The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-09-12
PETER SELLS. VETERAN SNOWMAN
PROBABLY DYING OF APOPLExY


went to Chicago and ont of Chicago he
and his brothers peddled dry goods.
Then followed the opening Of an aue-
ton store in Columbus in partnership
with his brother Allan. In 1872, Peter
Sells with his brothers, Ephraim, Louis
and ALLAN, founded the Sells Bros.
circus. He has been in the show bus
mess ever since and it is the sawdust
ring that has made the family wealthy.
1t started as a wagon show but SO pros
pered that in 1873 it became q railroad
show. Sells Bros, went into the circus
trust few years ago and their inter-
est represented in the Forepaugh-Sei
Bros division of the combine. Peter
has always been manager and has
had charge of the publicity end of the
business.
Peter Sells has Travelled about as
many miles and knows about a. many
different people as anybody on earth at
the present time. There is perhaps
not a town of 5000 or over on the
North American continent that he has
not visited and in which he cannot call
the names of several persons. By way
of diversion, ne picked up a good ac-
quaintance in Australia, when, back in
the eos he took his show there.
He is a man Of remarkable memory
and exactness of dates and circumstan-
ces. Ask him where he was on Z GER
tain day 10 years ago, and he viii in
stantly tell you, naming an incident at
tasx of Of
and recall the names of persons with
whom he talked at that time and place.
The fortunes made by the Sells circus
are largely based upon personal judg-
ment of Peter Sells. 1t has ever been
his trait to travel about the country
each year before the shows route is
made up for the succeeding season.
These trips have been pulse-feelers.
Peter would observe the condition of
crops. and learn from business men and
laboring men alike the condition of
trade and industries. II certain COM
munity should be found prospecting, it
was marked for visit of the show,
otherwise it became a black spot on
the circus map.
Peter Sells chief characteristic has
been indefatigable application to bus
mess. He was always thinking, al
ways planning and always studying hui
man nature, and yet he had snatch of
sociability that made him an agreeable
host on frequent occasions.
The divorce suit brought by Peter
Sells in 1900 was one of the most SEN
sational ever tried in Ohio.
The trial lasted for almost two
months and then abruptly ended with
an agreement by Mrs. Sells to resist
no further. She was given about $20,-
600 alimony and Sells got the divorce
on statutory grounds. Sells charged
his wife with infidelity and thfp evil
dence introduced numerous men, Harry
Lyons, Hooking Valley railroad chief
clerk, and VIM. Bott, the billiard table
manufacturer, being the most c0nspic-
uous. y
Lyons was the "blue-eyed baby
boy" of Mrs. Sells letters, and ship
loads of kisses were conveyed from him
to her when she was in Australia when
the show was there. The evidence
showed that during the long periods of
the absence of Sells, his wife held hish
carnival with other men at the Sells
mansion on Dennison avenue. n
Mrs. Sells made counter charges of
infidelity, but failed to prove.lu Mrs
Sells was Mary Luker, daughter of "a
Medina, Mo-, hotel man, when Sells
married her in 1878. 5e