Circus memoirs; reminiscences of George Middleton as told to and written by his wife

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GEORGE MIDDLETOX

(Latest Photo)

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CIRCUS MEMOIRS

Reminiscences of
GEORGE MIDDLETON

as told to and written by his wife

Copyright, 1913. by G«oige Middleton

Dedicated
to my beloved wife

RUTH K. MIDDLETON

OKO. RICE a SONS. PRINTERS. LOS ANQELES

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«a» To he accurate, lorite;

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22 To remember, write;

^ To know thine own mind, write.

MY BOYHOOD

CIRCUS MEMOIRS

I

My father, with my mother, came to this great and
wonderful continent in 1842, landing at Quebec,
Canada, my eldest brother, William, being born there.
The family removed to Boston in 1845, where my
father, James Haslam Middleton, was employed in the
Charlestown Navy Yard. There we lived in sight of
Bunker Hill for ten years. During this time three
children were born, George, James Haslam and
Charles. My father then succumbed to the western
fever and with his little family, started for Indiana.
I was a youngster, but well do I recall the boat and
its lights, and the excitement of being on the water
from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Madison, Indiana, our
objective point. As we were leaving the boat I
looked back and exclaimed in delight, "Mother,
the boat has an upstairs!"

We settled at Madison, Indiana, which in those
days was a wide awake, thriving town, located on the
Ohio river, surrounded by beautiful and attractive
scenery. Madison lies huddled at the foot of beautiful
hills overlooking the Ohio, and one can see beautiful
trees swaying contentedly, tobacco fields and dis-

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tilleries. I have traveled this old world a great deal,
but it is diflScult to find a more charming spot;
Nature had indeed been more than kind to that part
of the country.

The principal industry at Madison was the pork
packing business, and more hogs were killed and
packed there at that time than in Chicago. Madison
had the first railway in the state, which was built to
Indianapolis, the capital city. Up the hill from
Madison was the heaviest railway grade in the world
at that time. The principal freight that went over the
road was brought down the Ohio river from Pittsburg
by boats, transferred to rail at Madison and shipped
into the interior of the state.

The Reverend James Greenleaf, of Madison, cor-
responded with my father while he was in Boston and
advised his going west. He wrote a glowing account
of the possibilities in the quaint little place. On our
arrival we stopped with a family by the name of
Merens until the necessary arrangements could be
made to start housekeeping. This good couple did
not have a family, and I often think of how they must
have enjoyed four boys as full of life as we were.
I fancy they did not regret being childless.

One of the principal characters living in Madison
was an old gentleman known by the name of Gundy
Lawrence. He had been elected to the Legislature.
When the time came to attend he rode to Indianapolis,

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a distance of eight-five miles, on a dray. This of
course gave him great notoriety. In later years he
was town crier, announcing public auctions, lost
children, strayed or stolen horses and cows. When he
was to announce political meetings he would mount his
horse about three o'clock in the afternoon and swing-
ing a big brass bell he would start out with his cry
that such and such a prominent man would "speak
at the Town Hall at early candle lighting." It was
seldom he rode past a saloon without making a call,
with the result that he would continue the cry of
"speech making at early candle lighting," while the
candles had been lighted and burning for at least two
hours. He surely was a character long to be
remembered.

After looking over the ground my father decided
there was an opening for a meat shop, as there was
not one in the town, all the meat being sold in the
market house. On his small capital he opened a meat
shop and grocery store. After the business was under
way, and housekeeping affairs were adjusted, we
youngsters were started off to school, which I am
sorry to say I was not fond of attending, and did not
do so when it was possible to avoid it. On my return
home from school the first day my mother asked me:
"George, how do you like school?" I replied: "I
don't like that school." "Don't like it! Why?"
" Because the room has no cupboard in it." This goes

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to show that early in life I was more fond of something
to eat than of knowledge.

The hills, the river, the surrounding country, all so
new, had a great charm for me, so much more attrac-
tive than the school room. I loved the river, to fish,
swim, to get into a skiff and take a ride, to paddle
around on a board. The negro slaves coming over
from Kentucky with their masters on trading trips
were a new sight to me. The hair of men and women
was done in pigtails bound around with string.

If down on the river bank was attractive to me, the
surrounding hills, covered with nut-bearing trees of
all kinds, grape vines, berries, orchards. May apples
and other wonders were more so. How I loved to
roam over those hills! What freedom I knew in my
youth! I often dream that part of my life over again
when seated in a comfortable chair with a good cigar,
before a log fire blazing away merrily.

About this time wild pigeons, which are now extinct,
would fly in thousands from the hills of Kentucky
across the river to the hills on the Indiana side.
My father, who was a good shot, along with hundreds
of others, would go up on the hills, taking my brother
William and me along to gather up the pigeons. In a
few hours shooting we would bag hundreds of them.
It seems strange that these pigeons should become
extinct, when at that time there were millions of
them.

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From my father and these shoots I first acquired
my incentive for shooting and hunting, of which I
have grown fonder as the years pass. Well do I
remember my first fifteen cents. I spent five cents for
gunpowder, five cents for shot and five cents for caps.
Then off to the hills! Sometimes I returned with a
quail, a squirrel or a rabbit, and as often empty
handed.

Coons and opossums were very plentiful in the
woods in those days. Some negroes living in the town
always owned a few coon hounds. I often wanted to go
with them coon hunting, so one night they decided to
permit me, the condition being that I was to supply
a quart of whiskey (cost ten cents). There was no
tax on liquor in those days. I was to carry an ax,
and we were to set out about nine o'clock at night
through the dark woods. After a time we would hear
the hounds on the trail, and the negroes could always
tell when the coon was treed. When we would get up
to the dogs we would find them at the foot of the tree
up which the coon had climbed. The negroes would
then set to work chopping the tree down, always
knowing which way to throw it. We would stand
holding the dogs so as to let them get into the tree
tops. They would always get the coon, after a most
exciting fight. Thus ended the coon hunts, after
tramping the woods all night until daylight next
morning.

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Fox hunting was another favorite pastime, but
after an experience of walking ten miles in the rain,
over hills and valleys, I gave it up, and will tell you
of my last one. Tom SchoU, whom I thought was a
great friend of mine, came for me one day to attend a
fox hunt. It was to take place the following day and
was to start from his uncle's home, near the forks of
Indian and Kentuck Creeks. I asked my father's
permission to ride a horse, but he refused, saying:
"My son, I do not feed horses to chase foxes." This
was an awful blow, but after thinking it over I
decided to attend the chase anyhow. I tore down the
back fence, saddled the horse and slipped away to the
forks of the creek, determined and ready to take part
in the chase the next day.

There were two roads to the forks of the creek.
SchoU and I took one of them. When we arrived we
spied father's horse tied to the rack in front of the
store. He had taken the other road and arrived there
first. About this time a farmer went to the store and
father asked him if he had seen the boys. The farmer
replied: "Yes, they are over to SchoU's uncle's."
Father followed over, took the horse and returned
home, leading my horse, leaving me to chase foxes
afoot — not a very pleasant prospect. Besides, there
was the thought of what was to follow on my return
home. Scholl consoled me by saying that we would
ride "turn about " next day in the chase.

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In the morning the fox was started. Away went the
dogs and the riders, and I, afoot. I did not see my
friend, a horse or a fox during the chase. I pulled
up at Ike Short's afoot, more dead than alive. He
gave me a large slice of bread and butter and I went
on my way to the forks of the creek, where we arrived
about dark. Then came the question of my getting
home, and what I would get on my return. I proposed
to ride behind my friend Scholl, but he said his father
would not stand for that, but that we would "ride
and hitch," which means that he would ride two miles,
then hitch the horse and walk on. I would come afoot
to where he had hitched the horse, mount and ride
past him a mile or two, hitch the horse and walk on.
Well, Scholl started out and I followed, expecting to
find the horse hitched awaiting me, but to my disgust,
my good friend had forgotten to hitch the horse for
me, and I walked about ten miles home. This was
my last fox hunt.

After a hearty meal at home we boys would often
go to the meat shop, help ourselves to sausage, beef-
steak and potatoes, then go to the hills, build a fire,
cook the meat by holding it over the fire with a forked
stick and bake the potatoes in the ashes. A feast fit
for the gods, as I thought.

About that time in my life I felt that I wanted the
experience of running on the river. Steamboats were
then in the height of their prosperity and Polk Cook, a

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friend, and I decided that we would hire out on one of
the boats, to work in the cabin as cabin boy or in the
pantry as knife shiner. If we failed in those ambitions
we would go as deck sweepers. Anything — but we
must w^ork on a boat. I furnished the money to buy
two blue and white checked shirts, two leather belts,
and two butcher knives in leather cases which
we strapped to us.

We applied to the first boat that landed. Polk got
the job as deck sweeper — they drove me ashore. Thus
were my ambitions as a river man crushed. Polk had
the shirt, the knife and the belt; the bell rang, the
boat steamed out, and I stood on the shore and
watched the boat float away. Poor Polk afterward
went to war and lost his life.

I learned years afterward that my father was
acquainted with the stewards on the boats and had
told them never to take me. The extent of my
boating was limited to when a steamboat coming up
the river would coal, taking in tow a barge, from which
the coal would be transferred to the boat while on
its way up the river, so as not to lose time. The empty
barges were then floated back, and in that way I got
a ride.

About this time I began to think of making money
and would go out and pick wild blackberries and
bring them into town, where they sold for ten cents a
gallon. At the end of the berry season I became a

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sheep butcher, going out among the farmers for miles
around to buy sheep after shearing time. Costing
about a dollar apiece, we would kill them, market
them by the quarter at twenty-five cents a quarter,
leaving us the sheep pelt as a profit. I was fairly
successful at this until I went into the adjoining
county and bought eighty head of a Henry Charlton.
Driving them home, I met my father riding horseback
on his way to look at some cattle. He asked me what
price I had paid for the sheep. I told him one dollar
a head. He said: "It will be the last, my son, that
you will buy, for you will lose your money." This
was true, for they were just skin and bone. I will
here say that on these trips I bought eggs for five cents
a dozen. Since that time I have seen them sell for
sixty-five cents.

My father was a strong Republican, so I was one
likewise. My only reason at that time was that the
campaign of Fremont and Buchanan was opening up,
which furnished plenty of excitement for me to take
part in; so off I went to the woods to cut a flag pole
from which to fly a streamer with the names of
Fremont and Dayton.

The meetings and barbecues of both parties were
held quite often and I always managed to attend,
not to hear the speakers but to see the fights, which
never failed to take place. I remember when a man
living at Brooksburg up the river six miles from

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Madison, came down the day before election and was
asked, "How are things at Brooksburg?" He replied,
"There will be a great time there tomorrow, for when
I left they were gathering rocks to fight with."

There were parades. One I remember very well.
A forty-ox team was driven to one wagon in which
ladies rode representing each state in the Union.
There was a great deal of excitement and unrest along
the border at this time. Things, however, became
quiet until after the election of Lincoln. (Today as I
write I find this is Lincoln's birthday, February 12th,
1912.) When the feeling of unrest became evident
again, groups of young men formed into home guards,
as the temper was strong for "war", which came
sooner than was expected. I was anxious to be
among them, but was refused because of my youth.
But I found pleasure and excitement in going to the
steamboat landing to see them off. On one occasion
I went aboard and as far as Louisville without a cent
of money.

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II.

IN THE ARMY

About this time Company E of the Third Indiana
Cavalry was formed, in which my brother William
enlisted. This made me more anxious than ever to be
a soldier, but again I was refused. After they were
out six months recruiting officers were sent. I ran
away, walked to Lexington, Indiana, and enlisted in
the Thirty-eighth Indiana Regiment. The Company
was sent to New Albany, camping on the fair grounds,
when my father learned of my whereabouts. He
came for me, and home he took me. After returning
I went to Kentucky and tried to enlist in the Thirty-
ninth Indiana, encamped at Nolin Creek. After I
was there a few days they learned my age and returned
me home. My father said to me : " If you remain at
home for six months I will permit you to enlist in
the same company with your brother." In a short
time the recruiting officers came along. My father
gave me a horse. I enlisted and joined the regiment
at Budd's Ferry, Maryland, March, 1862. Shortly
after my arrival we moved over into Virginia and I
was in the war sure enough. We rode back and forth
over a large portion of Virginia. The first skirmish
was near Fredericksburg. From there I went to
Cedar Mountain. The next real service was through

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Maryland up to South Mountain, Antietara back into
Virginia, Battle of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg, then back into Virginia, where on the
first day of August, 1863, I with George E. Stanley
was taken prisoner and landed in Libby Prison.
After being confined there three weeks, we were
changed to Belle Isle, where with ten thousand
others, I was kept eight long months until the following
March. I was detailed to cut the meat in the cook
house, as a squad of our men were detailed to cook for
the prisoners. It was not long before we had no beef
to cut, and our diet was black eyed peas. Not wishing
to be put back in the stockade I turned to cooking.
We would cook all night for the day following. There
was not much of a variety, sometimes only sweet
potatoes. About this time they called for bakers.
A number went out and baked corn bread, which
was nothing more than corn meal and water mixed
together. We did a great deal of business for a while
with the prison guards. They would have a sack of
biscuit or other food for sale. Our boys got to making
money (to imitate the greenbacks), buying from the
guards any food they had for sale. In the night it
was diflBcult to detect the spurious from the real.
To make this money we would grease a piece of writing
paper, which made it transparent, lay it on top of a
genuine bill and trace the dark lines with ink and the
lighter ones with a lead pencil, then wrinkle it up to

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make it appear as though it had been in circulation.
They would not be able to detect it until the next day.
However, this only lasted a short time. They would
not sell us anything more.

I will say here that Lieutenant Bosseau, who had
charge of this island, was a very kind, humane man
and was in no way responsible for the suffering, want
of food or medicines. On the other hand. Lieutenant
Roe was a vile person. The Southern soldiers them-
selves were very short of food. We could not expect
to have any more than they had. The exchange of
prisoners was stopped. The Confederate Government
did not recognize General Ben. Butler as a gentleman,
and would not treat with him. Then again, it was
said that our Government would not give up healthy
Southern prisoners in exchange for sick, emaciated
Northern ones. About this time word came that
there would be an exchange of about two hundred
sick on each side. All this time time I had not been
idle. I had made about two hundred dollars selling
things to eat to the bounty jumpers' substitutes, so
I offered to pay one hundred and fifty dollars to the
Southern sergeant if he would let me take away five
of my friends along with the sick prisoners that were
going North. He took my money and counted us in
with the sick, otherwise I would have landed at
Andersonville. In a few days we arrived at Annapolis ;
the first one to salute me was Jasper Jones of my

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company. He advised us, when we were told to
throw away our blankets and draw new ones, not to do
so, but on the contrary to grab as many as we could.
This we did, getting one dollar a piece for them.
Shortly after our arrival we were taken up to the
sanitary commission building, where the good ladies
in charge gave us supplies of all kinds for our comfort.
Looking over six of us, they remarked: "Did you
men come from Richmond?" "Yes, madame."
"You look very well for sick boys", she replied.
"We are not as well as we look, lady, we are bloated."

