The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-26
TOLD BY THE OLD CIRCTS MAN
Quick Painting NJ Buildings With the
Giant swinging the Brush.

Thrifty, always" said the old circus
man, was the old man, and he used to
wait always ill fall till the show was in
of the road, before givin the houses
and buildings al our winter quarters their
annual painting mp.
Before We got the giant We u.ed 20 have
all this work done by the performing Arabs,
They'd stand on each others shoulders
like they usei to in tho show, three men
high. and do tho side of an ordinary house
without any trouble whatever.
After We got the giant the pantin work
was easier STILL though at first his comm
in made some hard fecGn with the A-rahs
They'd come to sOrt o like this paintin'
job, it was kind o fun TO hem. inging the
paint around. and they resented the giants
comm; but Of course tho old man was
boss, and he says the giant paints, and so
the giant did paint. and, say, he certainly
could paint houss in less time and with
less trouble than ANY man ycu ever SEQ.
size paint pot He used TO use for his paint
a big iron kettle and. OF course, his brush
was about three times a. big az the biggest
brush that an ordinary painter would use.
And 10 SEQ him paint was sight TO zee.
"You see. he had natural. free-arm
sweep, standin' up straight, of about fifteen
feet and If he bent his body over "A little TO
one eide or the other he could reach twenty
feet or NOR, and II he shifted hi. brush
from one hand to the other, a. he some
times did, why. he could reach further still
He'd run tie brush along the top edge
OF the house. under the caves trough to
make a smooth fuish line there 10 start
with, and then he'd bring his brush down
and sweep it along strip Of house foot
and half vide clean ont TO the corner
boards; and then he'd turn the brush over
and slap II down with sound that was
like the slappin' Of whales tail on the
face II the OCEAN, and draw il hack with a
swish that sounded like BLOWN off steam.
And lac liked 10 paint dunno, think
we VI like TO paint-a little: ard the way
he used to swale that brush around was
certainly somrthin' ana1in' TO sec. Why,
he'd have the whole upper part Of the side
Of forty-foot house painted fore you
knew it.
And the Arabs themselves, as a mniter
Of fact, did some remarkable things in the
way 81 house paintin on the middle level
One man standin' on the ground would
hold up two. ono on each shoulder and
these two men would paint, one right
handed and the other left handed. AZ the
same time, and 80 reach over quito n space.
And with two Arabs on the ground, each
holding up two men, We could bring four
painters 10 bear on the middle street CHI
and they could work AZ the same time he
giant did. because he had TO stand so far
away from the building. anyway, that they
wasn't in his way al all
Then the old man used to get about
eight more mon standing along on the
ground TO paint the lower stretch Of thu
building, and YOU can mag nc how the
bunch used to look IA, work al once, painting
two or a three story house, wit bout anv
scaroldng or any hanging scaffod or any
ladders a. all, the giari' S,audiu' back a lii
tie because ne had o, hut lookin as though
he Wac standin back, sort OF like an arts, ,
and painiIu' the upper stretch the four
aCrohnis standin on mems shoulders paint
in the middl" street Oh and row az mon
.iandln' on IN" ground pain'in' along the
bottom.
And that's he way We alNaya did ali
tho big buildings after that, and after hat
FROM The town. after We came on ho road
every fall. to See lis do our paintn