The morning journal-courier., 1908-06-19
THOUSANDS SEE IT
Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Ever Fully Up to the
 Standard.
PARADE WAS MILE LONG
Big Attcndanccs at Both Afternoon and Evening Performances
 Wild Auto Dash.

Circus day is now q thing of the past, and those New Ilavencrs who were fortunate enough to see the P, T. Barnum and ! A, Bailey, fully agree that the circus made its claim to be "the greatest show on earth, :" And a goodly portion of this cty's populace attended the two perform ances. The attendance was record one for New Haven, the gigantic am phitheater, or rather coliseum being crowded.
 The day was ushered in with the great street parade and the streets through which 1t proceeded was lined with thousands of admieing spectators from the small boy still in short dresses, to whom the experience was new one. to the old grandfather who remembered the first time that he saw the Barnum X Bailey outfit. The parade must have been fully a mile in length, and was of varied character. Bands were interspersed here and there throughout the line, a great part of which consisted of the cage floats in which the denizens of the for est perforce reside. Then there, were symbolic floats representing many of the nations of the globe, Then there were the camel and elephant herds. The beautiful, gaily caparisoned steeds were greatly admired also. Then lastly came the steam calliope, without which no circus would be complete
 The afternoon performance began at o'clock and for the next three hours the spectators were on the qui vive every single moment of the time. To go into detail in describing the show is almost an impossibility. The show Is a 3-ring one, and It was out of the question to follow the perform ance in more than one ring, To real ly see the show 1t would be necessary to attend three times, each time pay ing attention to the offerings in the different rings. By actual count there were sixty-nne distinct events, and not a dull one in the lot And If there had been there was a host of clowns, the best nonsense makers of this country and Europe. who would have been competent to liven things had II been necessary. Each succeeding year the part the clown plays In the performance diminlshes, acts of more merit taking up the part once given over to clown rough house.
 After the grand cavalcade had swung around the amphitheater the show was on The elephant herd oc- cupled the boards. Then the Japan ese tlghtrope artists occupied the llmelight This work was of the first water. Following this the rings were given over to exhibitions of horseman- ship. Some of the horses showed in telllgence of remarkable order
 About the most pleasing event was the tight wire performance by the The work of Rene was remarkable and some of the feats she performed were applauded to the echo
 The aerial trapese work was great too, the aeriallsts performing seem. ingly impossible feats.
 The last part of the show was giv, en over to horse racing of varlou: sorts, steeple chasing. a ladies jockey race, etc. In one of these races ( contest between two double four-hors, tandem teams, the only accident o the day occurred, In coming up tC the wire for the start one of tn, horses in one team took q notion tC get back into quarters, and turned around. In so doing the reins became twisted and the jockey lost control and getting twisted up in the line. was dragged or rather thrown iron his horse, and landed with a thump Fortunately he was not hurt.
 The grand finale was of course, tn, l auto somersault in which red auto mobile with a woman in 1t coasteC down steep incline, shot into the ali turnlng-hard to explain--a forwart