(Oh the joy of these evenings before the cracking
olive wood fire, with Mr. Middleton smoking his
favorite cigar, taking the comfort of a king in a
Louis XV. chair. I feel, dear and excellent reader, that
I want to share this with you. — Mrs. R. K. M.)

After a short stay here we were sent to the dis-
mounted camp at Washington, D. C, where I was
detailed as orderly to Colonel William Gamble, with
whom I remained until the expiration of my three
years enlistment. Then I went on to my company
at Winchester, Virginia, where I was mustered out
and left for my home in Madison. After reaching
home, I was restless and Uke a fish out of water,
notwithstanding my parents had refurnished the
home in fine style to welcome my home coming.
Not having sisters to be consulted in matters of
decorations and selection of furniture, the folks had

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 21

made everything comfortable and to suit a boy's
taste. The most imposing thing to my mind was the
parlor set, consisting of a settee, a rocker, six chairs,
all upholstered with black mohair, and a center table.

Kind reader, fancy the change, if you can, after
three years of sitting on the ground or logs or hard-
tack boxes. At times I found it very diflScult to keep
my seat on the mohair, frequently sliding off on to the
floor. When we had callers, to be sure of my seat,
I had to hold on.

On the walls were three chromos. Rembrandt or
Leonardo de Vinci never painted anything that was
as wonderful to me, as I recall them now.

After hand-shaking around for a few months, I
began to look for something to do, in which search
I did not have much success. I had occasion to go to
Cincinnati for a day or two, and it so happened while
I was there that the news came of General Lee's
surrender. From that day to this I have never heard
such a noise and din as took place on that occasion.

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III.

EARLY VENTURES

Returning to Madison, I decided to go to school a
while to a French school master — Monsieur Pierforke
— who had lost one arm in his native country in a
battle. Having spent three years in the army, when
I returned to school reduced in class rank» I felt
discouraged, and becoming discontented I soon
stopped. After a time I got a position on the wharf
boat, Vevay, Indiana, where I remained one year.
While here I decided I needed a wife. As the available
ones seemed to be going very fast I had a fear that
there would not be enough to go around, so I took
one unto myself, a Miss Kate Rea. After about
eighteen years of wedded life we agreed to disagree.

Returning to Madison I opened a cigar store.
After a few months, during which time I was my own
best customer, along came an agent for the Grover
& Baker Sewing Machine company, of Cincinnati.
He gave me the agency of the machine and furnished
me a wagon. I sold my cigar store to take up this
business and set off through the country to peddle
sewing machines. My territory was Southern In-
diana and Northern Kentucky. I was fairly success-
ful, but grew weary of it. An opportunity came along
to go to Edinburg, Indiana, to manage a hotel.

My father hp.d a poor opinion of the circus business. I had
this photo taken when out in my first circus venture and
when he received it he expressed himself as written, "The
Lost Boy." But he was wrong; I was never lost but on the
contrary was found.

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While there in that capacity I met a gentleman living
in town, a Mr. John Fulton, who was a circus man.
As we got acquainted sitting around the oflSce stove
evenings, I made inquiries about the circus business,
its opportunities for money-making, etc. His answers
struck me favorably; in fact, very favorably. After
listening to him a few times, I was so favorably
impressed that I informed him I wanted to be a circus
man and inquired as to what amount of capital would
be necessary for me to take an interest with him. He
asked me if I had five hundred dollars. I told him
no, but I would try to borrow it, which I did, becoming
a half partner in the side show with Hemmings,
Cooper & Whitby's Circus and Menagerie, which had
already started out for the season from Louisville,
Kentucky, April, 1870.

Mr. Fulton took my five hundred dollars and bought
the outfit of H. Norman, who was to have gone with
the show, but who changed his mind, associating
himself with the James Robinson Circus.

We joined the circus at Paris, Kentucky. I drove
on to the show lot and proceeded to put up the tent
for the side show and unloaded the wagons. I had
never been to a circus or side show in my life, so you
can readily understand that these things were new
to me. Attending to horses, cooking for the people,
putting up and taking down the tent, was much like
army life, so I was at home in a way. The first man

24 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

to come to me on the show lot was Mr. James A.
Bailey, who proffered his advice and good will,
insisting on my calling on him for any information or
assistance that I might need. This acquaintance
ripened into an association and friendship that lasted
through his life.

The outfit that we got from Mr. Norman looked
anything but prosperous. When I say that the four
horses had one eye, I speak the truth. One eye in four
horses, think of it ! The wagons and harness were in a
dilapidated condition, the tent full of patches and
ropes full of knots. The only thing in this outfit
for my five hundred dollars was the opportunity to
make money.

The tents were up, I had food for the horses, and
back of the side show I was cooking breakfast for the
side show people, when I was approached by a gentle-
man who informed me that he was Mr. Cooper.
I introduced myself, stating that I had bought Mr.
Norman out. He in return said that Mr. Norman
bad no rifiht to sell to us. We discussed the matter
and left each other with the understanding that we
would settle it another time. On leaving he said:
"I do not want you to keep your horses on the show
lot; they don't look well and you might get the habit
of giving them our feed."

I could appreciate the remark fully, as to the show
our horses would make, but I would hardly have

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 25

slipped them his hay. So here in Paris, Kentucky,
(Paris is in Bourbon County, Kentucky, where the
Bourbon whiskey gets its name. The excuse I once
heard made why the town remained small was that
the ground was too valuable to build on), was my
first introduction to the show business, as well as
my first dollar in this business. We were routed
through Kentucky in every county, showing each day,
usually at the county seats.

I found this business congenial and the opportuni-
ties for making money looked good to me in my new
field.

My army life had a great deal to do with my being
able to adapt myself so readily to the inconveniences
and emergencies to overcome in this life. I took to it
like a young duck to a pond.

I was so well contented for the forty- two years that
I followed this business that I did not look for another.
This is surprising, considering that up to the time
I bought into this side show I had never visited one.
Some of my friends had misgivings as to my venture
remarking that I would not find the people in it to
my liking. On the contrary, I found them honorable
men in all transactions, their word being as good as a
bond, and first class, reliable business men.

Leaving Kentucky we crossed the Ohio river, and
our route took us through Indiana, Illinois and into
Missouri, showing in St. Louis the first week of July.

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I remember this very well, as the great race of the
steamboats Robert E. Lee and Natchez was finished
at St. Louis at this time, the Robert E. Lee winning.
The crowd was so great at the levee to see the finish
that our tents were deserted that day. We moved
on up into Iowa and Minnesota, then down through
Arkansas and Louisiana. Unfortunately, while at
Rayville, Louisiana, Mr. Whitby, while taking tickets
at the door, was shot, getting into a dispute with a
desperado, who insisted on passing without a ticket.
It was a most wilful murder. This was a very sad
affair and cast a gloom over the party, or circus
family.

The show moved on, crossing the Mississippi river
to Vicksburg, Mississippi. We made a few more
stands, closing at Okalona, Mississippi, for the season,
shipping the outfit to Louisville, Kentucky, where it
wintered. Madame Lake, of Cincinnati, was starting
a show and I made arrangements to take the concert
and side show with her. We put in the winter showing
in the South, getting as far as Florida, closing a
fairly successful season.

With arrangements for the next season, we routed
through the West, around Denver, Colorado, taking
in the gold and silver mining towns; then into Utah,
where we were the first circus to show, the price being
one dollar, with side show and concert fifty cents.
While here Brigham Young attended the circus. We

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 97

had a very pleasant chat together and I found him a
highly intelligent old gentleman who had come into
this desert and accomplished wonders.

We left our railroad cars at Salt Lake City, putting
the outfit on hired wagons, and toured the small
towns around to a very satisfactory business. Work-
ing back toward home we closed the season at
Cincinnati.

Mr. Bailey, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Hemmings were
anxious to have me with them again, so I arranged to
go with them. I was very glad to return, as it seemed
more like home to me. Mr. Bailey took an interest
with me in the concert side show and candy stands.
We started from Hillsboro, Ohio, by wagon. It
rained incessantly for weeks. We were discouraged
and in financial difficulties. The roads were so
muddy and heavy that we lost a great many stands,
which meant paying out money without taking in a
cent.

A funny incident occurred here. I always kept
my wagons ahead of me, driving in the rear alone.
Arriving at a toll gate in charge of a German who
could speak a very little English, he informed me that
he had a "ledder bolise". We could not make this
out, but after a while he showed us that he had a
leather valise that one of the men had left in pawn for
the toll. I hustled for some small change to pay the
toll, taking the "ledder bolise" out of pawn.

£8 CIECUS MEMOIRS

It looked as if the rainy season would never be
over, it lasting about six weeks. We traveled through
the West and got through Indiana into Ilhnois, when
business began picking up. We had good business
through Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, when we
decided to go south again. Everything was going on
very nicely when the epizootic broke out among our
horses, as it did among the stock all over the country.
We crossed the Mississippi at Natchez and closed the
season. I went to New Orleans and arranged with
Captain Neil to take us on his steamboat, the Indiana,
up to Louisville, where we wintered.

We started the next season, opening in the Exposi-
tion building in Louisville, where the post office now
stands. This season, besides running the side show
and concert and candy stands, I contracted with the
company to feed their men in camp and got along
pretty well. Sometimes it was quite a wait between
meals, but it was a case of the whole outfit being late
and no one to blame.

Mr. Cooper said to me one day, "Middleton, it
looks a^ if you would run out of soup for the men."
I repUed, "There is no danger of that." He said,
"What will you do?" I answered, "We will put a
little more salt in it, then they won't eat so much as
they won't like it so well."

We took the Kentucky country first, as the tobacco
crop selling at about this time of the year always made

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 29

money quite plentiful in the tobacco country. One of
the features with the show this year was the CardiflF
Giant, the discovery of whom about this time caused
great excitement. While there was only one genuine
Cardiff Giant, three or four different circuses claimed
to have one, which will give you an idea of how
enterprising the managements were. We also had a
whale stuffed and mounted, which gave us much
trouble, as it required a long, coupled wagon, and the
roads being poor, it was a pretty hard proposition to
get over them.

I had a long, covered passenger wagon in which I
carried curiosities that belonged to the side show. As
the horses went trotting along one morning, one of the
front wheels struck a root and over the wagon went,
the bows of the top splintered and the hair on the fat
woman's head tangled in the splintered bows. We
also had a basket of eggs which we intended to cook
when we reached town, but by the time we got the fat
woman untangled and out there was quite a mess of
eggs, splinters and hair.

We also had a snake case, in which we carried
several large boa constrictors, which we used also for a
seat. That toppled over, the glass was broken and the
snakes were in a mix-up.

I remember on the show grounds one day when we
first drove in (I think it was in Bairdstown, Ken-
tucky), we ran across a grass snake which must have

80 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

had thirty or forty young ones, not more than an
inch or an inch and a half long. On our appearance
the mother snake opened her mouth and every one of
the little ones ran down her throat.

It was always a curious thing to me that in taking
the curiosities, the fat woman, the Albinos, the mid-
gets and the Circassians, from the wagons, when they
would have to walk two hundred yards over to the
tent, exposed to the view of hundreds of people, these
same people would go right up to the ticket seller, pay
their money and go in to see the same curiosities that
had just passed before them.

It was now about the Fourth of July and in Mat-
toon, Illinois, there was to be a fireworks display
given by the citizens. The time set for setting them
off would interfere very much with the time for giving
our show, so we arranged by giving them fifty dollars
with which to buy more fireworks, and set them off
after the circus was over at night. This made it
agreeable all around and I was delegated to attend to
the display. The most fireworks I had ever fired off
before was a simple fire cracker, but I undertook the
job. As was often the case, we had some temporary
lemonade stands on the grounds with just loose
boards spread over the top for shade. I had all the
fireworks placed on top of one of these roofs and
started the display. I took up a large sky rocket,
leaned it up against a pole I had placed and set the

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 31

fire to it. It commenced to sputter fire and flames
among the fireworks on the roof, and the first thing I
knew everything was ablaze — the rockets, Roman
candles and all the different articles they had in those
days, were shooting off into the audience in every
direction. Down below some of the men were selling
lemonade and to protect themselves they gathered up
some wet gunny sacks which they had to cover the
ice, and put them over their heads to keep from
burning to death. On the whole, the display was a
failure, or at least, I was in taking charge of it.

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IV.

ANIMAL ANECDOTES

We used to have lots of amusement in those days.
We had a large elephant called "Babe". In travelling
over the road Babe got wise to the fact that the people
in these dead ox wagons going to the circus carried
their lunches with them, so she would invariably
overtake the wagons, and with her trunk reach over
the rear end and investigate the baskets and their
contents. Frequently she would have the bread and
pie and everything of that kind eaten before she
would be noticed by those sitting in the front seat.
Even if she were noticed they would always scramble
forward and offer no opposition to her taking full
possession of everything in the wagon, they being
frightened nearly out of their wits. The colored boy
who had charge of her and drove her over the road
was nicknamed "Shoo Fly". When traveling he
would often meet some adventurous fellow, or some
one half tipsy who would want a ride on the elephant
going toward town. After a little bartering, if he
couldn't get half a dollar he would take a quarter for
the fare. As a rule the elephant was very nice and
quiet about it and would carry his passenger along
safely, but just as soon as she would come to an open
woods where there was no fence, she would dart under

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 33

the trees and very soon come across a limb strong
enough to brush him off. She would then return to the
road and the rider was generally well satisfied as
far as he had gone, and without desire for any more
of it.

I never got familiar with an elephant, as I always
was in fear of them. I remember in Valparaiso,
South America, where we were showing, I sent a boy
for a bucket of water and cautioned him to go around
the elephants. In coming back with a bucketful
he made one trip successfully, and it struck me that
one of the elephants said, "Now, when he comes
through again, you grab the bucket and I'll smash
him and we'll get the bucket of water." The boy felt
encouraged at getting through the first time without
any trouble, but when he came along the next time
one elephant reached over and took the bucket,
while another elephant struck him in the face with his
trunk. Of course, he left them in possession of the
bucket of water.

