Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1879 — The Oldest of Showmen. [ARTICLE]

The Oldest of Showmen.

The New York Sun of ihe 18th Inst., contains a sketch of the life and adven • tures of Benjamin F. Brown, who was bora in Somers, Westchester county New York, January 11, 1799, and who now lives near crofcen falls—who fa the oldest of living showmen. I remember that I was on the Mississippi river when they were sending troops down to New Orleans to fight the British. I remember, too, that I was at New Madrid, Mo., when they had what they called “sand-blows.”

The ground rumbled, and then the sand shot up a hundred feet or so and scattered all around. It was something in the nature of a volcano. While working on my lather’s farm in New York State, Hachalie Bailey and Ed. Finch came along with a show consisting of an elephant andlalion, and they wanted me to travel with Bet, the elepant She was a big one. We used tosho v in barns, and we showed the elephant and the lion separate, and charged a shilling for seeing the elephant and a shilling for seeing the lion. That was before the the days of tents, My brother Christopher was the first man to put up a canvas. He had it in stripes ten feet wide and fifty feed long, ana he used to stretch in from the barn doors. In one season we cleared about 18,000 with the elephant alone. You see the expenses were next to nothing. They didn’t average twenty shilling a day. I worked for $26 a month. We used to have pretty rough times. We traveled in tne night, so that folks would’t see the animals, and persons collected in the road sometimes, and tried to stop us. Once in Pennsylvania, they collected in this way, aud one fellow threw a stone and hit me on the head and knocked me off my horse. I’ve got the scar. now,” and Mr. Brown placed his finger on a scar that showed: plainly through his thin hair. Mr. Brown traveled with Bet, the big elephant; for a year or so, ami then went home long enough to help iu the spring planting. He had made himself very useful to Bailey A Finch, but a disagreement about money matters led him to give up his situation. He was not long idle- Lewis Bailey, with one Brown, had a circus and they hired Benjamin to take care of the horses. Charles Biberry was a horse-breaker, and Brown soon became his assistant. It took little time topick*up the knack of breaking horses, and tot each boys to ride, and he devoted much of his time to doing so. Afterward Bailey A Brown put so much confidence in the young man that they divided their establishment, and sent part of it to the South in charge of Benjamin. They traveled through Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, and in those days these States were the scene of many bloody frays.

“After this,” said he, “I had a show of my own. It was a circus and a menagerie- The menagerie consisted of a few worn out, old animals. We were down to the West Indies and South America. The biggest card in my show was a boy named Levi, a Jew. He was a wonderful rider. We had a piece of canvas twelve feet wide, then a hoop eighteen inches in diameter covered with paper, a balloon it was called, and Levi hela in his hand a hoop nine and a half inches in diameter. He’d jump over that banner, through the balloon and through the little hoop all at the same time. That was called a big feat in those days.” Mr. Brown, with his circus, cruised among the Windward Islands, and traversed the Caribbean Sea. It was in the days when pirates infested those waters and made traffic Insecure, and the circus had many narrow escapes. The Rover was a well known piratical ci aft, and when Brown was about leaving one of the islands he was warned that his vessel was lying in wait. The circus was aboard a new brig, and its captain, who knew the waters well, navigated her through a difficult passage, and gave the Rover the sip for that time; but hardly had they reached open water before the wind went down and there came a dead calm. The night came on, and a strict watch was kept. By and by sharp ears heard the splash of oars away in the distance. The pirates were coming. They lay perfectly becalmed. “We had on board eight muskets and four or five pistols,” said Mr. Brown, “and I said to the Captain. ‘Are you going to defend this brig?’ •Of course,’ said he. ‘We might as well defend ourselves as to let them take us. The’ll make us walk the plank anyway.’ So we got out our arms and waited for ’em to come on. Thesplash of the oars came nearer and nearer, and by and by we could see their gleam in the moonlight. Just then there came a breath of wind that rippled the water. Then there came a stronger puff. Every sail was set to catch the breeze that blew directly from the stern, and pretty soon the brig began to move, and as the wind increased we walked right away from the pirates. But the Rover caught the wind, too, and was after us. Every rope and sail and blet was firm, and we just let her scoot. So we kept on all day, and the pirate followed us dead astern; but as soon as it was dark we took a square tack and let Mr. P. run past us, and that was the last we saw of the pirate.”