Waterbury Democrat., 1900-10-22
C7s . ! T7X-F B s7I ISsssFIE s8I T S , : X TOLD BY THE OLD CIRCUS MAN
The Grcatcst of All Giants, Letter Writing and Its Uses oEt-
 = ths Road.

.sThe greatest of all giants" said the old circus man, relates the. New York Sun, was 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 Id man provided these more than will ingly; in fact, he never lst the giant lack for anything that he wanted, whether it was soTdct thing that he really needed or only something that he just fancied. Al, the same time the old man never hesitated to take ad- vantage of anything that the giant did with these. things to help advertise tn. show; and one day when he Sa " the giant sitting out back of the muiI tent before the show began, writing a letter. and realized for the first time what . really wonderful lit that was he made up his mind on the spot that he'd introduce the giant writing let tcrs in the show. in D little act that he'd have made for that purpose. II MAS simple little scene, between the giant and the clown. just enough to per nit of lugging in the letter writing business, but it proved great attrac- ton. "
 .'Thc clown acted the part of a boy in the giants employ. He had been dis charged for cutting up some sort of capcrs, but he had nevertheless asked for letter of recon me ndation. The giant being man of tender heart, was willing to give him this, even if he had discharged him; and ft. was this ,letteI 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:
 Firing in my desk and writing ID ate rials." '>' '-' "|~ '.' And the man would gossip, and come back in a minute ahead of two four-horse teams driving abreast and each hauling 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 thin time there'd be swarm of men around the van, and they'd open the rear doors and haul out from the in terior of the van three or four tim bers and what looked like sections oAeboard flooring such as you might build plat form of; and that was just the Sort ot thing they did build of them; on toI 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 for shape and dimensions, or as much as anything like avitrio earboy. They'd hoist this up on top Of the desk and then get out of the vans the giant I pen rack and pens; the pen rack being contraption about as high and as long as section of a fve-barred fence wit h 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 penh olders, these being, l should think, about ten or eleven fee long, while the pens were about the size of the blade of a spade. They'd put : couple of these penholders and psnA on tho pen rack and then hustle out for the giants portfolio, which was too big to be c3rried in the van. They could take the desk top apart and fold that up. but they could't 10 that with the giants writing paper and port, folio. The portfolio helder was like a gigantic sawbuck or,lika those holders they have in art stores to put port folios of pictures in, only about F times as big. and they'd stand that, with the portfolio in it, up near the desk.
 "Otkcr men had brought in mean time, chair big enough for the giant to sit in, which they placed in front ol the desk and when everything wa1 ready for him the giant would sit down in that chair and twist around to where he could reach the ribbon by which tn two parts of the portfolio were tied together, give them a little yank and pull the bowknot united. ard throw the cover of the portfolio back and take out q sheet of that raper. 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 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 penholdel with the pen all ready to dip: 7. ,. :. 'Hm-m; lemme see. little boy. How old did you say you was?' t.
 t'WeH, now,- as l tell this to you, it may seem like a dreadful pal1ry thing for people to go nutty over, but that's what they used to do.: When the clown said IF or 'lo' or whatever the answer was, and the giant dipped his pen in the carboy inkstand and threw his head just the least little bit 0 one side and began: to write, why, the peo- pie would just simply holler. .Ofall the odd things, the giant did, there was nethinG that nlea>ed then .s.---"
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