Connecticut western news., 1909-11-11
CONFESSIONS OF
 A SPECIAL WRITER
"REMINISCENCES BY SAM l. BANKS

TOT WnlCh IS UraWn from AutnOr
 Personal Observations, While Study
 ing the American Circus.
 One day in North Carolina, man perhaps fifty years, a long, lanky indi- vidual. wearing a Prince Albert coat and high hat, also a twelve-inch beard and eyeglasses, and carrying n sample book, approached me as l was standing near the outside candy stand, and said: "I am taking orders for tombstones. May show you some sample pictures" No doubt the man thought me native, for stood in the crowd but the very thought of an itinerant snowman being asked to subscribe for marble memorial struck me so comically that 1 laughed outright. I remarked that I knew of some living dead ones that needed tomb stones, and added Nevertheless, I c mt possibly use one right now" But wait," said l: "I tell you what you 1 do." And 1 sent the man over to one of our "all day grinders" as the men who make continuous announcements and sell sideshow tickets are called in the nomenclature of circusdom. This particular snowman was very super stitious. Also be it known, that 1 had told the representative of the marble works the name of the aforesaid "all. day 1 grinder" Well, he of the whiskers accosted him of the "heap much talk, ," as the Indians out west term my brother ill the business, saying, Are you in the market for tombstone, MT. Woodsey? l ! have some of the finest tombstones on che" But the agent got no farther, for my fellow snowman jumped down from the ticket box all a-tremble with excitement and rage, for he had been lard hit squarely upon the crazy y-bone of lis superstition. He grabbed the mans Shiskers, severely pulled the same, followed that act up with a swift and rigorous kick in the neighborhood of he Prince Albert coat-tails, and subse- luently started the then thoroughly sur }rised and horribly dazed agent on the 'un off the lot and down the road, follow ng hard after. won't here record the anguage used by my friend; it is enough 0 say he hurled a rapid fire volley of lot epithets at the tombstone salesman md distinctly told that individual that le would be half killed if he showed up pn the grounds again, The agent sure Iid "beat it" down the road, to use that expression, and, as the "all- l-day grinder" returned to the lot, his face Hvid with superstitious fear and rage, turned my attention to the interior of the big top fearing he might surmise that was the )ne who had sent the salesman to him.
 When playing in the southland not little fun Is contributed by the colored race. Last season, down in Alabama, a nigger nanny, carrying in her arms black boy, under whose weight she panted hard, presented one ticket on the door. Doubled and cramped though the boy was in his elders em- brace, it was evident from his protuber- ant arms and legs, the large slze of his body and his face, that he was over four years of age. So I demanded, "Here where's the ticket for that boy?" Why massa, ah doan haf ter hab no ticket fur a baby, does ah?" was the neRress' reply. Put the baby down, and let's see how big he is," said I. This the nanny was reluctant to do. but upon seeing that insisted, she lowered the boy. Well, when that infant" as she had claimed him to be, was told to stand up, he kept unfolding like a telescope, until he had attained the height of at least five feet Of course, 1 collected another admission.
 One day, in a small Ohio town, noticed two middle-aged W omen, one of whom wore glasses, rush toward the en- trance to the big show, much excited The woman of the glasses stopped near the door and scrutinized the ground about her. Hurry up," said her companion impatiently, Tor we shall miss the first part of the circus" "I know" " answered the other" but I have lost my spec tacles." Theraupon the first woman looked at her and said, "Why you've got them on your head!"
 Sure enough. the woman was wearing her "specks," and, mechanically adjust ing them with one hand, she replied, Why, so have, so 1 have" and the two rushed into the tent just as the whistle blew for the entry to begin.