Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-27
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BEHIND SCENES
AT A CIRCUS
Veteran Performer Talks of
Life and Work Among
People of Strange World

To one who has always been acu-
ts tsSstomed o TO look at the circus from
dhe me outside in a glimpse from the
insloe out brings many surprises.
Novelists who have chosen the
circus life for depletion in stories
nave found it fruitful field. Back OF
ahe ahe curtain: the glamor and the
world OF very real and very likeable
people: Most of the performers are
IRON Families that have followed the
circus from the time it first began to
be manklnd's never tiring amusement
lhey have preserved the home ties
spangleland as completely as is
the case elsewhere.
IT is hard to make the person "out-
slue understand that we have a real
nome life, close sympathetic and pro-
tectlng, said a veteran of the road
VINO is always found with his wife
ana children when the big show is
VINO Follow the show business were
born to it. Our fathers and mothers
were performers and our grandparents
before them. When we married we
took girls who. like ourselves, were
born into the guild. We are training
our children during the school vaca-
llon periods, Just as we We're trained.
That is the way the profession is
showmen, say that all the star per-
formers who are featured to-day
were taught the essentials when they
We're children. Ernest Clark, the
greatest aerialist who ever lived. as
serts that no man or woman who did
not train long and well before the
age of Is years, can ever become re-
markable in the profession The
muscles must be taught before they
become set and hardened. To those
laymen who hold that children should
not be brought up in the profession.
the performer points out that there
is no life more healthful than the
a. n kapnG
of doors; the majority of performers
live to be better than three score and
ten, and the fine salaries earned per-
nit the thrifty to cease his labors
long, long before that time and to re-
tire in ease and comfort. During his
active career the performer lives in
a world that understands him thor-
oughly Therefore he is likely to be
quite content and while travelling he,
because he is accustomed to 1t, is
quite as comfortable in an eight by
ten stateroom as he would be in much
larger quarters. Starting to tie ones
craVat in front of one mirror and nm
ishing before another on the opposite
side of a fifteen-foot bedroom is, he
VIII tell you, a waste of energy ana a
form of nervousness.
With the Ringing Brothers circus
coming here Tuesday, June II, there
are 400 performers gathered fropl
every part of the world. Nineteeh
different languages are spoken in the
dressing tents. Most OF THESE perform
ers travel in families. Many have
laid aside neat sums which they have
invested in homes where they spend
their winters. 1t is this domestic
side of the performers character that
first caused novelists to portray cir
Gus life.
1t is said this seasons circus is the
finest the Ringlings have ever offered.
The programs include the gorgeous
spectacle of love and chivalry, I'm
Of N
1900 characters. Here are scores
upon scores of arenic sensations and
hundreds of novelties. A big trained
animal revue and the famous five
continent menagerie contribute to the
marvels.