The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-11-08
TOLD BY THE OLD CIRCUS MAN
The Greatest of All Giants Letter
Writing and Its Uses Out
the Road.

"The 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 or only something that
he just fancied. Al 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 that was,
he made up his mind on the spot that
he'd introduce the giant writing let
ters in the show, in little act that
he'd have made for that purpose. 1t
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 great attrac-
ton.
The clown acted the part of boy
in the giants employ. He had been dis
charged for cutting up some sort of
capers, but he had nevertheless asked
for 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
that the giant wrote in the ring. When
the boy had made this request the gi-
ant would turn to one of the ring at
tendants and say:
Bring in my desk and writing mate
rials!"
And the man would gossip, and
| come back in a minute ahead of two
Iour-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 vans standing hub to hub together.
| By this time there'd be a swarm of men
around the van, and they'd open the
ear doors and haul out from the in
!erior of the van three or four timbers
md what looked like sections of board
flooring such as you might build plat
form of; and that was just the sort of
hing 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 vans formed the base.
"Then from out of one of the vans
they got the giants travelling inkstand,
which was about like a square trunk
Tor shape and dimensions, or as much
as anything like avitriol carboy. They'd
hoist this up on top of the desk and
then get out of the vans the giants
pen rack and pens; the pen rack being
contraption about as high and as long
as a section of a five 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,
should think, about ten or eleven feet
long, while the pens were about the
| size of the blade of a spade. They'd put
q couple of these penhoders 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
that 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
"OtEer men had brought in mean
time, 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 little yank and
pull the bowknot united, and throw
the cover of the portfolio back and
take out 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 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:
Hmm; lemme see little boy. How
old did you say you WASP
''Well, now, as | tell this 10 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 -is' or whatever the
answer was, and the giant dipped his
pen in the carboy inkstand and threw
his head just the least little bit to one
side and began to write, why, the PEG.
pie would just simply boiler. OF all the
odd things the giant did. there was
nothing that pleased them more"
Her Suspicious Aroused.
| 81 wish Won would T. -a1 This or