The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-07-17
HOW THE CLOWN
WON AT POLITICS
He Beat the Colonials With
Some Cute Yankee
Methods.

of many colored lights on the veranda
of the Hawaiian Hotel. Each seemed
| to be enjoying himself. The air above
them was pungent with the odor OF
| four good Havanas. Outside, around
the pavilion, there was monster
crowd of people of all nationalities and
dressed in all manner of fashion The
| Hawaiian band was filing the air with
| island melodies
| There was a lull in the music. The
/ four on the veranda seemed restless
when Biggs, as he may be called, sud
denly broke the silence. Biggs was a
new arrival at the hotel. He came
| from Australia and was known as
story-teller, not the kind who spin
yarns, but one of those genial souls VINO
seem to see everything and remember
| everything.
| Did I ever tell you of the circus
| clown that beat the British at poll
| lics?"
NO! Well, here's the story. John
Greedy jenkins, Southerner, went out
to Australia with an American circus
HE was clown and his particular piece
| OF business was to operate fake cam
| era on the farmers coming to the show,
| for the amusement of people in the re-
served seats. jenkins was about as
|
sonabIy be expected to hold. When the
| circus arrived in South Australia ne
| found a regular harvest of suckers
awaiting him. He played high jinks
with them under canvas for a week.
Then he thought the people were So
gullible he might do well by staying IN
the country. He then deserted the cir
Gus, and going to the British and Colo
NAL Bible Depot purchased about
hundred Bibles. With these he Travelled
right through the back country, visit
ing the squatters. He told the squat
ters' wives that the Bible had come into
popularity as a literary work, and to
be up to date everyone must read 1t.
He sold these in some cases as high as
five pounds twenty-five dollars) and
returned to Adelaide, the capital of the
state, with quite a nice sum of money.
During his stay in the back blocks
jerks had been studying the politics
of the country. He found that the
larger number of votes were in the
hands of what were termed church
people, Then he started out to cap
ture the church people. He stopped
drinking and smoking and became a
strong pillar of a local church. People
pointed him out as a model man. He
| joined a number of debating societies,
and in turn held the highest offices in
|
muuity. He announced himself as a
candidate for the State Parliament.
Politicians called him crazy. An Eng
lishman opposed him and in the saloons
the Yankee-man was derided as sec
ond Guy Fawkes. But jenkins went
out for the place in earnest. He quick
ly collared the church-going section of
the community. Then he started after
the labor vote. He visited all the labor
ers' wives. If he caught woman
| washing clothes he made q speech TO
ner, declaring that the laws of coun-
try must be wrong when they would
cause a fine specimen of womanhood
to have to work over a washtub. he
| stopped children on the streets, gave
them sweets and candies, and kissed all
the small girls 1t is needless to say
that he thus got the labor votes. In a
word, Jenkins advocated everything
yet advocated nothing. He was an art
list at politics. When the poll was
| announced it was found that he hao
been elected by a big majority.
but he had not been making money
His salary as a member of Parliament
would only be equal to $1,000 a year. Sc
he made another move He bought
lot of worthless land and declared thai
in a year it would be worth pile OF
money. His friends declared that ht
had gone. stark mad. But shortly aft
erwards Jenkins brought off another
You can imagine how quickly rail-
way was put in to Mitcham-where his
land was-and a fine little station erect
ed there. OF course suburban trair
service was installed and Jenkins lane
sold we'll. In similar ways he has
amassed a big sum of money.
But this happened many years ago
Jenkins never was beaten in an cleo
ton after that and a couple of years
ago when the Commonwealth govern
ment was formed, and the colonies be-
came States, Jenkins forged ahead
again and became Premier of his State
"As Premiers of States are usually
knighted by the King, the man who
was once a circus clown now stands IN
a fair way of being Sir John Greedy
Jenkins of South Australia"
A Honolulu man wished to know II
Biggs had finished.
Yes" said B ggs.
well" said the Honoluluite, could
MT fellow work the same game here?
Nit At least several say so whC
have tried