Going south we encountered some very bad roads
as well as very bad weather. We lightened up our
loads by throwing away a great deal of our stuff, and
missed lots of our shows. We had a monkey by the
name of "Jeff", a great big fine fellow, not trained at
all. After the afternoon show we would hitch up and
go as far as we could before dark, then stop, build a
fire and sit around it a while. Jeff would be cold,

84 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

so we would bring him out of his cage and put him on a
box or barrel, where he would sit looking as wise as
if he could speak. He was as gentle and docile as one
could wish. We would have him put both hands on
his head, or put both hands on his neck, or sit with
his face in his hands. No matter what position we
placed him in, he would remain there as long as we
would let him sit by the fire with us. But take him
away from the fire, and we could do nothing with
him.

I remember a trained monkey we had called "Pete."
We used to put him on quite a high pedestal so the
audience could see him, but always confined with a
chain. We would put a pipe in his mouth, a pair of
spectacles over his eyes and give him a tin fiddle and
a bow. On some days he was very docile, on other
days he would fight, and he would fight hard. I
remember a boy we had by the name of "Jake"
Reilly. We were showing at Allentown, Pennsyl-
vania, on the Fourth of July. Before we opened
Reilly had celebrated a little by taking a few drinks.
He was dressed in a white linen suit. We had pitched
our tents right next to a coal dump, from which the
rain had washed down like ink. Pete must have
known that Reilly was half full, for about the second
trick that Reilly wanted him to do Pete made a jump
for him and they had it out right there; first one on
top and then the other. When they got through

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 86

Reilly looked as though he had been rolled in an ink
barrel.

Prof. James Howell, who was quite a trainer of
animals, was with me for several seasons. This
particular season he had an educated pig. I always
insisted on his having a small pig, because every
pound of weight we could save going over the road
meant a great deal, and we utilized the pig's box for a
seat. Naturally, he had to have some bars in it so
the pig could get plenty of air. A Mrs. Berriman, the
mother of two nice Albino boys that I had in the side
show, was always playing tricks on Howell. On one
occasion while riding over the road they were eating
some lunch as they went along and at every oppor-
tunity Mrs. Berriman would slip the pig some lunch.
The consequence was that when we reached town and
Howell had made his grand speech about the wonderful
pig, his intelligence, how he could tell the time of day,
how he could multiply, subtract and divide, doing all
these wonderful things by card, and commenced by
asking him the time of day, the pig just looked at him
and grunted "Oofi!" And when Howell would throw
down a card of course the pig would not notice it but
would only repeat his "Ooff!" So the performance
wound up by being a great failure. The reason the
pig was a failure that day was that Mrs. Berriman
had stuffed him so full that he wouldn't work, and
Howell had to rack his brain to find out what was the

86 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

matter by rehearsing him again and again. The truth
is that pigs nor any other animals will not work unless
they are hungry. I sometimes think this is the case
with a great many people, too.

I often look back and laugh at my first experience
with snakes. We wanted a snake charmer, so Fulton
sent up to Indiana and brought a little girl on to the
show to charm the snakes. We got hold of a few
garter snakes about three feet long, sent off to Tucker
Brothers, the painters in New York, and had them
get up a painting representing a lady handling these
monster reptiles, which on the canvas looked as though
they were fifteen or twenty feet long. Fulton would
do what we called "talking" in those days; they
call them "speilers" or "barkers" now. But he
would stand and harangue the crowd, informing them
that they were "just in time to see this brave little
woman risk her life by entering the iron-bound den
containing these monster reptiles," All the iron-
bound den there was consisted of nothing more nor
less than an ordinary soap box. She would swing the
lid around, dip down into the box, pick up two or
three of these gentle snakes, let them wiggle around,
and that ended the snake performance.

After a while we sent to New York and brought out
some South American and Brazilian snakes, which
were not dangerous, but which were generally a good
show. There is an old expression, " I guess so and so is

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 37

living on the fat of his stomach", and I think that is
the case with snakes. I have had them live a year
without a mouthful to eat. Snakes go blind once a
month, at which time they will shed their skin, start-
ing at the nose, blow it off the head and crawl out of it.
I never knew a snake to eat anything that it did not
kill itself. A snake can eat animals much larger than
its own body. Their jaws seem to unlock until they
are as large as the body. They first catch the prey,
a chicken, guinea pig or a rabbit, then as it works
down through the jaws it is covered with saliva.
After the food gets beyond the jaws the snake throws a
knot between the food and its jaws, then crawls through
the knot until it locates what it has eaten in the stomach.

In moving a show the very heavy wagons would
leave first, then the animal wagons and the per-
formers, the proprietors leaving last, the lighter teams
enabling them to get over the ground faster, some-
times overtaking the heavy wagons. I remember
Mr. Cooper was very indignant when he landed in
town one morning and a young lady stopped him as
he was going along the road with his family, and
informed him that her friend owned the show and
that there had been some mistake, as she had been
left behind. Mr. Cooper asked her what her friend's
name was and she replied, "Mr. Cooper." Mr.
Cooper was quite angry but he could never find out
who it was had given out his name.

38 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

V.
OLD TIME CIRCUS MEN

It is strange how men will drift into diflFerent kinds
of business. Mr. Cooper was a horse man, and made
a contract with Gardner and Hemming to haul their
show through the country, which marked his entry
into the circus business.

Mr. Forepaugh's was a similar experience. By the
way, Mr. Forepaugh was the first man to place the
animals and circus in separate tents. Mr. Wallace,
of Wallace Circus of the present time, was a livery
stable man. Sells Brothers had a "Yankee Notion"
wagon and traveled from town to town with Hemming
and Cooper's circus, opening up their wagon in the
town square and selling their goods. After two years
they started a show of their own, which passed out of
existence at their death.

Ringling Brothers, owning the largest show of the
present day, started in a modest way and have been
very successful, owning the Ringling show, the
Barnum and Bailey show and a large interest in the
Buffalo Bill show and Sells and Forepaugh show.
Mr. Kohl always told John Ringling that they did
not advertise their best feature; that be considered
any five brothers that could get along without quar-

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 39

relling was the greatest feature about the show; which
is surely true.

Of all the old time circus men that I once knew,
all have passed away except W. W. Cole, who is
living in retirement in New York with plenty of this
world's goods to keep him comfortable.

I think the greatest rider that the world has
ever produced was James Robinson. When he
walked in the ring to begin his act, with whip in hand,
and jumped on the back of his bare-backed horse
one was impressed at that minute that he was "it".
He had that style and grace and finish to his act that
no one else ever had that I have seen or heard of.

It was the same with Blondin, the tight rope walker
who crossed Niagara Falls on a tight rope years ago.
I have seen nearly all the tight rope walkers, but there
was only one great artist — he was Blondin.

James A. Bailey was a remarkable man, the greatest
tent showman that ever lived. His proper name was
McGinnis. He was a bell boy in a small hotel in
Detroit at the beginning of the war. Colonel Fred
Bailey was the General Agent of William Lake's
circus at that time. Their route took them through
Detroit. In those days the agent traveled with a
horse and buggy, and one wagon followed carrying
the pictorial papers to be posted as they went along.
(Now-a-days it requires three separate cars.) Their
route took them through Detroit, when young

40 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

McGinnis made application to Colonel Bailey to take
him along. Fred Bailey was accompanied by an
assistant by the name of Stephens. The only place
they had where young McGinnis could ride was on
the water bucket between their legs in the buggy, and
away they went. Stephens did not Uke the idea of
bothering with young McGinnis, or Bailey as we
shall now call him, and wished Colonel Bailey to send
him back to Detroit, but he would not listen to it,
and said: "I am going to make an agent of this boy."
After the season was over they wintered in Zanesville,
Ohio, and Colonel Bailey lived down at Cincinnati.
Having business up at Zanesville where the show was
in winter quarters, he went up there and found
Jimmie, as he called him, learning to be a circus rider.
He immediately took him to Cincinnati, as he did
not wish him to be a circus performer. In the whirli-
gig of time young Bailey became a regular agent.
He told me his ambition was to receive more salary
than any other agent ever did, which ambition was
realized. Then he had an ambition to become a
proprietor and bought an interest in the Cooper and
Bailey show. In 1876 he started the show for the
West, and along in the middle of the summer decided
to take the show to Australia, something never heard
of before. He made arrangements to ship the circus
and menagerie to Australia and on the 3rd of Novem-
ber, 1876, we sailed for Australia on the steamer

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 41

"City of Sydney," from San Francisco. We landed
at Sydney, went to Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane,
and from there back to Sydney. Bailey left for
America and the show started for India by the way
of Java, with me in charge. While I was in Batavia
Bailey cabled me to return to Australia with the
show, which I did. We showed there again, in Tas-
mania and in New Zealand. Chartering a sailing
vessel there, we sailed for Peru, South America,
landing at Callao. From there we went up to Lima,
then back down to Valparaiso, Santiago, Montevideo,
Buenos Ayres, and around through the Straits up
the east coast of South America to New York, having
been gone two years. We all landed back home
broke.

I wish to mention here our experience in shipping
stock. On leaving San Francisco we had very strong
iron-bound boxes built for our horses, strong enough
to lower into the hold of the vessel, and each horse
was kept in his box until we arrived in Australia.
Afterward, instead of carrying these large separate
boxes, we built stalls on board the vessel; later we
only lashed poles between them, and finally, coming
from Buenos Ayres to New York, we only covered the
ballast in the hold with dirt and turned the stock
loose down there, just the same as if they were in
pasture, and they all came out without a scratch.

One day when we were sailing along quietly,

42 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

every one taking his ease, a darkey came running up
from the hold saying: "Master, is it all right; those
varmints running loose down there?" They couldn't
understand what he meant, but come to find out, one
of the tigers had gotten out. The darkey had turned
pretty nearly white, he was so frightened.

After landing in America, James Reiley, the printer
in New York, since dead, offered to sell Bailey what
was then called the "Howe's London Show", but an
agreement was made whereby they consolidated that
show with the few wagons, horses and traps that we
had left from our South American season, and they
started out upon a very successful season. I did not
go with them that season. Friends of Bailey saw an
opportunity for a greater consolidation, and they
consolidated Barnum's shows with these shows,
which venture proved a great success. Fortunately,
an event occurred that only happens once in a life-
time— the birth of a baby elephant, which was a
great feature. Previous to this, Bailey had told me
that if he ever got hold of Barnum's name there would
never be a tent made large enough to hold the people,
and when he did his words were made true.

He was the most untiring man I ever knew, and as
honest as the day was long. I often thought he would
retire, and his health at one time did compel him to
do so for one season, but he became restless and soon
decided to go back into the business again. He often

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 43

told me he would never try to retire again, but would
die in the harness, which he did at too early an age.

I cannot make a better comparison than to say
that anything Bailey put out in the way of wardrobes
was of silks and satins, while other men used turkey
red and calico. He engaged the best men that the
country offered at the heads of every department.
He bought Jumbo, and while Jumbo was a great
elephant and a great card, he was made so by accident,
which shows how some men are fortunate. It was
only the excitement worked up in England when
they were taking him from the country which made
him such a famous animal. After they brought him
to this country Bailey, of course, took advantage of
the incident and made the most of it. It is a pity
that such a man died so young. He had just finished
a beautiful home, on forty acres, at Mount Vernon,
New York, and had everything the heart could
desire.

Dan. Rice was a circus character that I knew.
Everybody in those days knew of Dan. Rice and his
one horse show. He played ring master and clown,
performed, trained horses, and was as well able to
protect himself in a personal encounter as any man
I ever knew. I remember Mr. Cooper sending him a
telegram one year, offering him five hundred dollars
a week to go with his show and play clown. His
answer was that the amount would not keep him in

44 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

whiskey. His great country was up and down the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with what they called
"Steamboat shows".

John O'Brien was a queer character and owned a
very large show at one time. Some seasons he had
two or three different shows on the road. I remember
one Sunday when we were in Philadelphia, we went
up to Frankford where Mr. O'Brien lived, and his
first salutation to Mr. Cooper was, " How is that
'round the corner grocery circus of yours?" He had
a very attractive daughter and to his great disappoint-
ment she married Walter Stuart, who was in the side
show, having neither arms nor legs. One season he
had three different shows out with names unknown
in the show business. I asked him where he found
the names. He replied they were copied off of tomb-
stones, so he would not be bothered by the people
he named them after.

Adam Forepaugh was a fine man who had been in
the butchering business. He got the circus fever and
started the finest show of that day, became very
successful and accumulated a fortune. I will never
forget a funny incident that happened in the cook
tent. Clarence Farrell was his treasurer. Mrs.
Brown had a daughter named Molly, who was the
star rider with the Forepaugh circus. The old lady
not wishing to lose her meal ticket, noticed that she
and Farrell were getting very much in love with each

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 45

other, and one day while at dinner, in the cook tent,
the old lady and Farrell began cross firing at each
other, or, to use a slang expression, getting back at each
other with hot words, with Mr. Forepaugh sitting there
enjoying it very much. Finally, they began throwing
plates at each other, when Mr. Forepaugh thought it
was time for him to say something, so he called out,

" Here, this thing has gone far enough, by , these

dishes cost money." When they commenced destroy-
ing his property he did not see so much fun in it.

Mr. Forepaugh could never forget that he was a
butcher. Whenever he arrived in a town he would
get into a buggy and make for the meat market, where
his meat was contracted for, and get it up on the
ground. Then, instead of paying any attention to the
tents with the wagons or animals, he would get his
knife and saw and go to cutting up the meat. It
gave him more pleasure than anything else. He
would say some very funny things. In Syracuse one
day when the business was very dull, the dead head
tickets seemed to come in very fast, and he would take
them in and tear them up savagely. Dan Taylor, the
boss canvas man said: "Mr. Forepaugh, don't we

want some sawdust?" Mr. Forepaugh said : " By !

No ! We will use these torn tickets for sawdust."

46 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

VI.
ON THE ROAD

I remember one afternoon down at Texarkana when
the circus let out, two darkeys passing along the bill-
board looking at the circus posters, one remarked "I
did not see that", naming several pictures he did not
see, when his companion said how could he expect to
see it all in one afternoon. That he would have to go
along a week to see it all.

Getting out of Louisville one spring we were very
short of funds and considerably worried how to meet
our bills, hotel accounts, also for feed, tents and lots
of odds and ends. I told my partner we would have
to appoint ourselves a Committee of Ways and Means.
So we started around. The first we got to was the
stable man and we began making excuses, paying
out money all winter, none coming in, and would he
be kind enough to wait for his money until we were
out a couple of weeks? He said, yes, etc. Then on
to the next creditor and it was all right. From this
on we got brave and went to others and told them we
would not pay them for two weeks, never asking them
if it was agreeable. So in a few weeks we were all
paid up and out of debt.

