The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-06-11
CA ARMY AL is
D R A WING
CROW DS
HOW THE ELEPHANT ATE THE
MERRY WIDOW WALTZ.
Parker Shows Entertaining the People
With a Great Variety of
Attractions.

The Parker Carnival continues TO
draw the multitude, the crowds which
gathered at Tabernacle Square last
evening To inspect the various attrac-
tions being considerably larger than
at las yesterday afternoon He walked
big show.
The chief feature is the trained an
imal circus. owned and controlled by
AL G. Barnes, the veteran animal mas
ter. and one of the largest and most
comprehensive collections of trained
Wild and domestic animals known to
the profession of entertainment. in
Guiding lions, tigers. leopards. hyenas.
pumaS, jaguaTs, bears, elephants. cam.
els, dogs ponies. goats, monkeys. edu
Gated sea lion, boxing kangaroo, and
the only lion in the world that has
been taught to ride on tle back of
galloping horse. One feature as not
iceable as 1t was commendable is that
every unit in the collection of animals
has been taught to appear In some
one of the three arenas with which
the animal circus is equipped. and not
one IS carried for exhibition purposes
only.
The feature of the performance is
the riding lion, Nero, presented to
Nine Millie Barnes, a dasning look
ing, well gowned woman OF the bru-
nette type. who bore herself with that
grace and poise SO characteristic OF
the professional performer. The work
of Martha Florine and her group Of
Persian leopaTdS was nothing II not
thrilling and Edwin Kelly did almost
unbelievable things with a number of
monster Nubian lions. actually feed
Ing them chunks of raw meat from
ner own lips, and riding them around
the arena much as boy would ride
n pony, One of the stunts quite as
novel as 1t was remarkable was that
of big Dick" the educated sea lion,
an apparently tlmid creature whose
proficiency as n juggler contradicted
the popular belief that animals of his
species are wholly stupid.
Then there is a most clever and
likeable baby elephant. that does not
seem to appreciate the bewitching mu-
sic from chars famous operetta. The
Merry Widow" Ruth, the baby ele
phant, is a good -natured little pachy-
derm, but she reached a point in her
rehearsals in the arena yesterday
where she considered herself impos-
ed upon. and showed plainly that she
thought patience had ceased to be a
virtue, She is rehearsed every day
by her trainer TO the strains OF the
Merry Widow" waltz. as the undu-
lating quality of that particular
waltz is admirably suited to the eX-
ercise OF Ruths terpsichorean accom-
plishments. and yesterday the train
er noticed that Ruth was thirsty and
fatigued. but insisted that she fin
ish her rehearsals. as she was book
ed TO introduce several new tricks in
TO her act last night
While the baby elephant was re-
luctantly going through her stunts a
gust of wind came along and blew
the music OF the famous waltz from
the racks on the band stand in tle
animal show down into the arena,
where she was striving with the new
cues. The sheets Of music had no
more than settled on the ground than
Ruth, with Characteristic feminine
intuition, seized upon the objects Of
her aversion and with true elephan-
tine neatness and dispatch conveyed
them one by one with her trunk to
her mouth and proceeded to chew
them up with much gusto.
The leader OF the band made a
frantic effort to rescue his precious
waltz, but Ruth was not to be ca
joled, Even the Jumps of sugar offer
ed to tempt her to spit out the qua
yers and demi- -quayers of Le-
har's masterpiece were Of no
avail and In few mo-
ments there was no "Merry Widow"
waltz, and Ruth's rehearsals were
over for the day, AL. G. Barnes
spoke softly to the band leader after
the manner Of troopers when he saw
the elephants rehearsals had been
discontinued and asked in gentle
tones why such was the case. The
discounted band leader meekly re-
piled. Because Ruth ate up the
waltz"