The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1903-04-30
GOING TO
THE CIRCUS
Copyright. 1909, By r. C. Mcclure
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY C<A,SPA r DEAN

was Il widow past fifty the day a
sporty looking man drove up to her
farmhouse i'll fancy rig and wanted
to arrange with her to cover the front
of her barn with circus pictures
why, bless your heart. never went
to a circus in all my life" she ex-
claimed in reply.
But you are not too old to begin"
he suggested. Let me put the pic
! lures up, and I'll leave you ten tickets
of admission. You can 90 and take all
| your friends
Land o MASSEY, but you don't know
4 Bebee's Corners. Everybody around
here is Methodist or Baptist or Pres
/ byterian-eyerybody but me-and they
won't even attend camp meeting if
| lemonade is to be sold ON the grounds.
I | don't exactly know what my religion
is, but if | went to a circus nobody
would eyer speak TO me again"
The circus man wanted his bills on
that barn, and he argued and reasoned
for half an hour. He saw that Aunt
Sarah WAS an independent character
and that if he could get her started
she'd be ready to defy public opinion.
| The result WIS that she finally said:
well. 20 ahead With your pictures.
never saw an elephant or lion or tiger
in my life, and I'll go and see the
menagerie part anyhow. There II be
an awful row around here. and folks
will think that Satan has got hold of
me. but I'll have TO stand it."
The pictures were hardly I'D when
Deacon Danforth happened along the
highway and SAW them. He turned
pale and tramhled. Not in twenty years
before had barn on the Red Mill road
been thus dafiled. When he had recov-
cred little from the shock. he walked
TO the house and confronted the wild
ow. For the first fifteen minutes the
conversation was devoted to Satan,
hadee, Lots wife. Judas Iscariot and
othef interesting subjects. But it grad
ually tapered off to hyenas, boa con-
strictors and alligators. and the deacon
was almost smiling when he left the
house.
Next day Deacon Bidwell saw those
pictures as he sat In his buggy behind
his old white horse. The horse saw
them before he did and stopped so sud
denly that the deacon was pitched
against the dashboard For a long
minute the good old man thought his
eyes deceived him, but the true state
of affairs finally dawned upon him.
and he groaned and sighed and drove
up to the widows gate.
"Widder Bebee, have you sold your
Twin soul to Satan?" was his greeting,
and then the fur few. 1t was nearly
an hour before he left the house, but
he wasn't signing and grooming as he
went. On the contrary, he looked rath-
er cheerful and he called back from
the gate:
Eyes; I s'pose there III be camels
there with two humps, mebbe with
three. and they'll be with lookin' at"
There was one more deacon in the
neighborhood, Deacon Burton. He was
driving to town to get a pitchfork
mended and was humming the air of
II Want to Be an AngeP' when the
colored posters suddenly confronted
him. There were short skrted long
legged damsels poised on barebacked
horses or jumping through paper coy
cred hoops. He stood and gazed and
felt cold chills go up his back He
drove on to the farmhouse, half ex-
pecting to find the Widow Bebee try
Ing to turn handsprings over a kitchen
chair.
Il wouldn't "a believed It, widder-I
wouldn't "a believed it, he began as
he entered the house. ITS the awfulest
thing l ever heard of, and you know
I've bin in Chicago twice and seen
some awful things"
The widow had a reply ready. 1t be
gan with hyenas and worked up to ele-
plants, taking in lions, tigers, grizzly
bears and sea lions as it rose upward.
She talked so earnestly and well that
when Deacon Burton was ready to go
he reluctantly admitted:
mo, l don't 'spose it's any more
harm to look at lion than to look at a
woodchuck if you don't git mad and
rip and swear over it,"
There were others besides the dea-
cons There was old Mrs. Gaynor for