The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-02-21
Old Circus Nan Tells
about "Conle Back"

hand, they must nave had strong
personalities: personalities which
were born to lead men, to persuade
men, to bend a thousand Wills TO
their own. The kind of hypnotic in
fuence over crowds paral,eled only
in the characters of certain great
generals. Who can say but that Ma
poleon. Hannibal. Caesar, or Alexan-
der had this as the secret OF their
power, the only difference beins
temperamental A Dan Rice proba-
bly, could not have led men to bat
tie, for mis- temperament essentially
was toward the ridiculous. but the
same ability to bring things to pass,
to accomplish results are discernible
in both characters. :
At this particular time the noun
taineer's audience was composed or
only three persons. The mountaineer,
Gent and the writer. 1t was for
tultous event that gave the noun
taineer the leisure to talk. A threat
ened attack of grip threw him off
from work for a day or so, and talk
ing especially as his interest was fir
ed by the sight of the preparations
being made TO start out the show
boat, seemed a pleasure to him.
Being sick, and being neverthe-
less at the scene of his daily labor,
he had on his agony" clothes.
agony" clothes are the full dress
clothes of those persons who dress
up swel.y on Sundays and holidays,
"Futting on lots of agony. is a
term also common on the river when
the government inspectors are
around and denotes that the inter-
ested persons are taking particular
pains to appear at their best. Proba-
bly, the principal reason for being
I dressed up was a precautionary mea-
sure. In that condition a sudden ext
lgaacy around the dry docks In which
he superintendent could use anoth-
er man, would effectually obviate his
being pressed into service. Still he
was not sick enough to stay at home.
The mountaineer's philosophy of
human nature shows much uncon-
scious psychological understanding.
81 hadn't been in the show business
three months he says, until I
found out that there is more or less
of the varmint in everybody. More
IN some people, less In others. Wo
are just a higher species of Gods
creation. You know that a varmint
is attracted hy. noise, or scared away
by it. and it's the same way with
people. When was doing my first
stunts on tne platform in front of
the side show, and putting up a
pretty stiff spiel, always saw that
the fellow that made the most noise
got the biggest crowd in front Of
him. And if a dozen fellows were
beating on tin pans or drums and
another fellow happened to make a
louder noise. you'd see the crowd
take out after him and leave the rest
of us without any.
NO matter where you see a ia
klr, youll find MIN making a big
noise The first thing he'll do will be
10 get something to beat on and all
-howmen know that noise attracts
people better than anything else
That's why said we all have more
or less of the varmint in us. After
you get the crowd you've got to spiel
lively to get them in"
Then he went on to tell about the
large train of thieves, short change
artists, and swindlers who follow the
circus. Don't you think the circus
amt on to them, he admonisheI.
They all eat in the circus dining
tent and circuses don't feed people
for nothing. An honest mans got no
show in a circus. They won't have
him around. All these swindlers and
I