River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-01-11

der, and then we all went and changed
our clothes Tor the afternoon perform
ance. AS we passed through the
menagerie tent, dripping, every animal
set up yell, as much as to say:
There, maybe you will give cayenne
pepper to pious sacred COW again,
confound you" and that convinces me
that animals are human.
The last week has been the hardest
on pa of any week since we have been
out with the circus. The trouble with
pa is that he wants to be Johnny on
the spot" as the boys say, and if any
thing breaks he volunteers to go to
work and fix it, and if anybody is sick
or disabled, he wants to take their
place, as he says so he will learn
everything about the circus, and be
competent to run show alone next
yer.
But it was mean trick the principal
owner of the show played on pa at
Canton, o. You see John L. Sullivan
used to do a boxing act with this
show, years ago, and everybody likes
John, and when he shows up where the
show gives a performance he has the
freedom of the whole place, and every
body about the show is ready to fall
over themselves to do John L. serv-
ice.
Well, Sullivan showed up at Canton,
and he went everywhere, all the fore
noon, and met all the old timers, and
at the afternoon performance he was
awfully jolly.
John was standing beside the ring
when the japanese jugglers were Jug
Cling, and he leaned against a pole.
Pa came in from the mena gerie tent,
and he didn't know Sullivan, and when
he saw Sullivan holding the pole up,
pa said to the boss proprietor that the
fat man who was interfering with the
show ought to be called down, Or put
out.
The boss said to pa: "You go take
him by the ear and put him out" and
pa, who is as brave as lion, started
for Sullivan, and the boss winked at
the other circus men, and pa went up
to Sullivan and took hold of Johns
"Come on out of here"
Well, sir, we ought to have moving
pictures of what followed Sullivan
turned on pa, and growled just like a
lion. Then he took pa around the
waist and held him up under his arm,
and picked up piece of board and
Slated pa just as though pa was a
child, and the audience just yelled. and
pa called to the circus men, for help,
but they just laughed.
Pa got a chance at the fat man and
he hit him in the jaw, but it did not
hurt Sullivan, only made him mad.
He took pa up by the collar and
whirled him around until pa was dir
zy, and then he started with him for
the menagerie tent, and called to the
boss canvasman: "Bi1l. come on and
tell me which is the hungriest lion,
and / will feed him with this cold
meat"
Pa yelled cause he thought he was
in the hands of an escaped lunatic, and
the circus hands came and took him
away. Then the owner told pa who
Sullivan was, and pa almost tainted.
But finally, after breathing hard for
awhile, pa went up to Sullivan and
shook his hand, and said: "Mr. Sui
livan, you must excuse me. If had
known you were the great John L.,
would not have licked YOU" Sullivan
looked at pa and said: SWELL, you are
a wonder, old man, and you did do
me up" and pa and Sullivan became
great friends Since then pa is pretty
chesty, cause the circus men point
him out to the jays as the man who
whipped John L. Sullivan.