Evening star., 1908-01-12

There is no demand now Tor eXceptlon;il
acts of skill that require extraordinary
compensation. There are plenty OF bare
back riders like the celebrated Robin
sons-better than those once-marNelouS
ring riders ever were. In his day Jun
Robinson was doubtless worth his S.tsD
weekly in gold paid him by Cooper &
Bailey on their Australian tour. He was
a drawing card. The entire ring perform
ance centered upon this expert riding.
Even expert pad riders. like Bob Stick
ney. got from 500 to $3.50 week in the
old One-ring days. -
The decline of salaries began with the
combination OF the menagerie with the
ring performance-when the circus be-
came a show" a single rare animal, or
human curiosity. will throw the per-
formance of the best rides III the world
into the background Good bareback rid
ers. male and female. increased in num-
ber rapidly. and salaries as rapidly de-
creased. Nowadays almost any big show
will have from four to six. and some a
dozen. of such riders-any one or whom
is as good as Yankee Robinson ever was
and for as small an aggregate sum as
was formerly paid to a single one.
This generalization holds good as to
clowns and other performers. The single
clown Who divided honors with the single
rider has been replaced by ten to twenty
pantommists. hired at very near the same
amount of money. When Japanese
troupe of six or eight people may be OBJ
tanned for from $50 to $3.50 per week
and acrobatic families of the same num-
ber. or troupes of trapeze artists of re-
nown. may be had for $50 to $500 per
week-from SD TO $50 an individual-one
may see how rapidly the enormous sal
aries dwindle. At $50 week man risks
his life limbs. at every performance
for 81. This in view of the practical GER
tainty that the performer sooner or later
will be killed or manned for life, seems
a rather inadequate sum.
Let us take UP the actual salary list
of a big modern show for the season OF
1904, when 1t carried a spectacle and
had ballet, beginning with the freaks:
Prof. J.. p. interlocutor, mas
ter of ceremonies and lecturer on
the human curiosity family-makes
two rounds of the freak family at
every performance-per week. ....... SO
Beatrice. the leopard girl. SO called
because being negress she has
number Of white spots, where the
coloring matter in the skin is de-
fect1Ve-. %
Signor Belarios. the Fire King
who fattens on flames, rolls hot
Goals under his tongue, etc. ~
Eli Bowen. the well-known legless
man. who does acrobatic stunts on
pole ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. -
Grace Gilbert, the bearded lady. IL
John Hayes, the human pincushion 10
Krao 1.-The missing link with hair
enough for a collection of Esaus,
scarce article. cle...................... AZ
Lionel. the human skye terrier,
comes still higher for his rarity and
got. 10
Beautiful Marie, the fat girl, was
cheap at...................... at. i
Jim Morris, the elastic skin man,
who also piled his trade as barber
n uyifh no
Rob Roy, the albino dislocationist.
who combined with his white 'hair
and pink eyes the art of disjointing
his limbs at will-all for ~
Charles Trip. the armless wonder. 70
Billy Wells, the thick skulled man.
who allowed blocks of stone to be
broken on his head six times day
with sledge, and who did all sorts
of odd jobs about the show between
times. got a weekly stipend off,. %