The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-14
GREAT FOREPAUGH CIRCUS
ONE OFTHE BIG 1CTS OFTHE SHOW
 THIS SEASON
By tho Three Greatest Lady Riders In the eWOrld-The Daily Ditema Of Col. Charley Sells md MT. Melville.

the Worid-Ths Daily Dilema of Col
 Charley Sells amd NIT. Melville.
 Everybody in the "profesh" knows
 Colonel Charley Seeley, who is in toWr
 as special agent of the combined Fore
 paugh and Sells Brothers circuses
 Charley" is an inveterate raconteur
 practical joker, good fellow and typica
 Bohemian, who has been in the busi' ness almost since the patriarch Noat
 started out with the first great aggre-
 gation in the ark, To cap the climax 1 Charley is one of the most artistic
 painstaking and beautiful stutterers in the United States, and the continual
 conflict between his quick wit and his
 halting accents only makes his stories
 the funner Seeleys friends in Hart ford delight in getting the champion
 stutterer well started off, and it never
 fails that he will relate something worth
 storing up in the memory or recording
 in cold type.
 Charley" was in great form at a
 down. town resort last night and did a
 strong talking" speciality. The best
 thing he got off was about the eques- llldIl OlIGtlOE Ul IlS tilNuo anu tAic liiA cC
 star lady bareback riders. It would
 cover entirely too much space to give
 the raconte in Seeleys interjectory man.
 ner But it will be quite good enough
 without the narrator's hiatus.
 You fellows he commenced" all know Frank Melville, our equestrian di-
 rector. We'll when you see him Mon-
 day you will find poor Frank almost as
 bald as the keel end of torpedo boat. l Frank has been having his troubles this season, lots of em. He begins to wish he had volunteered for the war as chief director of the mule department
 "One of the big acts in the show this season is the performance simultane- onsly in three rings of the three great est lady riders in the world This act was originated by Colonel Lewis Sells and the unfortunate Melville himself; but if the latter had been able to fore see the finish he would have thrown up the job before he tackled 1t. The three young lady equestriennes are Miss Cuika Meers a young and dashing Eng fish blonde; Mile. Correa, a typical American beauty, and Miss Josie Ash ton, a bue-eyed divinity from Austral- ia. Individually and separately they are the most amiabe and charming girls In the world, but collectively and professionally they act like the favorite daughters of old Satan himself.
 "As everybody knows. professional jealousy, especially in the circus busi- ness, Is not a shadowy theory, but a hard and adamantine fact More or
 less worry is expected by circus impre- sarios during summers campaign, but in the whole course of my experience they never was such punching of sheer |deyilment as has already occurred among these three charmers since the commencement of the season. You must understand that they all appear at one time, each one in her own ring. with nothing to detract the public at tention from them, The first supreme difficulty was tiTe allotment of the cen ter ring; each of them was fully and firmly convinced that she should hug the center and could not understand how there could be any question on that point. Poor Melville put the English girl, Miss Meers, in the center and the Correa and Ashton girls on the ends for the first performance, and then the ruction started in, the two enders against the middle Before leaving the dressing tert at the opening perform ance of the season they started per- fectly lovely har-pulling match, and Madame Yucca, the strong woman, had to sail in and separate them.
 This was just a mild start, but since then things have been going on very T ,t,1I, tl,n first performance the two 'enders' sent in their resignations, and when their attention was called to the ironclad con tracts they had signed and the penalties for breaking the same, etc.. they simply remarked that they wouldn't go on if that English girl is kept in the center, so there, now" Before the evening per- formance of the first day the allotments in the womans dressing tent had to be entirely changed so as to keep the three beauties almost a third of a mile apart.
 Colonel Sells and the sad-eyed Mel vile afterwards arranged that each of the three girls should be the center piece in rotation the change to be made daily, and the amiabe barebackers pro- fessed profound satisfaction with the new arrangement; but, bless you, the compact of peace did not last more than one consecutive week, when things became more tobasco than ever; it was a continual case Of both ends against the middle and as the center was changed so frequently there was a continual readjustment. of friend ship and @ never-ceasing wrangle and All of the performers in the show took sides with one or the other of the fair contestants and had this act not been one of the greatest and most | successful features of this years per formance Colonel Sells would have off all three of their heads and expressed their trunks to their various homes; but it being quite impossible to replace the act the management have had to worry along the best they could.
 Give you some details of what they have done? l could tell you quicker what they haven't done One time the | two enders tried to hocus' the cen ter's' horse just before the performance. Another time they tried to bribe one If | the canvasmen to steal the Meers | trunk and tights Again, when the | Correa was in the center the other two l made away with all her unattached | back hair and head ornaments, and so 1t has been going on for weeks, and the | Melville has had to stand | l1,.o, ,1r Cir1 "a