Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-07
REP0SE IN ACTION

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st may be about four feet around at the
waist Hne and have q growing bald spot
on the top of my head" said the fat man
in the rear seat of the open car. ''but l
have just as much fun looking at the cir
Gus posters now as did thirty and more
years ago, when was a barefoot tyke
pioughing around two months before circus
time picking up enough junk and rags and
bottles to sell for the price of q circus tick
ct. walked over large section Of Wash
ington with myself on Sunday last. Just 10
stand before the billboards and gaze at the
circus posters; Well MAYBE after eos AL Of
partaking of the effiuvia Of exalted art that
is diffused by the circus poster. For I'm
bound to say that; as l stood before a iot
of the billboards the little old hazy film of
memory dropped over my eyes. so that l
didn't really see what was looking at at
ALL but did see, way back yonder through
the misty vista Of the flown years the mag
ical tents Of the circuses Of my kidhood
billowing out, whiter'n any towers OF Came
lot cameo-like against the blue sky; and
1 saw the freckled, one-suspendered urchin,
that was me, standing a-dream at the spec
tacle of all that splendor and pageantry
and grandeur: and / felt sort o. lonesome
and heavy as thought of all that's been
coming off with me since, and wondered why
the dickens d Teller couldn't always stay
freckled and one-suspendered and en-
tranced.
But when 1t comes to art, nobody can
tell ME that there isn't whole lot Of art
about circus posters. I've always UNDER
stood. for example. that what IL called the
mobility of repose' is one of the distinct
composing elements Of good art. Where
are you going to find such magnificent
nobility of repose,' and In action, at that,
as you find in the circus poster?
The circus poster people engaged in do
ing the most amazing things, ] mean, are
such an absolutely reposeful and self-con-
tanned and Notwithstanding lot while they
are doing those things. Now, take the pos
ter. SO widely scattered around Washington
now. of the utterly daredevil young fti-
lOw-they call him 'Diablo.' In fact-who
makes that tree-men-jus ride down the
steep incline and then takes the horrtfying
leap into space on his bike. and lands IN
another incline way OF from the one on
which he has made the Initial descent. II
you look at the figure Of that young fell
low on the poster you'll apprehend what l
mean when I speak Of the reposefulness OF
the circus posters. Say, IT'S perfectly as
tonishing how little worried that young
fellow lookS-on the posters-all through
the various stages OF that reckless stunt.
half q mile high, but does that fact. and
the additional fact that the Incline Is all
but perpendicular. bother him any-in the
poster? Not or your zincograph! he Just
machine begins that terrific swoosh down
the half-mile-high incline. and there isn't
airy q tapping Of his coat-tails. and his
arms are folded airishly. and there's q sort
mouth that gives you the impression that
he must be absolutely devoid Of any such
thing as nerves. II you don't call that
noble example of the reposeful In art then
you've got your Ruskin mixed with your
DooIey, that's all I've got to say. and you
need to smoke up as to the esOteric mean
ingfulness Of the higher and the nobler
Take, too. the ten or fifteen handsome
young ladies engaged in doing things on the
circus poster trapezes If they're not get
ting away with those incredibly dimcuit
feats with all the reposefulness OF still
life wahr-color picture of a bunch of roses
In vase or a strawberry shortcake on a
dish then never saw a circus poster in my
life. The shapely young woman with the
flowing yellow hair. for example, who mas
Just been shot out of q fire-beiching cannon
and the cannon's fire looks devillsh red on
the poster too, I'm a-telling you. son-and
who Is bound, aerially, for the young fellow
with down-swinging head who Is waat ing, TOE OF
the tent-at least 200 feet away, to judge
from the poster-well. just you look at her
floating figure and tell me If you can find
anything anxious about the way she Is tax
ing her precarious situation! Nary an
anxious.
And then, for more amazing reposeful-
ness take the lion tanners in the posters. i
guess maybe you don't turn away from
the posters of the lion tanners suffused with
the conviction that those fellows are the
real thing in nerve and hardihood! The
mammoth, giganticaily named beasts, you
will observe-on the posters-absolutely
cover, like subdued cravens, under the i'm
palling glances of the poster lion tanner 8
eyes; they draw back. affrighted, to the
rear and sides of their cages: and he just
stands there, a noble exempllhcat1on of the
superiority of mind over matter, and ficks
'em in the eye with the cracker of his
whip, and shoots at 'em with a huge horse
pistol from which the flame belches luridly.
and all the time he's so little concerned
about what he's doing with the kings of
the forest that there isn't q hair out of
place in his mustache, and the whole sit
uation looks just like pie. and nothing else.
for him.
Don't you ever let anybody tell you. son.
that there isn't lots Of art, and mighty
high art at that, about the circus posters.
And II you want to take my advice dom t
you ever get to believing, either. that the
circus posters aren't absolutely true.
Just imagined. a good many years ago.
that I'd found out, that the circus posters
weren't wholly and entirely on the level
and you can take my word for 1t that /
have never been as happy since as ! was
before I thought I'd made that discovery.