The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1921-10-08
ANDROCLES JONES


r,,iicd 'Oiy" for three reas rs:
"piir" Is MT unlike Orley and made
a good substitute for il IN a COM
pany where substitute names were
the ru,". The Old hands Of the Hog
Sins-WcltH shows had an invar!aHle
method ~ ha2:ng 4 ncwcomPr-theE
called him out AZ his proper name.
This had the effect " showing that
tho new hand was an un.inp rtaut
bit q nothing-at- and put him IN
his proper place at once. II his
name was Mike they called him
AlGerron until ne had wrlthed into
4 proper state ri meekness or had
objected and been beaten into a right
state Of mind. Then his new handle
was softened 70 Aigy. and II he
proved 70 be a good fellow. he might
become Al but never-as long as he
was with the Higgins We!tz bunch
was he Mike again.
Even Katie OIGare. whose ring
name was Mile. Rosa MontmorenCy,
was Susie 10 all connected with the
show, and old Hogsins. safe In his
office in the Metropolitan Tower in
New York most Of the time the show
was on the road. was "Birt'' Hog
gins. The name had something 10
do with the fact that he had once
owned a cheap Wild West show. 4
paltry imitation OF Buffalo Bits
outfit. and had thus won the d!stinc-
ton Of being dubbed "B!tralo Bull"
The two other reasons for the
name were that Orley Jones had a
certain gentleness that might. by
extreme stretching. be called unctu-
Gus. "Orley. Hey?" said CodSe BiSgs,
when ne had asked the new mans
name, well, you look Oily. all
right" And tho name chung. and Il
chung the tighter because Mr.. Jones
had a way-due to his New York
birth-ot saying II had to get up
oily this moinin." or The oily bold
gets the woim."
The little man, with his eyes set
too close together and his general
air OF having served q long term as
a sweepout In q cheap barroom'
Joined the HogGins-Weltz crowd at
Davenport, Iowa. How he ever hap
pened to be at Davenport was a
mystery, but he was down on his
luck and ready for any kind Of meal
ticket, and when Codge Biggs, our
canvas-man, had knocked out three
drunken rough-neck stakemen with
one Of the iron-capped blue tent
- nf1Ny fUn nihnF
looking fellows to NIL the
vacancies. At Iowa City, Oily dou-
bled with the camels, leading one
OF tho tan-colored brutes In the
parade, and the camel bit his arm
Ec had no luck with ANIMALS. X he
stood In front Of the cockatoo-cage
for two minutes, the birds went
crazy with rage. They seemed 10
take Oily as a personal insult OF
some sort and screamed their heads
half OF.
You may have read OF men who
can Go into the woods and ST dow2.
and n a few minutes squirrels come
up and kiss them, and. d!cky-oirds
come and roose on their shoulders.
and beavers and badgers and things
come and purr against their legs.
Oily was just as different from this
as he could be. Even psnk-eyed rao-
bits tried to bite him. They say the
reason some men make such hit
with animals Is because they are
innocent Of heart and mind. II that
is 90, Oily must have been the
toughest kind OF a sophisticated
criminal.
That was one reason Oily was as
signed to the animal-tent. Nothing
makes such a hit with the crowd as
To have the animals yowl and jump
at the cage bars and show mean
ness, and all Oily had to do was to
walk around inside the tent to have
a wave Of yowls follow him. Even
the guinea-pigs in the Happy Family
would try to bite the cage-oars when
they saw Oily. And It takes some
thing to make a guinea-pig show
ferocity. Oily was the only thing l
ever knew that could do It.
We had a Jap with the show once
who used u kind Of hair-oil that
drove the trained seals crazy. He
was a little fellow and about fifty
Years old. and his sear stunt was to
60 away up In the top Of the big top
and fasten his little wisp Of hair to
a pulley and slide down a long wire.
hanging by the hair and whirlinS
around and around until a couple OF
rough-necks caught him just as he
reached the ground. Along In '9S his
hair began to come out. and he wrote
u an uncle Of his in N.adivostok
for some OF this hair-ou. l guess
II was one OF the good old family
remedies he knew about: anyway. It
was SO strong that II the Spaniards
had heard about K m time they
wouldn't have'had to invent garlic.
The first time Yama Toy came
into the big top doped up with the
stun. the eight trained seals were
doing their stunt on the stage be-
tween the two big rings. They gave
one whit. said something that
sounded like q scas.ck army and
scooted. One OF them went into 4
clowns giant FAKE tuoa Ike sf'ait
INTO a shell. and he went in 80 far
and so hard that We had TO cut the
tuba off him with a can-opener. $
head was jammed into the funnel OF
the tuba so hard that one OF US had
10 hold down one Of the keys OF the
tuba so the seal could set breath.
Everytime the seal drew a deep.
frightened breath the tuba played a
note. 1t was 3 Nat below the scale.
and whenever l hear that note now
/ can smell Iama Toys hair-o:l.
There must have been something
about Oily Jones that had this effect
on all the birds and beasts. don't
know wh-s It was. and neither did
Gnv. L. Ter on We tried every wa
POSSIBLE 10 discover wha, II was; but
that comes later in this story. II
,,sn., SoDhiSt:rated Crim;naiitv.