The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-03
CIRCUS QUEENS SAD DEATH.

Elizabeth Howard, Once as Famous a. Dan Rice, Died Newswoman.
 There recently died in New Orlean:
 the one-time queen of the circus,
 Elizabeth Howard, who forty years agc divided honors with Dan Rice. In tho
 old days Miss Howard was easily tho
 most popular female performer in the
 sawdust ring, but the last twenty years
 of her life were spent selling newspa. pers in the streets of the southern city
 Time was when Elizabeth Howard re.
 ceived ore hundred, and fifty dollars fol
 forty minutes work each night. And
 the success of the entire performance
 depetnded upon her whim as much as
 the singiing of grand opera does upon
 the hunlor of a prima donna. ..u<
 During her life. in New Orleans "Old
 Miss Howard,'' as she was known tC I the newsboys and street urchins, earned Eabout sixty cents a day, and to do this
 she was forced to rise at two o'clock in
 the morning. summer and winter, and l. be at Newspaper row at three o'clock,
 when the morning papers sent out their city editions. e .2s. s& 3 ..5...
 It is said that Miss Moward arrived in New Orleans about twenty years ago.
 One cold winters morning a sweet faced, white-haired old woman was seen selling papers at the intersection of Customhouse and Royal streets She
 had a rude little table with uncertain legs. When 1t was time to close her shop she asked permission of inear- by store keeper to allow her. table to re- main over night in his establishment. Then she trudged home to bare cheer less little room somewhere down. town in the French quarter. After a while she returned, passing the, corner on her way to the levee for a walk. She was followed by six dogs, her friends and companions This was the history of each of the last days of the old woman's life.t She never select ed any other corner, and she was never absent from her little stand. She al- ways went for her walk accompanied by half dozen dogs.3l% .1.:%
 Sometimes change was noticed in the personnel of her canine body-guard, sor1e of them falling victims to age, ac- cident or the dog catcher. But there were always six of them. F. 2
 There are times when the most cheer full and willing of souls will rebel at the idea of going out into the darkness of a bleak morning and standing in the face of a stiff, icy wind that blows straight from the gulf, but Miss Howard was al- ways patient and gentle. While she rarely smiled, she bravely faced life and the changes it had for her, and when her work was done she folded her arms and went away.
 Miss Howard is held by many to have been the most dashing, the most daring circus woman the world ever knew. She was the first person, man or wo- man., to tumble through paper hoops while her horse was going at mad gall Top. She could perform on the horizon tai bars, too, and as dancer she ri- vailed Carmencita. She had a voice of richness and power s{.,
 Miss Howard deserted the circus for single season, when she starred in a comedy of the sort in which Lotta was successful. She achieved a triumph, her singing of Long, Long Ago. being still fresh in the memory of many an old man. But the stage was not to her liking and she soon returned to her old love, the night on which she reappeared under the big tent being an event to amusement seekers. It was in Pitts burg, and admirers from Cincinnati and Detroit made pilgrimages to the Penn sylvania city to give her welcome.
 Before the grand entry" there was an accident in one of the dressing rooms. A candle was overturned and Dan Rice's little niece was sleeping on a pile of canvas trunks, and the flames had reached the child when Miss How ard went to the rescue. The queens left hand was badly burned, but the lit- tie one was unharmed.
 Miss Howard bowed to the big audi ence that night, but she could not ride | her horse or lead in midair. She sang Long, Long Ago. Let me forget that so long have you
 roved, Let me believe that you love as you loved,
 Long, long ago. 1
 Miss Howard was once a society girl ! of Montgomery, Ala, and just before the civil war she visited Richmond, where she led the cotilion at the sea- sons most notable affair. It was dur ing this visit to Richmond that she met { a circus clown, to whom she lost her heart. There is no record of her mar riage to him, but at any rate the mem- I bers of her family, one of the oldest in Alabama, were shocked the following year to learn that she had signed a contract with a circus manager and had begun what was to be most nota- bel career. She was forbidden ever to l enter her home again.
 Miss Howard sold papers the day she died. The last morning she spent on earth was bright and warm. She left off selling papers about ten o'clock and went to Newspaper row to settle her weekly bills. Then home, dinner for the dogs, a two-hour map" and her daily