Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-05-12
THE MODERN CIRCUS
Vast and Dazzling, 1t Is Really a
Very Simple Affair.
AN ANALYSIS OF A BIG SHOW.

Four Main Parts, Aerial, Ground,
Equestrian and Hippodrome, to
Which All Else Is Incidental-The
Actual Cost and Press Agent Figures.
While the performance of the big
modern circus is truly dazzling and
confusing to the average visitor, an
analysis will show it to be very sim
pie affair.
The performance proper consists of
four parts-namely, aerial, ground,
equestrian and hippodrome. Every
thing else is incidental or adjunctiye.
The menagerie, freaks, curiosities, etc,
make up the remainder of what we
call 1.-The show"
If one will examine the programme
of the circus performance carefully, it
will be seen that the ground acts al
ternate with. say, jockey act, an
aerial act, an equestrian act, another
ground act, another aerial act, and so
on for the entire performance.
The. performers are mostly foreign
ers, Japan furnishing the most Of any
particular country. France, Italy and
Germany give us the most of the ath
letic artists, while England and Amer
lea produce the equestrians. But the
japanese furnish fully three-eighths of
the whole entertainment
The natives of Nippon have never
been equaled by those of any other
country for tricks Of the feet and
hands. The Japanese, however, are
never found on the programme as
equestrians. trapeze artists or clowns.
With these parts eliminated they may
be said to give the greater part of the
performance Cut the equestrian and
trapeze acts and the japanese viii be
found In almost every number.
A single Japanese troupe Of five or six
members, costing from $3.50 to $500 a
week, will thus furnish the most Of the
entertainment. AS every circus goer
knows, the Japanese are especially
skillful in every feature Of juggling,
balancing by hands or feet, manipulate
ing of objects, wire walking, ETC.,
which they have carried to such de-
gree of perfection that their acts are
unapproachable by the people Of any
other nationality.
The first Japanese performer in this
country was small boy who came
with the first Japanese embassy to the
United States.
His performance created perfect
furore Of enthusiasm, and he attracted
more attention than the novel embassy
itself. Little "All Right" will be re
membered, though the embassy and its
important mission has long been for
gotten.
The name was acquired from the cir
cumstances that the words "all right
were the only English words the child
knew at the time, and he used to sing
them out in his shrill treble as he fin
ished what was then deemed a re-
markabIe feat, to the intense delight of
the audience.
So popular was the little chap that
his advent was followed by several
other little cali Rights" from the same
curious country beyond the Pacific un-
til the Japanese performers here be-
came an old story.
The chief reason for the overwhelm-
ing preponderance of foreign talent in
the American circus lies in the practi-
cal exclusion of children from the
stage and ring In the United States.
So many of the states have laws for
| bidding the public appearance Of chill.
dren under sixteen that theatrical man.
ayers hesitate to produce any play
with child in the cast AS acrobatic
feats require early and severe training
| the American is practically cut of
from this way Of earning living.
In present conditions when Little
| Eva in Uncle Toms Cabin" has be.
come old enough to marry little "Al
Right" would be an impossibility, fol
not only do these laws prevent the
training Of American children for the
stage and ring, but they prevent the
appearance in this country of some OF
the most famous family troupes of Eu
rope.
Abroad the show career offers bet
ter means Of advancement than the
trades, and poor parents frequently ap
prentice their children to those wht
train them for the stage or ring. II
this country we generously send them
to the cotton mills or the mines.
The American circus performer ha:
gradually become restricted to thu
equestrian act, and in the act of ridine
he or she is not excelled, even by thu
English, though the latter nation ha:
produced some fine equestrians, haut,
ecole and daring bareback riders.
Nine. Dockrill, wife of r. Fl. Dock
rtll, himself one of the best high schoo
riders of his time, was famous Amer
fcan rider in 1874. She used to rids
four bareback horses abreast, her fee
resting on the two outside horses II
Roman fashion. She also did the Ma
zeppa act and other thrilling bareback
feats. Her pretty daughter Rose wa.
trained In the same act and afterwari
became star rider
Emma Lake, who died quite recently
at an advanced age, was another ia
nous American equestrienne. She al
/ ways won salyos Of applause as he
horse, with noble head high I'm the air
rose almost to perpendicular on hii
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