The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-19
WINTER Is HARD ON THE SHOW PEOPLE Many of Them Are Thrown
 Out of Work HUNDREDS LOOK FOR JOSS Stars Have Easy Time, But Minor Performers and Employees Do
 All Kinds of Work When
 Circus Season Ends.
HUNDREDS LOOK FOR JOSS

AA NiQ tO 0tt liC WlHliy DitcltS bAcN, II is the great rank and file that make up the army of circus employees. When the falling temperature and falling attend snce begin to bear evidence that winter is near at hand, the circus employees for the great part know that the time Is soon coming when there will cease to be any pay envelopes for them and when they will have to shift with the army Of unemployed until spring brings the call for them to go on the road again. Then they will, most of them, somehow, be on hand ready to answer, for the attrac- ton of circus life is like drink, once 1t has entered the bones of a man or wo- man, and he who makes one swing around the circuit with any of the great and unparalleled aggregations Of SUI pendous wonders that travel under caz- vas will find 1t hard not to go out again.
 In the meantime, however from the day when the last performance of the year is over and the show goes into win ter quarters until the spring, the circus people, most of whose salaries do not permit of much being laid aside, have to avail themselves of many ways and iiAOaiiS lo SOINttH1IlS lO ldke the place of the envelopes that are handed out of the pay wagon.
 Stars Have Easy Time.
 The stars of the circus have no such troubles. Many of the performers are in similarly fortunate positions The stars make so much, many of them. that the long layor of the winter means noth- ing more to them than a much desired an ffaga T .I.a Il. earned increment may be used to help support the poor boolkmaker or the keepers of fine hotels. Not that the star of the sawdust ring dissipates or squan- ders in high living the result of a sum mers work, put the manner in which he or she lives Is riotous luxury compared to the existence the less luminous sa- tellites of the show eke out during the closed season
 Many of the performers find work dur ing the winter on the various vaudeville circuits. There are at present at least four acts on one circuit taken from the ranks of circus performers. The field on the stage is narrow. however, for the circus man or woman. A bareback rider is distinctly out of place in a vaudeville bill, as are nearly all horse acts with the exception of the man with the thinking stallion. Trained dogs occa- sionally change from the sawdust to the footlights. but the only class of perform CTS who can consistently rely upon the stage to furnish them employment after the circus shuts down are the acrobats. Yet even these artists are so numer- ous aside from the number recruited each winter from the circus that there is sure to be large number of them who must look for living outside of their own craft.
 Hundreds Seek for Work.
 At the winter quarters few men are Kept to care for the animals. The rest or the army that makes up a circus per- sonnel makes its living away from the stage or the winter quarters during the off season. There are bareback riders trapeze performers, clowns, aerial kings and queens by the score and "ringmen" and canvas men by the hun dreds who are thrown out of work each year when the circus closes down.
 Then they do not worry about what their acts are nor how they are received The main object is to make living for a few months, and they are not particu- lar by what means they make it. They flock to the large cities and find employ ment there in every manner of occupa- tion that can be imagined, and stay until the spring.
 q have no doubt that if any well known snowman put an ad Wanted Circus people out of work any week in the Chicago papers he would receive ap- plications from at least 800 big show peo- pie who are scattered about the town this winter" said a theatrical agent. Tt is a safe bet that there Is this number of people there this winter who are only waiting for the spring to show up, when they will quit their temporary positions and fit to Baraboo and the other places where big shows rendezvous It would be hard to find them now and you wouldn't find them by looking for people who look like performers or ring em- ployes. But they are there all right.
 Take All Kinds of Jobs.
 Tn restaurants, where some of them get jobs for the winter. in stores, offices, shipping rooms in fact, any place where an odd man will fit in you can find the circus man in winter time. The women also many of them go to work. Of course most of them have a little money laid by from the summers wages. and when they go to work they try to get some- thing in their own line first before go- ing any place else. Some of them may be found doing stunts in the museums when they can't get on with any circuit.
 Failing in anything like this they go into something else. There is a snake charmer working in a downtown book bindery. Her name, in the summer. is Mime. Flora. It is plain Miss Something in the winter and her pay is only frac- tion of what 1t is in circus season. But it Is case of work or go broke, and she works. One of the large department stores has a demontrator at work dur ing the Christmas season who does a trapeze act with a small show in the summer. l know woman rider who has been coming to me waiting for a chan to sign on the circuit who is working in a downtown restaurant as a waitress.
 '"rhe men of course get into greater variety of occupations. They nearly al- ways manage to get work, for they are an apt adaptable lot of men and pay Is small consideration to them. as their prime object is working is only to earn living. They are willing to take near ly any kind of work too. and this helps them keep busy for tho season.
 Not Among "Bun" Class.
 'It must not be thought that they are to be found in any number among the bum element of the cities, for they are not. Most of them have some money lah by. and they manage to keep their heads above the low water mark, even if It Is some time before they find any thing to do.
 There is minor clown ffoi ef et finds work each year with a psr.sf house dn the city. The rlsh season su this business starts In about the siY- that the circus game is dead. and this fellow generally steps from iie cifens ring to the shipping room s segs gall paper firm. None of the mn with whom