Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-05-17

| turn movement mas begun Inefe are
wagon shOws-and wagon shows.
There is a routine about the days
work that is as we'll preserved as
though the show were an army moving
on an enemy.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, two hours
before the evening performance is to
| begin, the cook house is dismantled,
| four horses are hitched to it, and with
a rattle and bang, the cooks in their
white caps and aprons vociferously
shouting out some last message and
the pans hanging against the side of
the wagon, while the aroma of coffee
and bacon greets the nOstrils, the cook
| tent disappears down the road toward
the town of the next days stopping.
The cook tent reaches its destination
early in the night-tWenty to twenty
we miles is the average daily jump of
a wagon show-and all is put in readi-
ness for the serving of early breakfast
the next morning.
At O'Clock the performance in the
big tent begins, and the crowds which
have stood opcn-mouthed before the
| cages in the menagerie tent rush to
their seats to see the big show. I'm
mcdiateIy the work of demolishing the
menagerie tent is begun. The animals
are fed then the sides are put on their
cages, the horses are hitched up, four
to each den or cage, and across coun-
try. accompanied by a route finder, the
menagerie, making up the first main
section of the show, starts in the wake
of the cookhousc.
This route finder Is an important per
sonage in the circus it is his business
to scout ahead, ascertain the best
roads, and by laying laths down at the
| intersections and Emergencies disclose
| the route to the wagons that follow
| him.
The mena gerie section comes up to the
cook tent some time during the night
and camps until morning.
At u o'clock, as Il rule, the baggage
train takes up its start. The big show
is over, the tent has been struck, the
| stakes have been pulled, the parapher-
MALTA has been packed in wagons, the
people have gone to bed, but while
| they sleep, with a merry, ringing chorus
| of ''Yo-heave-o, St Louis, Kansas City,
| Omaha" and so on, with the name of
! the home Of every rouStabout sung in
| Il long drawn out chant, the circus has
| been torn down and packed up ready
| for transportation.
Midnight strikes in the city, and the
man who saw the circus dreams of the
queen in pink tights and the fairy in
glittering spangles, but the wagons
creak across country and the roust-
| abouts snatch what little sleep they
| can as the wagons tOpple back and
| forth and the horses pull and plunge
In the meantime, what of the span
| gled fairy and the pink-tighted queen,
| TO say nothing Of the musicians and
| the men performers of the sawdust
rings?
They are sleeping the sleep of the
lust in the best hotels che town affords.
| That is one reason why the average
| circus performers would rather travel
| with a wagon show than Il railroad
! show. After the night performance of
a railroad show, he or she must wend
| their weary way to the train, hunt for
| it in an interminable tangle of tracks,
| aud seek what repose they can in
| crowded hunks as the car is switched
| around or pounds over the rails But
| in the big wagon show, the perform
ers go to hotels, get good nights rest
| in a bed and sleep soundly until the
| next morning.
At 80 o'clock the musicians and
performers are routed out of bed at 6
! O'Clock they have breakfast at the ho-
| tel, and a half hour later the third
| section of the show takes up its jour
! ney, the band wagon in the lead, and
! buses, carrying the musicians and per-
| formers, in the van. This third sec
| ton usually strikes the town Of the
! days performance at or 10 o'clock.
| At i 80 comes the parade, at , o'clock
| the afternoon performance, at s o'clock
| the evening performance at II o'clock
| bed; and 50 on, day after day, week
after week, until the season is ended
| Such is life in the wagon show.-St
! Louis Globe-Democrat.