While traveling through Kentucky about my second
season, I found it was considered good business to

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 47

have a bank roll in case of emergency, as I had quite
a number of people on my hands, and the horses and
outfit to take care of, so I decided to put away four
hundred dollars. I had small money changed for
four one hundred dollar bills, put them in a manilla
envelope, sealed it and decided to carry it between
my under shirt and my person. I did not think there
would be any danger of losing it because in those days
nearly every one wore high top boots. Going about
I would feel to see if the money was still there and
secure. One night when we were on our way to
Carrollton, Kentucky, we had to ferry over to the
town, which kept us so late it was not worth while;
to go to a hotel, so I put the stock in the livery stable,
shook down a little clean straw, pulled my boots off
and slept for about two hours until daylight. After
getting up I missed the envelope, and from that day
until this I have no idea whether it was stolen or if
it worked out of my boots. I know I didn't get over
the loss for quite a long while, as it was the most
money I ever had possessed and the greatest loss I
had ever sustained.

That same season, out in Kansas, some men came
to me one night and told me they had a great curiosity.
Some well known desperate character, who had lived
in that neighborhood, had been killed, and they
offered me his head, which they had cut off and put

48 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

in a jar of alcohol. I took a look at it, but that was
as much as I wanted to do with it.

We would often see some very strange sights and
occurrences. Going down through Arkansas we
reached the county where there was great excitement
and contention over moving the county seat from
Dover to Russellville. United States troops were still
stationed down in that country in those days, and the
feeling was so intense that serious trouble was liable
to break out in the circus. Troops were stationed
at the entrance and they searched every man that
attended the circus for pistols and knives, making
a stack of them out in front of the show as large as a
hogshead. On coming out each one was handed his
weapon, and thus the trouble was avoided.

At one time in Kansas, when they were extending
the railroad out west, we showed in the tent city, and
Fulton happened to meet a friend there, running a
biUiard hall. He surely dressed funny. He was
wearing a suit of clothes made out of green billiard
cloth. That was the only suit I have ever seen made
of this material.

The circus boys were always a study to me. As
soon as they are in a position that will justify it, they
are taken with the diamond fever, and they are never
satisfied until they get a diamond or two. In the
spring of the year previous to starting out, they would
sometimes arrive weeks ahead, the ones that were

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 49

broke always arriving early. They were sure of a
meal ticket, and it was probable their welcome had
worn out where they had spent the winter. On their
arrival it was never necessary to ask them how they
were fixed. If any diamonds were on their persons —
necktie, shirtbosom or fingers — they were all right,
and had passed through the winter in good shape,
but if no diamonds adorned them it was a dead sure
thing they were flat broke; because if they had ten
dollars they would have a diamond.

We had many strange experiences when we traveled
by wagon. On long routes we would have to start
early. We often had breakdowns, or some other
accident. On Sunday we would have a long journey,
sometimes as much as fifty miles. No provision was
made for meals, and we had to eat the best we could
on the road.

I remember one time when we were in Missouri, it
was too late for regular meals. We stopped at a little
old hotel and asked the proprietor if we could get
some dinner. There were about ten or twelve of us,
but he said, "No, I cannot take care of you." We
pleaded as well as we could; we told him we were nice
people and would be no trouble to take care of, that
he would find us all right, etc. He listened to our
talk, and in answer to our saying that we were all
right, he replied that he had often heard of entertain-
ing angels unawares, but he had never heard of any

50 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

angels being with a circus. So we drove on, hoping to
do better at the next place.

In traveling through the country we had many
funny experiences. Often when we wished things for
the table, such as eggs, butter, milk, etc., we would
go to a house and plead for these things for the people
to eat, and nine times out of ten it would be impossible
to get them. But I never knew it to fail if we went
to a house and asked for something for a sick monkey,
he would surely get it, if they had it. That was one
thing I never could understand.

I remember one day at Indianapolis, I was sitting
behind the candy stand in the menagerie, when a lady
came up with a child and asked if we had any drinking
water. She was told that we had not. She remarked
that the little boy could not drink lemonade. She
was assured that he could drink what we had as there
was not a particle of lemon in it. The circus boys
did not waste lemons by making lemonade out of
them.

Colonel Goshen, the Arabian Giant, was a side show
curiosity who amused me a great deal with the
awful lies he used to tell. He said he had been in the
Mexican war and was wounded and taken prisoner
in one of the battles. He claimed to be a great shot,
and that the Mexicans agreed to release him on
condition that he would show them some of his great
marksmanship. With nothing to lose and all to gain.

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 61

he said, they asked him to hit the dial of the town
clock about a mile away. He threw the gun to his
shoulder, and with just one shot tore the hands ofiF
the clock. He used to amuse Kohl and me a great
deal when we would ask him how he was feeling, by
replying, "Not very well; the lead in me is very
heavy today, and I feel it." So it became a by- word
between Kohl and me. Often we would say, if we
did not feel very well, "The lead is pretty heavy in me
today."

Col. Goshen often told us that he could make a
salve that would be a great thing in case of another
war. That for wounds, etc., it was simply great.
Amputate a soldier's leg or arm, apply some of this
salve and the part was healed the next day. He said
he spoke to Gen. Grant and Sherman about selling it
to the government but they said we would never have
another war and could not use it.

Colonel always reminded me of Jack Lawton who
was not careful of the truth of his statements and at
times would believe his own lies. He was down at
the steamship docks one day and started up town.
Meeting some friends they inquired where he had
been. He told them "down on the pier looking at
some fishermen landing a whale". They hurriedly
left him to see it. He proceeded on up town, meeting
more friends and telling them about the whale. The
story got ahead of him and the people began to pass

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him on their way down to see the whale. Crowds
passing him all talking about the whale. He stopped,
looked back as if in doubt, saying, "I am going back
myself by . Maybe they have caught one".

Isaac Sprague was a skeleton. He and Kohl did
not always get along very well together. Oftentimes
after a little tilt between them Kohl would be giving
a description of him, his ailments, etc., and right in
the midst of it Sprague would speak out and say,
" It is not true, the only trouble is they do not give me
enough to eat."

At the time I had a museum on the Bowery he
was with me and roomed on Houston Street. That
was not the finest neighborhood in New York at that
time. I should have said before this that Sprague was
married and had a wife and three children. On
arriving at the Museum one morning he told me that
he had been robbed, that some one had climbed over
the roof of an adjoining shed, opened the window
into his room and stolen his pocket book. He knew
nothing of this until he awoke in the morning, very
cold and with his wife lying up close to him to keep
warm. It developed that, being in the winter, and
the thief leaving the window up, both of them no
doubt woke up very cold; but how his wife could
expect heat or warmth by lying up against him I
cannot see, as it would be like lying up against a pair
of iron tongs.

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One night at Grand Rapids, Michigan, the weather
looked very threatening. Show people have a great
dread of packing up a wet tent, the rain making it so
heavy to handle, as well as very muddy under foot.
That night they were working very fast. Kohl
picked up Sprague and leaned him up in a fence corner,
while they hustled to get the tent down and packed.
It was raining, with thunder and lightning, and there
stood Sprague over in the fence corner, swearing and
calling, but no one paid any attention to him until
the tent was put away, when they took him down and
put him away in the car.

Jimmy Quigley came to me one day and told me
that he had a positive novelty in the way of a per-
formance— a troop of trained chickens. That sounded
good to me, so Jimmy brought them down in the
morning and they gave a very interesting perfor-
mance. When night came the chickens went on a
strike, as we called it. They wanted to go to roost,
and to roost they did go. They never would work at
night. Quigley did not know this because he had
been training them for months during the day time.
So the chicken performers were a failure.

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VII.

IN FOREIGN LANDS

Our stay in Australia was marked with financial
success as well as very pleasant business acquaintances
with Australian people. They always extended us a
hearty welcome. I never was in a country where they
were as fond of athletic sports, horse racing, rowing,
cricket, etc.

The bathing beaches of Australia had to be guarded
by driving piles around them to keep the bathers out
of the jaws of the sharks. On going up the coast of
Australia on our way to Java we had some strange
experiences. At one point, which was the land end of
the cable, was a small settlement where people in the
employ of the cable company lived, and at the time
we were there, living out about half a mile, were quite
a number of aborigines. The climate being very
warm, they did not require much clothing, but when
any of them had occasion to come into the station,
they would take a cofiFee sack, cut a hole in the
centre to push their head through, and holes in either
corner for their arms, and with this for clothing they
were permitted to come in. On their return they
would loan it to another native, which usually kept
it in use.

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At a place called McKay, I remember one black
chap coming down to our steamer wearing a brass
plate about the size of half the head of a barrel, on
the plate being engraved and inlaid with black letters :
"Jimmie Strongstink, King of Patrick's Plains".
It was hung arouijd his neck by a chain, and was
presented to him by some of the boys about town as a
joke. But he would call attention to it and point to
it with great pride.

There was a Mr. Robinson, a cannon ball performer,
whom we heard of in Australia. They used to tell
about his wonderful strength, etc. One of his tricks
he used to do when he took offence at the people of the
music halls where he was working. All the music they
had was a piano, so when he was offended in any
way, in the course of his act he would use one of the
cannon balls to smash the piano, putting it out of
business, he claiming it to be an accident.

At one time on our trip along the coast of Australia
we had to wait for the tide to come in to get us over a
bar. I asked if I could go ashore in the wilds to shoot
a kangaroo and the captain consented, saying he
would have the whistle blow every little while so
I would not lose my direction. After being ashore
awhile I shot a kangaroo and dragged it down to the
steamer, where it was taken aboard. Everybody had
a look at it. The captain finally ordered the men to
take it back to the cook. Some of the women folks

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asked what was to be done with it, and he answered,
"Cook it and eat it." They all exclaimed that they
wouldn't eat it. He told them that it was very nice.
The next night after dinner the captain and everybody
were on deck and feeling very happy, when he asked
them how they liked the dinner. They said very well.
"How did you like the soup?" "Fine!" Then he
told them it was kangaroo soup. So they had eaten
kangaroo soup without knowing it.

On this trip we stopped at Cookstown, and the only
ground we found large enough on which to erect our
tent was down at the edge of the water. Our tent
extended on the beach and before the performance
was finished the tide had come in, and there were our
seats standing in the water. It was my second
experience of that kind. The other was at Shreve-
port, Louisiana, when the river was very low, and
we erected our tents on theriver bottom.

We gave a circus performance at Cookstown.
Our troupe was made up of first class artists, but the
only music we had was an old fashioned hand organ.
It was really comical to see it, but everybody seemed
to enjoy it.

In Melbourne, Australia, while we were showing on
the banks of the river Yarra Yarra, something
happened to the eels in the river, and thousands of
them were seen dead, floating on the river. That
night, while the people who came in carriages and

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 57

hacks were in looking at the show, some of the town
boys on the outside thought they would have some
fun, and I think they put dead eels on the seats of
every carriage that was waiting around the show.
They had no lights for the carriages and hacks, and
when the people came to sit down they found them-
selves sitting on these slimy, dead eels. I can assure
you that things were very lively around there for a
while, between the screaming of the women, the
swearing of the men and the laughing of the onlookers.
The papers in Melbourne said they thought the death
of the eels was caused by the noise our steam calUope
made.

It was in Australia that I first met Harry Keller,
the great magician, who has retired and is now living
in Los Angeles.

I also met Will J. Davis in Australia, and I am
pleased to say the three of us have been good friends
ever since.

We had a funny experience in Australia. In
America circus men have no hour for meals. If the
outfit is delayed its just hustle until the doors are open.
In Australia we were late one day getting in to one of
the interior towns and had to hire a lot of extra men
to unload and get up the tents. Imagine one day
when they all sat down to smoke for half an hour.
I thought Mr. Bailey would go crazy. The idea of

68 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

them taking a smoke when we were so late was a new
thing for him.

Before the present plan of cook tents the manage-
ment and performers stopped in the hotels, the
proprietor generally in the best, the performers in the
next best, etc. When Bailey & Cooper engaged
James Robinson, the rider, to go to Australia he was
the only one available so he dictated his own terms
regarding price, etc. He got $500.00 per week, work
or play, and all his expenses for horses and family.
Robinson also insisted on inserting in the contract
that he was to be put up in the same hotel with Mr.
Bailey at which Mr. Bailey was annoyed. So Bailey
to get even with Robinson, stopped at boarding
houses all the time. He said he was sure to have the
contract framed.

While in Australia we were told about sand storms
but never saw one until we were showing up the
country from Adelaide when one came rolling along
in our direction. When it reached us you could not
see two feet and when it passed on then came a cloud
burst and soon the streams were out of their banks.
Our tents were washed away. Some of the people in
the town did not seem alarmed for the saloons kept
on doing business though the water was two feet deep
in the saloons and the folks standing in the water
up to the bar drinking away. We did not get our
stuff together for several days.

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Jos. K. Emmet was playing in Australia while we
were there and he, like many others, once in a great
while got too much aboard. It was announced that
the Governor-General Sir Hercules Robinson was to
attend his performance this night and Emmet was
not in condition to appear, and to the surprise of
many Emmet's business was capacity afterwards;
the curiosity to see the American actor who had the
nerve to disappoint when the Governor-General was
to attend filled the house as long as he stayed.

We were much amused while in one of the interior
towns by a black woman who was carrying her baby
in her arms. Our curiosity to see the black baby was
great, and looking at it very closely, we discovered that
she had mixed some grease and charcoal and given the
baby a coating of it. It was a very warm day and the
heat of the sun had caused the black grease to run
off the baby, which showed the child to be half white.
It struck us that the mother was ashamed of having
a mulatto baby.

Mr. Cunningham, whom I knew over there, had
occasion to bring some aborigines over to the Barnum
show the year I was with it. He told me in crossing
from San Francisco to Omaha they encountered a
snow storm. These natives had never seen snow and
of course, were much surprised, and in trying to
make Cunningham see that they knew what it was,
they gave a motion of the hand as though they were

60 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

turning a crank. In a short time Cunningham
figured out they had experienced turning an ice
cream freezer and likened the snow to ice cream.

In going up the coast of Australia the natives
would pull out into the ocean in little log dug-outs,
come as near to the ship as they felt was safe, and
cry out to us to throw them tobacco. The captain
always threw them food, such as a leg of mutton or
meat of some sort, but they never seemed to care
for anything except tobacco.

It was very interesting to see them throw the
boomerang. I left that country under the impression
that they were the only people who could do it, but
I have since seen people employed by me stand on
the stage, throw them over the audience and have
them return to them with more precision than shown
by the Australians.

We get our eucalyptus tree, which is so plentiful
in CaUfornia, from Australia. It is surely a great
asset to that country, as it is a fast grower, a hard
wood, and of many varieties. The tree sheds its bark
instead of its leaves.

