The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-26
People on the Continent Had
Seen Nothing Before Like the
Barnum & Bailey Circus and
Its Success Was Great
BAILEY TELLS OF THE
SHOWS TOUR ABROAD
There Was But One Serious Ac-
Cident and That Was the Fault
of the Railroad Employees in
Germany-Street Parade Cut
Out on the Continent

New York, Dec. 25.-James A. Bailey,
proprietor of THE Greatest Show on
Earth, which once was P. T. Barnum' S
is back in New York after a stay of
four years in Europe, convincing the
people that his show merits its name.
Yesterday he told the following story
of the invasion.
THE most wonderful part of it all,
he said, lis the fact that everything
went so smoothly. We had expected a
great deal of trouble at first, as it was
only natural to suppose that American
methods would cause friction abroad.
But that was not the case. We had
little trouble with the authorities in
any of the countries. only one accident,
and we were treated royalty every
where, even where we thought there
was a hostile feeling toward Ameri-
cans.
"Only at the very first was there any
trouble with the authorities and that
was simply the result of an excess OF
caution on their part, and their inabil-
ity to understand how we managed
things. The police considered our
tents unsafe. because they could not
see how they could be strong when
erected in so short a time. Often they
made suggestions, which we carried
out to humor them. After our first
few performances they realized that
the equipment was all right, and there
was no trouble after that.
"In only one city did we miss per-
Torrance because of police Interior
ence. That was at little city called
Braunschweig, in Germany. There
they made so many demands for
,I,a ~
that we would not comply because we
thought them unreasonable, so we
abandoned the plan to show there.
Everybody seemed to do his best to
please us. In several cities of Ger
many the officials even allowed US to
picht our tents in the parade grounds
of the army. They charged us moth
ing for the use of the grounds and de-
manded only that we repair any dam
age done. We took the grounds in the
spirit in which they were offered and
l have good reason to believe that they
did not regret their action.
THE licenses were small, as a rule,
sometimes amounting only to the price
of the revenue stamps for the docu-
ments.
Just as an example of the way we
were treated, l will tell about the only
accident we had in the four years we
spent abroad. 1t occurred at Beuchen
in the southern part of Germany. One
of our trains ran into another of them
at the railroad yards. Two men and
several horses were killed. Several
cars, which were made especially for
our use, were smashed up, which put
US to a good deal of inconvenience.
THE accident was wholly the fault
of the engineer of the train, who was
not in our employ. and the railway Off
ciaIs rrODoptIv admitted that they were
liable for the damage, and did every
thing to help us. They demanded an
estimate of the damage. which they
paid as soon as we presented it, and
worked their shops night and day to
rush through new cars similar to those
destroyed They finished them much
quicker than we thought possible and
forwarded them to us. In the mean
time. they furnished TO US all the small