CIRCUS
A well-known theatrical manager repeats an instance of what the late W.
C. Coup, of circus fame, once told him was one of the most amusing features of the show-business; the faking in the "side-show."
Coup was the owner of a small circus that boasted among its princ.i.p.al attractions a man-eating ape, alleged to be the largest in captivity.
This ferocious beast was exhibited chained to the dead trunk of a tree in the side-show. Early in the day of the first performance of Coup"s enterprise at a certain Ohio town, a countryman handed the man-eating ape a piece of tobacco, in the chewing of which the beast evinced the greatest satisfaction.
The word was soon pa.s.sed around that the ape would chew tobacco; and the result was that several plugs were thrown at him. Unhappily, however, one of these had been filled with cayenne pepper. The man-eating ape bit it; then, howling with indignation, snapped the chain that bound him to the tree, and made straight for the practical joker who had so cruelly deceived him.
"Lave me at "im!" yelled the ape. "Lave me at "im, the dirty villain!
I"ll have the rube"s loife, or me name ain"t Magillicuddy!"
Fortunately for the countryman and for Magillicuddy, too, the man-eating ape was restrained by the bystanders in time to prevent a killing.
Willie to the circus went, He thought it was immense; His little heart went pitter-pat, For the excitement was in tents.
--_Harvard Lampoon_.
A child of strict parents, whose greatest joy had hitherto been the weekly prayer-meeting, was taken by its nurse to the circus for the first time. When he came home he exclaimed:
"Oh, Mama, if you once went to the circus you"d never, never go to a prayer-meeting again in all your life."
Johnny, who had been to the circus, was telling his teacher about the wonderful things he had seen.
"An" teacher," he cried, "they had one big animal they called the hip--hip--
"Hippopotamus, dear," prompted the teacher.
"I can"t just say its name," exclaimed Johnny, "but it looks just like 9,000 pounds of liver."
CIVILIZATION
An officer of the Indian Office at Washington tells of the patronizing airs frequently a.s.sumed by visitors to the government schools for the redskins.
On one occasion a pompous little man was being shown through one inst.i.tution when he came upon an Indian lad of seventeen years. The worker was engaged in a bit of carpentry, which the visitor observed in silence for some minutes. Then, with the utmost gravity, he asked the boy:
"Are you civilized?"
The youthful redskin lifted his eyes from his work, calmly surveyed his questioner, and then replied:
"No, are you?"--_Taylor Edwards_.
"My dear, listen to this," exclaimed the elderly English lady to her husband, on her first visit to the States. She held the hotel menu almost at arm"s length, and spoke in a tone of horror: ""Baked Indian pudding!" Can it be possible in a civilized country?"
"The path of civilization is paved with tin cans."--_The Philistine_.
CLEANLINESS
"Among the tenements that lay within my jurisdiction when I first took up mission work on the East Side." says a New York young woman, "was one to clean out which would have called for the best efforts of the renovator of the Augean stables. And the families in this tenement were almost as hopeless as the tenement itself.
"On one occasion I felt distinctly encouraged, however, since I observed that the face of one youngster was actually clean.
""William," said I, "your face is fairly clean, but how did you get such dirty hands?"
""Washin" me face," said William."
A woman in one of the factory towns of Ma.s.sachusetts recently agreed to take charge of a little girl while her mother, a seamstress, went to another town for a day"s work.
The woman with whom the child had been left endeavored to keep her contented, and among other things gave her a candy dog, with which she played happily all day.
At night the dog had disappeared, and the woman inquired whether it had been lost.
"No, it ain"t lost," answered the little girl. "I kept it "most all day, but it got so dirty that I was ashamed to look at it; so I et it."--_Fenimore Martin_.
"How old are you?" once asked Whistler of a London newsboy. "Seven," was the reply. Whistler insisted that he must be older than that, and turning to his friend he remarked: "I don"t think he could get as dirty as that in seven years, do you?"
If dirt was trumps, what hands you would hold!--_Charles Lamb_.
CLERGY
"Now, children," said the visiting minister who had been asked to question the Sunday-school, "with what did Samson arm himself to fight against the Philistines?"
None of the children could tell him.
"Oh, yes, you know!" he said, and to help them he tapped his jaw with one finger. "What is this?" he asked.