River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-01-18

SleeperS, auH the Car Was SlQe-LfackeQ
all night.
When wo arrived at the town about
40 wagon drivers that were in the car
did not show up, and they had to press
everybody that could drive a team into
the service to haul the stuff to the lot.
and pa drove four horses so well with a
load of tent poles that the manager
complimented pa, and that gave pa the
big head. When the parade was all
ready to start through town, and the
drivers had not arrived, the manager
asked pa if he thought he could drive
the ten gray horses on the band wagon,
to lead the procession, and pa said driv-
ing ten horses was his best hold,
and he got up on the drivers seat,
and called me to get up with him,
and / hate boy that will disobey a
parent, so I climbed up and began
to jolly the band about the chariot
race, and I told them pa wouldn't do
thing to them this time.
The manager of the show always rides
ahead of the parade, with the chief OF
police of the town, and the band horses
follow him, so it is easy enough to drive
ten horses, cause all you have to do is
to hold on to the 20 lines, and look saw
age at the crowd on the sidewalks,
and the horses go right along, and the
people think the driver is a wonder. So
when the manager started in his buggy
pa pulled up on all the lines he could
hold on to, which filed his lap, and
made him look like a harness maker,
and he yelled: "Ye-up,'' and the pro-
cession moved, and the ten teams pa
was driving went along all right, and pa
looked as though he owned the show and
the town.
We got downtown, to wide street,
and there was fire alarm ahead, or
something, and the procession stopped,
and the manager and chief of police dis
appeared, and there was a wagon load
of green cornstalks right beside the
lead team, which a farmer was taking
to silo, but he had stopped his team
to see the parade. The three teams Of
pas leaders, six horses, began to eat
the corn stalks, and the camels. that
were behind us, worked along up by the
band wagon and began to eat, and the
farmer got scared to see his corn stalks
disappearing, so he drove off on a side
street, and started for the silo, and by
ginger, pas team turned onto the side
street and followed the wagon of corn
stalks, and pa couldn't hold them, and
the band played, I'm the Good Old Sum-
mer Time, There Will Be Hot Time
in the Old Town.
The camels kept up with the farm
er's wagon, too, and the whole parade
followed the band. The farmer
started his horses into run,
and the team Of ten horses that
was driving pa started to gall
Looping and I looked back, and the
elephants were beginning to gallop, and
all the cages were coming whooping,
and it was a picnic. The band stopped
playing, and the players were scared,
and as we were crossing a little bridge
over a small stream, on the edge Of
town, l turned around to the band
and told them to jump for their lives,
and they all made jump for the stream,
and the air was full of uniforms and in
struments, and they landed in the
stream all right.
We went on up a hill, and were in the
country, and the farmer turned into a
farmyard, and the band wagon followed,
and the farmer jumped off the corn
stalk wagon and rushed for the house,
and pas ten-hOrSe team surrounded the
wagon, and every horse was eating corn
stalks, and the team was all mixed up.
The camels and elephants crowded in
for the nice green lunch, and the farm
er's wife came out with her apron wav-
ing. and said ''Shoo," but none of the
animals shooed worth cent, and pa
pulled on the lines, and yelled, while
the rest of the parade came into the
farm and lined up. The drivers yelled
at pa to know where in thunder he was
going, and pa said: "Damfno."
Just then the manager and chief of po-
lice came up, and the way they talked
, to pa was awful. Pa couldn't explain
how it was that he took the parade out
into the country, and you never saw
such time.
BY this time the regular drivers had
arrived on special, from where we left
them with hot box, and they took po-
session of the teams, and we got back to
the circus lot in time for the afternoon
performance. l don't know what they
are doing to pa, but they had
him in the managers tent all the after
noon with some doctors, who
seem to be examining him for insanity.
Everybody about the show thinks pa
has hoodooed the aggregation, but pa
says such things are always happening,
and it is wrong to blame him.
The farmer got paid for his corn.
stalks, and it is to charged up to pa.
Exnert Smokers