People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — A HUMAN CALLIOPE. [ARTICLE]

A HUMAN CALLIOPE.

A Strong-Voiced Canvanman Who Irritated the Animals, But Bared the Show. “One of the most singular men I ever knew,” said a wealthy retired circus man to a New York Sun reporter, “was a canvasman in the first show I ever owned. His name was Bill Flicker and his singularity lay in his voice; he was the loudest talker I ever knew. He disturbed everybody when he talked, and if he talked at night he always woke up the animals. This once came very near getting us into serious trouble. The giraffe one day bit at a little child who had approached too near his cage, and he never would have done this in the world if he had not been made irritable by being kept awake nights hearing Bill talk. There were times when we thought we would have to get rid of Bill, but he was a good-hearted man, and he did twice as much work as anybody else, and so we kept him, and the time came when we were very glad we did. Our steam calliope, one of the first ever used, was a great attraction. We always billed it very strong as a leading feature of the street parade, and it pleased the people immensely. We were at that time in the far west. In those days there were in every far western town a considerable number of intensely emotional people who were always sure to make a great row if things didn’t go to please them. While we were in one of these towns our calliope broke down, and the engineer was unable to repair it in time. We dragged it in the procession, but the people were so enraged at not hearing it play that they shot the horses. At the next town the calliope was still out of repair, and we expected that the people there would wreck the show, but at the last moment, just as the parade was about to start, Bill Flicker stepped forward and said: “ ‘Colonel, I’ll be the calliope.’ “They took the insides out of the calliope and put Bill in. The player took his place and worked the keys and Bill talked. After that nobody ever thought of discharging Bill Flicker. He disturbed ■ the animals, but he had saved the circus.”