Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1884 — Circus-Riders. [ARTICLE]

Circus-Riders.

A little boy known as Leo Carlo was brought into court in Philadelphia, to testify to his brutal ill-treatment by the manager of & circus. The child—whose real name aud parentage had been forgotten long ago—had been in the circus since his infancy, and was now im training for a bare-back rider. _ He charged that his master, as he called the manager, compelled him to ride an unbroken horse, that frequently threw him. Whenever this happened he was beaten, kicked, and at last the sharp spike with which elephants ure pricked was plunged into his body. During the course of the trial, many noteworthy sterns with regard to circuses were brought to light. It was stated that to become an acrobat a child must be put in training as early as its third year. The master stands over the child with a whip during each lesson.

A few years ago a similar case gave the public a glimpse behind the curtain of the circus tent. The “woman with the iron jaw,” who was noted for her enormous strength, had a child that she called her son, but had bought when he was a baby, and whom it was proved she systematically, starved and drugged with gin to keep him below a certain weight. There ure many o f our boy-readers in places who have been dazzled by tne glories of the traveling circus. The ring, glittering with lights, is fairy-land, and -the ilying creatures in velvet and spaugles, the happy creatures who dwell therein. These the boys envy with a fierce contempt of their own homes and work. They forget that the fun, in all shows, belongs to the audience, the work to the performers. There is, perhaps, no trade which requires harder or more constant manual labor than that of the circus-rider. His days are taken up with rehearsals, he travels all night, and lodges in the lowest inns. Tne mistake of the fall at which he laughs and the clown jokes, will be punished behind the curtain with a whipping, if the rider is a boy, or, if he is a man, by the profane curses of his employer, or by the lessening of his miserable wages. The white lead used in painting the face and head, in the case of two of the most celebrated of American clowns, brought on'a softening of the brain and death, and almost inevitably produces some kind of cerebral disease. Stick to your farm, boys, or your schools! There is no tempting Dead sea fruit so full of bitter ashes as the lives of these gaudy ereatures whom you so much envy.— Youth's Com panion.