Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1914 — Page 3

Side Show Sidelights

Diverting Chronicles of Circus Life

By FRANCIS METCALFE

THE ANIMAL BAROMETER AND THE ETERNAL FEMININE.

Uncle Sam spends a large amount of money to forecast the weather from 24 hours to a week in advance, and the farmers and seafaring folk watch the bulletins no more eagerly than do the owners of the many shows whose harvest time is the brief summer sear son at Coney Island. Bad weather, especially if it comes on the first or -last day of the week or a legal holiday, means a loss of hundreds of dollars to them, for if the skies are threatening, the holiday makers seek their pleasures nearer home and there are fewer people to give up their dimes and quarters under the seductive wheedling of the "barkers.” Moat of the show people look anxiously at the sky before retiring for the night, but there is one of them who finds an absolutely reliar ble forecast within the walls of his own building- Perhaps the signs and portents could not be translated by the weather clerk, but the proprietor of the trained animal exhibition at Dreamland has been all of his life the companion of his charges, and has learned to recognize the meaning of unusual behavior or the shade of change in their voices which Indicates an approaching storm. There was not a cloud ta be seen, and every star in the heavens was trying to rival the brilliant electric lights on the great tower as he sat at the case table in front of the arena with the stranger and the press agent after the night’s performance was over, but he gave an exclamation of disappointment as a half-smothered roar came from the throat of one of the lions in the building. “Rain tomorrow!” he said as the grumbling rogr spread from cage to cage about the great semicircle. His companions smiled incredulously as they looked at the cloudless sky, but he repeated his prediction when the stranger read “Fair and warmer tomorrow” from the government bulletin. “I know all about the ’high and low pressure areas,'” he said, as he glanced at the chart. “A man in the show business has to study everything

A HOWL OF TERROR FROM THE PLATFORM.

which may Influence the attendance, but the behavior of my animals is a . better barometer for local conditions than any aneroid which the weather bureau owns. In spite of the clear sky and the official predictions, I would wager that we shall have a bad storm within the next 24 hours, for those lions have the inherited knowledge of hundreds of generations of jun-gle-bred ancestors whose food supply depended largely upon the weather conditions.** “Do the other animals possess the same barometric accomplishments?” asked the stranger skeptically, and the proprietor laughed as he invited him to come inside and judge for himself, 'the arena was always an uncanny place at night, for in the dim light only the glowing eyes of the animals could be distinguished in the cages, and the snarls and growls which came from behind the gratings conjured up visions of what might happen if one of the animals were loose and crouching on the seats of the auditorium or in the galleries, waiting for a meal of human flesh; but tonight it was Worse than usual, for the unwonted restlessness of the animals was apparent even to the untrained senses of the stranger. "There was a trainer named Barton In my employ who did a pretty fair act with a group of six lions, but he was a brutal sort of a chap and punished his animals so severely that they went through their performance on the jump so as to get out of the exhibition cage, where blows were more plentiful than kind words. His act was a winner, an right, for he was absolutely fearless and the animals put up a bluff of snarling and snapping which made it exciting, but I disliked the man so much that I was glad to farm him out fbr a ten weeks’ engagement on the vaudeville circuit “He wasn’t a bad looking chap and when he came back from his tour he brought with him one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She was an Egyptian who had been brought to this country with a troupe

(Copyright by W. G. Chapman)

of dancers for one of the big exhibitions, and he met her and married her when they were performing in the same theater. Of course, I had absolutely no use for an Egyptian dancer with my show and I made the marriage an excuse to get rid of Barton; but be begged me to keep him on the plea that he was teaching her to do his act with the lions. She was so beautiful that I realized that she would be a great drawing card if she developed into a good trainer, so I consented and signed a contract with him for another year. I regretted it when I saw the first rehearsal, for it was painfully evident that she went into the cage only because she was more afraid of her husband than she was of the lions, and I didn't blame her; for while I might Interfere to prevent Illtreatment of the lions, which were my property, I had no authority to protect her from his cruelty. They did most of the rehearsing at night, and I trusted to the fear which Barton had instilled In the lions to keep them from attacking her, for he always stood at the bars and they would cower down at the sound of his voice.

