The Washington times., 1938-02-21

Park and talked to the statue G
shook their heads pityingly.
mumbling, old man, but then
ing the conversation was.
The statue of Phineas T wasn't
any too satisfactory. 1t was cold
and remote, and P. T. had always
been smiling or frowning or geStlc
ulating, but sometimes Davey i'm
agined the statue did those things
too, and then they had grand
talks, about all the things Davey
remembered so well.
Davey never thought of the last
40 years or so. He recalled only
dimly, Miranda, his long dead
wife, and his two sons, killed IN
the Spanish American War. Yet
It was Miranda who had made
him give up ,....e circus and settle
down in Bridgeport. She had al
ways hated his being clown.
She had said: Now that old
Barnum you're so crazy about is
dead, maybe you'll quit gaddlng
around and be decent family
man"
Davey hadn't minded quitting
50 much, because the circus
wasn't the same without P. T.
He had opened theatrical COS
tuners shop. and it had gone
very we'll for a time. because cir
Gus people remember and help
their own.
Besides, Davey was wizard
about the gayest Spangles for a
trapeze act and the maddeSr
color combinations for an eques-
trian. But the second generation
grew up, forgetting him. The cos
tune shop moldered to an end.
These unimportant events in
his life, Davey had forgotten.
What he remembered in clear de-
tail was The greatest show on
earth" You'd never believe that
Davey had been a clown. He was
a sour old man. He seldom spoke
to anybody, save the statue OF
P. T. and Tommy, the small boy.
And Tommy he swore to secrecy.
Davey was afraid to talk. He
had the cunning of the daft, and
he feared that someone might
shut him up where he couldn't
get cut to chat with Phineas T.
Barnum. He couldn't leave the
OLD man all alone, staring out at
Long Island Sound. Funny to
think that he himself was now
older than P. T. had been when
he died.
TOMMY'S OWN CIRCUS
Tommy was seven and he was
eighty and seven.
Il guess you're as old as George
Washington" Tommy said.
Tommy was a large-e d,
thoughtful little boy. Because ne
was delicate he was not allowed
out of his own large yard to play
with other boys. What neither his
parents nor the servants who were
supposed to keep an eye on him
knew was that, when he pretended
to be playing in the grape arbor,
he had really slipped through a
hole in the hedge beyond, and was
in Davey's stable. ,
Only the cook knew that, and
she was a big-h earted Irish
woman who had promised not to
tell, and who often sent DaVey
gifts of food.
Bridgeport is an old city, and
you find there strange contrasts
of poverty and wealth, such as a
mansion with ar abandoned stable
at the end of its yard.
But to Tommy the mansion was
only a rather lonely place called
home; and the stable was man
sion, through which paraded, to
the blare of trumpets, a glitterlng
galaxy of the worlds stellar
artists, clad in sumptuous silks
and golden fringe.
Tommy had never been to a
circus, because his mother be-
lieved in germs. She didn't know
that he had his cwn private circus
Just beyond the grape arbor.
Now I'll tell you about the last
grand triumphal tour Of London,
Davey would say. "The Prince OF
Wales himself was there, and him
and old Phineas T. as thick as
rich soup. But what that tour puts
me in mind of is Harry Putnam
swinging in the air by one rope
and that rope fraying."
King of the air was Harry. The
most stupendous trapeze artist OF
them all. There were no stout nets
In those days so a man could fall
and land easy, like they do now.
He had to know his business"
What did the king of the air
do?" Tommy would demand.
DEATH.BED REQUEST
"There I was, tumbling on the
ground, and every time 1 was on
my head I was looking up at Harry
with my heart in my mouth. But
he simply swings by that piece OF
rope. cool as you please, until ne
gets it going pendulum wise. Then
he jumps to another trapeze."
There was but one thing Davey
refused to do for Tommy. He
wouldn't paint up and dress in a
clown costume. He argued that
the grease paints were dried and
crumbled, and the costumes frayed
to rags. But those things didn't
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