.
Date Pudding.