While there are many birds with beautiful plumage
in Australia, there are very few, if any, song birds.

While in Australia I never heard of or saw a snake.

We found Van Deeman's Land, now called Tas-

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 61

mania, a very fine island. Its name was changed in
order to lose its former identity as a penal colony.

New Zealand is a very beautiful land. It has
beautiful harbors and attractive cities, with a fine
climate.

When in Lima, Peru, on Sunday afternoon Mr.
Bailey and I attended the bull fight, never having
attended one. After the matador had killed several
I remarked to Bailey that I would like to see the bull
get the best of it one time and I had scarcely finished
saying the words until the bull had the people's idol
down on the ground horning him in good shape. The
audience in turn applauded the bull.

We chartered a sailing ship named the "Golden
Sea" and sailed from Auckland, New Zealand, to
Peru, South America, and were for fifty-four days
out of sight of land. We were surely glad when we
reached Callao.

After being out for about a week on this voyage, the
elephant, which I have already mentioned, ate a box
of sulphur matches which one of the men had left
carelessly near him, and died the next day. We threw
the carcass overboard. We learned afterwards that
the tides carried it back to Auckland, where the
people concluded that we had been shipwrecked.
We certainly experienced some very severe weather.
We were in one storm in which fourteen ships were

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lost along the coast, but, luckily, we pulled through.

I remember we had a couple of sea lions on board,
and after our fish were consumed we had nothing to
feed them. We thought they would only eat fresh
fish, but soon found that by running the thread off of
a linen spool, which was used to sew on spangles, and
letting that fly from the rear of the ship for a couple
of hundred yards, the gulls and Cape pigeons and
albatross would get tangled up in it, when we would
pull them on board and feed them to the sea lions.
As the birds had a fishy flavor the sea lions would
eat them, and by this means we kept the sea lions
alive until we reached port.

The hotels in South America seemed very strange
to us. Of course, on account of giving night per-
formances, we were always late in returning to the
hotel. We found that the doors opened outward.
The hotels were generally located on the second floor,
with large steps leading up to them. The porter
would sleep at the head of the stairs in a cot, with a
strong cord, one end of which was attached to the
door knob and the other end to his big toe. Upon
any one opening the door the cord pulling on his toe
would awaken him.

I have spoken of James Robinson being a great
rider in his day, but I must not lose sight of the fact
that no man can be a grand rider without a grand
horse. Then, when he has a grand horse, he must

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 63

also have a person who understands it, to follow
the horse around with a wliip in his hand, "Keeping
the horse up", as it is termed. He must start with the
right foot first, as the rider cannot ride him if he is
running what is termed "False". Often it is neces-
sary to put rosin on the back of the horse, which
sometimes makes the horse's back sore. Naturally,
when the rider attempts to throw a summersault, or
do some other trick, the horse flinches, which tends
to throw the rider off.

I have nothing but good words for circus people.
They are kind hearted and always willing to aid each
other v/hen in distress or trouble. It is surprising how
little drinking is done in the circus.

It is strange how easily a person can get into ex-
travagant habits. I have seen some of the performers
go along with the show, earning, I will say to illus-
trate, one hundred dollars per week, and with no one
to provide for, and I have seen those same people go
to a man who was earning, perhaps, only forty dollars
a month, and borrow money from him; then stay in
his debt the whole season.

It is strange how men's lines fall. In the army I
was where the military bands and bugles and fifes
were always playing. From the army I went into the
circus business, where we were always with music.
Then I got into a line of business where the principal

64 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

thing was to make people laugh, to entertain them
and amuse them, as well as to instruct them. I
don't feel that I ever got a dollar by making people
feel badly, and as I look back now, I am much pleased
to know it. Sometimes, perhaps, they may not have
thought they had the worth of their money, but I
think that was because we are all of different minds.

Sometimes we would do things and say things
which would make us laugh among ourselves. I re-
member one time when Kohl and I, and a man by the
name of Morton, talked of leasing the Columbia
Theatre in Chicago. Morton was managing it at
that time with other parties. We began figuring up
what the probable expense would be to run it. The
three of us agreed along pretty well until we reached
the treasurer, who was to be in the box office. Morton
told us that a man to fill that position should get a
salary of about thirty-five or fifty dollars per week.
We didn't think it was worth so much. Morton
then began to tell us about the way a man would
have to dress; how it would be necessary for him to
have a full dress suit, etc., so as to make a nice
appearance in the box office. Kohl, in a half joking
way and half in earnest, replied that it would not be
necessary for the man to have a full dress suit; that,
standing up there with his breast to the window, it
would only be necessary for him to wear one of those
fronts they put on a corpse. I thought Morton would

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 65

drop dead, and when Kohl and I were alone I think
we laughed for full ten minutes at Morton's appear-
ance when he heard Kohl's remark.

Belle Boyd was a Confederate spy during the war,
and her name was on the lips of every one in the army.
Imagine my surprise one day, twenty years after the
war, when she came along and made application to
lecture in the museum, which she did in a Confederate
uniform.

In Java I had a native brass band of about thirty-
five pieces. They could only play one tune, so the
music was the same all through the performance;
whether we wanted a march, a gallop or a waltz, it
had to do for all the acts. The Javanese all look alike,
and I couldn't tell one from another when they came
to the show, but their instrument was the pass that
let them in. For the first few performances it was
really amusing to watch them. They would become
so interested in watching the act that out of the thirty-
five there would sometimes be only about four or five
tooting on the horns, and then, when they realized
they were not playing, all would commence to blow
a blast together.

Our show included Madame De Atalie, a strong
woman. When the brass cannon was placed on her
shoulders and a man standing on it would fire it oflF,
the Javanese band quit playing altogether, forgetting

66 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

all about the music. After a time some of them would
become tired, having seen enough of the show, when
they would hand over their instruments to their
friends in the town, so there would remain out of a
supposed thirty-five musicians, not more than six
or eight of them who could play at all. They had just
used the horns to get into the show.

The watering of streets in Java was done by hand.
The policemen were armed only with pitchforks.
When arresting a person they would simply shove
him along by the back of the neck wherever they
wanted him to go.

Java is a very interesting country. On arriving
at the hotel the manager calls a boy, who is engaged
to wait on the guest during his stay. To one's sur-
prise, when the boy appears, he is seen to be a man of
about fifty years of age. This waiter attends you
at the table and takes care of your room.

The hotels are run on the American plan and all
the food is served on larger platters. The waiter
will not ask whether or not one wishes any of the
different dishes, but takes one after the other and
scrapes some of it on the diner's plate. When the
meal is finished the plate is heaped up like a derby hat.
One will understand why he has served so liberally
when it is learned that the food left upon the plate
belongs to him. He takes the dishes to the guest's

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 67

room and scrapes them into a bucket which he has
standing behind the door. On returning to his
family at night he takes this along for them to eat,

Java belongs to Holland. Gin is free in the hotels.
There were no ice-making plants when I was there.
Ice was brought around from Boston in sailing vessels,
and we paid ten cents a glass for ice water. Smoking
was a cheap luxury; one could buy about fifteen
cigars for five cents, and they were not real bad
either.

At first we were greatly annoyed while lying in bed
to see lizards crawling around on the walls and
ceilings. Often times they would fall on the bed.
This was a sure enough sight, not an imaginary one
caused by drinking.

We gave our matinees there at seven o'clock in the
morning while it was cool. Funerals take place there
at that time of day also. Labor saving devices were
not employed on the Island.

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VIII.
CIRCUS AND MUSEUM

In 1880 I went out with Adam Forepaugh's circus.
We were out, of course, the regular season of six
months. It was not a very prosperous season and I
didn't like the idea of being idle all winter, so I went
over to New York just before my season closed and
started a dime museum. Having an acquaintance
with curiosities, and managed a circus as well as the
side shows, I was familiar with the performances
necessary; so I rented a room and opened up a dime
museum — the first in the United States. It proved
a success from the start.

I continued for about two years, when the circus
fever came over me again and I wanted to travel, so
I sold the dime museum, or rather, I might say, I
gave it away, for I got nothing for it, and went out
on the road again with a circus, lost all the money I
had made and wound up flat broke.

I went out next season with John O'Brien's circus,
which was not very successful, and we left a trail of
circus plunder behind us to pay debts, or as security
for debts incurred, that reached nearly from St.
Louis to Winnipeg, where, fortunately, we struck
good business and Kohl and I formed a partnership.

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The show wintered in Frankford and opened there
in the spring. In the side show we had a big negro
whom we had fitted up with rings in his nose, a
leopard skin, some assagais and a large shield made
out of cow's skin. While he was sitting on the
stage in the side show, along came two negro women
and remarked, "See that nigger over there? He
ain't no Zulu, that's Bill Jackson. He worked over
here at Camden on the dock. I seen that nigger
often." Poor old Bill Jackson was as uneasy as if
he was sitting on needles, holding the shield between
him and the two negro women. Fortunately for
him, about this time the audience was called to
another portion of the tent.

In coming down from the northwest C. E. Kohl and
I decided there was an opening in Chicago for a dime
museum, so we formed a co-partnership and I went on
to Chicago to look up a location, which I found at
150 West Madison Street,. just east of Halstead. It
was an instantaneous success, and we kept in operation
a great many years.

The next year we opened one at 150 Clark Street,
which was also very successful.

During the World's Fair we opened another one at
300 State Street, which was also a success. We
also established them in Milwaukee, Cincinnati,
Louisville, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Cleveland.

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All except Cleveland paid handsomely, which was our
only failure in the dime museum business.

It was a strange business, and for a few years the
dime was something new for the price of admission to
a place of amusement. Thousands and thousands of
people would pass along and say, "Oh, let's go in
for fun;" but as years went by those same people
became critics and would not spend their dime nor
their time unless the show was considered worth it.

The dime museum business, with its curiosities, its
stage performance and its music, led to the continuous
vaudeville of the theatres; then came the ten, twenty
and thirty cent performance, the people all the
time demanding better shows, for which they were
willing to pay, until finally it has reached the high
class vaudeville of today, in which higher salaries
are paid than in any other class of amusement,
excepting grand opera.

We exhibited many strange curiosities and some
very interesting ones. One was Anna Leake, who
was born without arms. She told me her father
was a man who drank a great deal and was very
quarrelsome with his friends. Her mother learned of
his being in a scrap down in the town, and when she
saw him coming home, he had his overcoat thrown
over his shoulders without his arms in the sleeves.
She claimed tliis was the reason she was armless.
She died a few years ago. She was a noble woman

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and I think the angels came out of heaven to meet
her.

Jonathan Bass, the Ossified Man, was quite a
curiosity. A great many people came to see him.
He told me the ossification was brought on by his
being in the water so much of his time rafting lumber.
I would always have a little chat with him on his
arrival. He was blind and had no more control of
himseK than a broomstick. He would tell me of
the trouble he was having in the management of his
farm; how the men would not put in the crops he
told them to. He would swear like a trooper. When-
ever he was raised up to give a lecture some one in
the audience would surely faint. The public was
incredulous that it was he speaking, some declaring
that it was a ventriloquist.

John Snyder was quite a drawing card for us. He
was afflicted with a nervous disease which made it
impossible for him to keep still. Kohl made the
advertising read that "When he got tired he would
have to run up and down stairs to rest himself. "

In 1880, while owner of the Globe Dime Museum,
298 Bowery, New York, along came two bright chaps,
Weber and Fields, asking for something to do. I
put them to passing hand bills.

After making themselves useful for a week or two
they informed me they would like to go on the stage
for a turn. So I put them on and they made good

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and have continued to do so from that day up to the
present time. We often talk it over and we always
have a warm place in our hearts for each other.

It is strange, and then again, I do not know that it
is so strange, the number of ideas you can get from
an outsider for your business.

We had been exhibiting fat women for a great
many years, when down in Cincinnati one day
there came a chap along from over in Kentucky who
said he had a fat woman, a negress, called Big Winny;
that he would like to hire her out and wanted us
to give him three hundred dollars a week for her.
We had been hiring fat women for twenty-five and
fifty dollars a week, and big ones too. This chap was
so persistent that I listened to him, and finally decided
to take a chance. So I wired up to Kohl that I
had hired a fat woman for three hundred dollars a
week. Well he, of course, was staggered by my
hiring her, but no more than I was at doing it. This
is what I learned from the chap, whose name was
Robinson:

He had her arrive in town in an express car, claiming
she was too big to get into a passenger coach door.
Then he hired a big truck to be at the depot and
backed up to the door of the express car, taking her
on the truck through the streets to the museum.

It is a wonder we were not all arrested, for the
streets were blockaded, street cars stopped, and

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traffic was suspended. Everybody wanted to see
BIG Winny. They were lined up in front of the
box office and across the side walk, and were going in
just as fast as they could. They looked like soldiers
going to the war. That business kept up for weeks,
and it surely opened our eyes.

We took her to Chicago with the same result.
Everywhere we took her it was capacity house for
months.

Robinson got sore and of course wanted a raise in
his salary, but we had an iron clad contract with
him and held him to it.

We put on a beauty show of about fifteen or sixteen
fairly good looking young ladies and one old girl who
thought she still retained her charms. In giving
out the numbers, she drew number nine. Every
person entering the museum was entitled to a vote
of their choice, the one receiving the largest number
of votes to be declared the beauty. The fun of it
was that eight out of ten of the public, just as a joke,
voted for number nine. This of course swelled the
poor girl's head and she really believed that she was
"It." "Number Nine" was a great joke around
Chicago for a number of years afterward.

We had gum-chewing contests, type-writing
contests and many other kinds of contests as could
be given in a small space.

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We conceived the idea one day of exhibiting the
fat man lying down, so we fixed up a comfortable
bed for him on the stage, and began advertising
him as being so large that he couldn't walk. He
was perfectly contented to lie there on the mattress,
until the public came to see him in such great numbers
that he began to think he was a great drawing card,
then claimed that it was very hard work to lie there
and asked for more money. We stood him off the
best we could, but one day when the lecturer was
telling of how large he wa«, and what a burden he
was to himself; how he couldn't walk nor help himself,
in fact, how he had to be taken care of like a baby, he
got up right in the midst of the talk and informed the
lecturer that he was tired of it and wouldn't work
that way any more unless he got more money; then
walked off the stage.

Mille Christine, the Double-Headed Nightingale,
colored, born in South Carolina, was brought up
north once in a while and placed on exhibition by
Joe Smith. She was a very fine drawing card. She
could sing, dance and play the piano. One head
sang soprano while the other head sang contralto.
She was very religious and could never be induced to
exhibit on Sunday. In all my experience she was
the only person that I ever met who would not.

Eli Bowen was quite an attraction for us. He was

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born without legs, his feet protruding from his body.
He was a very nice entertainer.

