The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-11
THEATRICAL LETTER
 OF FRANKLIN FILES


 1 author. sothern and Mantell as Riche- lieu should be seen, and if you don't see both, 1t doesn't much matter which. l The man who doesn't take his child ] ren to the circus once a year, or ff he nas no offspring still childish. doesn't take himself annually to see the athletes and acrobats for his own memory of childhood's sake, ought to be afraid that he is overtaken by senile decay. To enjoy 1t, too. he mustn't carp at the changes since he was 6 boy. An old fellow near me complsfn- ed because three ringfuls of men and women on bareback horses confused his vision. Instead of the single eques- trienne who. with some pad riders, used to be the outfit of a one-ring tent; he seemed dazed when the air became alive with two or three dozen trapeze flyers, half off them comedy women, in place Of the lone man or two of the oljen times; he wasn't sure that the occupant of car that dashed down a declivity, turned two somer- saults and struck with an awesome thud, was a satisfactory substitute for the springboard chaps who used A whfri over the back of an elephant and fall easily in soft spot When half a, hundred pantomimic clowns who made comic commotion all around the rings and two platforms between acts. his barely tolerant smile was saddened by recollection of the talking clown of the olden time, whose announcement of a concerts in the ring after the regular entertainment, for the small sum of ten cents. I am sure he missed; and when all was over he grumbled because he had neither cracked peanuts nor drunk pink lemonade.
 Not since fifteen years ago, when the Barnum company was outbid by the Forepaugh for the Madison Square Garden, and pitched its tents in the Harlem district. has a circus been under canvas in Manhattan borough. More recently, in the absence of the Barnum- Bailey concern in Europe, the ] Sells got under that broad roof Bar mum and Forepaugh died long ago. Bailey Is dead, too. So are the four brothers Sells. The properties and celebrity attached to those names are now owned by the five brothers Ring ling. who are using them for Barnum- Bailey and Sells -Forepaugh circuses, with two-thiris of the United States apportioned to them, while the other third, including New York, is exclusive to the Ringling. Each is advertised as 'the worlds greatest show What the fact is about that I can't inform you. Surely, the one bearing the
 
 possession of the Madison Square Gar den. is as big as any that has ever filled it with 10000 seated people and three rings, two platforms and an en- circling arena thronged by perform CTS. The income during four to six weeks of twelve performances each, with three lines of box chairs at S2.60. all the rest of the level at $1.50 and s1 and the prices dropping to quar- ter only in the furthermost~ heights of the immense structure. must be enor- nous. You may see from this that the present circus business is one of the country's thriving trusts.
 With all the ingenuity that must have been squeezed and wrung to force out an original thrill for this seasons circus, nothing entirely original agi- tates the beholder. The Ringing final exhibition is @ variant of the loop looping gravity-var. with a woman in 1t, that when 1t was first sight made a Barnum Bailey tour the most profit able ever. You may recall that long track. inclining at an angle of forty five degrees. made the descending car strike an upward section at the base, and sent 1t kiting across an open space of thirty to forty feet. Later ones sent the car with tremendous momentum up. over and clear around, e vertical loop. This years descent is short, but very steep--about sixty-five to seventy degrees--so that the vehicle goes down with almost the velocity of a perpen- dicuiar drop; and when it strikes 6 sharply upward curve of the track at | the bottom with tremendous force, it is whirled twice around at a height of twenty feet. making double somer- sault and landing with a ferocious chug on a padded surface.
 Was there a woman in the carr Of course. And was she a frail, pretty young creature who looked with scared eyes at the multitude. as she circled the garden in an automobile, as though she were a Christian martyr on her way to an arena of devouring lions? To be sure. Then she stepped lightly to the ground and was hoisted to Q small platform at the top of the incline, where she smiled sadly as she seemed to wave a final fond adieu to life. For a fact. i don't believe there is a safer performance in the whole show. | The mechanism has been calculated to | nicety. and even the weight of the woman is exactly right. Several years ago. a too heavy woman was hired as | the looper, and she made them pay | her $50 a week for the whole season, although she didn't once take the ride. ! Probably this seasons the La Roche who makes the descent fin a car that ilinss ltaeih lhto the alr anu turns two somersaults. has agreed to give up the | job If she gains a few disqualifying pounds in flesh. She is so etherial now that she couldn't easily upset the balances by losing any weight Men put her into the car. strap her fast, pack her in with pads. and during the two and half seconds of the glide and the whirls the high sides of the enclosure render her invisible. She is elaborately protected. So much time Is taken in the preparations. and so much ado Is made over the Are you ready?" and the 'I am ready" fol- lowed by an interval of breathless silence-with the brazen band hushed
 that I wonder if she hasn't been slipped away and isn't in the car at all. However. she Is lifted out at the end of the trip. with not so much as her smile disturbed; and In making an