The Virginia enterprise., 1906-02-23
and I told pa TO come on, cause Vessu-
vl0Ila vaa 1oin0 ~ Ara,nt 8 s.+Es III :

and I told pa TO come on, cause Vessu-
vious was going to erupt. -
Pa came on the run, just as he was.
and then the worst happened. think
the hippo went under water when he
found the sneeze was coming, for just
as pa got to the tank the water few into
the air like a torpedo had exploded un-
der a battleship, and the hippo had
sneezed all right, and pa and the audi
ence which had followed him were
drenched and deafened by the explosion.
The hippo had blown the water all out
of his tank, and he lay at the bottom, on
his side, sneezing little sneezes not
louder than the report of a six-pound
cannon, and painting for breath. Then
he raised his head, got up on his feet,
and opened his mouth like cash cut in
steer by COW catcher of an engine,
and he yawned, and guess he got the
lockjaw, cause he kept his mouth open
all the afternoon, to get the air, like a
soprano singer in choir who has been
fed cayenne pepper lozenger by the
tenor, just before she gets up to sing:
"A Charge to Keep, Have
We went around and inspected the
sneezing animals, with the manager,
and he complimented me by saying had
saved the show from becoming an ag-
gregation of stuffed animals, only fit for
taxidermist studio, and made every
animal show that he had ginger in him.
He wanted me to try my snuff cure on
the performers and freaks, cause they
were getting to be dead ones.
Well, before the day was over at Will
mtngton, DEL, pa was scared worse
than he ever was in all his life before
The state of Delaware is the only state
that Furnishes criminals by tying them
up and whipping them on the bare back
with a cat-'o-nine-tails, and all our
men had been warned to be good while
they were In Delaware, cause If they
committed any crime there was no pow
er on earth that could save them from
being publicly horsewhipped. Pa him
self impressed it on the men to look out
that they didn't get into any trouble.
Gee, but the fear of public whipping
makes men good.
Twenty years ago some hold-up men
from New York robbed bank in Della
ware, and were caught, and given SO
lashes apiece on the bare back, by big
negro, and there has never been bur-
glary in Delaware since. We thought
we would play joke on pa, so the man
ager told pa that constables were look
ing for him to arrest him for cruelty to
animals, for kicking a camel in the
stomach, and hitting the camel with an
iron bar, and that if pa didn't want to
be publicly horsewhipped on the bare
back he better skip out for Washington,
D. c., where we would show in a couple
of days, and wait for us.
Pa was so frightened he couldn't get
supper, and everybody talked about
cats of nine tails, and how prisoners
We're cut to pieces, and every time pa
saw jay with a slouch hat he thought it
was constable after him. After dark
he put on an old suit of clothes and said
he was going to Washington. They told
him if he went to take train he would
surely be arrested at the depot, so pa
put a saddle on one of the mules, and
rode out of town and rode all night, and
all the next day he bought oats of farm
ers to be delivered at Wilmington for
the circus. Finally he got out of Della
ware, and the next day the farmers came
in with the oats, but the show was gone,
and they won't do a thing to pa if he
ever shows up in Delaware again.
Pa met us at the depot in Washington,
but he was ever so changed from his
long ride and anxiety over the possi-
bility of being arrested and pilloried,
and lambasted by negro in Delaware.
He said to me, with trembling voice:
"Hennery, this ere show business is too
much for your pa. I would rather be a
Mormon, in Utah, with 40 wives, and
several hundred children, and long
Wh1skers. I am a changed man, Hen
merry, and afraid of my shadow"