Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-27
PEOPLE
PLAIN FOLKS
SUNDAY
AtIantans Go to Grounds To Be
Startled, and lust See
Home Life. .

circus story-s new kind of circus
story.
All mankind knows just about what
circus people do on week days. Thy
know that the "circusers" roll into
town at an unearthIy hour in the
morning, tumble out of their berths
about I o'clock and walk to the lot"
where they eat breakfast At 3
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 10
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 yeste:-
day out at Ponce DeLeon Park?
And the answer is that they don t
do anything, which means that they
are regular folks" and spend Sunday
just about like the average AtlantaL
spends his. They just LAY around
read the Sunday papers-mostly The
Sunday American, by the way-and
take things easy.
rs Letter Reading Day.
All of them are reading letters, be-
cause there is always 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 viii 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 or human
nature and know more about it than
all the sayants 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 ne must
have been thinking of the circus ''rs.
zorha ok He works all the time,
And the animal men are never still,
but it is because they love theii
hes SITS
Take old Andre for instance. He
has last name which is so Hunga
rian or Austrian or something that t
is unpronounceab Bile, and he wouldn't
leave his beloved CRATES for mo
ment--not for a 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 N
old man spends his Sundays talking
to his giraffes and his chickens
All Look Busy,
When first you enter the 'lot"-on
a Sunday--you think everybody is at
work Hundreds of ''raZorbacks"
and canvasmen are running hither
and yon. all in seeming tumble,
chaos out of which it 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" II keeps a 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 anu
getting it ready TO GO up. To the
right OF the big top" is a creek. over
which the circus has built q bridge.
Then the Heneymeoners.
You cross the bridge and run
plump into Jim Rutherford and his
wife-,Jim Rutherford. who .on Mon
days is a 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 I'm Northern viii
lage, how she could not travel with
him because circus will carry no
idle hands; how she got a saxaphone
and learned to play it so she could