UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 
 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN
 
 3:2 4
 
 GEORGE MIDDLETON 
 (Latest Photo)
 
 tf> 
 
 Reminiscences of 
 GEORGE MIDDLETON 
 
 as told to and written by his wife 
 
 Copyright, 1913, by George Middleton
 
 Dedicated 
 to my beloved wife 
 
 RUTH K. MIDDLETON 
 
 GEO RICE ft SONS. PRINTERS. LOS ANGELES
 
 \ftl\ 
 
 To be accurate, write; 
 
 CO 
 
 To remember, write; 
 
 To know thine own mind, write. 
 
 T upper 
 
 _i 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 -
 
 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-
 
 8 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 tilleries. I have traveled this old world a great deal, 
 but it is difficult 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,
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 9 
 
 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
 
 10 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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.
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 11 
 
 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.
 
 12 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 Scholl, 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. 
 Scholl 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 Scholl'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.
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 13 
 
 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
 
 14 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 work 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 15 
 
 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
 
 16 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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.
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 17 
 
 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
 
 18 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 Maryland up to South Mountain, Antietam 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 difficult 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 19 
 
 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
 
 20 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 like 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 difficult 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.
 
 22 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 had 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.
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 23 
 
 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 office 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 right 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.
 
 26 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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.
 
 28 CIRCUS 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 Illinois, 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 replied, "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
 
 29 
 
 money quite plentiful in the tobacco country. One of 
 the features with the show this year was the Cardiff 
 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
 
 30 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.
 
 82 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 hah* tipsy who would want a ride on the elephant 
 going toward town. After a little bartering, if he 
 couldn't get hah* 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 S3 
 
 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,
 
 34 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 85 
 
 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 "Ooff!" 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
 
 36 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 different 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 3ff 
 
 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 like 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."
 
 40 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 
 billiard 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
 
 60 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 off 
 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
 
 52 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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.
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 53 
 
 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.
 
 54 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 coffee 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.
 
 C I. ECUS MEMOIRS 55 
 
 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 around 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
 
 56 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 calliope 
 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
 
 58 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 tune. 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.
 
 59 
 
 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 California, 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
 
 62 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 whip 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 when 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 hah* 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 off, 
 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.
 
 68 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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.
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 69 
 
 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.
 
 70 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 this was the reason she was armless. 
 She died a few years ago. She was a noble woman
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 71 
 
 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 
 himself 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
 
 72 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 73 
 
 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.
 
 74 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 was, 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 75 
 
 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
 
 76 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 77 
 
 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
 
 78 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 79 
 
 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 saved 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
 
 80 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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,
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 81 
 
 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,
 
 82 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 hah* 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 83 
 
 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
 
 84 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 85 
 
 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. "
 
 86 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 
 with 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
 
 88 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 89 
 
 protest for a thing like that, and I kept the name 
 Bisinark 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
 
 90 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 91 
 
 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
 
 92 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 difficulties, notwith- 
 standing, for sometimes they were not very careful 
 and often times it was too dark to see the object.
 
 94 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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
 
 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 95 
 
 at a jewelry house in Cincinnati. Selling a pair of 
 cuff 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, "WTiat 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 coffin 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.
 
 98 CIRCUS MEMOIRS 
 
 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 off 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 
 
 18611865 
 
 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 103 
 
 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 Jefferson, 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 accomplished 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 Jefferson 
 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 incur 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 will 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 under-then Lieut. George A. Custer at 
 Hardy's capture. We had a pleasant chat. He spoke 
 feelingly of General Ouster'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 lif e. 
 
 While in Denver this summer, 1913, we attended 
 the Ringling 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 115 
 
 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. 
 
 5732 4
 
 was borrowed. 
 
 DEC 1 7 20(0
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 001344161 3