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Circus Life and
Circus Celebrities
PREFACE.
There are probably few persons who do notnumber among the most pleasant recollections oftheir youth their first visit to a circus, whethertheir earliest sniff of the saw-dust was inhaled inthe building made classical by Ducrow, or underthe canvas canopy of Samwell or Clarke. In myboyish days, the cry of ‘This way for the riders!’bawled from the stentorian vocal organs of theproprietor or ring-master of a travelling circus,never failed to attract all the boys, and no smallproportion of the men and women, to the part ofthe fair from which it proceeded. Fairs havebecome things of the past within twelve or fifteenmiles of the metropolis; but ever and anon avitenting circus pitches, for a day or two, in a meadow,and the performances prove as attractive as ever.The boys, who protest that they are better than aplay,—the young women, who are delighted withthe ‘loves of horses,’—the old gentlemen, who arenever so pleased as when they are amusing theirgrandchildren,—the admirers of graceful horsemanshipof all ages,—crowd the benches, and find the oldtricks and the old ‘wheezes,’ as the poet found theview from Grongar Hill, ‘ever charming—ever new.’
What boy is there who, though he may haveseen it before, does not follow with sparkling eyesthe Pawnee Chief in his rapid career upon a bare-backedsteed,—the lady in the scarlet habit andhigh hat, who leaps over hurdles,—the stout farmerwho, while his horse bears him round the ring, divestshimself of any number of coats and vests, untilhe finally appears in tights and trunks,—the jugglerwho plays at cup and