The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-12-08

face, it was so red hot, but he learned
lesson, for I saw him holding a tired
mothers baby up on his shoulders, so
it could SEQ the drove of camels coma
up to the lot from the train, soon after.
1t was great to see all the tents go up
as if raised by machinery, and after
all were erected, and the rings were
graded, and the animals in the
menagerie tent all fed and watered,
and the performers in the DRESSING
room ready for the afternoon perform
ance, pa was the proudest man ever
was. He walked all around, inspect
ing everything, and kicking occasion
ally at something that got balled up,
and when the crowd came to buy tick
cts, he stood around the grand en-
trance, looking wise, and he was so
good natured that h. bet ten dollars
he could guess which walnut shell a
bean was under, which a three-card
monte man was losing money at, and
pa lost his ten with SMILE He said
he wanted to be kind to the patrons
of the show.
This was my first appearance in
the show business. I had to stand
up beside the giant, to show how lit
tie I was, and then had to stand
up beside the midget to show how
big I was compared with him. It
went all right with the giant, be-
cause he was so big I was afraid Of
him, but I thought the midget was
about my age, and needed protection,
and when the crowd surged around us
I said: Don't be afraid, little fellow,
I will see that no one harms you"
The look he gave me was enough to
freeze water.
When the crowd had gone into the
big show tent, what do you think,
that COMPOUNDED midget began to ask
me how l stood on the tariff ques-
ton, and he argued for free trade,
whatever that is, for half an hour,
and made me think of Bryan dur
ing campaign, and then he
branched off on to the Monroe doc
trine, which I suppose is something
connected with rival show, and I
guess he would be talking yet, only a
big, husky fellow came along, a fell
low about rs years old, and he stopped
over and put his hand on the midget's
shoulder and said: Hello, dad," and
by gosh, the midget introduced me to
the big galoot as his youngest son.
Wouldn't that skin you.
The first day of the season was
great, only all the performers had
not got limbered up. One Of the
girls on the flying trapeze fell off
into the net from the roof of the
tent and broke her suspenders, so
when they got her down in the
ring it seemed as though every
thing she had on was going to shuck
loose, and leave her with nothing
but a string of beads, and pa went up
to wrap his coat around her, and she
kicked his hat off and ran into the
dressing-room. The audience Just
yelled, and pa blushed scarlet, cause
he saw it was a put-up job to make
him ridiculous.
During the chariot races pa had
to jump like box car to
keep from being run over by a
four-horse chariot driven by one.
horse girl, and the attendants dragged
pa out from under a bunch of horses
being ridden barebacked, like fury.
Then two horses hitched together
with a strap were being ridden by a
woman, the strap broke and the horses
spread apart, and some one yelled that
she had split clear in two Pa rushed
in to help carry one-half of her into
the dressing-room, but she wasn't
hurt at all, cause the peanut boy
told me she was a rubber won.
an, and you could stretch her half
way across the ring, and she would
come together all right, and eat a
hearty meal. Gee, but a circus is q
great place to study human nature.
In the evening performance at Peoria
there came up a windstorm which
blew down part of the menagerie tent
where the freaks we're, and when the
storm was over, and the tent top was
pulled up again, they found pa all
right. He started to crawl under the
canvas, and skip out for fear of the
animals, but the fat lady caught him
and sat down on him.