The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-24

when the parade goes by, and never
crack a smile. or act interested, and
when the parade has passed they go
to the circus lot and see the balloon
ascension, and stand on wagon wheels
and try to look over the side of the
tent at the performance, and then
they kick because the audience on
the back seats cuts off their view
from the wagon wheels
Last year our show killed a Quaker
and the community is down on us.
The Quaker got in the show because
he owned a half inch of ground that
its tents We're on, and he stood right
by the ring, and when the champion
female rider was suspended in the air
between two bareback horses, he
leaned over two far inside the ring,
and she kicked his hat clear up to the
roof of the tent and a female trapeze
performer up there caught it and sat
down on it on the trapeZe. The old
Quaker had heart disease and fell
dead. What the Quakers complained
of was that after the Quaker's re-
mains had been removed from the
ring, the show went right on.
They claimed that we ought to have
"hown proper respect for the dead by
closing the show for 80 days. ana
wearing crepe on our arms, but 4 cir
Gus is not built that. way
Ordinarily it may be quiet enough
i'm Philadelphia on Sunday, but pa
found that he had more of run for
his money than at any place we have
been so far. We have had a tribe of
Indians with our wild west depart
ment all summer. and pa has not
STOOD very we'll with the Indians since
he was in charge of the show at Fort
Wayne, and they all got drunk, and
he had them tied up to the poles
around the ring until they got sober.
They have laid for pa ever since, and
ii was only a matter of time when
they got him. Then at Pittsburg our
manager picked up a company of
cannibals that had got left over from
the st. Louis Fair, and who agreed
to perform for their board and
clothes, and as they don't wear any
clothes to speak of. and only eat dog
week days, and hope to get human
being to roast on Sunday it semed a
pretty good bargain.
Well. the Indians got permission to
hold green corn dance in piece of
woods near the circus lot, and the
management got them a wagon load
of corn, and they had built fire and
were roasting the corn, and dancing,
and pa didn't know about it, and just
after dark the Quaker who owned
the woods complained to pa, who was
on watch Sunday night, that his In
dams had got off the reservation and
were preparing to go on the warpath.
and he wanted them to get off his
premises. Pa said he would go right
over and drive them back to the
tents.
/ tried to get pa to let the police go
and drive them Off but he said he
hadn't no time to go and wake up the
police, and they wouldn't get around
anyway before the middle of the
week. SO pa took tent stake and
started for the green corn roast The
Indians were taking turns dancing
and eating roasted corn, and they had
a barrel of beer, and I knew enough
about Indians to keep away from
them when they mix beer with green
corn, for it has about the same effect
as committing suicide with carbolic
acid.
Pa put his hat on one side of his
head and went right into the midst
of the Indians. and grabbed a chief
called zone Ear at Time" and hit
him with the tent stake. and knocked
him down, and said, Now. you git
Well. sir that Indian had no more
than struck the fire in a sitting posi-
ton, and filed the air with odor OF
fried buckskin, before the whole tribe
Jumped on pa, and they kicked him
with their mOccasinS, and were going
to murder him. while the chief who
acted as as the burnt offering. got out
of the fire. and sat down in the cold
mud to cool himself He held up his
hand as signal for attention, and ne
called a council of war. while the
squaws sat on pa to hold him down.