"In spite of all my precautions, I was always uneasy when she was in the cage, and when I had to be away from the show she was constantly in my mind. I had to go to the wharf one afternoon to superintend the unloading of a new lot of animals which had been sent from our English quarters, and owing to delays at the custom house it was late at night before I could start back for the show. Perhaps I had absorbed some of the weather wisdom of the animals from long association with them, but, at any rate, I was uneasy at the delays and as I whizzed along In the trolley I congratulated myself on my foresight in having warned Barton, as the thunder heads were gathering and I knew the animals would have the jumps and be unsafe to work with. But my heart sank as I drew near the building and saw that it was brilliantly lighted up, for that could only mean one thing at that time of night—Leotta must be rehearsing.

“My guess was right: Barton, in disobedience of orders, had made her go into the cage, and he had taken advantage of my absence to break our iron-clad rule which forbids a trainer to drink. I saw the whole situation as soon as I entered the building, and I would have given the whole show to have the little woman safety on the right side of the bars. The animals in the dens were raising a. worse row than they did tonight, and the lions in Leotta’s group had forgotten their fear of the trainer in their greater fear of the approaching storm. They were ugly, and Barton, who was more than half-seas over, stood at the bars shouting abuse at his wife and the lions and jeering at her evident terror. I saw that the other trainers and keepers appreciated the danger, for they were gathered around, holding iron bars, Roman candles and pistols; but they had sense enough to know that any interference which would draw his attention from the cage would precipitate the trouble, and none of them could make Leotta appreciate the danger of her position. I went up to him quietly and told him that I thought he had better call the rehearsal off for the night, intending to square accounts with him as soon as Leotta was safely out of the cage; but the drink was in his brain and be turned on me and 'cursed me. Leotta gave a scream of terror as the brute turned his back on the cage and, as if by a preconcerted plan, every one of the six great beasts jumped for her. * "Barton knew that the game was up, and in his drunken rage he attacked me and it kept my hands full to manage him; but the others rushed for the cage, and while Bonavita and Stevenson beat off the lions with the help of the keepers on the outside who were firing pistols and Roman candles and using fire-extinguishers through the ban, Bobby Ifack picked up Leotta and carried her outside. Of course, that ended Leotta’s career In the show business and finished Barton’s employment with me. The poor little thing's

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND,

■ beauty was gone, for > Hon's claws make deep cuts, and it was many a day before she was able to leave the hospital. You can see that I have reason to be confident of the accuracy of the predictions of my weather bureau, for If there had been no thunderstorm brewing I might have developed a sensational lion act.” “Or If Leotta had understood English,” commented the press agent, as he beckoned to the waiter. “Of course, it is sometimes an advantage to have performers who can’t converse with the audience; but it Is mighty inconvenient if they can't understand the orders of the boss. I lost the chance of making a lot of money once, because a squaw who was working for us couldn't understand the white man's lingo. A guy named Merritt and myself were disappointed about getting a concession for a snake show at the Lewis and Clark exposition, and we found ourselves broke in St Louis, which is separate*? from the Bowery by about 1,000 miles of very tough walking when you haven’t got the price of a railway ticket Merritt was mad clean through at being thrown down by the exposition managers, but he .was an Inventive genius and I knew that he would figure out, a way to raise the price of transportation.

“'Jim,' says he as we counted up ouf available assets and found that they were pretty well along toward a minus quantity, *it makes me dead sore to be turned down this way without getting a run for our money, and it’s up to us to Increase our capital and incidentally give the bunch that done us dirt the double cross. Get your thlnK tank working and see what it will produce.’ I couldn't see a way out, but when a squaw from the Rosebud reservation, who was selling trailing arbutus, came up to us and offered us a nosegay, Merritt gives a whoop and claps me on the shoulder. "'Jim,' says he, Tve got it and we*n make our everlasting fortunes!* He commenced to question the squaw, but all the English she knew was ‘ten cent a bunch,' and he didn’t make much headway until a big buck Injun who had been watching her from cross the street came over and butted in. It appeared that he was het husband, and when Merritt stated his proposition the buck accepted the terms without the formality of ’ consulting the squaw. When the exposition opened we had a big tent on an open lot across from the main entrance, with a life-sized picture of ’The Marvelous Mermaid’ aS big as ’ a house. As 1 remarked, Merritt was an inventive genius and he had worked up a scheme to deceive the confiding public. He had provided a Fiatform and carefully cut out a hole so that the squaw could stand on the ground and the edges of the hole fitted snugly about her waist He made her lean, forward and rest her chin in her hands in the conventionally accepted mermaid position, and then he fitted a fish tail which lay along the top of the platform, and it was so skilfully joined to her that it looked as if it grew there. She was a good looking squaw and she certainly played her part and made an inter esting picture. “Of course, he couldn't explain to her what he wanted her to do but he would tell the buck, who would carefully translate and impress the instructions upon her memory with the aid of-a bale stickr The thing which he put most stress upon was that she was to remain absolutely still, no matter what happened. I sold the tickets and put up the spiel on the front, and Merritt lectured inside and we did a landoffice business. One afternoon we were playing to a record house and Merritt was doing himself proud on his lecture.

