The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-07-07

looked over 4 the white tent Win il B y
eyes. I'm out of 1T, and
out of it for good" he said
"but, after ALL there is something alluring about
the circus life-somethng about the grassy lot.
and the soiled canvas tents, and the waving
flags, and the crowds, and the music, that sets a
fellows nerves tingling. "Once a circus man, al
ways circus man. is an aphorism There's
lot of truth in it, When the circus microbe gets
into mans blood it's next door to impossible to
get rid of it. And this applies to the man ahead
the agent who helps to pave the way for the com
ing OF the circus, just as much as to those whc
live in the immediate glare of the centrepole
lamps and the glitter of the equestriennes span
giles.
"How many years in the business? I'm
almost afraid say. But it isn't altogether
question OF years. It's matter of experience.
I've known young feows-nervy, restless
full of ginger-who crowded more into five years
of hustling ahead of the white tops than other
men have experienced in quarter OF century.
It's largely matter of temperament. And, after
ALL every successful press agent must have tenn
permanent To hynotZe newspaper man, and in
duce him to reprint stories of the show when his
entire training teaches him that they should come
under the head of advertising requires a peculiar
makeup and knowledge of human nature that
only come with experience. The press agent
who really makes his mark has an adaptabty for
the work You cannot make press agent out OF
man-even clever newspaper man-unless he
has a natural fitness for the occupation.
Here's SOmetnnS tHat Will make you smile
but it's true. The real circus press agent is
sitive and impressonabe to the last degree. His
active mind is always inventing new stories and
he is never satisfied until he has them planted.
But that isn't all The time that intervenes be-
tween the planting of the story and the issuing
Of the paper hours of misery and unrest for
him. He is in condition of mental dread for
fear his story has not been printed. He will stay
up all night in order to get first edition. Ii he
finds his story in the paper he is in the seventh
heaven of delight But if-as often, very often
happens-his story has been crowded out, his cour-
age oozes out at his finger tips and he suffers a
keenness of disappointment impossible to describe.
have known some of the greatest and cleyerest
when their stories failed to land that for days
they almost incapable of systematic work.
When, however, the disappointment is over, the
press agent will plunge into the work with all his
old time zeal and energy and the slightest success
will act complete tonic to his nerves.
Nowadays, the work OF the circus press agent
is clearly defined, and his scope is narrowed
that he is in effect specialist. The who
makes the newspaper contract is in class of his
own. So is the story man. They are both press
agents, but while confines himself largely 20
handling the advertising in the business office Of
the newspaper the other concentrates his efforts
upon making hmsef-and, incidentally, the edi
tor-forget that there is business Office, and
bends all his energies to landing his stories pure
ly as news free reading matter.
time when the who made the advertising