Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1903 — A CIRCUS MANAGER'S TROUBLES. [ARTICLE]

A CIRCUS MANAGER'S TROUBLES.

Some of the Perplexities Annoy Inn the Manager of a Big Modern , Circus. Perhaps if some of the people who are disposed to charge the showmen with avarioe and deceit, oonld have an intimate knowledge of the perplexing things and annoying dreamstances which so often beset the modern circus manager and disturb the even tenor of his mind, they would desist from such accusations. From the beginning to the end of the season, and between seasons, the lot of the circus manager lacks more than one thing of being sweet peace. First he was confronted with a dearth of attractions, it being impossible to secure anything new. This Is not so to-day. There are many extraordinary and almost incredible attractions which mav be procured if the circus man will do as Mr. Wallace, of the Great Wallace Show has done—go after them and pay the high salaries demanded.

The hard time panic spread its desolating wing over the land and shadowed the businesa of Mr. Circns Man. Now, the other welcome extreme prevails, and in the presence of prosperity, as big and immense as are the tenta of the Wallace Show, Mr. Wallace ia annoyed (and who wouldn't be?) by seeing, in almost every city and town which he visits, hundreds and often thousands of people turned away, who are anxious to give their money to him for the privilege of seeing the show. There is a limit to the size a teat can be made, and when whole towns, cities, and, as in the WeAt,\|be people of whole oounties rise np en masse to see the Wallace Show, it wontd be a physical impossibility to provide a sufficiently large tent to accommodate them. Any business man will acknowlege that it is aanoying to be compelled to refuse to take money from people who want to give it to him. v • . / : With a circus of the magnitude of the Wallace Show, expeneee are enormous. A score or more of the Wallace features acts cost from SSOO to SI,OOO per week. The highest salaries, of course are paid for those features, which are original and new, coming for the first time this year from Europe. To these most be added the pay of almost a half thousand employees, many of whom draw liberal salaries. To this big salary list, whloh most be paid rain or shine, and which is less than half of the running expenses of a big three-ring circns like Wallace’s, there moat be addea the board and feed of the ani-

mala, the transportation mad advertising, the equipping and maintaining the vast outfit of the modern circus. When the Wallace Bhow exhibits in Rensselaer, Saturday, July 25th, not one of the thousands will begrudge the money thus spent, for they can readily see that it costs many thousands of dollars weekly to provide as high a class of really new acts as can be found with the Great Wallace Show.