The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-04-30
SHOW WILL BE
GIVEN TODAY
Sells & Downs Circus to Ar
rive at 8 a. m.
PARADE AT 1880 O'CLOCK
Tents viii Be Pitched on
Lincoln Street.

The first big, full-fedged, three-ring
circus that the residents of Wichita VIII
have the opportunity of attending will
arrive in Wichita over the Santa F'e this
morning, al O'Clock. The big tents will
be hoisted at the grounds, corner of Lin
coin street and Lawrence avenue, and at
1870 a parade Of the principal streets will
be made.
The aggregation which is known as the
Sells &. Downs circus is one of. if not the
largest. travelling on the road this sea
son. Two mammoth special trains. con-
tanning nearly 100 cars. are necessary 10
convey the show from one city to an
other Due to the immense size Of~the
circus, none but larger cities are made.
For instance, in Kansas and Oklahoma
the circus showed at Kansas City the
fore part of this week. The next stop
was at Ottawa, and the next at Emporia,
from which place the circus comes here
The distance from Emporia to Wichita
IS but 100 miles. and due to that fact D
o'clock is given for the time of arrival
here Barring no bad weather, the en-
tire aggregation will be aboard the spe-
cial train by ] a. m, and it will be an
easy matter for the distance of 100 miles
TO Wichita TO be covered in four hours,
so as to reach here at o'clock. The
small boy who is on the ground by $50
or O'Clock will be in ample time to wit
ness the unloading OF the elephant and
hundreds of other kinds of animals, Of
which Sells & Downs carry almost an
unlimited assortment,
Although the entire show is said to be
one Of the best on the road, the manage
ment takes especial pride in its men
agerie. The lion, bear and camel storh
has visited the animal departments OF
the circus recently, and there Will be four
or five baby animals of each species on
exhibition today in the menagerie So far
as is known, this is the first circus to
make an exhibit of the baby animals
named in the foregoing. While very
young the little bears, lions and camels
are extremely hard to raise and due TO
this fact not many are shown; most of
them die before ever reaching the grown
up stage Those with Sells & Downs
however, are very healthy little animals
and give prospects of growing to full
size.
William or Willie Sells. as he is better
known in Kansas, this state being his
birthplace, owns half interest in the cir
Gus. He has been in the show business
ever since Ire was old enough TO remem-
Der. Although he takes no active part in
the different performances given by the
big aggregation, he is stiIl the champion
bareback rider of the world. While still
in his teens he rode before the Queen of
England in response to command from
her highness that he do So Mr.. Sells
still makes his home in Kansas, and lives
ut Topeka when eff the road and not
travelling with his circus
On account of a photographers strike
which occurred at the opening of the sea-
son, Sells * Downs did not get to bill the
city quite so thoroughly or up-to-date as
is customary The company was COM
PEELED to use old bills on many of the
boards, due to being put out by not re
ceiving thousands of fine, up-to-date
posters which they should have received
Just thirty days sooner than they did.
Some have reached the company and a
few arrived in time to be hung before
the big show reached here.
One feature of the big performance is /
a drill given by the Zouaves or soldiers
from Pontiac, I'll. These soldiers are
drilled to such a stage of perfection that
the maneuvers of the entire company are
the same as if made by one man. The
company performs the remarkable feat
of scaling thirty-foot wall with nothing
to aid them but their firearms. The feat !
is gone through in but a few seconds of |
time
A feature of the trained animals is a
number of seals and sea lions. These /
ugly-looking beasts perform tricks that il /
required years to teach them. Some it is /
said, can do almost anything with the ex- /
ception of talking. An attempt TO tell of /
each separate performance given by the /
big show would consume hours Of time /
and several reams of paper
In addition to the main three-ring show /
and the menagerie tent housed under I
mammoth tents there are several side 1
shows containing ell kinds of freaks and /
other attractions. We have everything
that goes to make up a full-dedgri up 4
to-date circus. and just i little more.
said representative OF the big show
when seen last evening. In regard TO the
two performances which will be given he
said: The afternoon entertainment will
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