New Britain herald., 1929-07-06

|, OA l U leOA l JUL U,
 Main street and here Gcntrys dog and pony show regularly appeared for many seasons.
 Rignlings' First Visit
 One summer in the nineties ru- nor early spread among the boys show, bigger than Barnum's" was coming. IL was coming out of the West and it did. It was the fir ,t eastern appearance of the famous Ringing Brothers. They came to New Britain the day after the Fourth The Fourth of July anl Ringing Brothers offered a com bination unheard of. It promised ex- citement enough to last another | twelve months, but unfortunately, | the Fifth was rainy. Folks used to | say that the discharge of fireworks | brought rain and at any rate the | Fifth that year saw a deluge, but | the circus came and showed ;n1 despite the storm New Britain turn l ed out en masse to see it and it fur nished excitement of an unusual kind when the big circus wagons mired to the hubs on the lot. The driveway into the grounds was 8 morass and the crowds jammed around the entrance to watch | hitches of forty and even fifty | horses drag the wagons out on 10 | the pavement. Once when a big truck mired down and refused to budge despite the united efforts of horses and men, it was rumored that the big elephants were going to be put to the task, but before this was resorted to the wagon finally cut a path through the mud anG the swearing and sweating drivers manouvered the big hitch into South Main street. Altogether it was. one of the greatest circus days New Britain ever witnessed.
 Columbus vs. Nineveh
 Back about the time of the Worlds Columbian exposition at
 
 niversary of the discovery of Amer ica, Barnum came with a huge spectacle entitled the Landing of Columbus" Today it would be a poor substitute for a movie of the modern scale, but it proved a draw ing card.
 Hundreds of extras were used in the various scenes and New Britain kids acting as Indians and Spaniards saw the big show without price or the hazardous eXpedient of crawl ing under the tent. Forepaw put OH | a rival spectacle. It was the Fall Of Nineveh" and was supposed to give one an idea of barharic splendn5 that ruled when the famous Biblical city was in the height of it's glory, AS spectacle it wasn't much. The walls of the city were only painted canvas and the soldiers were large ly New Britain boys in tin armor | battling with wooden swords and spears. It gave opportunity to sell illustrated programs telling all abou. the great event. Barkers went among the seated throngs shout ing "Re-mem- thar are no i speaking Char-act-ta So if vol were that flush, you paid an extra twenty-five cents for program Somewhat like a modern college football game, where you are greet ed by under graduates shouting
 Programs of the game, names and numbers of all the players"
 New Britain IS no longer on the route of the "big show" Real es, tate in a growing city is worth toe much money 10 leave idle all year for the purpose of providing amusement for the masses one or two days out of 365 and the auto mobile makes 1t unnecessary for the circus to play any but the largest cities. The automobile, by the way, has done away with another wholly enjoyable phase of circus day, the big, free street parade. Traffic con- ditlons make it impossible.
 Wild West Shows
 Earliest recollections of the fla nous Wild West shows goes back 10 the eighties when Buffalo Bills | Colonel William F. Codys) Indian and cowboy outfit first played New | Britain. Buffalo Bill showed on the South Main street grounds a num- Der of times as hundreds of New Britain residents will recall Buffd- 10 Bill was a dime novel hero as well as a snowman and educator and the mere mention of his name was thrilling 10 the younger gener- aton. Playing Indian and cowboy was wild and joyous pastime for vacation free youngsters weeks after the great show had departed. The Buffalo Bill shows were eiven in big canVas-w walled arena open to the blue skies above and giving a feeling of the freedom of the open plains. The audience was pro- tected from the elements but not the noble redskins and their scarce less hardy comoanions, the pictu-- esque cowpunchers and lariat throwerF
 Buffalo Bill Himself
 Colonel Cody made an unforget table figure mounted on a white charger and wearing all the trap | pings of his calling which included a huge ornamented sombrero. Tax.