Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-27
PEOPLE
PLAIN FOLKS
SUNDAY
Atlantans Go to Grounds To Be
Startled, and Just See
Home Life.
Continued From Page 1.

/
the circus as they were unveiled be-
fore them in slow and dignified de-
mein. Incidentally, probably every de-
scendant of Ham within a radius of
many miles of Atlanta was among
those present.
| The parade was routed from its lot
along Ponce DeLeon avenue to Peach
tree street; thence to Forsyth, to Ma
rietta and to Peachtree again. From
there 1t turned back to the grounds
via Peachtree and Ponce DeLeon.
Dense Crowd at Five Points.
She crowd was greatest at Marietta
and Forsyth, and Five Points. Traf-
fc during the procession was de-
! moralized at these places for some
| time.
All mankind knows just about what
| circus people do on week days. They
know that the "circusers" roll into a
| town at an unearthly hour in the
| morning, tumble out OF their berths
about Z o'clock and walk to the lot"
where they eat breakfast. At 9
o'clock they march in the "gee-rand
| parade" When they come back,
lunch is waiting for them; then they
don their spangles and gold lace ana
gladden. the hearts and thrill the
souls of young America; then they
eat their dinner and back again TO
the sawdust ring until midnight.
Everybody knows it's work from sun
rise to shutdown.
But what do they do on Sunday, the
only day in the week in which there
are no performances? What did the
Barnum & Bailey people do yester-
day out at Ponce DeLeon Park?
And the answer is that they don
do anything, which means that they
are regular folks" and spend Sunday
just about like the average Albanian
spends his. They just LAY around"
read the Sunday papers-mostly The
/ Sunday American, by the way-and
take things easy.
IFS Letter Reading Day.
All of them are reading letters, be-
| cause there is always a big packet of
mail for everybody on Sunday, and
| they read over again all they have
| gotten from home during the week.
| The old people will be telling stories
| to the youngsters, and some of the
| foreigners will have sought quiet
hooks for soul-stirring struggles with
English dictionaries, and scores of
them will be lying on their backs in
the open and gazing dreamily at
! nothing at all.
And there Is always a crowd Of
them sitting around on empty buck
| cts, and on wagons, and on the
| ground, watching the crowd that has
come to watch them. And since all
circus people are students OF human
nature and know more about 1t than
all the savants that ever put pen to
paper. they get more fun out Of the
crowd than the crowd does out of
them.
Now, mot doing anything" does not
apply to the "razorbacks." 1t seems
sometimes that when someone wrote
| in the Good Book that there shall
| be no rest for the wicked" he must
have been thinking Of the circus 'ra-
| zorback He works all the time.
And the animal men are never still,
but 1t is because they love theiI
beasts.
Take old Andre. for instance. He
| has a last name which Is so Hunga-
rian or Austrian or something that it
| Is unpronounceabl and he wouldn't
|
ment-not for million dollars. And
| he has chickens and geese, and
| things that have no connection with
the circus, but which are his mascots.
| They go wherever he goes, riding In
the cars with the giraffes-and the
old man spends his Sundays talking
to his CRATES and his chickens.
| All Look Busy.
When first you enter the "lot"--on
/ It'll Ixrt e,
work Hundreds OF ''razorbacks"
and canvasmen are running hither
| and yon, all in a seeming tumble, a
| chaos out Of which 1t seems impos-
sible should arise the order of Mon
| day. You walk along with the crowd
| lodging six and eight horse teams
| drawing heavy cages, conveyed by
| the inevitable escort of small boys.
Down by the old skating rink is
| what on Monday will be the menag-
erie. Everybody is at work there.
Men are unloading countless bales Of
| hay for the elephants, and there Is
the smell of fresh meats and the
roars of the animals. The crowd is
there, too, trying to get glimpse of
| the wild beasts, from the lion down
| to the immortal pair from the Ham
| burg show. the elephant and the wild
kangaroo" 1t keeps score of men
busy routing the sorties of the small
| boys.
Then you go down to where the
| big top" lies stretched out on the
| ground, ready for hosting. There
are hundred men sitting cross
legged, sewing on the canvas and
getting it ready to go up. To the
right OF the big top" is a creek, over
which the circus has built a bridge.
Then the Honeymooners.
| You cross the bridge and run
| plump into Jim Rutherford and his
| wife-Jim Rutherford. who on Mon
| days is clown, but on Sunday is
| just folks. They are sitting on up
turned water pals, reading letters
| from home. Then some one tells you
| their story, and you realize why they
are called the "honeymooners OF the
circus"
You learn how Rutherford wooed
and won his wife in a Northern viii
| lage, how she could not travel with
| him because a circus will carry no
idle hands how she got a saxaphone
| and learned to play il so she could
| join the circus band and be with her
| husband, And they spend their Sun
days writing letters. reading letters
and strolling about the open woods
near the lot"