The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-02

chased me up the church steps. and
| Hennery and a monkey were brought
| home by a policeman about daylight
| the next morning, that time you We're
| Oft fishing. and 1 never told you about
going to the circus when you were
away. So we are circus proprietOrs,
are we? Well, it amt so bad" and
ma went upstairs to cry at our success
and pa and | went out to walk off the
effects of the breaking the news to ma.
L had a long talk with pa about our
changed circumstances. and asked
him what ! would be expected to do
in the show. and he says / will fit in
anywhere. He says that a boy who
knows as much about everything as /
think L know. but don't know a
blamed thing about will be invaluable
about a show, and that going into
new business is like going to college as
. freshman. as all the old circus men
viii haze us and we must not expect
an easy life, but one full of excitement,
Sleepless nights, ginger, the glare of
the torchlights. the races, the flying
trapeze, the smell of the sawdust and
t&nbark, the bowling of the wild
beasts, and the plaudits of the multi
tude Of jays and jayesses, and it will
be like one grand circus day SITead
all over the summer and fall. He
says he wants me to learn the circus
business from the ground up, from
the currying of the hyenas with a cur
ryco1nb and brush to going up into the
roof OF the tent on the trapeZc and
falling into the net, while the au-
dience faintS with excitement. | ask
ed pa if he wanted me to keep on play
ing tricks on him while we were on
the road, and he said he had got so
used to my tricks that he couldn't live
without them, and he didn't want me
TO let chance escape TO make him
have q good time.
April 11.-Ma and pa have had sew
eral discussions about what kind of 4
position it is going to leave her in,
among the neighbors, for pa and l to
so off with a circus, and ma wanted
to withdraw from the church, and
board w the windows of the house,
and make folks think we had gone to
the seashore, but pa convinced her
that we would have preaching in the
main tent every Sunday, and he says
there is no more piouS lot of people
on earth than those who travel with
a circus, and then ma wanted to go
along. She said she COULD do the
mending of the long socks that the
women wear when they ride bare
backed, but We had to shut down on
mas going with the show, cause we
never could have any fun with u wO-
man to look after. Pa says nowadays
the men and women who ride on bare
back horses in the ring dress in regu-
lar evening costume, the women with
lOW-neck dresses, and long trains, and
the men with swalloW-tail coats and
patent leather shoes, and they are as
polite as dancing masters.
We have compromised with ma, and
she is TO meet. the show at Kalamazoo
end go with us to Kankakee and Keo-
kuk until she is overcome by nervous
prostration, when we shall have her
so home. Pa thinks ma would last
about two days with the show, but
guess if she took u course of treat
ment with peanuts and red lemonade
one afternoon and evening. she would
want TO throw uD her job, and go
back home in charge Of q stomach
specialist.
Well, pa showed up at the house in
his circus clothes, this afternoon, and
he certainly is a peach. Pa has been
letting his chin whiskers grow for
about six weeks. and today he had
them colored black, aid he looks as