Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-10
THIS CIRCUS GREAT
Peanuts, Crowds, Clowns,
SpectacIes, Daring Feats.
ANIMALS DO MANY TRICKS
Acrobats Defy Death in Hair.Rais.
ing Aerial Stunts.
HORSES AND FAIR RIDERS

re-Devil Desperate Dives Into In.
clined Plane, Landing on
His Chest.
Well, it's a hard matter to find the
right place to begin in telling about the
circus, because one would have to be in
several hundred places at once in the
course of a short afternoon to see it ALL
Still, here's a try at it:
First, you get off at 18th and H streets
northeast and mingle in with a swarm Of
human beings. all of whom are intent
on blocking your passage. You pass
eighty or ninety peanut boys, and when
you finally buy a pocket full you dis
cover that the nearer to the entrance Of
the big tent the smaller are the peanut
bags.
Noise and Crowd.
There are loud cries of sideshow men
explaining that for the small sum of a
dime, the tenth part of a dollah, you can
pass on inside and see in one-half an
hour the greatest collection of animal
monstrosities, human freaks and mur-
0erOuS wild men ever gathered together
into one aggregation.
All the noise and confusion that has
made the story of the Tower Of Babel
famous is gathered right out there at the
circus grounds. The man who sells
lemonade tries to outsell the man who
sideshOw Outdoes the peanut man. And
SO on
Well. you get a seat, after stepping
on some lady's hat, which she has care
iessly discarded for the minute. There
are candy-eating babies in front of you,
back of you and all around you. or
course-it's always the way-yet who
seems to care?
The band is playing excerpts from
various operas of the sounding German
variety. Ever and anon clown wan
ders about the ring to give foretaste
of the grand aggregation of comic talent
that Barnum and Bailey have up their
sleeves.
The. people. straggle in. When they
are all seated-except the stragglers-and
the band is through playing, whoop!
the circus starts.
Circus Is Truly Great.
OF all the great kaleidoscope effects,
that circus out there takes the prize.
Not one minete during the entire per-
formance is there single lull in the
twisting, shooting. spangled, gilded,
pink and green spectacle Of men,
women, horses, seals, monkeys and
clowns.
Any one who wants to see it all will
have to travel with the show a. while
and pay strict attention to each indi-
vidual ring for whole performance
at time. The person who sits him
self down in the middle of the reserved
seats and tries to keep an eye on every
thing at once will have mental afilic-
ton akin to the physical ailment known
as blind staggers.
But here's something new. The big
star acts are SO arranged that they
spread over the entire four rings
For instance. when the elephants come
out to play delicately with each other
while trainers with cOwhide whips keep
them acting gentlemanly, the herd
divides into sections, so that every ring
has practically the same elephant per-
fOrmance at once.
The same with the trained seals. In
every ring at once during this perform
ance there are seals riding horses and
noses-most marvellous of all being the
way these Hopping animals toss lighted
torches about with their mouths.
Acrobats of the Air.
Then the ''series of midair perform
ances of extraordinary SKILL" as the pro-
gram has it. takes up the entire tent.
The 1.-THE bodies of diving acrobats go
shooting through the upper air of the
tent. while enough people to make up a
good-sized town eat peanuts and nudge
neighbors and take it all for granted.
Goodness. it is hard to keep track of all
these things for a newspaper story. About
this time the child sitting behind The
Star reporter yesterday fell through the
seats. And an attractive young woman
had to drop her program down into the
pit below the seats. Something may have
happened out in the ring about then, but
history will lose it, until the child and
the program are recovered.
And all this time tine funniest old clowns
kept coming out. There must have been
4 thousand of them.
That clown who comes around with the
umbrella which squirts water upon itself
at intervals was there again. So also
were the clowns who have large Tapping
feet, and who slap each other with slap
sticks.
They tied firecrackers one to another,
and chased around the ring in imitation
of a person in an acute stage of comic
agony, while 5000 children laughed and
determined to try the same thing on poor
old grandma.
Horses and Fair Riders.
There were pretty ponies and graceful
little ladies riding them, and horses that
danced and played musical bells. There
were three royal riding acts. outclass-
ing anything ever seen for equestrian
grace.
There was Herbert the frogman, who
was SO much of a frog that he ought to
be called the man frog instead Of the
frog man.
Whew! it's hard to remember just what
did happen. there was SO much of 1t.
And the attractive young woman and the
candy eating child were distracting. each
in their widely separated ways.
But there were prodigious presentations
OF various and vigorous arenic acts of
deftness and dexterity. There was
really remarkable congress of eXtraordi-
nary acrobats. to which the wide world
had contributed it's best.
More acrobats than were ever seen to-
getler at one time, the ringmaster said.
Perhaps he's right. 1t would be hard to
beat that performance.
Startling swingings by the toes and
heels. With wings of supernatural power
these daring, diving dare-devils = few
through the air with as much ease and