Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1901-12-30
Europe Liked Our Circus,
Says James A. Bailey
FAMOUS SNOWMAN HOME AGAIN. EXPERIENCES ON
81 THE CONTINENT WITH ~THE GREATEST SHOW EARTH"

| is back In New York aIIer a stay Oh AOuE
years in Europe, where he has been con-
/ vincing the people that his show merits
its name. says The New York Sun. Yes
| terday he told a. reporter OF The sun the
/ story OF the invasion. ~
The most wonderful part Of It all. he
| said .fs the fact that everything wsne 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
| everywhere, even where we thought there
was a hostile feeling toward Americans.
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 inability to under
-, stand 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 time. OFTEN
| they made suggestions, which we carried
out to humor them. After our hrst rev
performances they realized that the equip
ment was all right, and there was no
trouble after that. -ar
I'm only one city did we miss q perform
] ance because Of police interference. That
| was at little city called Braunschweig,
/ in Germany. There they made so many
demands for changes in tie seating ar
| engagements that we could 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 Germany
the officials even allowed us TO pitch our
tents In the parade grounds Of the army
| They charged us nothing for the use OF
| the grounds and demanded only that we
repair any damage done. We took the
grounds in the spirit in which they were
offered and I 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 documents.
Just as an example of the way we were
treated, will tell about the only acci-
dent 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 good deaf
OF Inconvenience. st-
The accident was wholly the fault of
the engineer Of the train. who was not In
our employ, and the railway officials
promptly admitted that they were liable
| for the damage, and did everything 10
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 nm
ished them much quicker than we thought
possible and forwarded them to US. In
the meantime, they furnished us all the
small cars of the European pattern that
| we needed and there was no charge either
for the new cars or for the use of the bor-
rowed ones. I call that pretty good treat
ment.
THE show that we gave in Europe was
the same that New Workers saw before
we left, except that IT was a little larger
In the circus business you can't stand
still and our show increased a little in size
all the time. 1t was almost impossible 20
prevent greater growth of the show than
did take place.
''Only one part Of the American show
was omitted That was the parade. When
we were in England we held the parade
| Just as we did in this country, but in
Germany we were told that II would hurt
our attendance, as people would think
that when they had seen the parade there
was little left to be seen.
"Our cars were made in England from
the models of those used in the circus
train In the United States, over there
their freight cars are very small. as they
think that short car rounds curve bet
ter When our long cars were completed
there was much doubt expressed about
their ability to round curves. We knew
that they would, as they were equipped
with American movable trucks. so we had
trials with our cars and succeeded in con-
vincing the railway people that they were
all right We had no trouble with the
cars, although we used sixty-seven OF
them and carried 500 people,"
did you have any trouble with the
customs oficials?'' Mr.. Bailey was asked.
mo" he answered. that. part OF II
went of as smoothly as everything else
,gey4od f~x~n
tory OF everything in the show TO the Gus
toms officials and gave bonds. When we
crossed a frontier the customs people
compared the equipment with this inven-
tory and when the show left the country
the bonds were cancelled. We suffered
little delay from the examinations.
IT was much interested in the foreign
circuses,'' continued Mr.. Bailey. They
have nothing like our big shows and 1t
was on that account that we were so
successful. The European circus is
small affair. usually having but one .
ring. They have good performers, though.
and I got some good ideas from them.
They do not travel around as much as the
circuses do In this country.
81 don't think that our show will be.
copied there. It Is so different from any
thing they have that II would be a big
undertaking to start one. do not think
that any one over there dare try so great
I.
TN Europe they do not use the big post
ers for advertising the way we do here.
They have a great many posters of the
ordinary small size. but ours were so
much larger than any they had ever seen
that we had some difficulty in getting
them up. I'VE had to erect our own bill
boards for them in many cases The city
officials were very lenient about the erec-
ton Of those billboards. They allowed It's
to put them up almost anywhere we wish
ed to have them so they were put up in
public squares. alongside churches and in
many other places where they would not
be tolerated for an instant in this coun-
try.
''Mr. Hamilton, who is the author Of all
our literature on the subject Of the gran
deur of the circus, had a hard time SWa
had to have handbills in fourteen different
languages Mr.. Hamilton is good Ger
man and French scholar and he wrote
them all right in those languages with
rearly the same adjectives we used In
New York. In the other languages, how
ever, he had to make use of interpreters
who did not always grasp his ideas The
work was finally done to his satisfaction
though there was a great deal of work
attached to it,
everywhere the circus met with the
greatest success. We made a great many
friends and we feel that when the show
returns and Americans see the production
we exhibited to Europe no one will be