The Monticellonian., 1906-04-19

heart was touched, cause I know how 1 boy hates to work after school, so save him a job sprinkling insect powder on the buifaIoes. that were scratching themselves against the tent
 poles so much that felt they had something alive concealed about their persons. That boy started in with i his can of insect powder on a buffalo calf, and then he filled the cows hair l full ct the powder, and when he start l ed on the bull the bull took a sniff
 of the powder on the COW. and got it
 up fts nose. and he held his head
 up kind of scared like, and turned his upper lip wrong-side out. and began to
 paw the ground. Then he made a
 charge on that boy. and tossed him | through the tent, and looked through 1 the hole, and saw the boy scratching l gravel towards town If he is not
 running yet. he is probably doing 1 chores for his mother both before and | after school
 l have discouraged most of the boys
 who wanted to run away and go with
 the show, by giving tLem a curry comb
 and brush and telling them they could have a permanent job currying off the l hyenas. Most boys would look sort
 of dubious about it, but would think it was up to them to be game, and they
 would take the curry comb and brush
 all right 1 would take them to the
 cage, and tell them to just talk sooth-
 ing 10 the hyenas through the bars.
 and when tho nyenas began to get 1 tame and act as though it would give them pleasure to be curried off. and
 laid down and rolled ever and purred 1 like cat that wanted to De scratched.
 and acted as though they would eat
 out of ones hand. the boys might call
 me, and I would have the cage opened and they could go in and curry them 1 off
 Well it would kill you dead to see
 fool boy side up to hyena cage and try to hypnOtiza a hyena by kind words and q pious example, saying soothing words like. "Soo. boss" or 70, come off now, and be a good fel-
 low, and see the hyena snarl and show his teeth like an anarchist that q | multi millionaire might try to tame | so ne would take a roll of money out of his hand without biting the hand. l have had boys stand in front of a
 hyena cage with a curry-comb and l brush all day, trying to get on good 1 terms with the hyenas. and occasion ally the hyenas would forget to snarl.
 and the boy would think the animals Ipo tfN
 would work up closer to the cage. and say; Pretty pussy" and hold out his
 hand and say: Good fellow" Then | the whole cageful of hyenas would
 make rush for him, bowling, snap ping and scratching, with their bristles | Up, and the boy would fall backwards over a sacred COW About this time I wouIt come along ana ask the boy if | he mad got the hyenas curried, cause
 if he had, I wanted him to curry the grave robbers-the jackals. Then the boy would reluctantly give up his tools and say if l wanted the
 hyenas and jackals curried off could do it myself. l would tell them they would never do for the circus business. cause faint heart never won fair hyena. Then they would go home and sell their mothers copper
 boiler to get money to pay their way in the show. Gee, hut I have saved lots Of boys from a circus fate.
 Pa has an awful time in the hos
 pital. cause twice day the doc | tors strip him and pull a mess of cac- tus thorns out of him, and he yells
 and cont talk very pious. The doc
 tor told me l must try and think of something to divert pas mind from
 his suffering.
 So l got some telegraph blanks and
 envelopes. and I have written mes sages from the show managers, twice
 day The morning message would
 tell about the business of the day be- fore, and how they missed pa Then
 l would add something like this: "The farmers around Olathe are all inquir-
 ing for you" or The farmers around Topeka wish you were here cause
 they want to give you a reception" or "About 200 farmers at Parsons
 think we ought to let them in free.
 on account of being old friends of yours The last one broke pa all up.
 The message said: Many farmers from Atchison are going to come with
 us to Kansas City to confer with you
 on an old matter of business Pa
 jumped like a box car off the track, and wanted the doctors 10 send him
 to a hospital at St. Louis, and he told
 the doctors the reason, but they
 cheered him up by saying if any mob
 came to the hospital after him, they
 would hide him in the picking vat,
 and make the mob believe he was dead.
 That is the way it stands now But
 pa IS not so darn happy as I have
 seen him, though l try to do all can
 to keep his mind off his trouble. I tell him as long as his conscience is clear.
 he is all right. but he says But.
 Hennery, that's the trouble; it aint
 clear. Well, let us have peace, at
 any price,