The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-05
2OOO MEALS ARE
 SERVED DAILY IN CIRC[JS.1 CANVAS
Feeding Is Biggest Prob lem Faced By Travel.
 ing Show


 < s The question has been asked What is the biggest problem that circus men have had to solve in the development of their businessTs writes an old cir GUS campaigner in the New York Herald Tribune. ..aS < Offhand, the answer might be given in the one word: ta tEats.' 4 With six hundred or seven hundred people to feed, the circus management today must figure on approximately 2,000F meals a day. They must be served on time and the food must be Of the best.
 z In the big show of modern times there are two cook houses or dining tents-one for the proprietors, execu- lives, performers, ticket sellers, musi- clans, etc. the other for canvasmen, trainmen, or "razorbacks," as they have always been called;s hostlers, ami nal men, property men and rousta- bouts. s,8
 A Painful Contrast. But it was not always so. If one started with the show game when it was young and then "sits in" with the
 
 day, the contrast is nothing short of painful.
 < At the start of the circus business apparently no thought whatever. was given to the matter of providing food for the outfit. The circus proprietors had taken no heed of Napoleon's maxim that an army travels on it's stomach and circus is an army that must make forced march every day when on the road.
 < The earliest eircuses depended on hotels for dining and sleeping accom- Inodati0fs. Later, when they began. cooking for themselves, they depended on the local butcher and provisioner for supplies. As result, many a time we reached a town only to find that the butcher had forgotten our coming aud had no more than soup bone for us-and that soup boae had to go to the. animals, of course.
 Which is a reminder of story con cerning old Peggy" O'Brien, an early day snowman. Peggy, when his cir GUS was showing in a small middle western town, was visited by his steward, who was in deep concern.
 Just Few Pounds.
 "Boss," said the steward, we're up against it sure enough. I've been to every butcher shop here and there's no meat in town-just a few pounds is all I've been able to get my hooks on
 Peggy" gave an imitation of Papc- leon in deep thought.
 "All right" he said. eff thnra's only a little meat, feed the anima's first If there's any left, give it to thf work ingmen. Then if there's any left, feed it to the actors Only in=t; ad of kethrs ''Poggy'' said ''kinkies, p -.a term which has always stuck to circus per. formers.
 Of course, as the circus business developed, it was impossible that such conditions could go on. We grew in- dependent of country hotels, both for eating and sleeping purposes. The cir GUS assumed the job of feeding it's own folk and providing sleeping accOmmo- dations, but for many years the task was poorly done. The food was bad and scant. What was worse,, there was no attempt to provide meals on time.
 Then came the travelling kitchen. The first I remember was built in a wagon at least eighteen feet long. It contained a range, with everything pro yided for cooking. A fire was built an hour or so before the show arrived. The kitchen wagon was the first thing rolled off the train. Breakfast was ready for the men before work started, and as a result everybody took hold with an enthusiasm which would not have been possible. had they been hungry.
 A Vital Need Filled
 The portable kitchen idea was devel- oped to its present day perfection be- cause it filled vital need in the show business, Nor was it's sphere of useful ness confined to this country. I re- member years ago, when Buffalo Bill first invaded Europe, my attention was called to some German officers when we were in Berlin. .'
 "What are those fellows doing?" someone asked. 1T looked over and saw the officers with true German earnestness, making sketches of our portable kitchens and asking all manner of questions. When the war broke out, and stories of Ger man efficiency in the field began to come to this country, l saw pictures of German field kitchens in operation. To my surprise, they were exact repro QucIlOnS or our OWL hlJCH0HS uSSu NuA- ing Buffalo Bills visit to Europe.
 As to circus lemonade. I believe it must have been served to patrons of the first road show. At least I can not remember time when it has not been provided. It always has been easy to ,make-and here no trade secret is exposed-it is manufactured of water and citric acid.
 There is a story about the evolution of strawberry lemonade which has come down through long years of the circus game. It runs to the effect that wagon show was battling it's way through Texas in drought. And un- less you have been with a circus in. a dry year in Texas you 1o not know what scarcity of water means. There was hardly enfpgh water for drinking purposes, let done for anything else
 One of the aerobats came . the con clusion that his tights needed launder ing. He had fallen from trapeze aud lad landed in the only mud in fexs Mt being able e Ind eng water for laundry purposes, the aero Lat s,lEiloik his fights in n fuh nf lam