The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-28
FEATURES OF THE CIRCUS
GOOD ENTERTAINMENT FURNISHED
BY THE WALLACE SHOW.
Two Performances Given at the West
WashingtOn-Street GrOunds--The
Street Parade.

canvas tents and the sawdust rings that
is not easily resisted, and a circus, good,
bad or indifferent, is always reasonably
certain of drawing large crowds when it
comes to indianapolis. The old West Wash
ington-street show grounds are having
more than their usual allotment of big
shows this summer. with three circuses and
a carnival as the drawing cards. The first
of the big circuses came and went early in
the heated term; the second one turned up
yesterday for an afternoon and evenings
sojourn, the carnival is on the bills for all
of next week and the big Barnum & Bailey
organization is looming up in the future
booked for two performances in the latter
part of September.
Yesterdays attraction was the Wallace
show-a sort of home product, since it calls
the town of Peru its headquarters and
makes Indiana its principal stamping
ground. 1t is not built on so extensive a
scale as several of the other circuses now
touring the country, nor does it charge
such high prices for admission and reserved
seats. The press agent calls il Americas
greatest, grandest, largest and best amuse-
ment enterprise. and the foremost tent en-
tertainment in all the world" Just as boys
VIII De boys, press agents will be press
agents. This particular press agent would
have hit the nail on the head if he had
heralded the Wallace show as a mighty
good circus for the prices asked-but a
press agent never aims to hit the nail at
all.
STREET PARADE.
The street parade in the morning attracted
the usual great crowd along the route
through the city's principal downtown
streets; in fact, it seemed that the crowd
was even greater in proportions than the
usual circus procession crowd-whch is say
ing good deal, for this city is noted among
showmen for the manner in which people
turn out to witness a street pageant of
golden chariots, gorgeously decorated animal
wagons, horses, brass bands and the other
delightful things that go to make up a cir
Gus parade The Wallace procession was a.
good one of the old-style kind, and sue
ceeded in whetting the appetiteS of the peo-
pie who saw it for the performances later
in the day.
The tent was we'll filled in the afternoon
with sweltering throng of men. women
and children-and don't forget the children,
for the youngsters were there by the hun
dreds. There were three picnics of little
folks chaperoned by oldsters, one of the
merry parties coming from leading Epis-
copal Sunday school with the rector in
charge, looking as jolly the littlest chap
In the bunch. 1t was a pretty hot after
noon for sitting on a hard board seat under
sun-baked canvas, but nobody seemed to
mind the discomfort of the thing in the
fun of watching the antics in the sawdust
rings, while munching away al peanuts and
imbibing icewater with lemon peel in it,
AS TO the circus itself-well, what can be
said of a circus that hasn't been said over
and over again thousand times? This one
had few new features and all of the old
ones. The Heras family of acrobats. in an
exceptionally snowy speciality; the Four Sill
vertons, in a series of new and daring feats
on the high WIRE the Marion Qnd.) Zouaves
in splendid "double-quick drilI;'' the Iiy-
ingstons, in number of wonderful tricks
on the aerial bars; the Navaros, in one of
the most graceful gymnastic and acrobatic
acts ever seen in the city-all these features
were well worth seeing, and in each case
the management gave the performers the
opportunity to hold the entire attention of
the audience, no other acts taking place
when these star people gave their respective
exhibitions Other acts worthy of special
mention were the bareback riding of Blanch
Reed, Winnie Sweeney, Orrin Hollis and
Harry Malamkins; the performance of an
educated bull, trained by Prof. Lew Sunlin,
and an interesting "menage act" by Mad
anne Marantette and two assistants, in
which were introduced three handsome stee-
plechase horses that experienced no difficult
in height Madame Marantette has the dis
tinction of being a woman veteran of the
circus who makes no attempt TO conceal her
age. Her white hair and the stately, digni-
fled manner in which she sits in her saddle
are somewhat foreign to the general circus
atmosphere and all the more welcome on
that account. The moment that she rides
forth on her big black animal one feels that
here is a woman who understands horse,
and her performance bears out this opinion.
She is remembered by many in indianapolis,
IS she was one of the interesting partici-
pants in the horse show here last fall.
ANOTHER NOVELTY.
Another novelty was the platform act of
two nd fxxro
who hail from "vee-anna, Austria" ac-
cording to the loud-spoken announcer. and
who gave whirlwind dance that aroused
a good deal of applause. The clowns of the
show made many attempts to create laugh
ter, but their efforts cannot be said to have
been altogether successful. A sorrier lot OF
clowns never chalked their faces The one
comedian with the circus is woman
whose duty it is at every performance to
come walking along in front of the tiers OF
reserved seats as IL she were seeking a good
place to witness the show. Two clowns are
having a boxing match and one of them
pretends to bump into her accidentally. She
becomes indignant, and, as the clown offers
no apology, furiously angry. She snatches
a pair of boxing gloves from the ground
puts them on and simply wipes up the earth
with the would-be funmaker, much 10 the
delight of the sufferers in the reserved
seats, who had been hoping against hope
that he might chance 10 break his back In
his efforts to be amusing. When she fin
ishes him up the woman, her eyes flashing
with scorn, throws aside the boxing gloves
and. giving him glance of whitening con-
tempt-which he richly deseryes-stalks
away toward the animal tent and is soon
lost 10 sight. She is an artist-that woman
She doesn't overdo the thing in the least
Her every facial expression and every ges-
ture are perfect, and she is In reality one
of the stars of the show
The circus gave its night performance &c
another
night packed up and took its departure
from Indianapalis LEAVING hebind r,lea :.