The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-11-02

]. H. La Pearl, retired circus
owner, with one of his 1000 White
King pigeons and Spangles,
framed relative of the big eats
that once graced the cages Of the
La Pearl Allied Shows.
The kitten has been raised
with pigeons and can be allowed
around the nests with the squads,
a dangerous temptation for the
average feline. "Those were the
days" (below) when La Pearl took
part in his own show, thrilling
the crowd by performing high in
the canvas on trapeze and flying
rings.
IT'S q far cry rom managerie
Il under the white tops of q twenty
car circus to the little poultry farm
three miles southeast OF Indianap-
oils, where j. H. La Pearl, once
owner of the La Pearl Great Allied
Shows, now lives.
Devoting his time at 81 to rails
ing squads, chickens and rabbits,
the veteran Snowman recalls the
days Of forty years ago when his
circus was one of the largest in
existence-days when happy, shout
ing youngsters tramped beside the
gaudy red parade wagons; nights
when "Big Charlie" La Pearls best
elephant, dragged the heavy cara
van from the clutches of a muddy
lot.
"I started with one wagon in
1888 and I didn't own even that,
explains La Pearl, "but at the end
of the season I owned three wagons
and three good teams. The show
grew, until in 1899 1t was surpassed
in size only by P. T. Barnum's and
Adam Forepaugh's."
Show Was Honest
Graft ard the average circus went
hand in hand then, but the La
Pearl show bore an unusual repu-
tation. "They called my circus the
Sunday school show because
wouldn't permit shortchanging and
the kindred arts" smilingly re-
marked the old sawdust king as he
recalled the names Of several dis
honest showmen who "got rich and
died respectable.
La Pearl sold his circus thirty
years ago to go into a mining ven
ture that proved unsuccessful. Since
then he has kept in touch with the
circus world only through some old
cronies and his son, Harry La Pearl
who with his wife, holds down ar
important berth in Clown alley
with the John Robinson circus.
j. H. La Pearl can weave many q
vivid account of the "Hey Rubes" Oh
-for-alls, between circus en-
ployes and "towners," or "rubes,
back in the old days when the circus
was law unto itself, fighting for 1t;
existence against town DRINKS anc
trouble-makers.
Battled With Students
when we played Urbana, III.
JSolO cbSO, VIC CO4AO6C OuuOS1lGS Ol4CD
to drown out the circus band with
organized cheering. I warned then
repeatedly and then 'Dirty-face
jack my boss hustler, hitched the
teams to the bleachers where the
students were sitting.
Several hundred college boys
went down with the bleachers anC
the fight that followed lasted LONG
into the night. When my show
played the same date he following
year, the students put out of COM
mission the only street car running
to the showgrounds and our crowc
was pretty thin that evening"
Declaring prohibition to be the
greatest boon to the modern circus
La Pearl tells of the days when wom-
en- and children were afraid to ven
ture near circus tent after dark be.
cause of the local toughs, who
brought their liquor to the show
with them.
Hey Rubesp are q thing of the
past. The present. day circus vii
go to almost any extreme to avoic
trouble with Us customers.