The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-03-02
TOLD BY THE CIRCUS MAN.
The Greatest of All Giants Enters in
the Farmers Moving Matches.


IF anything" said the old circus
man, the great giant used to come
out strongest in competitive contests.
You see, there he showed for not only
what he was, but even greater. by the
contrast. OF course, he was always
in contrast, but here the contrast was
made more striking; but we never
failed to enter him in any sort of a
competitive contest that we could get
him into. Moving contests, for in
stance, the giant was very strong in;
and We never missed an opportunity
to put him into one Of these when we
could. The old man was always on
the outlook, sharp, for this sort of
thing, in any form. and if he ran up
against moving match coming off,
say the day the circus struck the
town, he'd get tn. old man into it
somehow, sure; not, of course. enter
ing him as a giant or a pig man, or
anything of that soTt, but simply as
an unknown. He used to go equipped
for this moving business.
Il suppose that tie average scythe-
blade would be three feet or there
abouts in length. and the snath maybe
four feet and half long. Well, now,
the giants scythe had a blade about
ten feet long and handle about fit.
teen. Those farmers would get to-
gether in a grass lot to see what a
man could do, say, in half an hour,
everything to count; width of swath,
forward cut, cleanuess and evenness
OF the moving, and so ON. | suppose
that man might cut swath five feet
wide. possibly more, but more likely
less, and his cut S he stepped for
ward with even swings of the sharp
scythO might be foot to eighteen
inches. The young farmer, and some
old ones. too for that matter, would
try, one after another, in this competi-
ton, every man swinging along in
fine style, till Dretty much all of them
had had their chance at it and then
they'd begin calling for the unknown,
an then we'd bring up the giant.
and he never failed to make a SEN
sation when he appeared; but when
he stepped into the field and took off
his coat and tossed it into the wagon
alongside the lot, ald took his scythe
out of the wagon, with it's ten-foot
blade and f1fteen-foot snath, and rolled
up his sleeves and took the scythe and
set to moving, then there was a SEN
sation. Talk about cutting a wide
swath! Why. you ought to see the
giant! The farmers cut maybe five
feet, the giant fifteen. They'd step
forward a foot or foot and a half
with every sweep, the giant four or
five feet. And he was a good mower,
too; cutting close and even and clean
from side to side. Just think of it,
will you!-a man cutting a path fif-
teen feet wide and going forward five
feet at every stroke!
Pretty soon the giant w9uld stop
and pull a scythe.stone out of his
bootleg-this stone was three feet
long, as long as an ordinary scythe
blade-and sharpen his scythe with
it; 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; and that's where he used
to come in again with business. We
had jug that was as big around as
a barrel in the biggest part of it, and
that was pretty near as tall, but
regular jug in shape, and we used to
get this over the fence to him wher4
ever he was, and he'd lift that up as
easy as coud be and turn it up, look
Ing like balloon up there turned up
in that way, and take big, long drink
and then set it down and go to now
ing again.
We'll, 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
@ho'd won the prize. And he used to
nIlt Widn a Cwuth thn 70
ers as he did in he grass There
wasn't a farmer for miles around but
used to come to the show and bring
his family. Maybe they'd ha' come
anyway, but the giants moving hit
'em hard; and as for the rest of the
community, why, it just simply got
'em ALL
my, my; but it makes me sigh to
think of the great old giant. IN. Y.
Sun.