Quite a character, who may be living today, was
"Popcorn George." His home was in Evansville,
Wisconsin. He had the record of being more success-
ful in discovering curiosities than any man I ever knew.
Old George would come along with something to
hire out quite often, and it was generally a curiosity
or a good freak.

Kohl never forgave him for the last one he handed
us. He came down and said he had a great thing
for us, informing us that it was a Mongoose. Kohl
nor I never knew what a Mongoose was, but he gave
us a very careful description of it, as we thought.
On his description we ordered the paintings for the
front of the house, having them made about as large
as a small elephant. When the wagon backed up
to the door with the Mongoose, to our great surprise
it was in a small soap box and looked to be about the
size of a muskrat. There was an awful amount of
kicking about the Mongoose from the visitors.

It is a showman's place to supply what the public
wants, if he can find out what that is, and we found
they always liked a fortune teller. We usually kept
one for the ladies so they could visit her and be told
the good, bad and indifferent of what was to happen,
etc. I never could understand why people with
common sense would consult a clairvoyant or a

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fortune teller and expect to learn anything of any
benefit. I always contended and maintained that if
they had the power to foresee the future they would
not have time to bother telling others their fortunes.
They could be so independent, and have so much
money they would not have to be living in garrets
or back rooms, as they usually do; neither would
they be travelling around through the country. They
could use their powers and take advantage in a large
way of their knowledge, instead of fooling with
inquisitive people.

They used to tell me in the museum that men
from the Board of Trade and banks would consult
them as to the future markets, and the price of wheat,
corn and pork. To me it was always a joke.

We exhibited Tom Thumb and his wife quite often .
Tom was always a good card. I think he was the
drawing card, but at the same time his wife, a very
charming little woman, pleased the people after they
arrived. Tom got much larger the latter years of his
life than when he was formerly on exhibition, but he
was the best drawing midget this country ever saw.
I think his name had something to do with it. It
was such a proper name for a midget; no one ever
seemed to forget it.

Going along the street, if the word was passed that
he was Tom Thumb, the sidewalk would soon be
blocked, while any other midget would receive only

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a glance from the people. I have seen him in billiard
halls playing the game. He was never a very desirable
patron, because there would be nothing doing at
any of the other tables while he was playing. He
played a fairly good game, too.

Tom would take a little straight nip once in a
while. His wife is still living and married happily
to an Italian Count. It was only the other day that
I read that they were going into the Hotel business
somewhere up in Massachusetts.

Chang, the Chinese Giant, was a fine attraction
for a museum or a side show, and he was a very nice,
decent fellow.

I had Captain Constantinus, the Greek. He was
the original tattooed man. They caricatured James
G. Blaine after this man. The tattoo work on him
was very fine, the best I have ever seen, but he was
a surly, overbearing individual, which made it very
hard to get along with him.

We often had bearded women on exhibition.

I have often listened to Faber's talking machine
that Barnum had with his circus in 1871. It was a
very feeble attempt at talking compared with the
present talking machines.

I traveled through the South one season with
Madame Lake's Circus, and as an outside attraction
we sent up hot air balloons. We had a man named
Smith who had charge of sending them up. He

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always succeeded in getting a few negroes to dig the
trenches in which to make the fire. On one occasion
at Newman, Georgia, after working half a day, and
just before the show doors opened. Smithy let the
balloon go, and it sailed off beautifully out of sight
with a man in the basket. The understanding with
the negroes that Smithy employed was that they
were to be admitted to the show for their work. In
the excitement, while the balloon was sailing off, the
darkeys began to think about getting into the show,
and one said to the other, "where is that man that
said he would put us into the show.?*" Smithy was
in the crowd and the other negro answered : " My God,
man, he sailed away in that balloon! He's gone on
to the town where they are going to show tomorrow!"
And they raised Cain around there until they found
Smith, who of course let them into the show as he had
agreed to do.

Smith was a good man at getting outside help
when we were in a hurry. Before the night show he
would always look up ten or fifteen men or boys who
would agree to work at packing, he letting them in
to see the show; but he would take their hats and
caps to be returned after they had finished their
work of taking down the tents. They would work
along very nicely for a few seasons until they got
foxy; then some of them would bring along another
hat or cap, keeping it out of sight, and hand him the

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old no-account hat they were wearing. When the
show was over they were on their way home and he
was in possession of their old, worn out caps.

Smithy was a good man and remained with me for
twenty-five years.

He had one great fault, and that was playing faro.
I remember on one occasion he worked all the six
summer months. He had S9,ved his money and
arrived in Chicago on a Sunday morning. One
man who ran a gambling house there, on learning
that he had this money, opened up his game and
robbed him of it all before night.

Some years ago quite a few of the circuses had
grafters. It was never my fortune, or misfortune,
whichever it was, to ever be connected with one.
They surely had some very clever boys working
those games, and the people they worked them on
most successfully were aged men, who in their prime
never would have fallen into the traps. I have
often thought that men who could handle other men
and formulate and carry out such schemes and
tricks as they did would have been very successful
business men had their lines fallen in other places.

I remember on one occasion they got Mr. Nat
Lee, of southern Indiana, to go to the bank where his
son-in-law, David Graham Phillips' father, was cash-
ier, and ask him for ten thousand dollars. He
refused to give any explanation of what he was going

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to do with it and rushed back and handed it over
to these men, who of course made way with it. Now,
I call that pretty slick work. There were thousands
of cases of this kind but I think, on the whole, there
is more danger of having one's means taken away
by one's friends and acquaintances, for as a rule
you are more suspicious of strangers than you are of
people you know.

I knew E. J. Lehman whose estate owns the Fair
in Chicago when he was connected with the Van
Ambergs Circus when I was looking around for a
location in Chicago to start the Museum. I had been
trying to close for a lease with John M. Smyth and it
hung fire. One day he asked me who I knew in
Chicago. I told him I knew Mr. Lehman of the Fair.
He asked me to bring a letter from him. I went over
to ask Mr. Lehman if I could have one. He said,
" come around at 3 :00 p.m. I will go over with you to
see him." That afternoon we went over. Mr.
Lehman said to Mr. Smyth, "If Kohl and Middleton
wish the lease have them sign it and send it over to the
Fair and I will also sign it. " But Mr. Smyth never
sent it over. The kindness of Mr. Lehman I never
could repay.

I was much surprised when in foreign countries to
notice the difference in the circus performers. In
our country, where we showed at a different town
every day, it was not necessary to change the program,

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SO the performers were educated for one act; while in
foreign countries where we remained two, three and
four months in one place, they were trained to do
many different acts, to make possible a change every
week.

I noticed the children of the performers were able
to speak three, four or five languages, picking up the
language of the country they were in very readily.

In those days all foreign circuses had a number of
very fine menage horses, beautifully broken to do
their tricks under saddle, and the performers as a rule,
were finished artists.

The circus of today is a very different proposition.
In the early days the clowns were very popular with
the public, the same as a celebrated actor is today.
The people were always anxious to hear their latest
jokes and songs. After his arrival in a town, he would
circulate among the wise ones of the place get hold
of a little gossip about some couple going to marry,
and to the surprise of the audience he would spring it
on them in the way of a joke. Great excitement
and pleasure would take place for a few minutes,
when the horse would go galloping around the ring
again with its rider.

But in these days of three-rings and the platform
all the talking is lost.

I have heard people say they would rather go to an
old time show of one ring, than the three-ring circus,

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but if I am a judge, it is dollars to marbles they
wouldn't.

It is strange that all large things are more attractive
to the public than small things. A large horse is more
attractive generally than a small one; a large man is
more attractive than a small one. I do not know
why it is, but it is undoubtedly true in everything
except a woman.

I had quite a card travelling with me for many
years by the name of Johnnie Murray, who was often
called "The Irish Lord." Everything with him
was a joke. If he could get hold of a big ring and
a diamond cross he wouldn't trade places with any
one on earth. But half the time the cross was in
pawn, as he was very fond of faro bank. Sometimes
when business was very dull while he was in the
ticket wagon, a farmer would come up and say,
"give me two tickets." Murray would take a pencil
and piece of paper and figure for about half a minute
and then tell the gentleman that the two tickets
would come to one dollar. On other occasions
we would be pretty hard up for coin, with the bills
coming in for hay and other supplies. About this
time Murray would get out of the wagon, for there
was no money in it, and tell the boy who would take
his place to say that the Treasurer had gone up
town, and that he could not pay any bills until his
return. And Murray would take good care not to

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return until there was some money in the ticket wagon,
when he would bluster around and say he was so
sorry to have kept the gentlemen waiting.

John O'Brien, whom I have mentioned before, was
quite original in his way of paying bills when hard up.
He was always sitting at the entrance, and maybe
there would be ten men with small bills and one man
with a bill that amounted to as much as all the other
ten. O'Brien would figure up what the ten small
bills amounted to and pay them off and they would go
on their way rejoicing. The man with the large bill
would contend that he was there first and should
have had his money first. O'Brien would explain to
him that it was easier for him to satisfy the man
with the large bill and keep him quiet than it was the
ten men with the small bills; that one man with the
small bill out of the ten would make just as much
noise and insist just as hard for his money as the one
man with the large bill, I thought this was very good
logic. It was much better to have one man yelling
around there for his money than ten.

The last season I traveled with O'Brien he said
some day he was going to give a lecture and that his
subject would be: "The Way of the Transgressor is
Hard;" and with him it was no joke.

While traveling with Barnum's Show, with which
I was interested in the side show and concert and
candy stands, I became quite well acquainted with

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Mr. Barnum. I found him quite an interesting
gentleman, but very jealous of his name being con-
nected with any show business which was not all
right and first class in every particular. His name
was very valuable when connected with any amuse-
ment enterprise.

Barnum always regretted having said in his first
publication of the history of his life that "American
people loved to be humbugged." He told me that
he had eliminated it in all the later editions. It
annoyed him greatly if any small weekly country
newspaper spoke disparagingly of his show.

I had Tom Thumb working for me at one time.
One day Barnum was speaking to me about him,
saying how ungrateful Tom was; that he had made
Tom Thumb the drawing card that he was, but on
account of a falling out they had he had cut Tom out
of his will. Then when I would be speaking to Tom
about Barnum, he would declare that he had made
Barnum by exhibiting for him.

I decided I wanted a buggy team and went to
Milwaukee and paid five thousand dollars for a pair of
trotters, Jack and Knight. Got a nice Brewster buggy
and sleigh and was having nice rides, enjoying it all
very much. People would ask about them and tell
me they had seen Jack race as a four year old and that
I ought not to drive him but have him trained to race,
which I did. He proved a great horse, the best of

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his year. People said, "Such luck some men have.
Carrigan sold that team to Middleton for all that
money." Then when Jack began to show a great
horse they said " What luck some men have. Middle-
ton got that team from Carrigan for nothing. " Budd
Doble did the driving. I had a race horse instead
of a road horse and I did not have any more rides.
But under the excellent care and guidance of Mr.
Budd Doble Jack proved the great race horse of the
year and many days I sat in the grand stand and
saw him pilot him to victory. Doble often tells that
after his great race at Rochester, N. Y., where he
won the ten thousand dollar flower stake I asked
Doble to stick a pin in me to see if I was alive or dreaming.

In the early days, like the present, press agents
were always looking out for catchy lines and about this
time panoramas were being built in all large cities,
most of them depicting large battles. One of them
was of Christ entering Jerusalem, and the press agent
wishing to have the manager stand out big, made
the advertisement read, "Christ entering Jerusalem,
under the management of James Jordon".

Barnum, like many others, regretted getting old.
He told me one day that he would give all he had in the
world if he could set the peg back twenty years.

One of his great sayings was, that "all men must
have a vent so they can blow off and not explode. "

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I hired a large horse from Barnum once and had
him on exhibition in my museum on the Bowery.
I took particular pains to paint on the banner in
front of the house that the horse belonged to Barnum.
He happened to pass on the street one day and came
in to see me about it, and said he objected to the way
I was advertising the horse; that I had his name
out in such a way that people would think it was
Barnum 's museum. I told him that I only wished
it was, that I would like to have his name up over
the museum as in the old days. He said, "Well,
maybe we can arrange it some day." But that day
never came.

When Barnum toured Jenny Lind through the
country the people of Madison induced him to have
her sing in their city. There being no theater or
hall suitable they fitted up an old pork house where she
gave her concert. In years afterwards Mr. Barnum
often referred to it when speaking to me.

I sometimes wonder if there is any person with
ambition who is perfectly satisfied and contented.

I had my first lesson in this when I was in prison
during the war. When first taken to Belle Isle
prison the rations they served us were very good. We
had fresh meat, sweet potatoes, beans, white bread,
etc., but as the war dragged along these things
began to get very scarce. The Southern soldiers,
themselves, after a while had nothing but black eyed

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 87

peas, sweet potatoes or corn bread, and not much of
these, and never but one of them at a time. Then we
began to wish that we could get enough to fill us up
on even one kind. We thought we would be perfectly
satisfied if we had plenty of it, even if it was only
corn bread or black eyed peas. After a time I
began to fare better by speculating a little, and then I
wanted wheat bread, which I bought. When I had
all the wheat bread I wanted, I began to wish for some
meat. After I was enjoying all the meat I could eat,
I wanted pie.

It has been so all through my life, and while people
who do not have means ridicule the idea that you are
rich if you are contented, it really is the only wealth
in the world, because being contented means every-
thing.

In traveling over the country I was much impressed
Avith the soldiers' monuments I saw in the different
states and cities and counties, and always hoped
the day would come when I could erect one, for I
always felt if any soldiers deserved a monument, those
from Jefferson county did. The old saying that
"everything comes to those who wait," came in my
instance, and I took great pleasure and pride in
erecting a monument at my old home at Madison.
I shall never forget when Mr. Kohl was talking to
me down at Madison at the time of the dedication.
He was very much pleased to be there with me and

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to see what I had done, but he would get me to one
side once in a while and say, "George, I have always
regarded you as a man of good sense; how you ever
went out into the army and let them shoot at you for
thirteen dollars a month, I do not understand."

We were together for twenty-eight years, and in
all that time we never disputed one cent with each
other.

Great changes take place during a business life.
There was a time when I knew every manager, every
agent and every performer with every circus in the
country. I went to the Barnum and Bailey show
last week and there was only one man in the whole
outfit that I knew — Mr. J. Rial.

Before showing through South America I had picked
out attractions that would appeal to the eye as
far as I could, like a fire eater, swordsman, an educated
pig, a woman without arms who could write, sew, etc.
Then I had some dancing girls in tights. Everything
went along very nicely until one day, at Montevideo,
when a committee of prominent Germans called on
me to protest against my having a banner displayed
with the picture of an educated pig named Bismark.
They thought so much of Bismark that they did not
like to see his name desecrated. I told them they
ought to feel honored, that it was surely a wonderful
pig as wonderful in his way as Bismark was in his.
Nobody else but a German would have made a

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protest for a thing like that, and I kept the name
Bismark for the pig, just the same.

