The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC y. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, ID. G.
THE MAN WITH THE WHISTLE.

is a weather beaten little man OF 1Ortys
in Washington this week. putting on
circus under the auspices of the
American Legion. Mrs. Woodrow
! Wilson is a patroness, and with her
in the same capacity are the wives
| of cabinet members, senators and the
wealthy and socially exclusive of the
national capital. Vice President Mar
! shall heads the committee having the
entertainment in charge, and the pow
erful men of The land are associated
| with him.
This showman's name is John +.
Agee, and he is said to be the fast
est man with a whistle in the world.
! This phrase is one peculiar to the,
| sa wdust of the circus where the man
| with the whistle is king. 1t is the
! man with the whistle VINO co-ordinates
the fifty acts that may be going on
under the big tent in such a way that
| each works in perfect time, like the
wheels in a watch. 1t is the man with
the whistle who performs the miracle
| of welding man and beast into ma
chine of spectacular perfection.
The man with the whistle is the
| ultimate product in the circus game.
He rides in the buggy that leads the
parade. Later he sees every detail
that goes on under the big tent; he
! runs the show, meeting all of the
emergencies of the calling in which
the routine Of every day is like an
expedition into the unknown.
| w no mas not gone 10 the CIRCUS anu
worked his nimble wits to exhaustion
| in an attempt to see all that was going
| on in the three rings at once? Who
| has not marveled that all these diff
ficult feats were individually possible,
! and who has not marveled that they
might be so perfectly fitted together?
/ The man with the whistle is response
| BILE.
You may hardly have noticed that
whistle. Its trill is always heard as
a given act draws to its close. That
| trill is the cue to the act that is to
follow. In the offing is a group of
clowns, ready for action. Back of the
curtain performers rush into the last
of their glittering apparel. Wise old
circus animals fall into their places
crack military company. The band
in the arena speeds up for the finale
of the act.
The eye of the man with the whistle
watches carefully and presently the
the end of the act 1t is thing that
must be delicately timed. The per-
formers must be given their moment
to take applause, their moment of joy
fere with this moment. The perform
ers for the next act are at the alert
| behind the curtain. The army of
clowns is ready to break DANGEROUSLY
forth. But the moment after the
second whistle and ahead of the
third. is sacred to the performers who
are finishing their acts.
Then comes the third blast. The
clowns dash forth. 1t is their bust
ness to fill in the gap between acts.
The shifting from one act to the
other is not to be seen. The observer
thrust into the breach. The third
blast, also, lets down the barrier to
the performers of the next act I'm
der the screen of diversion thrown up
by the clowns, they find their way
into the rings, no one sees them until
| the foolery of the clowns subsidies, and
then their acts proceed.
At the National Press club, in
| Washington, the other day, Agee told
the story of his climb to the top in
the circus world. a story no less dra-
matte than that of the fight upward
of Lincoln. CT Carnegie, or Hoover.
1t was a. story that~illustrates all over
again the opportunity for success that
is tucked away in every boy under the
American form of government. re-
CARELESS of the calling which he
chooses.
At the age of fourteen. Agee, an
orphan boy out for himself, crawled
| out of a box car in a little town in
| Kansas, and hurried thru an atmos-
kphere that was below zero to the back
Il
food and work. The farmer gave him
both, and there the boy lived for a
year, chiefly on the back of horse
herding cattle.
Then a circus came to Superior,
Neb, twenty miles away and all the
| farmer boys took a day off and rode
over. The glamor of il appealed to
young Agee as it has to many an
other lad. He sought out the par
ticular Ringing with the mayor of
Superior. who was an ola friend. He
asked Ringing if he wanted to hire
any men. To be sure the applicant
was less than five feet tall, and
weighed but ninety pounds. Ring
ling asked him if he knew where there
were any men wanting Jobs. Agec
said that he was one, that he was a
rider, that he could outride anything
in the show and that he was ready for
work. The old mayor spoke up and
said that Johnnie was a right likely
boy-and he was hired.
But he wasn't given chance to ride.
He curried horses for nearly a year.
Then, one day, the man who rode the
champion jumping horse Of the world
came to grief. In practice he was
riding the horse at a high hurdle and
the animal. instead of taking it. plant
ed his feet and stopped short. The
rider went on and landed hard on his
head. Picking himself up slowly and
painfully. he walked out of the tent
ana mas never Deen nearQ OF since.
The act had to go on in an hour, and
Agee volunteered to ride the jumping
horse. He made good and so started
that phase of his career of horse
training which ended with that famous
stunt of sixty-two horses IN a single
act, built into pyramid, travelling in
different ways. and all directed by the
little man who sat on the top of the
pedestal.
But while young Agee was working
as ''rosinback," a named applied to
the stable hands because they put
rosin on the back of the horses to
keep the feet of the Bareback riders
from slipping. he was nursing the
, ambition to become a trapeze per-
former-and he was practicng. So,
when a member of a certain act failed
to show up for work. the youthful
Agee volunteered, and again made
good. Thus another phase of circus
work was mastered