Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1902-05-16
The Great Fall of
Dumpy HUI
sy JOHN II RHETHRY.

now, and it is with something of
self-deprecation that he sometimes
spins a yarn of the old days when he
was in the circus business with ST.
monides Patrocius Price. A hot
scotch and few friends nearly as old
as himself got him started the other
night, and he told one like this:
There amt any use going back to
the particulars of how l got in the
show business further than to say that
I sold up old Pap Rockwell's show for
feed bill he owed me, tried the game
for three performances, and made so
much money that / turned the store
over to my brother and set out for
professional circus man. Rockwell
cut out and left as soon as he'd intro
duced me to his general manager-Sim
Price. Besides being manager of the
show Sim was the clown, and, by the
way, to this day / think he was the
funniest clown that ever wore grease
paint. He was al bit sore when he
found out that l had seized the show,
swpre that he was ready to pay up
all the old bills and assume the pro-
prietorship himself. But I'd had
taste of the game-I was young then
and Sims talk convinced me that /
had hit on a good thing, so 1 resolved
to freeze on. Sim got real mad then
and sent me his resignation. I
couldn't afford to lose him, for all the
paper we had was splashed all over
with his pictures. I agreed at last to
take him into partnership. We had
lot of new posters struck off, reading:
kwell-Simpsen-Price Great Triple
Mastodon Circus, Menagerie and Hip
podrome," and with that high-sound
ing title we left indianapolis one Sat
urday night and struck into the back
woods for ten weeks of one-day
stands. Those were the days when
circuses travelled by wagon only and
we weren't two hours on the road be-
fore was blessing my stars that Sim
had come along.
"He knew more about the show bust
ness than I ever learned or could
learn, and no dilemma was too diff
cult for him to wriggle out Of Then
he was a good and elevating influence
with the 36 people we carried. found
out that he'd been educated for the
church in some interior town of Aus
tralia. His morals were above re-
proach, and his wife-Mlle. Du Barry
the equestrienne and bareback rider
was the bright, particular star of the
troupe. They were really an edifying
couple, seemed to have plenty of
money, travelled in a private carriage,
and in every way added-if such n
thing is possible-to what I might call
the tone of the outfit. OF course the
whole business was small compared
with these big modern, three-ring cir
cuses, but it was quite a model in its
way, and l was pretty well through
my first season of it before l found
my self-respect in any danger. But
that will come later.
"As | said, besides being an excel
lent clown. good manager and a reg
ular martinez for discipline Mr.. Price
Il never called him Sim in those days
was always ready with the cash to
help us out of tight place. I used
to wonder at his success in holding
onto his money, but as his wife made
a big salary, as salaries went, and as
my two-thirds of the profits, it wasn't
so unaccountable that he should al
ways have ready money. His wife was
perfectly devoted to him, and no doubt
they pooled their savings.
The only serious trouble we had
at first was in keeping our troupe to-
gether. Sim was everlastingly firing
somebody-mostly for drunkenness |
admit, but always for something.
thought he was too exacting with the
men, but in spite of all I could say
he wouldn't tolerate any kind of loose
ness of speech, habits or manners.
"Well, we were down in West Vir-
ginia somewhere doing one-day
stand when the town marshal dropped
in on Sim and me while we We're at
supper after the show. He said that
one of our people had flim-fammed Il
number of the townsfolk right in the
shadow of our main tent. Sim was
furious of course. / denied that any
of our people could practice such
fraud, but Price solemnly declared
that he'd investigate the whole troupe
for himself. And sure enough that
night, when the vans were all loaded
he rounded up the whole company
read an awful lecture about the mar
shals complaint and said that if he
ever caught any of his employees en-
gagged in any fraudulent games or even
in any games of chance he's spend his
last dollar prosecuting the culprit
We knew all of our fellows pretty well
then, and l. for one, didn't believe that
any of them were crooked. But Price
was suspicious. He used to slink
around half the time spotting the
men, but try as he might he couldn't
get any proof against them. He did
catch Griff Whelan playing casino
with bartender one night, and
though Griff was frst-rate elephant
man Sim discharged him without hesi,
tation. The worst of it was that every