Traveling through the South was very precarious
business, as in those days many of the states were
not reconstructed and had no use for the Yankee.

I remember one day at Oxford, Mississippi, where
three or four men came up to the tent. One of them
took out a large knife, slashed an opening down
through the side of the wall and asked if it was the
door. We answered, "yes, come right in." They
looked around, and when their curiosity was satisfied
they departed.

Another day down at Van Buren, Arkansas, the
citizens got to quarreling among themselves, shooting
at each other, and when it was all over a couple of
dead horses lying in the street looked as if there had
been a battle fought there.

One night while showing at Canton, Mississippi,
a colored man offended some southerners and when
the show was out one of the gentlemen shot the negro
— as we supposed, dead — but when they passed on,
Mr. Negro got up and walked off. He had "played
the 'possum " and got away with it.

I was always amused at the circus and menagerie
owned by a man by the name of Smith, who did
most of his traveling through Texas. Naturally
they would have to drive late at night or early in
the morning, as the roads were bad and distances

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long. Once in a while would be heard the call
**Whoa, " which meant for the team ahead to stop,
and they would always pass the word along. When
asked what was the matter they would answer that
one of the bears had fallen out. Everyone would
have to stop, help lasso the bear and put him back in
the cage, which was nothing more than an old ram-
shackle and hardly fit to hold bears.

We had a funny incident down in Florida one day.
There was a drunken guy, as the boys called him,
hanging around all day looking for a fight. He kept
on taking drinks quite frequently until night overtook
him, so he lay down about two-hundred yards from
the tent in the grass among the palm trees. One of
the boys went out where he was sleeping, and with a
sharp knife slit his clothes up the legs, body and arms,
so that when he awoke during the night and sobered
up a little, he just stood up out of his clothes. It
pleased every one, as he had been an awful nuisance
around there all day.

With the Great Eastern Circus in Texas one winter
we always unloaded the show alongside the lot when-
ever it was possible. On one occasion we struck a
town where the craze and excitement was chicken
fights. Most of us put in the day looking at the
fights. Charley Stiles, who was quite a character,
said one could buy a chicken for $5.00, put him in
the pit, and by the time he could turn around to

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spit the chicken was dead. It was quick work.
When night came they had what they called a Battle
Royal. Any one could buy a chicken and enter
him in the fight. I think there were fifteen in the pit,
and the last one to leave the pit alive was the victor.
It was surely an unsightly scene.

It was always amusing to watch the circus dogs
traveling with the wagon shows. They would go
alongside, in front and behind the wagons, whenever
they chose, but when they came to a farm house
Mr. Foxy Dog would always run under the wagon
and travel along between the two pole horses so the
country dogs would be unable to reach them. After
passing beyond the farm house they would come
out and travel along in their usual way.

Speaking about dogs, it reminds me of two that
were owned by the Olympic Theater at Chicago.
They were surely characters and possessed a great
deal of intelligence, as they would travel around
to the different saloons and get lunch off the counters
where they were known. But on one occasion they
lost their heads and nearly lost their lives. They
had been accustomed to sleeping in the lower boxes,
which were about on a level with the stage floor,
but in some way which was never explained they got
into an upper box and when they were whistled for,
thought they were in the lower box and that all they
had to do was to hop out on the stage. When they

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made their hop they found that they were thirty
feet above the stage in an upper box, landing on the
stage below much to their surprise and discomfiture.
But they were always careful ever after not to go
into an upper box.

It was always amusing and a dead give-away to
hire teamsters in the town to haul the cages in the
circus parade. Lined up along the sidewalks would
be the citizens, and among them the driver's friends,
calling "Hello, Jim," "Hello, John," etc., which
always injured the business.

I think one of the funniest things that ever happened
was when John Wilson shipped his circus from San
Francisco to Australia. He told his wife that the
steamer would not sail until Wednesday morning,
but instead of that he fixed it to sail Tuesday night.
He wanted to leave her behind. So when she went
down Wednesday morning she found the steamer had
sailed with all on board. In a couple of days a
faster steamer left. She took passage on it and
when the steamer carrying Wilson and his circus
landed at the pier in Auckland, New Zealand, Wilson's
wife was there to meet him. When the circus boys
spied her they remarked, "Why, there is Dutch
Lizzie." She was a big blonde.

The Happy Family Circus always amused me.
It usually included cats, pups, rabbits and monkeys,
all living together in harmony. Once in a while we

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 93

would put in a strange rabbit, and Mr. Monkey was
always very wary. The first thing they usually
did was to push up a barricade of straw between
themselves and the new arrival. In a short time
they would be peeking over to see what the rabbit
was doing. Then they would muster up courage
and reach over and touch the rabbit. If he offered
no resistance it was but a little while before one
would be pitying him, for Mr. Monkey would be
riding on his back all over the cage holding his two
ears as though they were a bridle.

I remember one occasion, when I had two monkeys
in a cage and the small one got out. He went over
to a near by trunk, took the things out of it and
carried them over to the large monkey in the cage,
who destroyed them as fast as the small monkey
brought them to him. Such things as parasols he
would strip down to the wires.

This monkey Jeff, that I have mentioned before,
was always up to something, and whenever any
one would call to me that Jeff was trying to untie
his chain, Jeff became that person's enemy for all
time to come.

We had men to go ahead and mark the road at
forks, placing brush or sticks across the road which
we were not to take. We had diflSculties, notwith-
standing, for sometimes they were not very careful
and often times it was too dark to see the object.

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I remember down near New Orleans one winter,
that after climbing up a pole and burning matches
to read the sign, it was discovered to read, "Get
your shirts at Moody's New Orleans. " This became
a by- word with the boys afterward. Moody was
certainly a great advertiser for those days. When
on the prairie and we had nothing else with which
to mark the road we would pull grass and stretch
across the roads which we were not to take.

When I was in Java I would frequently go out to
the Zoological Garden where there was a very large
elephant confined with a chain. Even in that country
the natives were not averse to making a dime, so they
kept two or three barrels of cocoanuts on sale at
five cents each, which people would buy to throw to
the elephant. It was interesting to see how the
elephant would get the milk and meat out of them.
There was fastened around his front foot a very
heavy chain. He would take the cocoanut in his
trunk, crack it on the chain, and quick as a flash
have it up to his mouth drinking the milk. After
he had finished the milk he would drop the cocoanut
on the ground and tramp lightly upon it with his foot
to break away the white meat from the shell. There
was very little of it left when he had finished.

On starting out from near Louisville one spring we
were all very short of money. Gardner and I had to
have some money and I remembered I had credit

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at a jewelry house in Cincinnati. Selling a pair of
cuflF buttons, three shirt studs and a collar button, all
on one card was a new thing in those days so I sent
up and bought a lot of them. I had a funny fellow
with me by the name of Castella, who was a good
salesman. He went out on the street corners and
sold five to ten dollars worth every day, bring the
money down to us in the evening, giving us a little
go-along money. We needed it badly for W. E.
Franklin told me years afterwards that I had remarked
that Billie Gardner could not go into the dining
room without his overcoat on as his trousers were not
presentable.

I am told there are two bad payers in the world —
one that pays in advance and one that never pays
at all. I agree that paying in advance is a bad
thing, because on one occasion I came near losing
my life by so doing. After the show was out one
night I called into a little restaurant near where
they were loading the cars, to have a cup of coffee
and a piece of pie, paying for it as soon as served.
In the meantime the man whom I had paid had
left to go over to his house to get some doughnuts,
and while he was away I finished my coffee and pie
and was walking out, when one of the men behind the
counter asked me if I had paid for my coffee. I
told him I had. He disputed it. I asked where the
other man was, and said I would wait until he returned.

96 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

I became annoyed at the idea of being held up there
for a cup of coffee and started out. As I did so one
of them hit me with a brick and the other shot me.
I came near losing my life. On another occasion,
when on the steamer leaving Melbourne, Joe Williams,
one of the performers, and a calliope player whose
name was Palmer, became involved in a misunder-
standing. I foolishly stepped in between them to keep
them from fighting, and Palmer in trying to shoot
Williams shot me instead. I felt strange, after
serving in the army where it was their business to
shoot, and never being hit, to be shot twice afterward
over a cup of coffee and while acting as peacemaker.

I often think of the old days when I see Mclntyre
and Heath playing the "Georgia Minstrels." Heath
remarks to Mclntyre when he takes from him the
pocketbook he has found, "What business have you
with money?" I guess that is what some of their
acquaintances thought some years ago according to a
story related to me by Mclntyre. One day in San
Francisco they informed him that one of the Daly Bros,
was dead and invited him down to look at the corpse.
On the way down they stopped at several saloons to
wash down their grief and drown their sorrows, and
by the time they brought Mclntyre to the corpse
he was pretty well filled up. They had the whole
plan arranged for him. The lights were turned
down, and in a coflSn they had a fellow with big long

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 97

whiskers. The crowd was weeping and groaning and
expressing their sympathy, and as they led Jim up
to take a last look he asserted, "That is not Daly."
They said, "Yes it is." "Why," he says, "I know
Daly. That is not him." By that time they had
Jim's pocketbook and his watch and took Jim out
of the room and back up town, stripped as clean as
a chicken, I think this was about as strong a game
as I have ever known any of them to work. I think
they must have thought, as Heath says, "What
business have you with money?" These two men are
remarkable. They have been together for over
forty years, and I hope they will live to enjoy their
Jubilee.

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IX.
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS

Col. John Hopkins was a character. When it was
announced that I had given a Soldiers' monument
to Jefferson County, Indiana, he remarked that I
ought to do some nice thing; that most of my life
had been spent in passing silver three-cent pieces
for dimes; that I paid a premium for them. My
friends informed him they had told me what he
had said. Next time we met and before I had
said a word, he informed me it was Kohl he had said
had changed three-cent pieces for dimes. Poor
John has passed away. He was a good sport, handled
prize fighters, had race horses and was always on
hand when anything was going on. I heard him tell
Keith in Boston one day, when he was showing him
around the theater, that if ever he had money enough
to build a theater like Mr. Keith's, he would put
the money in his pocket instead and run down the
road with it so fast that all one could see would be
his coat tails flying in the dust.

I often think that the dime museum was responsible
for a great many bad actors being turned loose in
the country. It is a funny thing about a man going
on the stage. It seems if you only work a half hour
on the stage from that time on they are actors and

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 99

that is their excuse through life for never doing a
lick of work or earning their living. There is many
a one who should go on the Theatrical Dump Pile.

Weber and Fields, who I think have made more
people laugh than any two men in America, made
their first appearance on the Dime Museum stage,
298 Bowery, during my ownership.

I read an admonition the other day not to be
reminiscent; that it was a sign of old age. It is
surely true, for how could a young person have
anything to be reminiscent about? One surely
must live longer than the milk age to get experience
to tell about. It is like gray hair. Those who
die young do not have it. Some say their 's turned
gray in one night from fright, etc. People usually
admire gray hair on the other person. I have never
seen a case of this quick change, except where it
turned black, red or blonde in one night. These
cases are frequent. The goods can be bought at
any drug store.

In Chicago the other day, on my return home from
visiting my friend, E, D. Stair, in Detroit, Michigan,
I met John Ringling in the Congress Hotel. We
were glad to see each other. Inquiry developed
that we both were going to New Orleans, so I accepted
John's kind invitation to go with him in his private
car. Mrs. Ringling was one of the party and she
told me about losing one of her pet black snakes at

100 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

their winter home in Florida. It seems they had a
bull dog, a present from Carl Hagenbeck, which was
jealous of the pet black snake, and Mrs. Ringling
had cautioned the dog several times to let the snake
alone when it was lying on the porch. For a while
there was no trouble, but one day she discovered
Mr. Bull Dog coming up from under the house with
the snake in his mouth. He had watched the first
opportunity to get it alone and killed it. It was
quite a loss to her because it kept the mice, rats and
other vermin away from the house. When I arrived
in New Orleans I did not see much change in the city.
I made a record in New Orleans once. I was arrested
there and locked up for about five minutes until the
desk sergeant came and let me out. This was the
only time I ever have been arrested. I may have
deserved to be since but if I did they never got me.
I am always a little sore on this city for when our tent
blew down and was torn to pieces I went to New
Orleans to get needles and threads and palms to sew
the tent with, and the fellow down at the French
Market loaded me up with left hand palms which no
one could use unless he was left handed. I think
he worked oflf the accumulation of years on me.
However, I enjoyed the ride down to the city and the
kind attentions of Mr. Ringling and his family.

SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
Erected at Madison, Indiana, by George Middleton

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 101

X.

THE MIDDLETON MONUMENT

THEY LED AND FOLLOWED

Erected to

THE EVERLASTING MEMORY

OF THE SOLDIERS OF

JEFFERSON COUNTY

IN THE CIVIL WAR

1861—1865

By Their Comrade

GEORGE MIDDLETON

Private Company E, Third Regiment

INDIANA CAVALRY

At the dedication of the Middleton monument
Friday, May 29th, Hon. Augustus E. Willson,
Governor of Kentucky, spoke as follows:

GOV. WILLSON'S REMARKS

Soldiers of the Union, and guests who may have
been upon the other side: we honor ourselves, our
country, Indiana and Kentucky, and the old flag by
meeting here today. The spirit manifest shows that
this vast audience meets not for the purpose of
business nor gain, but in every heart beats a love for

102 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

the flag and what that statue stands for. The spirit
which beat in George Middleton's heart has found
expression in that monument. There is something
in it no other community has. It speaks joy to the
eye, inspiration to the heart, glory to our country.
There is not another group in the land which has so
much life, hope and faith in it. Pilgrimages will be
made to this city in the future to see it. It is a
proper appreciation of this good old county of Jefferson
and splendid City of Madison. No county in the
land has a patriotic record which exceeds that of
this county of Jefferson. Patriotism stirred the
hearts of its people and it sent 5000 soldiers to the
Union Army. I heard a woman say today: "I
came from Kentucky and it is the best State in the
Union. Another woman spoke up and said: "I am
from Indiana and there is no better State." A third
woman then remarked: "We are all from the United
States and it is the best country in the world. " That
is the sentiment for us all. It is patriotism, the
spirit which prompted Middleton to build this monu-
ment, and prompts your presence here today to see it
dedicated. Every boy shall look upon it as something
sacred and imperishable, typifying loyalty to country
and duty.

