Evening star., 1936-05-18

| With the 1000 or so nomads of the
| sawdust trail who arrived in WASH
! ington yesterday aboard 100 railway
man. who a few hours after he hit
town was discovered feeding onions to
Bessie. redhaired orang -utang and
newcomer 10 the circus.
Bessie. who, according to Frank
Braden. the Ringing Bros. and Bar
mum & Bailey supreme press agent,
resembles a Senator in all his or her
glory. is fresh from the jungles of
Sumatra, in the East Indian Archi-
pelago.
There this Six-foot -whiskered
11-year-old patriarch of the higher
apes was captured by an agent of
Ellis Joseph, New York animal dealer,
who sells Ringing half its strange
beasts, and was sent to the New World
to be sold to the circus for upward
of 81 1000.
"She looks all right in there" said
Tezo, pointing to her box, but we
won't be able for a while yet to tell
whether she's tough. If she's tough,
she'll be a hard customer, and she
will be some proposition to monkey
with around her cage"
Tezo Likes Circus Life.
Tezo. who could join the side show
as a tattooed man if he should ever
tire of caring for animals, has been
under the Ringing top since 1913,
with the exception of few years out
for fighting in the World War.
ITS great life" he revealed. He
poked a celery stalk at BESSIE, who for
the time being was living in a small
box, guarded in front by % stout iron
bars. II like the circus. I'm with
animals all the time.
Sometimes they get you. Here, for
instance. See that thumb. I can't
move it. It's paralyzed A tiger
clawed me there few years ago, when
I was cleaning out his cage"
Bessie's First Time Out.
The circus, which gives its first
Washington snow this afternoon. has
shown so far in Madison Square Gar
den, New York; the Boston, Mass.
Garden. and in Brooklyn. N. Y, but
it is exhibiting Bessie for the first
time here. She and the circus will
stay in town through Tuesday night
and give four performances Monday
at 2 and pm. and Tuesday at 2 and
8 pm.
Tezo, who watched Bessie fondly
is just one of the many who make
the wheels of the circus go around.
He gave The Star correspondent few
highlights on the delicate physique of
the orang-utangs, treetop tribe, fond
of the jungle, but disconsolate in cap
tivity.
Rolled in at Noon.
Bessie reached the Capital on the
first section of the four-Section train
which brought the circus to Wash
ington. The Greatest Show on
Earth" began to roll in at noon and
unpacked at the Union Market
Grounds, Fifth street and Florida ave-
nue. northeast.
The circus, of course, is more stu
pendous than ever in this year Of
1886. Among its firsts in history is
the fact that the 81 tents, or tops, to
be true to sawdust parlance, will be
white as the driven snow, for the SIM
pie reason that during the week they
were up in Brooklyn it failed to rain.
Another newcomer is Augustus the
giraffe, one of the three owned by
Ringing, which landed. hale and
hearty, in New York after a rough
voyage from Africa. Three of his col
leagues captured with Augustus died,
but this pipe-stem legged. long-necked
weird fellow is munching his hap in
a pen under the animal top. and is
ready to eat your hat any time you
are not looking.
A few yards from Augustus are the
three pee-wees of the elephant world
-Bubi, Numi and Kuba, the midget
pachyderms no bigger than COW
ponies.
Bulbs the pet of the show by now,"
remarked Frank Braden. He stepped |
boldly up to the lord of the Belgian
Congo jungle and pulled her palm
leaf ear out from her wrestler's neck. |
Some baby. She's getting bored with |
me, though. hold out my hand and |
she reaches out her trunk, but |
haven't got anything to feed her"
Bubi, Numi and Kuba are hranda