The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-10-25
Circus in Town.

show is the man with soul so dead
that he does not feel the least bit
of a thrill when the circus comes 10
town, and we will show you a con-
frmed cynic. He's a bad man; fit
for treason, strategems and spoils."
For, n man who eleyates his probos-
els at the circus not only admits that
he isn't young and never has Deen. but
furthermore advertises the fact that
he has no sympathy with youth. And,
while it may be only Il misdemeanor
never to nave been young, it is delib-
crate c~riminality never to have desired
youth. =
Therefore. the circus is your true
test as to whether your neighbor is
human or not. One who has be-
come thoroughly disillusioned is not
only a heavy weight upon himself, but
wearies all his acquaintance as well.
and it is a false sympathy which re-
grets his suicide. If a man claims
that the circus bores him, 1t is because
all the freshness is gone from his ma
ture; and by the same taken he is a
bore himself. Except you become
again as a little child, you hall not
enjoy the circus; and if you have the
power to do that, you are IN such a
spiritual condition that you need not
worry about the hereafter. OF course,
we don't mean to make the fiat-footed
statement that all who go to b cir
Gus will of necessity go to heaven, nor
that all who are admitted to the latter
place must have been circus-goers; for
even some of the circus-goers are
wanting in the proper childlike SIM
plicity in other things, n may not
be able to even Greer under the ten,
Of paradise.
But the main proposition holds
true; it is a bad man and a bad neigh
Dor, and above all, a a parent, who
can forget his own juvenile delight in
the brave, hespangied confusion of the
Greatest Show o. Earth. each cir
Gus is the Greatest Show Oh Earth.)
And there is nothing more pathetic
on earth than the urcnin VINO stands
outside the Big Tent, views his COM
panions blithely pass before him to
enter into paradise, while all the time
the hideous consciousness is his that
he has not been able to muster the
price of admission. He may grow u,
later to be a great and good man, and
become President of the United States,
but he does not care for that now-he
would give all his chances in this
world for the possession OF the little
slip of cardboard which would put
him face to face with the gleeSome,
fleasome baboon. If you meet any
SoSii iStlui idilSS oi at IN dIC
pale of the Land of Heart Desire.
and are moved ty the memories OF
your youth to pass him in, you will do
a better deed than if o found him
hungry in the street and fed him. For
he will digest the meal, and need an
other before long; but Il circus IS
worth missing many meals u see.
So, go to the circus: and don be
So ashamed of wanting to go that you
make the excuse that you are just
going to TAX care OF the children.
Admit that you like it. Go n eat
peanuts, and laugh at the clown. and
feel young and happy again. The
clown is another test. He will be, to
all intents and purposes, the first
clown that you ever saw; and he will
have the same jokes; but if you az
lend in the proper spirit. @ will
laugh In the SANG old places. The
clown is not meant to minister to
your sense of humor; his is the higher
function of testing the degree of youth
which you retain.-Atlanta Journal.