The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
’ME heart OP
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VOLUME 16
NEW BERN, N. C. 28560, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1973
NUMBER 2
We dreamed about a circus,
on a restles night this week, and
ali the kids turned out
to see the sights. . . .There
were elephants, and painted
clowns, and horses strong and
sledc, acrobats with snuggly
fitted tights.
This was an old-time circus,
like the ones of long ago, when
street parades would stretch a
mile or two Our bouncing
trolley ran and ran, packed to
an overflow, yes, we remember
still, and do you.
Sels-Floto, Sparks, John
Robinson gave thrills that
linger on, compared with them
these modern shows are
tame The Big Top in its finest
form alas is dead and gone, and
sawdust trails will never be the
same.
Where are the dawns when
kids got up to meet the magic
trains, bringing a cargo mar
velous to see?....Things like
striped tigers, and lions with
tawny manes, prevues of
the acts that were to be.
If you’ve never carried water
to elephants that thirst, in hopes
that maybe you might get in
free....We’re here to teU you
frankly that few jobs could be
worse, there’s just no end to
their capacity.
Biit when you ceased to labor,
and you got a seat up high, no
king was ever prouder on his
throne....Such were the fleeting,
golden thrills that came in days
gone by, the grandest thrills a
boy has ever known.
Let others dream of fame’s
acclaim when they indulge in
slumber, and thank the Sand
Man for their pleasant
thoughts....Or let them hold
their coins of gold, too vast to
count the number, and clutch
them to their mercenary hearts.
We’ll be content, when next
we dream, to journey back once
more and see again the
Greatest Show On Earth....The
aerialists on high trapeze, the
beast with snarl and roar, the
slapstick antics that provoked
our mirth.
Yes, that’s a dream worth
dreaming, we found it to be
so....The other night on a circus
lot, in the land of long ago.
-i- + -l- -l- -(•
Yesterday was when you could
rent an apartment in the
remaining wing of Tryon
Palace for ten dollars a month,
few among the thousands who
passed its door ever bothered to
pause, or even glance that way.
Those were the years of the
Great Depression, brought on
overnight by the crash of
Wall Street’s stock market in
1929. Speculators jumped to
their death from skyscraper
offices, while little guttler
people dug in and managed to
survive.
However, Tryon Palace was
an object of neglect and
deterioration long before this
happened. Following the
Revolutionary War, it was
allowed to go to ruin, although
put to many uses.
Sometimes the Legislature
met there, and at other times it
was used as a schoohouse and
for various public en-
terainments. George
Washington was wined and
(Continued on page 8'
A CHILD’S WORLD IS A WONDROUS WORLD.
—Photo by Theodore Baxter.
V*?,-. .