The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-03-05
THEU.OF N. CIRCUS
A GREAT SUCCESS
BIG AUDIENCE ATTENDS THE
FIRST PERFORMANCE.
Surprising and Difficult Stunts Put on
and Grotesque Clowns Furnish the
Comedy-Another Performance To-
niUht. =

The audience which witnessed tho
first performance of the university cir
Gus last night went away satisfied that
whether it was a circus or a football
team which Minnesota attempted to
produce, the article turned out, would
be first I'm its class.
When the last number of the pre-
lirninary band concert was played and
the troupe filed in for the grand OPEN
ing parade, over $500 people were on
the grand stand and many more came
in later.
The doors of the armory opened at
7:15 p. m. in order to give the crowd a
chance to inspect the menagerie and
side show before the main perform
ance began. The menagerie was, OF
course, filed with property" animals,
but the fact that they. had their origin
to their intelligence which was almost
human. Three dwarfish elephants
who filed their peanuts for future ref
erence made an imposing appearances
at one end of the animal tent while
pair Of bears dwelt peacably with their
Italian masters at the others. The
long-necked giraffe was there with
Happy Hooligan," the camel. The
pet pig and Abraham the buck
sheep, were also star exhibits.
The sideshow fakes were exploited
by bankers whose lungs and
voca bularies would put the profession
separated from "onedimethepaltry-
tenthpartofadollar" and inside the
canvas walls the spectators found
themselves in the midst of a most
realistic collection Of freaks. The
wild man had an aspect SO ferocious
that it was easy to believe his keepers
statement that he made his MONDAY
meal on a raw OK and washed it down
with ten buckets of blood. The devil
himself was there, or else was very
cleverly inpersonated, and presided
over small-sized inferno calculated to
reform the most hardened sinner.
The snake eater devoured bologna
serpents with much apparent gusto.
The bearded lady was ready to make
goo-goo eyes at both sexes and the
Bigger family showed UP sum total
of avoirdupois which justified its
name.
once inside the big tent all fakes
were at an end, from the grand entry
to the after concert everything was
real and up to the standard of any
4 "best show on earth under canvas.
It is impossible to describe in detail
the athletic stunts exhibited. There
were tunbling. trapeze work, hand
balancing, apparatus gymnastics, slack
and bounding wire: performances,
crack drilling, club swinging and, last
4 and perhaps best, the dazzling white
| pyramids built by a squad of forty
strong men which changed as II by
magic to towers, fans, groups and
masses or collapsed into a tumbling,
limbs an dsmiling faces at the sound OF
the ringmaster's whistle.
1 But the circus is first of all laugh
s, maker and in this branch of the work
the performance was a, masterpiece:
/ There were clowns of all descrip-
| tons. Rube clowns, hobo clowns
! lady clowns and clown clowns. The
as a jelly-fish: The eastern war came
4 in for notice when a Muscovite clown,
who looked all of ESQ pounds, put on
the mitts with a diminutive Jap.
The faculty came in for its share OF
joshing when the hoboes and Reubens
of the clown band responded to the
names of dignified professors when
the roll was called.
There was the Weary Willie clown
whose one sign of cleanliness was the
; wash hung on miniature ciotnes'
!, line stretched on the top of his bat
! tered tile, who consumed massive
4 chunks of imaginary booze. did Jug
: Cling tricks and carried bottle from
, which a bunch of snakes issued at IN
!. opportune moments. A clown or con
! ventional type did feats Of marksman'
4
:, The best of all was the farmer DO!
| who issued firm beneath the platform.
: with the announcement that he hai
J. brought his lunch and stayed there
since morning and then proceeded t
e keep the laughs chasing each othe-
: till the show was over.
S band of Indians with real wal
d whoops massacred "a party of immi
lgrants and were in turn wiped out b!
a gray-clad platoon of cadets. afte
burning captive to the slow music
, a war dance.
: The after concert was side-sphtt1ns
. 1t could not help but be- with a son!
/, entitled Lamentations of Kookll
Wallipop- the-Huli-baloo. Strang
. Her." on the program.
: There was matinee this afternoon
: and the last performance will tax
place tonight.