The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-10-12
LAST 1874 CIRCUS
Hagenbeck. Wallace Show in
Topeka Wednesday.
More Than 1000 Persons EN-
plOyed by Organization.

That rare flower. the final circus OF
the season, will blossom in Topeka
Wednesday when the Carl HagenbecK
and Great wallace Shows Combined
one of the largest circuses in the world,
comes for it's annual engagement. With
favorable weather it is expected that
the big show will draw enormous
crowds.
Col. r. M, Harvey of Cincinnati, Ohio,
advance manager of the Hagenbeck-
wallace circus. spent Monday IN the
city en- route to the winter quarters OF
the shows West Baden. Ind. He talked
entertafning1y of the circus ousin ,,,,
and shed light on facts not generaily
known outside the world of white
tops"
ut is surprising the number of col
lege graduates now In the circus
ranks" said Col. Harvey. at the Ma
tional hotel. when 1 entered the ousi-
ness a quarter Of century ago prac-
tically all the circus owners were con-
siderably backward in the world OF let
ters. I was one of the first press agents
for Adam Forepaugh and for a long
time I was confused at his general at
titude 1 knew l was getting great
deal of space in the papers ABOUT our
white elephant Yet the old man
never had anything to say. Until finally
one day, a friend told me that the only
thing Mr.. Forepaugh could read was
very large type, such as used in the
headings. Well, you may rest assured
that after that, l generally managed TO
get a good heading even II my story was
short.
..'rhere is a general misconception as
TO the salaries paid to circus people,
continued Col. Harvey. "A good clown
will get $35 to $40 per week. which OF
course includes board and tranSporta-
ton. And l might add that there are
more clowns with the Hagenbeck- wal
lace shows than any circus In the
world. We have some clowns that are
getting as high as 1925 per week Most
acrobats and aerialists come IN teams
or families.
For One Act $500 a Week.
Take for instance a bicycle act of
half a dozen people. There will be a
manager of the act who himself is a
performer. He engages his people and
puts the act together, paying each
artist separately himself He then
contracts with the circus management
for the services of the act and gets a
lump sum for it. A good aerial act
will get from $500 to $500 per week;
a riding act with two or three people
almost as much, for riders are among
the best paid of circus performers The
workingmen receive least of all. The
canvasmen receive IS per week togeth-
err with their expenses The bosses
generally get from $25 per week up
wards. We have approximately 1OS
men in advance of our. show Bill
posters receive $40 per month to-
gether with their expenses. Contract
ing agents Of the best caliber draw
SIS per week upwards. The circus
managers get $500 per week and their
season lasts thirty weeks. Everybody
with circus IS paid by the week in
silver. The work is hard but the pay
is good and the better jobs have at
tracted quite number of college and
university men,
There are in the neighborhood of
1000 people with the Hagenbeck-Wa
lace circus which will give two per-
formances Wednesday, on the fair
grounds. The 3S7 performers repre-
sent almost every country. They ap-
pear in three rings and on two stages.
The Carl Hagenbeck trained wild ami
mails will be seen in an immense steel
arena. Twenty-Five tents are used to
house the great organization. Three
OF the longest circus railroad trains in
the world transports the show from
city to city. Circus day festivities will
be opened Wednesday with a three
mile long street parade that will pass
through the principal downtown
streets in the forenoon. Doors to the
big show will be opened at and d.
m. A downtown ticket agency will be
in operation Wednesday at the Rowley
Drug company, Sixth and Kansas ave-
nues. in charge of special circus rep
resentative.