Arizona republican., 1910-09-27
CROWDS SEE BIC. CIRCUS Greatest Show 0n Earth
 Exhibits in Phoenix MANY MARVELLOUS FEATS Gorgeous Street Parade Is
 Followed by Two Highly Interesting Performances
 Under the Big Tent Moves to Tucson.
MANY MARVELLOUS FEATS

Phoenix and the Salt River valley gave a royal reception yesterday to Barnum & Baiey's Greatest Show on
 Earth. It was essentially a day and an evening given over to merriment. recreation and amusement. From early morning until late at night the downtown streets and the show grounds were thronged with a genial good-natured crowd imbued with a Mardi Gras spirit and intent upon making the most of day supposed to be free from care and worry.
 The arrival of the circus early Sun day night made possible more than ordinarily careful preparation for the scheduled events of the day. Those who read The Republican yesterday morning were aware that the parade would start at ten o'clock and these had not long to wait Those who gathered early upon the streets were more than amply repaid for the time spent. Never in the history of cir cuses in the southwest has such page antry attended the street show of any aggregation
 There were hundreds of wagons and gorgeous floats. with open dens of wild animals, bands galore and clowns on every hand. As a horse show alone the spectacle far surpassed anything ever before attempted by a circus There were shown scores of the finest horses that money can buy or that human experience could select. This procession of wonders and mo- velties was gathered from the four corners of the world. There were scores of historical characters cor rectly costumed and representing Egyptians, Philistines Phoenicians Sabinians, Africans, Arabfans. Alas sinians and others. together with mounted guards, trumpeters, heralds charioteers, knights, nobles. high prests, foot soldiers, cavalry. archers. dancing girls, triumphed cars, floats. and last but not least, the calliope Although a number of city streets were traversed, the last of the pro- cessiOn had barely left the show grounds, before the vanguard was making it's appearance at the tents upon its return.
 The grounds presented the usual ap- pearance incidental to the big circus There were the tents in which were housed the museum or side show, the ticket wagons and the circus lemonade stands. Once within the menagerie the eye was. caught by a geological display at once interesting and capti- vating. The monkey cages held the interest of the young folks; the ele- plants were fed peanuts until there was a visible decrease in the apparent supply of these tubers And the quantity of red lemonade consumed was about equal to the amount of water used nightly by Street Com missioner Christy in flushing the downtown streets
 By easy stages the great crowd made its way into the main tent in the center of which were three great rings and two stages. with a bewilder- ing arrangement of trapeze and aerial apparatus. Barnum x Bailey's concert band under the direction of Frederick Alton Newell rendered a number of pleasing selections until the hour set for the beginning of the performance.
 With a fanfare of trumpets the grand tournament was ushered into
  to the ringmaster, was a unique and most transcendentally beautiful intro duction to the regular performance, intended simply as a pleasing, pass ingly picturesque tournamental intro | duction to the feast of arenic features | to follow and yet enbodying the rare | and radiant elements of a sumptuous- ly spectaular entertainment" And it | was all that was claimed for it, being | in the main a reproduction of the | street parade, minus the wagons and | open cages.
 An instant after the grand march | had been completed. every ring and stage was presenting an animated pie ture which it would have required a hundred eyes to tak-in at once. At one time twenty-four beautiful Arabian horses were in the three rings, with