I wish to say something to you of loyalty to those
whom you place in office and power. At the recent
conference of Governors some one objected to their

CIRCUS MEMOIRS lOS

repetition on the ground that some future President
might take advantage of it. Another said : " We have
never had a President whom we could not trust;
every one has been a clean, upright, honest executive. "
In an election you fight hard in Indiana and sometimes
we fight in Kentucky. But when a President is
elected he is entitled to the support of the whole
American people. Let us be loyal to our officials, to
our country and to each other.

I have brought over here today the First Regiment
of Kentucky. I have great pride in it, and the
Colonel who rode so erect, handsome and manly at
their head followed John Morgan into Indiana in
1863. The Colonel asked me to tell you that the
other time he rode to Madison every man seemed to
get a gun or a hatchet and come out to meet him. He
says he likes the welcome you gave him today better
than that of 1863. I congratulate you on the spirit
of patriotism shown today, and I bear you a greeting
from Kentucky and our soldiers. We have with us
today the soldiers of the United States, the soldiers of
Indiana and Kentucky. They are all ours. All
our boys. Take that into your hearts. There is
not in the hearts of those men any desire to oppress
you. They are our boys. We build a monument in
our hearts to these boys as beautiful as this superb
one of bronze and granite to the soldiers of the Union.

104 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

CAPTAIN W. E. KETCHAM'S REMARKS
This magnificent demonstration is worthy of this
splendid spectacle of Kentucky standing side by side
with Indiana. We are proud to have Kentucky's
Governor, the Kentucky regiment and Colonel William
B. Haldeman who was with John Morgan here today.
We tried to give him a warm welcome in 1863. We
hope he will come again and often. While he was
riding with John Morgan over Indiana there were
Indiana boys at the same time riding over Kentucky
— so honors are easy.

It is fitting this splendid monument should be
erected here to remain forever as a symbol of the
patriotism of the men of 1861. Comrade Middleton,
when life was young and sweet, turned his back on
aspirations and ambitions and gave his all to his
country. Successful as he has been he never used his
heart, brain and pocketbook to a better purpose
than when he built this monument. In summer
rain and winter sleet it will always tell the story of a
nation redeemed, a country saved, of men made free
by the idea typified. As children go to school, as
men pass by, as women go on their way, looking upon
it, their minds will go back to the fierce furnace heat
of war, and they will thank the generous donor for it.
Where could there be a more fitting place for a
soldiers' monument than here, in this county named
after Jeflferson, the creator of the constitution; than

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 105

here in Madison, nestling down amongst her beautiful
hills? These people did not wait for the enemy to
come to them but went out to meet the enemy at
the front. The Sixth, 13th, 19th, 22nd, 39th, 45th,
82nd — the roll is too long to call — fifty organizations
went out from Jefferson county to do battle for the
country. This superb monument fitly commemorates
what they went forth for. As we look upon it let us
be inspired, in other ways, and methods and different
fields, to remember to do for our country as the boys
of 1861.

ADDRESS BY MR. MIDDLETON

Fellow Citizens: —

In erecting this monument designed to perpetuate
the memory of soldiers whose nobility of purpose and
unflinching bravery has never been doubted, I enjoy
a privilege and an honor of which I am deeply
conscious.

In presenting you with the result of prolonged
and sincere efforts to secure a permanent, dignified
and impressive emblem of respect for the fearless
soldiery of Jefferson county, I become your debtor
in that you have encouraged me to assume the
initiative in a labor of love which some other of our
citizens might have performed with greater distinction.

106 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

I am, indeed, deeply sensible of the honor which
springs from association with a cause that appeals to
every patriotic heart — a cause involving not only
love of country but a fixed sentiment of deep and
abiding regard for those who, arms in hand, have
risked life, or have gone down to a glorious death,
for that country.

Standing here in such a distinguished presence on
this, to me, most momentous occasion when the
dream of years is at last realized, the one regret
shadowing the hour is that our purpose of honoring
the living and the dead was not accomphshed sooner —
that this soldiers' monument was not completed years
ago when many of our comrades who have gone over
to the silent majority might have been with us to
join reverently, but with the enthusiasm of true
soldiers, in proclaiming this monument sacred, for
all time, to the memory of the men who went from this
county during the Civil War to fight for the preserva-
tion of the Union. It is my sincere belief that no
monument was ever erected to braver or more manly
men than those who volunteered from JefiFerson
County, Indiana, to support the belief that the
Federation of States established by the Revolutionary
fathers should not be dissolved but must be forever
maintained. What other heroes of every historic war
have done in suffering, enduring and dying for a
cherished cause they did, nobly, within the limits of their

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 107

opportunities. Offering their lives for the preservation
of freedom and justice to all men who appealed to the
stars and stripes for protection, they deserve all honor
that has been ascribed to the more famous soldiers of
the world. If their names are not enrolled upon the
blazing tablets of military glory for all the people of
earth to look upon, they areenshrined in our hearts as we
dedicate this enduring memorial of their heroic deeds.
To this county bearing the name of Jefferson, a
distinguished President, and to this city named for
Madison, another great chief executive of the United
States, I present and commit this soldiers' monument
as a sacred trust. Guard it well in memory of those
for whom it has been erected. Guard it well that
your children and children s children, may be inspired
to patriotism by this silent but eloquent reminder of
times that tried men's souls in the dark days of '61 —
of the days when the marching hosts of this great
Republic cemented with their blood the Union of
States and established forever the principle pro-
claimed by the immortal Lincoln that "this govern-
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people
shall never perish from the earth."

108 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

XI.

MY BUSINESS ASSOCIATES

It was always my good fortune to be associated
with fine gentlemen which made business with them
pleasant as well as profitable. A nice combination:
J. A. Bailey, C. E. Kohl, G. Castle, E. D. Stair, J. H.
Havlin, J. J. Murdock, M. Beck, M. Meyerfeld, Jr.,
Paul Keith, E. B. Albee, B. F. Keith, M. C. Anderson,
F. Tate. All starting at the bottom, getting to the
top and remaining there. In leaving them I have
nothing but the best wishes for their happiness and
deserved success and will never forget their many
kindnesses to me, and here in California where I
have settled to enjoy the beautiful scenery, the
fragrance of the many roses, plants and flowers, and
climate, I wiU enjoy their success as much as if I was
still interested with them.

On November 12, 1910, Chas. E. Kohl, my former
partner and friend for twenty-eight years, died. He
was a remarkable man, honest to a penny, untiring
worker, a great organizer and would have been success-
ful in any business undertaking ; to start when he did
and reach the top of the ladder and remain there, bears
out all that can be said of him.

CHAS. E. KOHL, AND HIS DOG MIKE

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 109

XII.
FRIENDSHIP

A small word with a wealth of meaning. How
lucky to have known in one small life a friend. The
memories of my good friend Chas. E. Kohl have been
a solace to me so often in the last three years. I
recall this friendship with the deepest feeling, his
strength of character was colossal, ambitious, charita-
ble and faithful. I count myself the luckiest of men
to have known this noble character for so many years.
The contact planted a seed that has grown into
reverence.

Many years ago, as I mentioned, I had been to Java,
Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, South America,
and with my friend Mr. Henry Cutter of Chicago I
made a trip to England, Germany, and France which
I enjoyed very much. Mrs. Middleton never having
been abroad we decided to go to Europe and after
being over there during the winter decided to go
around the world, so away we went via India, China,
Japan, Hawaii, landing in San Francisco after a very
pleasant trip. So I find only a few remaining places
for me to see which some day I may.

When passing through San Jose, Cal., I called on
Col. W. B. Hardy to renew an acquaintance made
with him during the war in Virginia when I was one of

110 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

a squad underthen Lieut. George A. Custer at
Hardy's capture. We had a pleasant chat. He spoke
feelingly of General Custer's death at the battle of
the Little Big Horn River, where the whole command
was killed by the Indians.

I have been divorced twice and married three times.
Paid each time for my freedom and while it cost me
much money, in fact a fortune, I am pleased and
consider I got off cheaply. I cannot understand the
stand the Catholic Church takes against divorce.
Priests cannot act intelligently as they never marry
and have no experience. In my present wife, Ruth
K. Middleton, I have a jewel in all the word implies,
and congratulate myself often for venturing out on the
Sea of Matrimony the third time, proving the old
saying is true that the third time charms.

Sells Floto Show came along the other day under
the management of Mr. Fred Hutchinson, whom I
have known ever since his childhood days, he being a
nephew of Mrs. James A. Bailey and brought up in the
Bailey school than which there was none better. He
showed me a wagon with a patent hoister to load the
tents on the wagon by rolling it on like you would
roll up an awning. Also a patent device that holds
the stringers without toe pins and many other labor
saving devices. The show on the whole was well

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 111

managed. Nice clean performance. We spent a
pleasant day with Mr. Hutchinson and his family,
enjoying a nice dinner in the cook tent, reminding me
of old times.

My old friend Robt. Stickney the equestrian director
of the show, was a delight to see, happy smiling face,
young heart, the same old Bob, time has dealt so
kindly with him. He was the handsomest, best
groomed man I ever knew and a finished artist when
he appeared in the ring to ride — ^you never forget the
man or his work. In all my experience he was one
of the best in his specialty I ever saw and there is no
one to take his place.

His wife and charming graceful daughter work to-
gether like sisters, each true artists. I want to add
here that family life with circus people is very smooth,
there are not the small, petty things to meet in a
domestic way. The circus woman remains younger
than other women, happier, freer from cares they
are the most virtuous women always, being chaperoned
by their parents or older relatives. Circus children
speak many languages, have their books and toys,
enjoying a happy and practical childhood gathering
a great deal of education by travel and contact.

Mrs. Hutchinson and their charming little daughter
were traveling with the circus, in their private car, a
comfortable home on wheels. We went to the circus
lot about 7:30 a. m. remaining all day for both per-

112 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

formances, and saw the tent go down at night, having
dined in the cook tent. The ranges are built in large
wagons, every thing so orderly each article has its
place, and is in its place. One can get a very good
lesson in order around a circus. The food is delicious,
good, wholesome food. Soup, steak, potatoes, salad,
bread, celery, ice cream, cake and coffee was the
evening menu. We finished a full and delightful day
having studied the different performers, their contented
faces left a pleasant and lasting impression of circus life.

While in Denver this summer, 1913, we attended
the RingUng Brothers Circus in company with Otto
Floto and his charming wife, in fact we were on hand
for afternoon and night performances, as well as on the
street to see the parade. I could not help thinking
how different the show was from the first one I was
with in Denver; we were lighted up with candles.
But no change in the ginger cakes, lemonade or peanuts
and never will be, this seems to be part of the circus.

I had some brothers named Berriman working for
me one season in charge of the outside candy stands.
They had tall glasses filled up with red lemonade.
Along came a party of about eight elegantly dressed
ladies and gentlemen. Berriman tapping on the glasses
called to them to come running, come hopping, and get
the red lemonade and they just for the fun did as he call-
ed them to do, drank their lemonade and on their way
they said it was not dignified, but it was all circus.

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 113

XIII.

A VISIT TO THE LADIES DRESSING ROOM,

RINGLING'S CIRCUS AT DENVER, COLO.,

WITH MRS. OTTO FLOTO

A large, comfortable tent resting on a green, grassy
lawn, entrance like a reception hall, with large tables
on which rest the ladies hats and wraps. Let me add
this tent is double, gentlemen on one side, ladies the
other, tables on each side, gent's hats and trappings
on one side, ladies' on the other. Performers have
their trunks numbered, they are placed in rotation.
They have a small rug, folding chair, small mirror, all
the toilet articles known to one set. Their hair is
dressed in fashion's latest twist, each lady wore a
kimono or dressing robe, while making her toilet.
Modest, clean, happy chatty women, mothers with
two or three grown daughers, you would be unable to
guess the mother. While I took a seat to study and
enjoy my new friends I heard every known tongue.
It seemed good to be a woman, I felt so near to my new
acquaintances, they were so human to each other,
one large and happy family, living useful lives.

The bell rang, which was the signal for the " Grand
Entry.'* I hurried on to take my seat, to recognize

114 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

my new friends as they passed by; there was such
warmth of feeling in their happy smiles as they bowed,
leaving much food for thought in my busy brain to
feed upon for years to come.

Mrs. Geo, Middleton

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 116

SPORTS

It has always been my good fortune to enjoy
every known out-door sport. I am a great believer in
a complete diversion from business cares (and I
might add domestic). From early youth hunting
has been my chief passion — deer hunting in Indian
Territory, prairie chickens in Dakota, wild ducks
in Manitoba, kangaroos in Australia, and quail here
in California have offered a great deal of pleasure for
me. Trap shooting I consider a great science and a
wonderful training for the eye. It is a clean, gentle-
manly sport, always enjoyed by high-class gentlemen.

Another delightful sport that it has been my
pleasure to know was cruising and racing on Lake
Michigan on my yacht Charlotte R., a comfortable
craft accommodating fifteen people. I passed many
a pleasant week-end aboard her, and sailed a few good
races each season, adding spice to the sport.

Horses and dogs have always given me a great deal
of pleasure. The horse, the most noble animal in the
world, I think, is the most abused. Throughout my
life I have known the faithfulness and fidelity of
most every known breed of dog. A boy who has
grown up not knowing the love of animals has missed
a great deal in his youth.

116 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

Golf has offered a great field of diversion and
pleasure for me for a great many years. It is a
pleasant and fascinating out-door game.

I am not surprised at the hold the game of baseball
has taken on the American people. It is being played
all over the world. When I was in Japan a few
years ago I was surprised to see the Japanese teams
and their enthusiasm in the game. To become a good
player it is necessary to be skillful mentally as well as
physically. It is truly American.

CIRCUS MEMOIRS 117

EPILOGUE

Here ends my notes, as I have never kept a diary or
a line in my life. It has been a queer and pleasant
sensation to cast an attentive look behind into the cal-
endar of my mind after a long and successful life.
What a vast number of events disappear in a life with-
out leaving a trace; age modifies and changes the
nature of our impressions but nevertheless does not
blot them out.

Kind friend and reader, it is delicate to write of one*s
self; my friends have asked for my circus memoirs,
and as you follow with me through the experiences
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do to pass them
on to you.

I wish it understood that this book was not written
to fill a long-felt want, and I do not expect it to be
one of the six best sellers.

118 CIRCUS MEMOIRS

CONTENTMENT

Contented thoughts weave a charm within my

heart as I write,
Crowned not by jewels fair or rare,

Contently content.
A seat among the flowers with California's sunshine

Fortune placed,
Charmed, contented, soothed in the eve of life

Not but good to live.

Not but good to breathe.

TIME

"Turning the accomplishments of many years,
into an hour glass. " — Shakespeare — Henry V.

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