The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-24
.+~+-*%-%+4%+%+-.+~+&+%.-+
Thls is Barnum 6 Bailev dav.


 This is Barnum & Bailey day.
 In the old days 1t would have been called simply 'circus day. but that no longer expresses the full meaning of the event. For, according to all preliminary reports, the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Is not merely a circus It is more than that. It is a great amusement and commercial institution.
 Facts and figures, when applied to great enterprises, are always interesting, and they are especially luminous in demonstrating the magnitude of this great show.
 Big Figures.
 The Barnum & Bailey concern employs nearly HOO men and women; it requires Ss railroad cars to transport it from city to city; it's staff of agents embraces a dozen men, who are paid salaries equal to those received by bank officials; it has four advertising cars and nearly hun dred men are engaged posting the bills and spreading the tidings of the shows coming; it spends a quarter of million dollars every year for printing; its news paper bills aggregate another hundred thousand dollars: it maintains a press bureau with five experienced newspaper men to keep in touch with the public through the press; it employs over 300 high-salaried performers; it provides ballet and spectacle at an average ex- pense of $10OO day; 1t comes into town at daybreak, puts up 12 acres of tents; plays to from 150OO to 25,OOO spectators, and the next day is doing the same thing hun dred miles away; 1t carries its own com missary department, feeds its hundreds of employees in great dining tents as well and generously as a first-class hotel could do the work, and far more eXpedi- tiously; handles through it's ticket wagons and financial departments from $5OOO to s15. 900 every day, and runs at cost of from $55OO to $650O every day, including Sunday, when there is no performance.
 How 1t Is Done.
 The average man or woman who attends the circus today will not trouble much about this side of the great show. But 10 those who give the matter thought there can be but one query-how IS IL done? The answer Is simple. It is system a marvellous system it Is true, but so simplified that it runs like the well-oiled wheels of an intricate machine. And the motor behind it all-the man who makes the machinery go and who keeps the most delicate parts of the mechanism in work ing order Is James A. Bailey.
 iG .4 saving that 'the Barnum x Bailey show Is James A. Bailey and that James A. Bailey is the Barnum & Bailey show.
 One Mans Mind.
 Probably in all the history of amuse- ment there never was an instance of one mans mind dominating great institution to the same extent But the Greatest Show on Earth, like its director general Is largely a matter of evolution and de- velopment.
 When MT. Bailey and P. T. Barnum joined forces twenty years ago and MT. Railev took the practical management of inc show he literally "carried the finan- cial affairs of the concern around m ms hat" The ticket seller was the treasu- Ter of the show. There were no book keepers, no auditors, no elaborate system of accounts When the show made money there was a surplus at the end Of the season. When it lost, which sometimes happened the deficit was evident at the close of the circus year, and the amount had to come out of the pockets or the owners Under such a system, rather lack of system, the modern Barnum x Bailey show could not successfully run a week.
 Business Organization.
 The business part of the show that part which the public knows nothing at all about, is now conducted like great mer- cantile establishment.
 There is q general treasurer and his as- sistants. There is an auditor and stan of bookkeepers. For every cent expended there is a receipt, and for every ticket sold there is a check or voucher. Every night at 10 o'clock the manager knows hv figures that cannot lie whether the show has had profitable or losing day and how much. to a penny, has been made or lost In this great circus establishment every day must stand for itself, and this is rendered possible by the fact that 1t is a strictly cash business The circus never has any outstanding, uncollected bills.
 Different Departments.
 So much for the financial end of the big show Important as this department is, the show could not be run without able and competent men were in charge Of its various other departments.
 Every department, while blending with all the others, has distinct individuality. There is a general manager and general agent of the advance department. There are agents who arrange for the billboards, for the newspaper advertising, for the lots upon which the show must exhibit, for the forage required for the 600 horses and the 30 elephants and for the provi- sions necessary to maintain the circus dining tents and their thousand and more daily guests. Then there are four adver- Using cars. each with a manager and a complement of 20 men, who post the glar- ing circus bills and distribute the heralds through the country. These men cover the same ground over and over in their efforts to arouse public interest in the show.
 How Work Is Divided. Back with the show there is a general manager, a general superintendent a su- perintendent of canvas, q boss animal man, a superintendent of stock, and num- berless other bosses" all of whom have large staffs of assistant superinten- dents and working people under their di- recton. The work is so divided that