Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-05

she posed for tableau of Britannia.
But poor Crockett had other beasts to
tame that were more ferOcious. He proved
himself Drawer than his own lions on
many thrilling occasions. Finally he
dropped dead in Chicago as he was about
to enter the arena during one OF his Wis
it's to this country
The greatest of all American clowns
was Johnny Lowlow, who won fame with
John Robin
Johnny Lowlow sons circus in
Gained Great Fame. inst af =. ,n u
civil war. Robinson himself had acted
as a clown during his days of struggle
toward success, and his affection for
Johnny Loylow was deep. Lowlow had
been born in Milledgeville. Ga. but ran
away from home at an early age. The
Bring in another horse.' not only
brought down the house-or the tent. to
be more accurate-but gave new phrase
to the language of the time.
1t was one of his humors to circulate
runors of his death. and then. like Tom
Sawyer suddenly appear upon the scene
of grief. Time after time he did this,
and Joel Chandler Harris. as member
of the staff of a southern newspaper.
wrote many obituaries of his dead"
friend. which afterward gave place to
songs of rejoicing that the dead had come
to life. But at last Johnny Lowlow
failed to make his customary reappear-
ance, land no man knows his sepulcher
unto this day
One of the most celebrated English
clowns who ever visited this country
was Wallet who afterward wrote his
memoirs. He had circus of his own
and displayed all the ingenuity of his
craft. 1t is related that on one occasion
he decided that it would be an excellent
idea to include a Chinaman-then more
rare than now in the Occident-in his
great congress of nations" The only
available members was an Iyishman
then using an Italian name), but the son
of Erin had too much esprit de corps to
refuse to be shaven on his crown and
otherwise tricked out as Chinaman.
After the performance such of the ce-
lestiais as lived in Dublin, where the
Inquisitiveness Cause % rmance
of Chinaman's. Downfall. a Mss sven H.
have personal interview with their fell
low-countryman. This was obviously inn
possible. This refusal aroused in their
minds the suspicion that the circus was
holding the "Chinaman'' as a slave They
went forth to a magistrate and secured a
writ OF habeas corpus. and poor Wallet
had to confess that his Chinaman was
born in Cork of Corkish parents.
Two veteran clowns are alive in Eng
land now. Whimsical Walker may be re-
membered by an older generation, as he
made a tour of this country twenty odd
years ago and since then has been APP
pearing in the pantomiines. Jimmy"
Doughty. the Oldest living clown. is alive
in England. He is ninety-four years Of
age, and two years ago he married
young woman of twenty-seven. He has
had hard time to keep the wolf from
the door in recent years. in spite of the
devotion of his wife. who has done her
part toward keeping the larder full. So
professional London will assemble and
give the aged clown a benefit. which, a,
is hoped. will provide sufficient funds
to make his declining days happy and
We'll provided for.
1t is an interesting fact that the "rube''
clown, who is so conspicuous feature of
the circus. is by no means peculiar to the
American people, as might be supposed
1t seems another result of the early con-
ceptiOn that the Latin 'colOnus,' mean
ing husbandman, gave the name to the
clown. At all events, the countryman
dressed in the rustic garb of his coun-
try, whatever that country may be- has
always been a favorite variety of the
clown.
We'a told occasionally that the clown
is passing from the circus. but 1t is diff
ficult to see any sign of it. The Ameri-
cans inveterate love of humor will mill
tate against it. While it may be a long
time before history brings in another"
Johnny Lowlow, it is probable that he
will have more or less successful imitat-
ors for long time to come.