Year: 1873

A Showman'e Gratitude.


If there is a village called Staunton in
Augusta county, of the Valley of Virginia,
aud an association of family name like
Britingham, with its most select social
history of no very remote date, there re-
mains slight reason for questioning the
truth Of a pleasant little story recounted
therefrom, by a correspondent Of the At
lanta (Ga. y Constitution, in the terms
herewith somewhat refined and condensed.
1t must have been in or about the year
1880 that a peripatetic circus company
pitched tent in the village above named,
for the profit to be reaped from the patron
age of country gentry and plantation
hands, and give such entertainment Of
light fantastic equestrianism. athletic con
tortion and ground and lofty tumbling as
have not yet lost their periodical zcst for
inn and every other receptacle for transi-
tory guests in the place were taxed to
give temporary domicle to the small army
of show people; but one there was Of the
vagabond cavalcade who, instead of bill
letting with his registering comrades took
the first opportunity to slip away from
both tent and village and follow a road
winding atar amongst retired plantations.
This was a mere boy, haggard and pre-
cocously rueful of glance and figure, cs-
Gaping from a bondage in which frequent
stripes had not been wanting to make him
something lower than a horse in nightly
feats of the arena. Things had come 10
such Il pitch in his maltrcated young life
that he preferred a future of heggary on
foot to the lash countered tinsel of the
beggar on horseback and upon reaching
the stately Birmingham plantation he be-
gan his new career by asking at the door
for glass of water. The sight of a white
boy on the tramp was a novelty for that
part of the country in those patriarchal
days, and hence the whole household,
with the planter at their head, were at-
tracted to the scene Upon being kindly
questioned by old Mr.. Britingham. the
fugitive Smike of the circus frankly re-
vealed his story and situation, and that
with a pteous earnestness of speech and
manner which might have extorted sym
pathy from the roughest phase of human
nature.


His response was an offer OF immediate
refuge and protection in the good old,



with which he accepted did him no harm
IN the estimation of his new friends. From
thencetorth the runaway of the ring was
privileged inmate of the fine house tor
a year, enjoying every kindness that be-
nevolence could devise; but at the end OIL
that period, when another circus was tent
ed in the neighboring Stanton, and he
went there with the throng to see the in
| fluence Of the old va9ahond habit proved
| stronger in his nature than the newer am
bltion, and the boy, being naturally oI
sawdust, to the sawdust returned. Not.
| however, without something gained for
| the refinement of his whole future life, il
sentiment of ardent gratitude to his
benefactors, and an ardor to excel in hi,
natural lot for the honor Of that beniiicent
emotion. Only circus rider was he
again, to be sure but the something of Il
better sphere of life with which he went
back to horses and clowns was a some
thing potential to make him rise above the
creatures OF meaner experience. BY skill
as a performer, sobriety of private char
acter, and a shrewdness not the less eff
fectual for its honesty his progress through
the remaining years of his minority was :
continual ascent, and in his twenty first
year he had attained the dignities o
manager and proprietor, Many time.
in these prosperous days he brought
his thriving circus to Staunton, and i'm
proved the opportunity to present himsel
at the hospitable door where u simple
glass of water had been the lens through
which his friendless. vagrant boyhood ha,
caught its first view of the worlds clearer
I bn Of
the same disposition in his heart to whim
per; and God bless you sounded in 1t all.


The desolation of war supplanted The
tent of the Snowman with that of the
soldier in the once happy valley at last
and Sheridan rode to slaughter where frs
the peaceful vauIter through hoops haC
urged his spangled steed in the merry
round Of the ring While the circus still
gathered golden gain in distant, unin.
vaded States, fire and sword ragged ir
tempests around the home of the Briting
hams, until smoke -blackened chimney
marked the place where that home had
been, and the churchyard closed upon th'
aged eyes most mournful for the desola
ton. Not until the spring of 1870 coulo
the circus man, now we'll advanced il
years himself, hear aught of the surviv
ing family that, upon the destruction o
their homestead and the death of thei
chief, had wandered away from the ole
plantation At the time mentioned
when the now mammoth equestrian en-
terprise was giving entertainments il
Kansas, a poorly dressed, hollow -cheeke,
man applied tor some unskilled employ
ment about the tents. ''Your name,
said the rich Snowman, "is Britingham.
There could be but one answer, reluctant
ly given-"Yes." With a strange lool
the rich proprietor grasped both hands o
the other in his own. "Then," said h.
"you are the son of the best man that eve
lived, and thank God that you have com
to share in all that your father has
mortgage upon for eternity Take m,
tent, by people, horses, my handbook
and then you'll have just the interest 0
the one unpaid debt of my life." Her
was good feeling, and no mistake; tn