Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-02
NOTHING BRAZEN ABOUT LIFE
OF CIRCUS WOMEN! THEY CROCHET
Fact Is Rouge Pot and Feshngs Are Not Used From Love
of Garishness but as Tools of Craft-Pro-
fession Frequently Hereditary
By M'LISS

THE lady, who trains the circus bears
L 1t Is said to be a somewhat dangerous
undertaking-was making chemise for
her three-months-od infant.
The lady who leaps from one milk-white
steed to another, pirouetting on her toes
meanwhile. her little spangled skirts flap
ping rhythmcaly to the brass bands ac-
compartment, was knitting "A sweater for
her little daughter Helen. safe from Ger
man soldiers. she hopes, in convent in
Strassburg
The lady who swings from trape2e to
trapeze in n way that would make her
prehistoric ancestor who is said to have
preferred branches to trapezes and tree
tops to tent-tops. was crochetng the neck
finishing on a pale pink nightgown.
The lady who let's the biggest elephant
take a siesta on her-or almost--was busy
with a centreplece
All of which is proof positive. Of course,
that it's very wild life these circus folks
lead
out at the sawdust precincts where the
peanuts. elephants and children age nine
and ninety, may be found, there's an In
teresting tent that the public never pene-
trates It's the womans tent
To walk into this woman's tent unex-
pectedly is TO have all of ones preconceived
ideas about circus women-the bold, bad
things-turn somersault as complete as
that which Madame Laura de Kos turns
when she concludes her acrobatic act.
OF COURSE, THE MIRROR
You see before you some fifty women,
ranging in ages from about eighteen TO
forty. Each of them sits before small
trunk. the lid Of which is raised revealing
mirror in dressing table effect Usually
there are photographs in the wel,-known
graceful attitudes that characterize the
family lkeneSses. Those who aren't pre-
pairing to so on usually ply their needles,
| knitting or sewing energetically. But where
are the cigarettes, the cocktails?
They aren't" Mrs. Laura de Kos, a
! brown-eyed pink checked English woman,
one OF the most scintillant Of the Barnum
| and Bailey stars. said the words fatty and
| finally tucked the pink nightgown away
| because 1t was time for her to get ready to
| go on.
MY people" she said have been in the
| circus profession before there were any
| circuses when the members of our profes.
! sion were known as mountebanks and traN-
| e'ed the continent In caravans | am
| Ciarke"--this proudly--"and the Clarkes
| who, with single exception, the same be-
! ing myself have intermarried with the
| Powels for 200 years have never done
| anything else but circus work hut have
| done everything in that-danCing, juggling
bareback riding and aerial performing.
married n Belgian. and now we are botf
! circus people-thatS its contagious faSci
nation and you can't keep away from the
| tent unless you're too old or too infrm tC
be of any good any more.
A DECENT PROFESSION
THE circus life is traditional with me-
she continued. "and ! want to tell you tina
there is no decenter profession than that o
circus work and no people have such goo'
children as c.-cus people We either kee
our children s'ith us all the time training
them in ou, own work, or send them Z
strict boarding schools. My own little bo
| he is 1hirteen--is at Peekskill Militar
Academy. in New York We are going L
try and break the tradition of centuries ant
make a soldier instead of a circus performe
out of him, / don't know how il will work
| but I'm very much afraid that his bloo
will be stronger than his schooling
Wicked words, these, surely justifyin
almost anybody's Idea Of the coarseness o
this life
7 Mrs. Ella Bradma. equestrienne. who ha
been born with the knaCk of training horse
to do all sorts of things. like wa,tzing an
running round wildly in small circles inter
Jected at this point the story Of her twelve
year old Helen, who has been placed wit
French nuns in Strassburg for safekeepnG
and the little Mexican girl. one of the mos
daring trapeze performers, whose trunk
next to Mrs. Bradma $. stepped over wist
fully as the tale was being recounted He
name is Lupeta Perea. and as she is on
twenty and therefore a mere child. from tn
circus peoples view, her Spanish mothe
travels with her. AS the girl moved tw
feet from her trunk the watchful eyes o