‘“Ladies and gentlemen,* says he, *1 have the honor to present to this intelligent audience a creature which is commonly, but erroneously, sup posed to be extinct at the present day; but you have before you a living and convincing proof that mermaids still exist. I confess that until I was able to obtain this unique specimen, which was captured while basking in the sun and singing a love song upon an ice berg in the Antarctic ocean, I shared the opinions of my fellow scientists that the mermaid was a fabulous or extinct creature; for during a lifetime devoted to exhibiting the mysterious marvels of nature to the American public it had never been my good fortune to acquire one. You will observe that she is half woman and half fish, and she is perfectly helpless when out of the water. She is unfortunately unable to express herself in any known tongue; in fact, she has never uttered a sound since her capture and we fear that she has lost her voice, which —' Just then he was interrupted by a howl of terror from the platform, which was followed by a roar of laughter from the audience, and when he turned he saw the squaw standing up and trying to wrap the fake tail around a pair of well-devel-oped, copper-colored legs. Her face was as pale as a squaw’s face could get and Merritt knew the jig was up. X was peeking in the door, and when I saw what had happened 1 gathered up the box-office receipts and faded away. I met Merritt that evening in our usual case, and underneath a pair of black eyes and a battered-up phis I could see that he 'was wearing a look of deep disgust “ ‘Jim, 1 says he, ‘this is what comes from pinning your faith to a woman and not appreciating the weakness of the sex. She faced the danger of being burned alive and never turned a hair; but when, she saw a measly little mouse crawl under the platform she busted up the whole show." The stranger said good-night and started for the city, but before he reached the railway station he was drenched by the downpour which the proprietor had predicted.

HIGHEST SALARIED MANAGER IN BASEBALL

Manager John J. McGraw of New York Giants.

Manager John J. McGraw is the highest salaried man in baseball. Last Year McGraw received $30,000 as salary from the New York club and will get the same amount this year and for three .more, for the new contract he signed last winter at that yearly salary has four more years to run. McGraw's income from baseball last year was 183,500. ■ . . .4 McGraw was born in Truxton, N. Y., April 7, 1873.' He played his first professional engagement with the Olean, N. Y., team in 1890. After two seasons in the minor leagues he entered the National league as a member of the

SPEED NOW A GREAT FACTOR

Modernized Baseball Uses Faster Play Than Was the Case In Earlier Days of the Game.

It is in the base stealing department that the biggest difference between the old-time ball players and the present generation is found. A comparison between the flguresujf 20 years ago and now shows a remarkable falling off. In 1886 in the National league three men stole more than 50 bases. Harry Stovey led the American association with 96 steals. In 1887 Stovey broke all records stealing 143 bases. Arlie Latham was a close second with 142. In the National league Johnny Ward led with 110 ste'als, the late Jimmy Fogarty being second with 102. In 1888 Stovey made a record that will hardly be touched. He stole 156 bases.

Clyde Milan.

Five other American association players stole more than 100 bases. Dummy Hoy led the National league with 82 steals. Billy Hamilton came to the front as the American association’s best base runner in 1880. He put 117 steals to his credit, leading Stovey by two. Fogarty did the beat work in the National league, stealing 99 bases. Since the advent of Ty Cobb. Clyde Milan and Eddie Collins, base running has had a revival, but the three American league stars are the only players who show anything like the old-timers.

Baltimore team in 1892, and remained' with that team until the end of the season of 1899. In 1900 he played With the St Louis Cardinals. The following year the American league placed a team in Baltimore, with McGraw as manager. John remained in Baltimore until he signed as manager of the Giants in 1902. On July 19, 1914, he will celebrate his twelfth year as pilot of the National league champions. During his career as a player McGraw was a crack third baseman, and since taking up the managerial end of the game he has developed a number of the greatest stars in baseball.

WORK OF BASEBALL SCOUTS

Interesting Feature of Wonderful De-' velopment of Game as Commercial and Sporting Institution.

