The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-12-09
TOLD sY THE OLD CIRCUS NAN.

"There wasn't anything childish
or foolish about the great giant,
said the old circus man. "He was
man, like you and me, but he did
have boy streak in him that stayed
in him all his life. same as it does in
all good men, and kept him young
and fresh"
Now, don't mind saying, about
myself, that haven't forgotten the
fun used to have flying kites. I
don't mean to say that I'd go to max
ing kites and flying 'em now in my
old age, but if I come across lot of
boys flying kites / like to get hold
of the string of one for minute and
feel the tug of tit brings back a
touch of youth to me and the giant
was just like that.
Zone spring when we were wait
ing in winter quarters for the weather
to settle a little more, before taking
the road for the summer, the giant
saw some boys out flying kites /; he
had mild attack of kite fever and he
thought he'd build a kite and fly it
himself.
Naturally the giant built kite
that was proportioned to his own size,
just as you or / would do, or any boy,
if we were going to build kite. and
that made the giants kite about
twelve feet high, which, if you'll stop
to think about it minute, is a good
deal of kite, and one that an ordi-
nary man couldn't begin to hold at
all. But it was all right for the
giant.
HE had for kite string number
Of good stout new clothes lines tied
together end to end, and for tail he
had lot of old horse blankets torn
into thick strips and knotted together,
with a long roll of old canvas that
the old man had lent him sandwiched
in to lengthen it out, and he had great
fun flying the big kite for one day
and then something happened.
"There was standing at that time
outside of two-story brick building
that we had on the grounds there at
our winter quarters, building that
we used for storage, a weather beaten
stairway that reached from the ground
to the second story. This location
saved the space that the stairway
would have taken up inside the build
ing, and it was just as good, better,
in fact, for the use we put it to, out
side; we could haul wagons right
alongside of it outside and tote the
stuff right upit to the second story.
"Well, on the second morning that
the giant had the big kite out the
wind, being as it was, he was flying
it from around by that storehouse
building and on the stairway side.
And wanting to smoke, and finding
that he was out of matches, he just
tied the kite string around the outer
side piece of that stairway going up
the side of the building while he went
and got some. And what with the
tremendous pulling power of the kite
and the fact, suppose, that some OF
the spikes had rotted off or worked
loose in the mortar, the kite pulled
the old stairway away from the build
ing and started off with it.
'It brought up first. dragging more
or less on the ground, against the
board fence running around our prop
erty, and for a minute we thought
that was going to hold it, but gust
of wind struck the big kite just at
that minute, and smash went three
panels of the fence into kindling wood
and splinters. and the kite was off,
dragging the stairway after it across
the country, with the whole circus
humping after it, with the giant in
the lead.
He had tied the line about halt
way up on the stairway, where it was
handy for him to reach it, and so the
stairway was now about evenly bal
red on the string. Our next door
neighbor on that side was farmer
who had four stacks of hay in field
Just the other side of that fence, and
the stairway just caught each of those
haystacks right at the base and picked
up and shook ont and scattered the
whole lot of 'em, one after another,
all over creation. And at the next
jump it made it broke the hayowner's
arm and tore the roof off his wood
shed.
''It bounced along the field after
tearing up the haystacks and hap
pened to be on an upward bounce
when it struck the woodshed and
caught under the caves. The farmer
had come out along with everybody
else when the kite started. and ht
, rushed up and grabbed the stairs ant
tried to hold them. but puff of wint
on the kite pinned his arm between
the stairs and the shed, and the next
instant away went the roof leaving
nothing of it but sticks and shingles,
and away went the stairs, tearing nj
fields beyond and tearing down fen
ces on the way until it came to
road, where something really extra
ordinary happened.
"This road ran east and west, ant
there was coming along it at the tim'
a horse and wagon, headed east. Th'
stairway bounded clean over the las
fence by this road without touching