The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-20
TOLD BY THE CIRCUS NAN.
Giants Fancy For Cunning and How
Tt Was Turned to Account


1.-THE greatest of all giants, said the
old circus man, did dearly love TO go
cunning; and the old man INDUCED him
in this sport whenever he could. He
did this partly to please the giant, and
partly for the sake of the advertising
we used TO get out of it. When he was
making a dicker in advance for the
grounds where we were going to show.
or paying. the first Selectman OF the
town for the license, he would lust
casually ask if there was any good gun
ming around there, and when they told
him there was a squirrel or quail or
whatever it might be, the old man
would say that the biggest man in the
show was very fond of shooting, and he
would like it If, when the show came
along, somebody there in the town
would go out with him for an hour or
two. OF course they'd say they'd nave
somebody do that, and they would
have; and when this man. waiting at
some agreed upon point, TO take our
man out, saw the giant coming With
his gun. he never failed to be a very
much surprised Individual; and well he
might be.
I have never yet told you how tall
the great giant was. What's the use;
Won WOuIdn'ts believe it if l did, and SO
there's no use Of my telling how big
his gun was in feet and inches, but IN
a general way l night say that 1t was
4 double-barreled shotgun with barrels
about as big around and about as long
as telegraph poles, with stock and
everything else in proportion. Well,
now, you know when the great giant
turned up with that sort of a gun on his
shoulder, followed by wagon loaded
with they didn't know what, though
maybe they might have guessed. the
whole town would begin to gather, and
from that minute there'd be a great
crowd following all the time TO see the
giant shoot. And he wasn't the worst
shot that ever came down the pike,
either
"Of course the gun the townsman
was carrying only made the giants gun
look all the bigger and of course the
townsman didn't want TO do any shoot
ing himself When he saw the giant
and his gun he simply did what every
one did-he watched the big man shoot.
He and the great crowd following
would climb and scramble the best way
they could over stone walls and fences
that the giant would step over without
scarcely lifting his feet more than he
ordinarily would in walking, and When
would raise his gun and IRE, and, my
goodness! it sounded like a cannon or
blast.
There is where the old man used to
work in a little more of the adveTtis-
ing. OF course the giant could have
carried his own ammunition and lOaSed
his own gun as well as anybody could,
and that's what he would have pre-
ferred to do, but it cost about $lS0 Tor
every shot he fired. You see, it took
about a pound and a half of powder for
charge for each barrel and about
three Dints of shot, and the old man
was bound to get this back and some
thing out of it besides if he could, and
that's why we used To have that wagon
to carry the ammunition. and we not
only carried the ammunition so, but we
carried a couple of men along to load
the giants gun
'If the giant was in a field, for in
stance, and there were trees near him,
we'd get him TO stand the gun W
| against a tree. Then one of those two
men would climb the tree to the level
Of the muzzle of the gun, with the
charge of powder and the shot, and
drop them down the barrel; she was a
muzzle-lOader you understand; they
didn't have breech leaders in those
DAYS so much And while he was do
ing this the other loader would be
climbing higher in the tree, and he
would receive and steady the upper end
Of the ramrod as it was passed up 10
him bv the man at the muzZle, and
| help to ram the load down.
IF the giant was near some fence or
stone wall by the road when he fired,
| they'd get him 70 lay the gun down
/ with the butt on the ground and the
| barrels resting on the top Of the fence,
with the muzzle up in the air, but over
| the road. Then they'd drive the ammu-
milton wagon under that. and load right
/ from the wagon They had IN the
wagon at the forward end a skeleton
tower. something like the tall frame
work they have on the wagons used
nowadays by iinemen repairing over
/ head trOlleys, and the man used 10
/ simply climb on that to reach the muz-
( Zie of the gun. Then, when you came
/ to ramminS in the wad, there was a
/ telescope section to the skeleton tower,
and we just had TO raise that and move
/ the wagon OF little, and the man
/ that rammed in the Wad stood on that
/ with the outer end of the ramrod- Then
| as he rammed the wad home wed drive
| the wagon in again toward the muzZle
| of the gun. with a man at the base o.
the tower lowering the extension part
| When the loading was finished the giant
would pick up his gun and start of
! again'