THEATRICAL
AND
CIRCUS LIFE;
OR,
SECRETS OF THE STAGE,
GREEN-ROOM AND SAWDUST ARENA.
EMBRACING
A HISTORY OF THE THEATRE FROM SHAKESPEARE'S TIME TO THE PRESENT DAY, AND
ABOUNDING IN ANECDOTES CONCERNING THE MOST PROMINENT ACTORS
AND ACTRESSES BEFORE THE PUBLIC;ALSO, A COMPLETE EXPOSITION
OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE STAGE, SHOWING THE MANNER IN
WHICH WONDERFUL SCENIC AND OTHER EFFECTS ARE
PRODUCED; THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NEGRO
MINSTRELSY; THE MOST ASTONISHING TRICKS
OF MODERN MAGICIANS, AND A HISTORY
OF THE HIPPODROME, ETC., ETC.
Illustrated with Numerous Engravings andFine Colored Plates.
By JOHN J. JENNINGS.
CHICAGO:
Globe Publishing Co.
1886.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by
GLOBE PUBLISHING CO.,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
The theatre and the circus, both sources of unlimitedamusement to the world, are also objects of thegreatest interest to all who have had even a singlepeep at the stage or pressed their feet even once uponthe sawdust precincts of the tented show. The tricksand illusions that are mystifying to nine-tenths ofthose to whom they are presented rarely fail to beproductive of pleasure, and the performers, whetherbefore the foot-lights or within the circus ring, generallysucceed in so thoroughly winning the hearts ofthe public, that, though their faces, when the paint isoff and the atmosphere of glory has departed, mightnot be recognized upon the street, their names are sofixedly identified with the pleasant moments associatedwith their art, that they become household words, andare spoken, with admiration and praise, by all classes,from the newsboy and bootblack up through the variousstrata of society even to the ruler of the nation.
In presenting this volume to the public the intentionhas been to bring the player and the people intocloser relations, and by revealing the secrets of thestage and sawdust arena to show that what appears atfirst to be deep mystery and to many, who are bigotedand averse to theatrical and kindred entertainments,the blackest diabolism, is merely the result of thesimplest combinations of mechanical skill and studiedart, and is as innocent of the sinister character bestowedupon it as are the efforts of school children attheir annual exhibitions or the exercises of a SabbathSchool class before a row of drowsy and nodding church-deacons.Fault may be found with the private lives4of numbers of the members of the theatrical and circusprofession, but the sins and shortcomings of individuals,can be visited upon the entire class with nomore justice than can the frailties of a few preachersbe applied generally to the pulp