The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-04-24
WILD VESTS DAY TO COME.
Take tbe Place of the Circus, in the
Amusement Field.

| The Kansas City Journal of Monday,
| Semon, who is the general agent for
Buckskin Bills Wild West, who was here
| yesterday fixing up advance contracts
| for its appearance here in May the Wild
! West is the coming form of tented
| amusement in the United States. This,
because it is Indigenous to the soil and
| depicts phase of actual life which COM
prises the romantic elements OF this ma
| tons life, yet life that is rapidly pas
sing away. even in its latest forms.
The circus will never pass away" said
Sepon last night, because it fills place
| in the affections of the people which moth
ing can supplant. But the circus has
about reached finality. In a quarter of a
century il has grown from a one ring
affair. travelling in wagons. to a monster
three ring and double stage aggregation,
with its own trains of railroad cars 1t is
getting top heavy. People have grown
in their demands with the means taken
to satisfy and create them. and owners
cannot go much farther. What is left?
There can be no more rings; people cam
not keep track of a show as it is. There
ean be few new feats of strength or dar-
ing; human beings cannot fly and that
Is about the only think they do not do
now. The earth has been secured for its
wild animals and those not common are
extinct. The spectacle of immense mag
nitude has been worked in lately, but ii
cannot be made any more unusual, stu
pendous or novel than it is now. And
finally, the hippodrome, with its chariot
races, is an old story. The public has
been admitted behind the scenes and there
is no longer haze of mystery. The at
traction of the circus today is chiefly in
Renaissance and in immensely, and both
have reached their limit.
1T is different with the wild West 1t
Is historical; ii depicts real life, and is
not merely a collection of feats of agility
or strength or daring, though it com
bines all of these. 1t portrays things
actually done in the development of these
United States. of which We have read in
our school books, and which thousands
of us have lived through 1t touches
real life; the circus is a phantasmagoria
but the Wild West is actually. Men go
TO ii and see what they have done, them
selves. and what any man with skill and
nerve can do and not merely the spe-
cialiZed doings of trained few You can
not get away from the actual human in
terest, any man prefers to see, hear or
read about something that is already
familiar to him in degree, rather than
be forced to analyZe his amusements and
learn what he is looking at. At the Wild
West he knows the significance and the
back-behind if l may so put ii, of every
thing done; there is no mystery nor trick;
1T is all there, open and above board. He
sees real life, and he enjoys it.
Il have taken a Wild West show
through Texas and the regions of the
Indian Territory where there still exists
something of the border life which it
depicts. Nowhere in the United States
has an amusement enterprise attracted so
much attention. That proves that it is
genuine men who are still interested in
the things it is made up of. go and feel
at home there. You can not get away
from that; every man who goes is a
walking delegate for the show And a
circus can never hope for that sort of
advertising; it still depends upon gaudy
bills and a disappointed crowd when the
last race is run, for no show on earth ever
gave just what il advertised"
Buckskin Bits Wild West Show, in all
its entirety. will exhibit at Wichita to-
morrow, Mondoy, April 18th