Few people realize the amount of hard work which is put in on behalf of big league baseball clubs for the purpose of locating and developing new talent. Every year the big clubs have baseball scouts scouring the country, some of whose journeyings take them a mileage sufficient to encircle the globe every year. They travel from Maine to California and back again, ofttimes, the slightest report of a good thing being followed up with the utmost possible speed; These scouts generally are old time players and they have a appreciation of what is necessary to make a big league player; and yet, at that, they are frequently fooled. Indeed, the getting of a phenomenon is largely a matter of luck after all. Some of the keenest scouts in the country have turned down some of the most wonderful players, while scouts of mediocre ability have turned up world renowned baseball artists.

The system appears to be necessary. Baseball clubs keep scouts going on the same theory that nations maintain and. equip a standing army. They do it because the other fellow does and so scouting has come to be as much a part of baseball equipment as anything else. Whether it paye or not is another question. It certainly is an interesting feature of the wonderful devlopment of baseball as a commercial as well as a sporting institution.

Cobb Lacked Two Votes.

Ty Cobb lacked but two votes of being the unanimous choice of 11 scribes for the position of center fielder on the All-American baseball team being drafted on paper by the Boston Post The Georgian got nine votes out of the 11, but two dissenting voters who selected Tris Speaker prevented Cobb from sharing honors with Walter Johnson and Eddie Collins, who were unanimous choices, both received the entire 11 votes.

Waivers on Doc Crandall.

Although Doc Crandall has jumped to the Feds, McGraw has gone through the formality of asking waivers on him under the new rule that the offer must be to all class AA and then class A clubs. Nashville is out in a bid for the pitcher, believing that he may repent when he sees how the Feds pan out.

Claims World’s Championship.

President Gilmore deciares he will claim the world’s baseball championship for the Federals if the winners of the American and National leagues refuse to meet bls pennant winnar-

STRIKE-OUT RECORDS OF MAJOR LEAGUES

Sweeney. Providence against Boston. June 7, 1884, 19 Daly, Chicago against Boston, July 20, 1884, 1». Shaw, Boston against St. Louis, JWy 25, 1884, 18. Hecker, Louisville against Columbus, August 26, 1884, 17. Buffington, Boston against Cleveland, September 2,1884,17. Ramsey, Louisville against Metropolitan, August 9, 1886,17, Ramsey, Louisville against Cleveland, June 21, 1887, 17. Kilroy, Baltimore against Athletics, June 24, 1886, 16. Clarkson, Chicago against Kansas City, August 18,1886,16. Gilmore, Washington against St. Louis, September 24, 1886, 16. Buffington, Boston against Detroit, July 30, 1885, 16. Ramsey, Louisville against Baltimore, June 29, 1886, 16. Ramsey, Louisville against St. Louis, June 30, 1887, 16. Keefe, Metroplltan against Brooklyn, August 21, 1885, 16. Matthews, Athletics against Columbus, September 27, 1884, 16. Lynch, Metropolitan against Richmond, August 24, 1884, 16. Cushman, Milwaukee against Boston, September 24, 1884, 16. Hahn, Cincinnati against Boston, May 22, 1901, 16. Glade, St. Louis against Washington, July 18, 1904, 16. Waddell, St Louis against Athletics, July 29, 1908, 16. Mathewson, New York against St. Louis, October 3, 1904, 16. Rucker, Brooklyn against St Louis, July 24, 1909, 16.

THORPE A BASEBALL PLAYER

Famous Indian Athlete Established World’s Record for the All Around Championship.

James Thorpe, the Indian football and baseball player, and track athlete, was born on a ranch near Prague, Okla, May 28, 1888. After he had attended the Haskell Indian school for two years and a half and a public

Jim Thorpe.

school at Prague for two years, he entered Carlisle in 1904. At Carlisle Thorpe*was taken in hand by Coach Warner, who developed the athletic ability of the Indian and made him the greatest athlete of the day. At . Carlisle Thorpe was a star on the field, track, gridiron, and diamond. At the Olympic games at Stockholm last July he won the pentathlon and decathlon. Two months later he established a new world’s record for the all around championship of the A. A. U. at Celtic park. New York. Thorpe’s public confession a short time ago that he had played professional bareball while competing as an amateur caused the A. A. U. committee to erase his championship marks from the official record. He is a member of the New York Giants at present

Texas League Well Balanced.

W. R. Davidson of Waco, president of the Texas league, is of the opinion that if the players signed by the Texas clubs this year play in anything like the form for which they are noted his will be one of the most evenly balanced leagues in the country, as every club looks like k was made to fit in a first division berth.

Red Sox Insured.

While it is not generally known, the Boston Red Sox management has the lives of Speaker, Wood, Bedient and Gardner Insured for a total of equally divided among the four. .- r