The New York herald., 1921-02-27
But a Tame Horse
Made Him Nervous

THE WAYS OF THE CIRCUS. Being !
the Memories and Adventures of
George Conlxlin. Tanner OF Lions. Set
Down by Harvey W. Root. With a
Foreword by Don c. Seitz. Harper *
Bros.
When Babe, circus elephant. gave
birth to lively daughter in Phila-
aelphia she brought on the greatest
contest for supremacy in all the his
tory of the circus world; a battle
which ended In the famous partner
ship of Barnum & Bailey, owners of
"The Greatest Show On Earth
The baby elephant was christened Co
lumbia, and it proved to be one OF the
greatest attractions ever presented to
the public The curious little crea-
Cooper 6 Bailey. as the first elephant
ever born in captivity in the history
of the world" The business was
enormous. The newspapers rivalled
each other in publishing the most in
teresting articles about the baby ele-
phant. and to visit the show and see
the newly added attraction became a
mania with the public. AL OF which
gave Cooper & Bailey enormous ad-
vantages over their rival and embold-
ened them to invade the section of
country heretofore held sacred to
De-
on.
Barnum. having no particular at
tractive feature to advertise, made
one OF his few mistakes. He tele-
graphed to James A. Bailey: will
give you 100000 for your baby ele-
phant." Bailey saw at once the COM
mercial value of this communication,
and within few hours Barnum's own
territory was placarded with monster
sheets reproducing the despatch under
a glaring heading: What Barnum
Thinks of the Baby Elephant" Bar
mum was beaten and there was but
one more move to make-to join forces
with Bailey.
The two greatest figures OF the cir
Gus business have long since gone,
but the names Barnum & Bailey will
live as long as winter is followed by
spring (no doubt and as long as the
thrilling. nerve tingling. laugh pro-
ducing youth restoring quality of the
show remains.
Harvey w. Root in writing this
book. has deftly managed to draw out
piece by piece. adventure by adven-
ture and tragedy by tragedy the mem
ories and "reminiscences stored up by |
George Conklin, known to the circus |
world as the greatest trainer of ami |
mails during his forty years of life |
under the big canvas. Mr.. Conklin |
got his start with the "Pogey" O'Brien |
show. He took a job as driver on |
one OF the big vans while the show
was on the road. and when it went |
into winter quarters in Philadelphia |
he held down the position of night |
watchman.
When O'Brien gave me the posi- |
tion," says Mr.. Conklin, "he laid great |
emphasis on the Importance of my
keeping awake, and suggested that he
thought perhaps he had better get |
a watchman's clock.
'Pogey, IL you do I'll teach the |
elephant to wind it, told him
We'll, 1 don't know but what you |
would he replied, and, though he was |
sceptcal of my being able to do it,
he never got the clock"
All through the summer, while the |
show was on the road, Conlxlin |
watched Charlie Forepaugh, the ami
NAL trainer with the O'Brien show, as |
he went into the cage with the lions |
each day to put them through their |
various tricks. In helping care for |
them Conklin had come to know their |
ways, and they became acquainted |
with him. II had listened day after |
day to the applause that always fol-
lowed Charles act. and 1 knew too |
that his salary was large enough to