Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1879 — The Circus “Advance Agent” and a “Chronicle” Reporter. [ARTICLE]

The Circus “Advance Agent” and a “Chronicle” Reporter.

Yesterday afternoon a dapper little man, with a two-ounce cane and a halfpound cluster diamond pin, came into the Chronicle office and asked if the amusement reporter was in. When the man he sought was pointed out the stranger grasped him warmly by the hand, remarking: “ Delighted to meet you, sir—really, I am. I’ve heard of you at every place I’ve stopped on my way from New York. I haa such a curiosity to see you that I got off at Reno and took a run up. But, really, I had expected to find a much older man, considering the magnificent reputation your dramatic and circus criticisms have given you. All of our boys told Ifie to be sure and see you, if I didn’t get aboard of anything else in the town.” “Ah,” said the reporter, blushing in four colors,,** I am glad to see you. Might I inquire your name?” ,{ Well, here’s my card,” said the little man, handing out a piece of paper about five inches square, “ you may have heard of me before —Clarence de Lacy Slocum, agent of the Sebastian Van Buena Vista Circus and Menagerie. This is by far the hugest combination oi gigantic circuses over put on the j road. We Started out about five years L ago in a small way, with not over four j hundred thousand feet of canvas, only inine tents. andscarcfilxfifteenbundttKl, ' animals, but wo gradually absorbed all 1 the small-fry shows. I'hey’d go into bankruptcy along the route, and we

would buy up their outfits. Sebastian, our owner, is the most sympathetic man on earth. He’d buy their little shows and paY" double price, just to help the poor devils along. Monev is of to him. He's traveling simply for pleasure and a desire to see the great West” . “I’d like to know him,” remarked the reporter. “ On, he knows you—thaj is by reputation; Be has your pictufd set in a frame that cost him over SIOO. He was saying to me one night that whenever business was dull he just took a look at that phiz of yours and it always made him feel as happy as if he whs obliged to turn five hundred people away at the door.” “ How came he to get bold of my picture?” “ Oh, he begged it of De Murska or Modjeska, or Clara Morris—l forgot which. She hated like thunder to part with it, but you see he had loaned the freat actress SIO,OOO once in Paris to uy a wardrobe and some jewelry for a new piece, and as the debt was never canceled she couldn’t very well refuse. But I just came in to gi w e you a little information about our show. I always like to give a man all the points when I know, he possesses the talent to handle them in the right style. Some fellows down at Reno and Carson tried to pump me, but I didn’t propose to let a description of my show be manfled up by scrub writers. Beside, Seastian telegraphed me from New York last night not to let anybody but you get aboard of the first grand description. Just mention four miles of cages containing wild beasts, with twelve new varieties of elephants and a recently discovered monster from Africa called the iabberwock, which weighs 3,000 pounds.” “Indeed!” „ * “ Yes, sir! and a man like you, with a fine descriptive ability and inexhaustible command of language which has made you famous in two continents”— “ How many columns do you want?” “ Oh, as many as you please." “When will the show be here?” “ Perhaps not for two months; it takes such a long time to move tho animals that our progress across the country is slow.” “Just so.” Well, our figures for big circuses like yours are one hundred and fifty dollars a column, cash down,, and thirty per cent, of the gross receipts if the show is a success.” The circus agent seemed greatly affected. “ Isn’t that rather steep?” he said. . “It would be, perhaps, for a small provincial journal like the New York Herald, or even the London Times, but we circulate such a mammoth edition that the price is comparatively trifling. Fourteen freight ears come up every day with paper for our edition, which is worked off on five big Walter presses, lightning geared. Our expense for steam alone, sir, is two thousand dollars a day. We have more carriers than you could pack into your largest tent. Our Eastern circulation has been increasing at the rate of a thousand a day for the last two years. By simply cutting down the size of the paper an eighth of an inch our proprietor has saved enough money to build four school-houses worth forty thousand dollars each, and endowed an orphan asylum in each county in the State. He doesn’t run the paper for money, but just simply for his health and because he likes the country. Our mailing and folding machinery would remind you of the Risdon iron-work.” “ Is it in this building?” “Oh no; this is simply the branch office—the place where we write up circuses. Our principal establishment”— The circus agent groaned as if in agony and fled from the office. — Virginia City (Nev. ) Chronicle.