The Washington herald., 1920-02-28
New, York City
By o. o. Mcintyre

New York, Feb. 27.-Lillian Lett
eel, Queen of the Flying Rings. Is
now the bride OF Clyde ingalls,.
prince of side show men and the
greatest exploiter of freaks In the
world. 1t was q marriage Of circus
high Hfe-for the the sawdust ring
has its aristocracysas well as Fifth
avenue. Circus aristocracy is COM
posed OF members of. the old circus
families who for generations have
put representatives under the big
top"
Lillian Leitzers family had some
member endangering hiy life under
the first circus tent that was ever
raised. Befc,e she arrived at the
dignity of a private dressing tent
of her own-which is some dignity
she appeared in q troupe composed
/ of her parents and q relative or two.
CiydeeIngalls came to the circus
from the lumber camps and by
the force of his personality became
the greatest freak exploiter In the
business. He discovered Zip. the
whatisit! You hear of Zip's wild
life in the African Jungle, sleep
ing with apes and fighting for his
is a small-town imbecile and came
from a mid-Western State.
A circus man or woman must be
mighty good to break into the circus
social register. That good" goes
both ways, for behind the scenes
the circus Is like an overgrown
sewing circle. 1t has all the lit
tie prejudices of the small-town
sewing circle and q far narrower
and more rigid social scale.
Great families like the De Koes,
the Clarkes. the Worths. the Leitzels
or the Hannefords would no more
think of mingling with the circus
.drifters than the Astors or Van
derbilts would mingle with the ha-
bitues of the Bowery dance hall.
The circus aristocrat has a gu
rious faculty for picking infallibility
in circus caste. The casual per-
former cannot cross the social gulf.
He is an outcast. The blue blood
of many circus families mus. co<se
his veins. The winter circus col
ony in New York reside in the board
ing houses that dot the West For
ties. 1t was a big event in their
lives to be invited to the marriage
of Lillian Leitzel to Cly6e Ingalls,.
An invitation meant that they be-
longed to the Circus Four Hundred.
just as an invitation to Mrs. Clar-
ence Mackay's functions in the old
days stamped the elect.
called The Night Boat" Now il
e. .f 10 L.
of the evidence that is grist for
the Manhattan divorce mill is Sc
cured by private detectives who
watch erf1ng husbands and wives
take might boat to Albany" Con-
sequently. Broadway looked for a
zippy. peeping. bedroom hurrah.
The very title Suggested that the
play would be vulgarized to the
last degree. But Broadway was
fooled. 1t happens to be one of the
cleanest shows in town. and for
that reason will not last long.
To Greenwich Village Bobby Ed
wards Is as dead. lie has deserted
the village and Is now an uptowner
1t was Bobby who twanged his
home made ukulele in the golden
days of the Black Cat. the Purple
Pup, the Pig and Thistle, and other
home -madcy places before the pro-
kibition blight. He were purple
shirts open at the throat and break
tasted at in the afternoon.
But a manager put him in a mu-
sical show and he got a sQuint at
Broadway and the poor, dark, dank
village looked mighty anaemic I'm
contrast. Only now and then does
Bobby ride down in his roadster
and see his old friends. He yawns
in little while and the village crowd
realizes he is too material for them.
Art Moss now wears the mantle
of poet laureate of the village. He
will have his day and then will come
another. Now that red wine Is na
more a part of village sociability
the little section of New York Is
pretty gloomy. Even the out-of-town
folk who want to be shocked are
side-stepping il.
The other day I dropped into a
restaurant where 1 frequently break
fast. The smiling face of Bendo,
a little stunted Greek bus boy, was
missing. The proprietor told of his
death from la grippe. Scared to
DEATH" he told me. Bendo could
speak little English and he heard
vaguely of some terrible plague that
was sweeping the city. He caught
cold. The walters jokingly told
him he had the plague. He went to
his little room on the East Side and
passed on during the night. In his
mattress they found $4,000, the saw
ings by dint of almost cruel fru-
gality. He had intended to return
to Greece this summer to bring back
his aged parents. Under his pillow
were tintypes of his parents.