The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-07
PLENTY OF THRILLS
IN THE 1915 CIRCUS
Barnum 4 Bailey Back at the
Garden With Show Brought
Up to the Hour.
ANIMAL ACTS A FEATURE

The saner the circus the better IL
pays says the programme OF the Bar
mum & Bailey show. The scholarly
optimist who wrote the programme ex-
plains that the populace is a whole lot
less bloodthirsty thar It vas In the days
Of Flavlus. and now demands. instead
Of exhibitions wherein risk Of human
life was everything. a triumph OF skill
and kindness" This the heirs and as.
signees of the late Messrs. Barnum and
Bailey kindly supply.
The circus that came back to Madi-
son Square Garden yesterdays surer
sign OF spring than he nesting OF the
robin, the frogs trilling or the bursting
Of the first delicate skunk cabbage from
its marshy fetters-was pronounced
sane by a Jury that must have filled
every seat. except when ever body stood
up with open mouth the better to swal-
low the thrills that were popping all
over the arena most OF the time. They
do say too that the business manager
agrees with the adjectiverous pro-
gramme writer about the value OF san
ity. Anyway. It is no longer good form
TO shoot women from cannun or even
w thrust n man y hedu ANU d io"S
mouth.
However. let nobody believe that the
g. :. q. +. isn't bigger and better this
season. For example: There's the
young woman who puts a rubber plug
In her mouth and II hauled up 10 the
rafters. II used to lie sufficient to dress
her in white tights and let her wind
and unwind herself In her suspense
while Just ordinary electric lights heat
..~- 49,. D.s $500. - . 1ts 80 80
fy robe and does an angel dance In
TIE air with the spotlight playing tricks
with her fluttering garments. all In a
, manner that reminded the old boys OF
l.oic Fuller.
Gtrls ROss the Elephauts.
Again. three rings used TO be enough
FOR the plastic posing of the white horses
n scenes from the master sculptors."
Rut in this years show there are not
only three rings full of horses but they
are spread over a stage at either end
Of the arena az we'll. and all the direc-
ton of the spectacle liz in the hands Of
young women. Moreover. when the high
school horses perform mere educated
horses are not enough. so in and out
among them girls are dancing
Further. behold the elephant brass
band. one of the new animal acts that
nave been added to the circus as "a
proof Of sanity. zone 10 the II ahout-
or j. d, howdah"-that used To chaperon
the elephants. Now it's girls-!n each
ring there is a girl who bosses the
fawnlike creatures and makes them do
her will.
Most of the elephants eventually march
away together. but IN the middle ring a
group of them Is left. That's the band.
Each musician has "A brass instrument
fastened to his trunk. Eddie Brill. leader
OF the regular circus band. fips his baton
AT the elephant who is playing q natural,
The elephant breathes into his French
horn Ta-a-a. The next elephants jolt
Is to sound a II whenever the right ma
asks him To-. lie does IL for Eddl Rrill.
one after another the elephants breathe
into their horns. and pretty soon sus-
picion grows INTO a certainty hat blamed
II these elephants aren't playing The
Last Rose IF summer" which they kecu
on doing until, o~verrpwcrei by the sent
meut OF q single rose left blooming all
alone. they burst into tears aud haV.
to ho led weeping from the scene. II
vas learned from a small 10y who MAS
seeing his first circus-his name proved
10 be Dexter Felluwes-that the clephan,
has "A natural lip for the turbulen,
tuba"
Their. Is also = prodigy in the way Of
a white Cockstoo with yellow tufts which
RIDES an illuminated bicycle along a tigh'
Wire. lie couldn't fall II he tried. fol
equilibrium - maintained 10y two otheI
~corkatoo~ Oh a perch suspended from
the bicycle. But so far as known te il
the only cockatoo c!clLst in the world.