River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-11-16

ing of the wild beasts, and the plaudlta
of the multitude of jays and jayesses.
and 1t will be like one grand circus
day spread 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 currycomb and brush, to going
up into the roof Of the tent on the
trapeze and falling into the net, while
the audience faints with excitement.
/ asked pa if he wanted me to keep
on playing 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 a chance escape
to make him have good time
April 11.-Ma and pa have had
several discussions about what kind
Of a position it is going to leave her
In, among the neighbors, for pa and d
to go of with circus, and ma want
ed to withdraw from the church, and
board up 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
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 wom-
an to look after Pa says nowadays
the men and women who ride on BARE
back horses in the ring dress in 1egu-
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
and go with us to Kankakee and Keo-
kuk until she is overcome by nervous
prostration, when we shall have her
go home Pa thinks ma would last
about two days with the show, but
/ guess if she took course Of treat
ment with peanuts and red lemonade
one afternoon and evening, she would
want to throw up her job, and go
back home in charge of stomach spe-
cialist.
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 to-day he had them
.colored black, and he looks as though
he had swallowed the backing brush,
and left the bunch of bristles outside,
ON his chin. He looks fierce. Then,
he has got a new brand of silk hat,
with wide, curling brim, and he has
had vest made Of black and blue
check goods, the checks as big as the
checks on a checker board, and a pair
of pants that look like a diamond
back rattlesnake, and he has got an
imitation diamond stud in his white
shirt that looks like paper weight.
Ma wanted to know if there was
any law to compel pa to dress like
that, cause he looked as though he
was gambler or a train robber. Pa
says that circus proprietor has got
to look different from anybody else,
in order to inspire fear and respect on
the part of the hands around the
show, as we'll as the audiences that
flock to the arena, and he asked ma
if she didn't remember old Dan Rice,
and old John Robinson. Ma didn't re-
member them, but she remembered
Barnum, because Barnum lectured on
temperance, and she said she hoped
pa would emulate Barnum's example,
and pa said he would, and then he
took a watch chain with links as big
as a trace chain and spread it across
his ~checkered vest, from one pocket to
the other, with a life-size gold elk
hanging down the middle, and ma al
most had CONFUSION.
Gee, but If pa wears that rig in the
menagerie tent, the animals will paw
and below, like drove of cattle that
smell blood. Pa is going to wear a
sack coat with his outfit, so as to look
tough, and he wouldn't hear to ma
when she tried to get him to wear a
frock coat. He said frock coat was
all right in society or among the
crowned heads, but when you have
to mingle with lions and elephants
one minute, that would snatch the tail
off a coat and chew it, and the next
minute you are mixed up with a bunch
of freaks or a lot Of bareback riders or
trapeze performers, you have got to
on coat that will 1T any
climate, and not cause invidious re-
marks. whatever that is.
I will have to stand UP beside the
giant once in awhile, to show the diff
ference in the size Of men, and at
other times I will have to stand beside
the midgets. and look like a giant my
self. We are all packed up, AMI in
two days we start for the winter quar-
tiers of the show, to pound it into
shape for the road. By ginger,
can't hardly wait to get there, and see
pa boss things.
VICTIM OF THE FAMILY.