The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-27
ENGLISH GYMNASTS.
london TeIegraph.0

majesty the King OF England has ex-
tended gracious recognition to the long
life OF Henry Johnson, the acrobat, now
an inhabitant of the town of Grant
ham. and within an ace of completing
his Tooth year. A man born nine years
before Waterloo was fought is bound
to excite public interest and the law
or change which has regulated every
ield OF human enterprise within the
past century has not failed 10 leave
strong marks upon the life history OF
4 one who graduated from the stage
/ coach To the motor car era. Henry
; johnson has seen wonderful transfer
nations IN his own particular line OF
/ business Between ting days of the
CAMS and the ''dukeyS' down 10 our
own elegant and refined period, the
fashions have been turned upside down.
/ Many things have happened since the
creation Of the world" wrote the
schoolboy in mis- essay, and many
things have happened since Henry
3 Johnson was member of the estab-
I iishment OF MIR. Sanger, the father of
/ Mr.. Lord George Sanger, the veteran
Snowman of Park Farm, East Finch
/ ley. Today the name of Lord George"
+ is household word throughout the
/ United Kingdom. where the magnifi-
cence of the dress parade" and the gilt
and glitter OF the show carriages have
delighted literally. millions of Juvenile
hearts. Yet Sangers circus, which III
/ recent Years attained 10 vast proper
tions, was started by a man who en-
tered upon the world with a capital-of
so. Henry Johnson's first master
the original SangeT-Was the son of
Wiltshire farmer, and he came to Lon
don as a lad Of Is years to see the
sights These were the good old
( times vaunted in song and fable, and
often compared with our present civ
ilization TO the disadvantage of the lat
ter, Thousands of light-hearted holi-
day makers may be noted every day
IN the main arteries of tad metropolis
happy folk from every corner of the
country, enjoying themselves with an
abso'uteness of freedom unparalleled in
any place in the world. In the youth
OF the first Sanger a man was free
only so long as he was not arrested.
ana in any unhappy moment, having
Nentured to stroll upon LOndo.. bridge
tne unlucky Lad was seize by q press
gang, taken away 10 sea for more than
ten years, and compelled 10 go through
the peninsular war. One hundred
years ago he saw Nelson receive the
fatal wound at the battle of Trafal-
gar. But he came home eventually,
much damaged, and was invalided on
a magnificent payment of 10 pounds.
II was the first payment of this over
overwhelming annuity which laid the
foundations of Sanger's circus. For the
returned hero. with true British per-
severance, set about 10 combat the
world III another direction. AS a pre-
urinary he got married at Bristol,
where his mother was the landlady of
a public house called the Black Horse.
With the 10 pounds he bought a peep
show. and set ii UP in a melancholy
patch of ground, known from then I'M
III now as the Haymarket. AS time
went on he saved sufficient money to
enlarge the scope OF his ambition.
George ". oled. and William ". sue
ceeded. By this time the present Mr..
Lord George Sanger had appeared or
the scene, md he was a lusty youth
airing a bright particular passage in
the story of showmanship which oc-
Cured in Hyde Park In the year 1888.
This wasA at the huge fair given in
honor of the coronation Of Queen Vic
toria. By the close of her late males
! tvs reign the takers" as associated
with great towns, had become as ex-
tinet as the dodo. A revival of such a
festiyity IN the pleasure garden OF Lon
don was as impossible as driving a
stockbrOker to the city on a handcart
The old man, now living in Grantham,
was in 1888 then vigorous person APP
preaching the prime of life. OF Mulla-
ba the Chinese Juggler with whom he
was associated and with whom he
toured the country as young man, we
know nothing. There has been an en-
earrassing rush o. -.siatic performers
10 this kingdom within living memory.
and outside ii. Henry Johnson, how
ever, remembers the coronation fair of
1898, for all 'showdom" was there. In
fact, II was a Johnson--a John John
son, to whom Richardson. the most his
torical of ala showmen, left a legacy OF
500 Pounds-who started this fair 10
conjunction with u partner. The pair
had presented q petition to the home
office soliciting permission, and the
commissioners of woods and forests
obligingly consented.
As the boom OF distant guns an
nounced the departure OF the young
queen for Westminster Abbey the
showmen struck tifeir sonEs and I'M
furled their cloths, while the keepers
of the booths and stalls rolled up their
canvas fronts and commenced opera
/ tions. The theatre in the park played
Benjamin Bowbell; or the IlIustrIOus
Stranger" many hundreds of times.
/ ifT " a. iiON SUI Ei4alAiHF 4OE tue per
gfOrmance was completed In five min
utes, and the fair being open for sew
eral consecutive weeks, the takings OF
the treasury were enormous. In the
/ days OF Che coronation fair the peoples
/ food cost them more, decidedly. A
1 pot OF beer rose 80 a shilling and a
penny loaf 10 sixpence!
They are all gone-the fat giantesses,
/ the fair Circassians, the Hottentot
, Venus, the dwarfs, the living skeletons,
the spotted boys. the lady with a dOu-
bic head-the two tonguesi-the per-
forming pigs, the fortune-telling horse
and the ''pig-faced woman"-this last
| a respectable grizzly bear IN private
| life. 4 few old people can remember
| the great event, and, among them,
| Henry Johnson, who was then 80 years
/ Of age, But the old man can recall
much more in varied and prolonged
experience. He can cOnjure up the rise
and progress of the circus in England,
and It's emergence from the strolling
and vagabond stage. He can cast his
mind back 10 the times when circus
was a kind of auxiliary TO some WON
dering commercial enterprise.
The Cheap Jack came round TO the
village hamlet with his marvellous par
cells Of hardware and electro plate;
his staggering bargains i'm braces and
pocketbooks-what mysterious law is
that which makes braces and pocket
books the leading articles in n travelling
peddler's trade? II was needfui for
him to attract the attention of the yo-
| kel and the open mouthed oldest in
habitant." A circus on a small scale
was the best possible method and
sometimes by means of a lottery and
sometimes by means of a collection, the
| real purpose Of the itinerant was led
up TO. In several cases. however, the
| circus was an entirelY free aud omen