The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-07

E
 greatly. He sat there with his ears l cooked straight up, his nose working Inervously, and his heart pounding so heavily that it's pulsations shook his gray sides. Not till the wagon lad Ipassed did the rabbit stir. Then he dropped upon all fours and vanished
 in grey streak, travelling in a line parallel with the course of the cara
 van and keeping only few rods dis ltant.
 While I was still ponderlng his
 curious conduct, I saw rattler glide
 out from the grass into the trail -nly a few feet in front of the off-lea6er of our four-horse team. Naturally I lexpected to see the snake coil and strike, but he did nothing uf the kind I-simply avoided the horses hoofs
 and slipped away into the grass be- lyond
 Tn the course of the next ten min lutes several fiocks of birds passed
 over us, flying low, but very rapidly.
 The grass on both sides of :he trajl seemed suddenly to swarm WI all- nal life. Had l been accustomed to prairie life l should probably rave l realized at once what was wrong, but like all the men. on the wagon with ime, I was a rank tenderfoot,
 "3efore I had arrived at any con-
 clusion. the animals in the darkencd
 cages began to show signs of restless
 ness Lions and tigers began strange
 moaning, unlike their ordinary roar
 E~ tr.t
 camels screamed, and all the aulmols
 big and little, took part i'll the weird
 chorus which momently increased in
 volume.
 "Then the air seemed to take on T
 ha2y appearance, and the truth dawn
 ed upon ne-the prairie was on fire"
 Superb indeed must have been the
 race that followed. Straight for the
 river dashed that Oriental caravan,
 the splendid showhorses leaping and
 strainlng like so many Are-ho1ses
 dashing to a fire, the gay charlots
 pitching and rocking, terrified camels
 and elephants swinging themselves madly over the ground, and behind all that awful scroll If flame!
 And the fire won. Abandoning the : river, the manag9r in desperation set a back-flre going, drew his cara j&n Into huddled cira)ai and waitel : NO sound" says Coup, T have .. ever heard approaebe in abiect ter , TOT the awful symphony of roars, growls screams. walls and screeches that went up from ire maddened beasts in that caravan as the great sky-reaching cylinder Of Game and smoke rolled dowl upon us and was met, barely forty rods away, by the rapidly spreading line If eur GWn 5 back fire. Then came mcnont s which was 8 dizzy blank to most c1 ! us. We had scarcely recovered the ]. use of our faculties when the wag oi \ the circus broke the str@'n by the re- ! mark. I reckon there's been more genuine praying dore in circus circles in tho last hour than since Noah le the elephants out of the Ark S' From this sort of thlcE to the lux | ury of travel by Pullman was a Ions leap. so long indcel, that show foll 2 accustomed to jolting nights on th' Z. band wagon, to bad roads, to break r fast anywhere between midnight an \ sun-up, couldn't believe in their goot < fortune For months Barnum's per z formers vent about thelr travelin, ' palaces with an' eXpressloa Q iudlcrous concern
 But tho striking changa was in th 8 mouate of the circus traupss. So n; l. were the companies If the revise l. railway show, that it became essentia ly for economy's ake to feed them ol er l,the grounds. They slept Of coursf of in the circus sleepers. No nor re doubtful hotels, no more sleeping il le promiscuous heaps in wretehcd band Id wagons. Inc health of the performer
 Improved. And .he managers ntte e, that with better health came bette ,e performances. They began to loo te askance on such as taxed their sys ir tens with large cold bottles betwee l. meals. Decency was found to pay 10 and lax morals became unpopulaI O. Then there was an end of loafin ay round town at night; for the circu it train Is scheduled to start the secon e. 1t Is loaded, loading Is done wit it. alarming despatch, and the loitere ,h may find himseluf not In a position a do his morrow's turn" The result { pc circus performers, from being unsaN H. orv vagabonds, have become prett in respectabie, well-behaved people n- The modern circus manager is als ed new creature, with deepened convo il, utions in his brain. For 1t takes a w. amateur Napoleon to lay out mot .le ern circus campaign. He must kno ifs the lay of the land from Florida e. Maine and back again to Californi re and not only the land but the peopl 10, the crops, business conditions and e nd orything which can affect their ab1lt
 to pay half a dollar for big shov k- Tucked away in his mind he has vi us ions of the railway yards in every in We portant show town in the countr ey and the relation of the yards to tl ng circus grounds. He knows the fat by of countless grounds" and just abo 'se how much earth will have to be ust rst to i'll in hollows which in the event us. rain would become unpleasant pu of dies. He knows the proper route fro th the train to the tent-pitch and whet ok CT any bridges will be encountered t, TOT deak for elephants and loaded var en He makes 1t his business to know Ia nd national, State and municipal, so f fit as 1t affects the passage of the show .k- He studies the price of provisio ne, hither and yon, that he may take a to vantage of cheap markets. He kno' wd how to order proper circus cars whi ,as won't stick in tunnels or era