The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-19
CIRCUS IN AFTER HARD TRIP,
ALL NIGHT Jon AT THE GARDEN
GETTING THINGS IN PLACE.

ThlnES-COpS Uut Win NothlhB ID Nv
While the crowd from the athletic games
ut Madison Square Garden on Saturday
night was going out Of one entrance the
circus was coming in at the other. The
Barnum and Bailey people could not get
nossession Of the Garden, by the stern law
of leases, until the stroke Of midnight that
divided Saturday from Sunday. When
they came to their own they lost no time,
az is the manner Of circus people.
The vanguard Of their coming was a string
Of trucks, carrying planks, tools and appa-
ratus, and a company OF workmen. To-
gether with these came the men of the exec
ltive staff In fur lined overcoats and many
diam onds and the steady company OF the
animals, who wore canvas coats, l~eggings
and worried expressions. For the Their
mometer had been falling all the evening,
II was now down to lS above, and carried n
cold wind with it. Never had a circus
been moved before in such weather, and it
was no time for elephants and tigers and
other people of the tropics to be out OF
doors.
The executive staff stood near the gas
lets for warmth and discussed these things.
The trucks, preceded by three dump carts,
spiIling dirt, numbered on into the arena
within the lines Of the indoor track. Sides
and t%ailboards began to come of the wagons
and in five minutes the Garden, from the
cluster Of arc lights above to the floor below,
was a great workshop.
Riggers, climbing like sailors, were scram-
bling up the steel beams; carpenters we're
laying the floors Of the two stages between
the three rings; laborers we're spreading
dirt for the course where the queen OF the
sawdust ring will disport herself. Gates
and walls, unloaded by sections from the
trucks, we're nailed into place. The appear
ance of the Garden changed like a kaleido-
scope.
The circus, freshly painted and repalred
and Just out Of winter quarters, had arrived
at Mott Haven from Bridgeport at s
o'clock and rested until IL, when it took the
trail for New York. The cook wagon and
the baggage vans went first, and after them
the gaudy cages containing the kings of the
Jungle. The Colds and reds of these cages
we're hidden under great canvas coverings,
stuffed out with blankets until they looked
like old fashioned emigrant wagons. Thus
we're the kings Of the jungle kept warm.
There were no wrappings for the ele-
plants, however; and those shivery, tropio
blooded giants complained all along the
line VI lIldlCb' AIVlO ""o nv iN"
stampede; they were too cold for that; but
they we're unhappy and didn't see the use Of
1t all. Besides, this was the first long walk
out Of winter quarters, and their old bones
we're stiff. Behind them the contemptuous
camels, thorough philosophers, bobbed and
padded without a murmur.
The workmen had nailed down runways
into the basement of the Garden and COW
araI than, with tanhprk when a mounted
policeman clattered up to the Twenty-sev-
enth street door and announced: They're
coming"
The twenty foot policemen who had been
sitting in a box reviewing the proceedings
and wondering if they were going to get
passes Strengthened to attention and lined
up in the cold outside prepared 10 handle
the mob that never CANE, md the four
sweating horses of the first van heaved their
way UP the runway and turned into the
ring. 1t wa q large and high van, yet it
seemed impossible to believe that it car
ricd two g~iraffes. 1t would indeed have
heen impossible, except for the circus
method Of packing a giraffe, whereby the
greatest amount of neck takes up the small
est amount of space.
A shrill whoop OF delight from outside
showed that a few small boys were play
ing hockey from bed to be on hand The
twenty policemen repressed them sternly.
over on Twenty-seventh street the ele-
phauts were waiting in line until the Indian
cattle and the other perishables could be
slowed away They were unhappy, and
As The ghostly line numbered through the
darkness, it seemed that a dozen little dogs
were running with them, yelping at the top
of their voices. There were, in fact, no
I--, IL 1rne i,taf tha hnhp n1aphn MIC nrY,-
ing because they were cold and miserable,
Even the grownup elephants shivered and
expressed themselves in trumpet blasts that
blew Jets of steam into the light OF the street
more room to be cold than any of the others.
She was chained to Columbia, an elephant
born in captivity. who is sometimes naughty.
When the cold got too great for them to bear
they clasped trunks like two miserable
children and whimpered together.
So when the ring master beloved from
the Garden door, Bring on your Elephants"
they grunted with satisfaction and wheeled
without orders into ranks of two. AS they
stepped into the light and the comparative
warmth, they stopped until they were prod
ded into movement; each lifted one hind
foot and rubbed it up and down the opposite
leg like an embarrassed little boy. That
means, in elephant language:
Gee! How cold | was"
An army of keepers came along and fed
them al l-except Babe. Babe is a gentle
soul and, ike so many other gentle souls,
she gets hers right along because she is SO
good, 1t is a true but immoral fact that
the finer the character of a girl elephant,
and the more refined her manners, the harder
lis her passage through the world. Now
Babe, because she is good, was the very
elephant selected to pass the night supper
less, showing circus wagons.
For before anything else was lone the
thirty or forty cages containing the magniti-
cent? mastodonic; monolithian monarchs
of the forest had TO he got below. Madison
Square Garden is peculiarly constructed.
In the basement ring; where the stalls stand
during the Horse Show, there are two low
arches. They drop too far for a complete
circus wagon to get under them: conse-
quently the wagons must he showed up to
the archesI moved from their wheels OH to
low ~rollersy pushed under the arches,
set up on their wheels again. A gang of
men took hold of the tongues of the wagons
and guided them while Babe set her seamy
forehead against the tailboards and walked
along; wagon and all The boss had only
to indicate the general direction and she
did the rest.
While THE Sun reporter WIS watching
these things he fell into conversation with
asmooth faced middle aged gentleman who