The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-11-14
GIANT MADE A HIT.

quarters, said the old circus man, some
where along early in October. Before that,
as likely as not, the fall rains had been
maxim the wheelin' bad for some little
time and it was gettin' pretty cool to show
under canvas. So the last of September
used to see us headed up for home, and
we'd fetch it, as | was sayin, somewhere
along early in October.
And when we got there and got the
spangles off, SO to speak, why we looked
just like anybody else, and we just be-
came in our way, part of the community.
The clown, you understand, in plain clothes,
looked just like any other man. Same
with the ringmaster. To see him walkin
down the main street in a sack coat and
a derby hat you'd never think of him as a
man you'd ever seen in top boots, swallow
tail coat, and a plug hat, walking around
cracking long, white-lashed whip in a
circus ring. Same with all the rest.
There might be now and then one of
our men with pretty gallus sort of a touch
to his SLOUGH hat, or something like that
that you might have noticed, if you saw
him walking along somewhere; but for the
most part our people in town was just
like the people living there. They could go
into grocery store, or dry goods store,
the community without attracting any
particular attention at all. All except one !;
the great giant.
ut didn't make and difference how the
great giant was dressed, whether he was
in spangles or in the plainest kind of plain
clothes that ever was; you couldn't make
him anything but conspicuous, any moren
you could a mountain; and that first winter
he was with us there in winter quarters,
after his first season with us on the road,
he was, of course, the great sensation OF
the town.
Along about the middle of that month,
that year, the campaign manager for one
of the political parties-that was in a presi-
dental year, you see, and about the time
we got settled we was right in the middle
of the campaign-this manager comes
to the old man and wants to get the giant
to carry torch in their torchlight process
sion on the following Saturday night. Not
bad idea, hey, for the campaign man to
think up! But it put it up to the old man
very hard, because the old man had po-
lltical ideas of his own very decided, and
he was of the opposite party from the one
| they wanted to get the giant for.
The old man didn't go round holerin'
about his politics. Benz in business he
was tryin' to give pleasure to all, he didn't
deem it necessary to antagonize people by
| putin out large numbers of four-sheet post
ers settin' forth his political principles in
every town we came to. But he did sort of
| hate to have the giant = he knew well
| enough what tremendous feature he'd be
| in the parade-marchin in torchlight pro-
cession on the other side. But he let him
| go; and he fitted him out besides, in a
way that filled the political folks with de-
light.
They had had notion of having the
giant carry torch made up of dozen or
20 torches bound together and bound to
the end of a pole. Not so bad, was it
But the old man, with the simplest sort of
a contraption that he got up himself, beat
'em clean out of sight. He had the show s
blacksmiths make for the giant a tremen-
dous torch with head of wrought iron
with the inside of the two rings, the place
where ordinarily the lamp would go, made
big enough to hold barrel. Down through
this ring. and attached to it and with, may
be, two-thirds of its depth below it, we had
thick great iron cup that was about the
size and just about the dimensions of half
tierce.
"You could easily set barrel in this cup
on end head up, and that's what we did
set in it, barrel of tar. The rings of this
torch holder were, of course, hung on GIN
balls, so that at whatever angle the handle
was held, or however it was turned, the
great lamp would hang level, as it ought to
and we mounted this torch on pole that
was stout enough to support it and at the
same time OF such length as. to make, it
suitable in proportion to the great giant S
height.
And with that torch over his shoulder,
not yet lighted, we sent the giant to the
meeting place.
:. "They had his torch, which they expected
he was going to carry all ready for him
and blazing big torch it made, too; but
when they saw what he had over his Shout
der they waited minute to see what was
coming. One of our men climbed the tree
that the giant was standing by and leaned
out from one of the branches and struck a
match and touched the wick that we'd
stuck into the top of the tar, while the
giant sort of held the torch over toward
him; and when the tar got started and the
! giant swung the torch out over his shoulder
and they realized what it was, why the
whole procession, standing there waitin
for the start, whooped and hollered till
they was hoarse.
Then the band struck up and the pro
cession moved, with the giant, of course
at the head of it. Snakorinos! if that
wasn't the greatest torch you ever see
That tall pole with the barrel at the end
of it made an outfit just about suited tc
the giant, as to size--that is, to look well
in proportion-and the blaze coming out
of the barrel of tar beat anything you ever
saw. Being carried along as it was, there
was, of course, more or less breeze BLOWN
it, and that flame eight ten feet high
would bend this way and the other
well, OF course, after that there wasn't
a political parade that we didn't have appl
cations in advance for the giant to march
in. OF course, everybody recognized right
off that the giant and his torch was the
greatest feature ever seen in torchligl.
procession. But the old man said no; that
it would be an imposition on the giant anc
he couldn't do it. But, of course, he wanted
to do what was fair, and if the other pc
litical party should want the giant for one
parade, why, he'd be willing to do that
Y