Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-03-19
THE MODERN CIRCUS
Continued frora page 2.

clown had the ring all to himself, even
the band ceasing to play until the
clown sang or got off his jokes. after
which the rider resumed the perform
ance.
All riders in those days were cham
pions" in the show printing. The press
agent invariably wreathed these cham
pions in laurels wrested from other
champions, and on the dead walls their
breasts were adorned with rich medals
of superlatiYe merit
There were such champions as
Charles W. Fish, MARITIME Lowande,
William Demott, William Showles,
Robert Stickney, William Ducrow, Jim
Robinson, Jim Melville, his son, Frank
Melville, and many others.
Among the clowns of renown in the
earlier days were Jim Cooke, the
Shakespearean clown; Johnny Patter.
son, the Irish clown; Joe Pentland,
Dan Rice, Billy Burke, etc. Their pay
was nearly as high as that of the rid
ers. Clowns and riders were the only
real expensive attractions of the circus
up to the year 1870.
A year or two later P. T. Barnum
and his associates, W. c. Coup and Dan
Costello, introduced a hippodrome, and
that feature became a fixture in the
circus performance and necessitated
the big tent The hippodrome sepa-
rated the audience so widely from the
performers that the old singing and
talking clown soon vanished
His place was taken by the silent
funmakers of today. From being a
chief feature the clown became a mere
pantomimist, relegated to the waits.
The hippodrome multiplied riders and
cheapened them, SO they, too, lost in
dividuality. The distance and multi
plicity of features enabled the show
men to run in mediocre riding acts in
stead of the first class ones formerly
necessary. The sharp rivalry charac-
teristic of the one ring days was dead.
The hippOdrome, which furnishes
half an hours entertainment, is itself
relatively the cheapest part of the per-
Torrance today.
When Maude Oswald was a hippo
drome rider, the races were hotly con-
tested. SO great was this rivalry at
times that the management had to in
terfere, not because of the danger to
the contestants, but for fear that they
might injure the horses or other prop
erty. The riders owned their indivfd-
ual necks and could be replaced at any
time without expense to the show.
Nowadays the hippodrome personnel
is made up Of the odds and ends and
costs little or nothing extra. A clown
will become a Roman" rider; his wife
will drive chariot Half a dozen Wo-
men, some of them sewing girls in the
wardrobe department. make up the Ia
dies fiat races. An equal number of
stable grooms will do the crack jockey
races.
A few dogs run around the track
once, and it is called the "whippet dog
race" half a dozen terror stricken
monkeys are strapped to pony saddles,
and their frantic fear sends the au-
dience into commissions of laughter.
The only really meritorious feature
Of the hippOdrome is that of the fine
jumping horses introduced in modern
days. Then come the chariot races, the
cheapest kind Of affairs, but furnish
ing perhaps the most thrilling excite
ment to the average country crowd.
There used to be elephant and camel
races, but the brutal manner in which
it was necessary to goad and prod
these unfOrtunates in order to get them
to run at all was so repuIsive to the
gentle hearted in the audience that
these races had to be eliminated.
The hippodrome as a circus feature
is popular with shoWmen because
cheap and a good filler. Nobody has
to be hired for it. The obligation is
put into certain contracts.
The harmless little press agent sto-
ries as to the tremendous outlay in sal
aries and all that which may seem to
conflict with anything here set down
may be relegated to the fiction depart
ment. The real cost of running a big
show is considerably less than any 9th
er business in like capitaIization.-Bal-
timore Sun.