The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-05-10
HISTORY OF A CIRCUS.
Remarkable Growth of the Enter
prise Owned and Managed by the
Ringling Brothers.

| 1t is hard to comprehend how as
gigantic an enterprise as the Ringing
circus. which will be in Scranton next
| Tuesday, could spring from a penny
show, with one miserable horse and an
| orchestra, composed of a Jews harp. a
| drum, a mouth organ and an army
| bugle.
1t is fact. however. that twenty
| five or thirty years ago these five
| brothers, then mere children, surrep-
| titiously borrowed from the parental
! clothesline at nightfall a number Of
| bed sheets and the following day, on
| distant common, began an enter
| prise from which has grown the pres
ent institution with it's twelve acres of
| canvas, its 1000 employees and hun
dreds of handsome horses.
This strange entree into the circus
business was at Baraboo. Wis. where
the boys lived. Admission to their
show was one cent. and it thrived until
their parents took down the circus tent
and sent the boys home. The ambitions
of the young Ringlings had been fired.
however. by this first venture and they
began to save money for the purpose
Of building the greatest circus in the
world. The realization of this child
dream is one of the marvels of amuse-
ment history
A year later the boys again erected
mammoth pavilion" and began op-
erations on capital of 81. Their me-
naSerie was composed of a brindle
tomcat in a bird cage, a turkey buz-
zard and a billy goat. They had also
come into possession of a discarded
horse which had outgrown its useful
ness as a milk dealers nag.
Their first performance did not cut
much figure in the amusement world,
though the goat furnished food for
write-up in the local papers by his un-
circuSlike conduct. Just as the grand
entire" was winding around in front of
the audience of children the goat took
offence at the parasol of little miss
and sailed into the benches with pile
driver action, scattering the young
sters and then numerically weltng it
to the young circus men who had
signed it out for the season.
AS soon as the Ringling boys recov-
cred from their bruises they We're back
in business again, but without the
goat They met with such success in
pleasing the young folks that the fol-
lowing summer they bought their first
real tent, rented a wagon and drove to
the neighboring villages, staying
week in each place and charging five
cents admission. Otto Ringing was
the advance man, and he did all the
advertising and routing. Al. Ringling
exhibited a trained horse and did n
juggling act. Charlie sang. and took
up tickets Alfred was ticket seller
nd ,ip,tr .tDf. nd JnI
clown.
Five years later the brothers bought
their first wild animal--a hyena. BY
this time their circus had three horses,
two wagons and ten performers. They
had real Autographs, too, to advertise
their coming, and they ventured as
far away from home one summer as
one hundred miles.
From this small beginning they
steadily grew. Eleven years ago they
made their first tour as IA railroad |
show. Each season since they have |
added to their organization, till today
it is the largest and best that America |
has ever known, The special train |
which transports it from city to city |
lacks but $50 feet of being one mile in |
length Its tents cover twelve acres of |
ground, its stables contain sos horses |
and it owns more than half the |
elephants in this country
The Ringling circus has never vs- |
tied Scranton, but its reputation is |
known from Maine to California and |
from Canada to Mexico, and il will |
not take the people of this city long to |
realize its magnitude, when 1t steams |
in town Tuesday morning on its inn
mense train.
One reason why this institution has |
won the absolute confidence of the pub
lie in districts where it is known is !
because it is absolutely clean in all its
dealings. 1t is a show which improves
on acquaintance, for il keeps absolute
faith with the public and spends thou
sands of dollars every season for the
purpose of keeping 1t free from all fea-
lures that are Objectionable.
1t maintains its own detective force,
the duty of which is to keep all crooks
and confidence men away from the
towns I'm which it exhibits. The super
intendent of this force Is Charles
Ryan, of the Pinkerton agency, who is
probably the best rogue catcher in
America.