Omaha daily bee., 1908-04-05

but 1 never went near the abbey to go in
side
II don't know why clowning makes you
feel that way, but it does. You get so gol-
darn tired of places where George WASH
ington was shot and Abe Lincoln was born
that you just leave 'em for the rubber
necks.".
"And, then, besides, we're thinking" ="
This is from one of the other thirty-five
clowns. You see when you're clown it's
up to you to think up something original,
for no matter how good a stunt you may
have you can't go on doing 1t forever.
You've got to have something every bit as
good as you had before and a heap sight
better. 1t keeps you guessing in your
spare minutes"
One or two wipe off the perspiration
from their brows at the memory thus
evoked.
Some of the salaries of the clowns run
as high as 800 a week. some don't get
moren SIS. The cleverest clown is the one
that fools the manager the best. He is the
best If he can do that, for it amt an easy
trick. He's stopped fooling and is the real
thing. Have you got that DOWN."
The way a clown does is to think up
needn't think it'll go because you write a
letter sayin' it will or because you laugh at
1t yourself" 1t is the inventor of the rub
berneck coach trick who now has the floor.
I'VE tried that trick first in Brooklyn and
they laughed at 1t and then we were up a
tree because we thought it wouldn't take
in New York. but 1t has.
New Yorks the ticklish place. Take a
trick all over the country and get a laugh
wherever you strike the tent poles, and
then tote ii over here to this burg and you
get the frozen mitts.
Then, again. some fool thing that the
country jays weuld be ashamed to smile at
will bring down the whole Garden. Peo-
ple'll go home and talk about the button
bursting clown comically for a week and
bring over their mothers-in-law to see it,"
Have you ever been in Paris ladyP''
interrupts one whose name is unknown,
"and did you ever get knocked down by a
cab and get arrested for blocking traffic
and fined for IL? Well that would remind
you of one Of tbe many joys of the merry
clowns life.
III he gets kicked by a horse that is
showing off in the acme of expert equita-
tion and acrobatic equestrianism, or If he
is knocked over by one of those graceful
little Roamin chariOts, or perhaps II a
trapezist in his marvellous aerial act forgets
and falls on him instead of the net, why
everybody wants to know what the clown $
doing in the way there What business has
he got to be under feet and interfering with
the legitimate business?
ITS up to the clown to look out for him
self, and when you've got every body In
your neighborhOOd interested in your stunt
and you can only hold 'em there for a
minute or two by the power OF your mar
vellous personality, it's mighty hard work
TO have 10 be eternslly and forever trying
to crawl out from under the weight of half
dozen animals of one kind and another.
Lots Of times I've taken my new cos
tune, before anybody else had had a chance
TO see IT, and walked up and down in front
OF the horses so that when / did appear
they wouldn't be too surprised and mistake
me for the sawdust in their admiration or
fright whichever it might happen TO be-"
The clowns are beginning 10 lose their
fear. Another wOuld-be speaker can
scarcely wait for his turn.
You see, the old-time clown, which we
nearly all Of us used TO be. was a one ring
clown. His stunt was to come out and talk