The Washington herald., 1915-09-19

"Oh. for the old days to come back"
exclaimed a man past the middle age
who had a semi-professional look.
But what about the good old days.
was asked
!! I refer to the days when the circus
and menagerie went over the country
In wagons. and there was romance and
adventure at every mile of the jour
But most of those enterprises
That was clearly the fault Of the
Would have W come H out rich. % Sine ous
OF ten Of them were high-nyers and
drank and sported and gambled. Why.
man. l was once with the circus where
IN one year it could have made thirty
thousand ans dollars The owner gambled
. tiger and lost him: he staked our lion
and lost him: he staked our rhino and
lost him: he lost our three camels at
phant. the c; 4 Of hyenas; and the
! two giraffes, night. and had blown
out his brains oefore daylight"
| deal about the bad country roads," said
an elderly man. who appeared consid-
erably interested
"Oh, yes. We had bad roads. and we
we somehow managed to pry our wag-
ons out of the mudholes and get to
the towns all right Would you think
mud %
No" replied three or four men in
We'll. I have seen it three or four
times in the old days. and on one occa-
sion we had to hitch three teams On
to old Behemoth to drag him to dry
land. The trouble with an elephant is
that when he gets stuck he won't help
himself. He will just stand there and
shed tears and wall In one mudhole,
miles niles apart. 0 and "s Having M hS eight thou. M
camels and a sacred cow Of India
py Of to as Sssh IN ,Re 2 Seea tsTe ea asy
but there was also plenty of money.
and We had to take one with the
other"
Were you a performer in a circus?"
was asked
il No was 5;df PsTterms5 outside ,s Of
to tend to my own business and let
the circus people attend to theirs. You
might think it mighty curious but I
was with various circuses for twenty
years and I don't think I ever wit
messed three full performances was
psops busy Sight seldom az the sT
any of them by name and we never got
chummy."
well it was called by three or four
titles but usually by that of fakir.'
Let me explain. Before a circus starts
leges to the highest bidder. That is.
it used to be SO. but has not been for
years past The best privilege in the
lot is not the sideshow nor the lem
onade and peanut stand as you may
have thought but that Of quilting the
public. My personal staff consisted of
PLAYED the shell and string games. |
and the others sold goods that I man.
ufactured myself and made 200 per
NO other outsider could pick a |
pocket, work a confidence game; or
beat Uncle Rube in any manner what
haa and G0qsh kepi anq mp a,a very
busy. If one of my men were arrest !
ed. the circus men had to protect him.
get It him a lawyer and See that he was !
cleared Of the charges AGAINST him 1t
was very seldom. however. that a
charge go, into court We hxed s,d.
when he first arrived. II victim
lost by any of our games and made
an outcry he was laughed out OF the
took in a thousand dollars. and felt
that I was surely bound for the poor
house if it fell below two hundred"
it seemed. as if every fish within half
4 mile of your hook was after your
bait There is scarcely ever a time
With a cirucs when it is mo-, good fish
ng l spoke of the goods l manufac-
tured myself and toted around the
to sell The leading article
was called Whites Liver Cure "
vas made of water and molasses and
favored with wintergreen essence. II
vas sold for so cents a bottle. and I
lid not feel chills go over me when
stood up before a crowd with bottle
n each hand and guaranteed every
buyer SO in cash if a bottle of my
.emedy would not cure the worst case
If liver complaint in two weeks"
Say friends. sold that stuff even ,
o the doctors in almost every town.
,ut to doctors and ministers made a
eduction of 10 per cent. I kept an ,
,pen bottle for doctors to. taste OF.
They would come up to the stand,
aste. look wise and to turn to the crowd
md recommend the remedy: I don't
,now how many bad livers I cured in a
wenty years. but I know that the I
lumber Of bottles 7 sold must have g
zone up into the hundreds of thou 1
ands. bought wintergreen by the I
,eg and molasses by .he barrel. II ]
'ou talk about conscience. mine was {