Evening journal., 1901-05-03
CIRCUS WOMEN
Arb NOT SILLY
They Have TO be Good
Whether They Like to
be or Not

The dancing of ballets on horses
backs in costumes which could not bel
decreased. very well, even with the in
genuity of the greatest OF ballet de-
signers, would seem to suggest the
same carelessness Of Uhe conventional
tiles which is ordinarily associated
with the young women of the theatri-
cal chorus. But it isn't 50 in circus
life. Circus girls have to be good
whether they want to or not and most
of them seem to want to. No young
women, or old for that matter, are sol
well chaperoned as they, says the New
York Sun.
In attempting to understand how
this may be it is necessary to be re-
minded of the general conditions OF
folks who travel with the circus. Right
here in town, at the beginning of the
season every performer has more lib
erty than will be her or his share
again until the circus is disbanded in
some far Southern city late next Fall
The show starts on the road after the
close OF its engagement in Brooklyn,
May D. At midnight of May the train
! life begins. Every performer has a
berth in that train. The berths are net
built as are those in ordinary sleeping
cars There is no closing them up and
making of the car over fer day travel
because the circus very seldom moves
by day.
They are rather wider, too, than the
berths in Pullman and Wagner cars.
and the lower berth is much nearer the
/ floor. There is room under II for a
/ shallow box. which is the circus ward
robe. There is room at the foot of the
4 berth, too. for high, narrow box, un-
less one happens to be a giant or an
ossified man. lnasmuch as each mem
Der of the troupe lives in the same
berth the season through every effort is
made to make theapartment individual
and comfortable. The very good mat
Itresses provided by the company for
use in the cars are often rejected with
Il scorn and the finest Of hair mattresses
are bought and substituted Photo
graphs and prints of all sorts are hung
about the walls and there are notions
for comfort and ease without number
The doors OF every car in the circus
are locked at midnight. This rule /.
not to be broken even by the head mar
OF the show. There is no rule requir.
ing passengers to be in their berths al
that hour. but-the show moves thai
night There is seldom or never {
regular train that will catch up with 4
before the parade the next morning
Missing parades is not conducive Z,
continued employment. So If one i.
e not in the car in which one belongs a
. midnight there is nothing for It shOr
lof losing ones job, but to ride with tn
animals or under a chariot on a fla
car or to observe night scenery iron
the rear platform until opening hou
in the morning.
1t is further tradition of the circu
I business that folks of doubtful socia
, discretion are not wanted in the bust
lness. however, brilliant they may be a
performers. Nothing but trouble cal
come Of a flirtatious woman in a cir
I Gus. AS to fiirtatious men. the circu
= does not go back to the rule of the ear
iiest records on such matters, that /
the woman behaves the man must.
= "A silly woman, said one whose hal
has turned gray in the circus business
j to man who was questioning him ol
], the subject the other day, "simpl,
$ makes a circus into an insane asylum
= Nobody who hasn't seen the thing triet
can imagine the amount of jealous
r and scandal that can be aroused by tn
Q lrst hint of such thing. The wome
all get mad and take sides, and thei
the men get mad and take sides, AM
the sides divide on troupe and famil
lines and the complications c0ntinu
y y until even the monkeys in their cage
u make faces at each other. When we al
u have to travel together as much as W
: do and there are so many little detail
{, which have to be synchronized, an
to. uF1
d carefully as do the thousand and ON
4; items in the course of a perfOrmanc
r liike this one now going on in the Gar
den, a succession Of jars and misunder
: standings might ruin the show. Speak
ing generally, the Sellses have abou
the same personal interest in tn
proper conduct of their employees out
side of performance hours that th
mistress Of a well-regulated househol
has in the conduct of her servant.
But when you add to that the cOnsid
GRAFTON of self interest prompted by tn
trouble that can be made in the sho,
by the starting of a scandal, you ca
easily see that the thing is impossible
There is no performer on earth wort
carrying with the show If she will no
keep the other performers from talk
ing about her
= 1T is almost an invariable rule @
the circus that the good name G
every woman employed by it shal
have a protector. ] cannot at thi
moment think of a woman in this circu
who has net either a mother or a.
aunt or a father or a brother or a hus
band with her. The unwritten rul
S that every woman must have sOmeOn
chaperoning her is complicated b.
Z, another rule to the effect that the shoN
shall carry no 'deadwood' on the road
'DeadwoOd' is circus for drones. Their
are too many people along. and the
2 are to busy on a circus train to hav
3 any idlers about to be placed and fec
SO most performers marry and max
o their contracts in pairs or, if they ar
I old enough, by families. Marriage
rather a necessity for the circu
woman.
1T is not surprising. therefore, tina
circus training should run through on
family for generation after generaticr
Dolly Julian, for instance, the sixteen
year-old girl. who is the only woma