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3Z
VOL. XIII.
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1902.
NO. H.'.j
--j r i i rf ir i tv hi iri iii
J
i-
"HOWDY."
"Kind 0' like to hear 'em say it!
' "'. ; 'Howdy', howdy!'
Know who's who right there an' then,
That's the moral truth, now, men .
Put my trust right in him when ;
Man sez, 'Howdy!'"
Yes, sir. sounds like ol' times comin'
'Howdy, howdy!'
nez the heft, an' makes you feel
Like yore rely in the deal, -An'
yore friend kin sort o' 'spiel'
Sayin, 'Howdy!'"
' . Charles
-
W.
"V ALEB SIMPSON is an old man
i , now, and It Is with something
Vv 0f self-depreciation that he
sometimes spins a yarn of the
old days when he was in the circus
business with Simonldes ratroclus
Trice. A hot ltinch and a few friends
nearly as old as himself got him
started the other niht, and he told one
like this:
"There ain't any use going back to
the particulars of how I got in the
show business further than to say that
I sold up old Pap Rockwell's show for
-a feed bill he owed me, tried the game
for three performances, and made so
much money that I turned the store
over to my brother and set out for a
professional circus man. Rockwell cut
out and left as soon as he'd introduced
me to his general manager Sim Price.
Besides being manager of the show,
Sim was the clown, and, by the way,
to this day I think he was the funniest
clown that ever wore grease-paint. lie
was a bit sore when he found out that
I had seized the show, swore that he
was ready to pay up all the old 'bills
4ind assume the proprietorship himself.
But I'd had a taste of .the game I
Tvas young then and Sim's talk con
vinced me that I had hit on a good
thing, so I resolved to freeze on. Sim
got real mad then and sent me his res
ignation. I couldn't afford to lose him
for all the paper we had was splaslied
all over with his pictures. I agreed at
last to take him into partnership. We
had a lot of new posters struck off
leading: "Rockwell - Simpson - Trice
Great Triple Mastodon Circus, Mena
gerie and Hippodrome," and with that
high-sounding title we left Indianap
olis one Saturday night and struck into
the backwoods for ten weeks of one
day stands. Those were the days
when circuses traveled by wagon only,
and we weren't two hours on the road
before I wis blessing my stars that
.Sim had come along.
"He knew fnore about the show busi
ness than I ever learned or could learn,
and no dilemma was too difficult for
him to wriggle out of. Then he was a
'here's yotjb etjnko man."
good and elevating Influence with the
thirty-six people we carried. I .found
out that he'd been educated for the
ministry and had even conducted a
church in some interior town of Aus
tralia. His morals were above re
"Folks all say it in Mizzouree!
'Wal, -wal, howdy!'
Hearty, honest, homely, gruff,
Gentle, .kindly, yard-wide stuff -
Man that sez it's good enuff
' '01' boy, howdy!'
"Yes, sir, like to hear 'em say it!.
'Howdy, howdy!'
Hez a cheery, earnest ring,
No put-on, the A-l thing,
Gives yore own good-will a swing,
N you say, 'Howdy!'"
Stevenson, in Lippincott's Magazine.
proach, and his wife Mile. Du Barry,
the equestrienne and bareback rider
was the bright, particular star of the
troupe. They were really an edifying
couple, seemed to have plenty of
money, traveled in a private carriage,
and in every way added If such a
thing is possible to what I might call
the 'tone' of the outfit. Of course the
whole business was small compared
with these big modern, three-ring cir
cuses, but it was quite a model In its
way,. and I was pretty well through
my first season of it before I found
my self-respect in any danger. : But
that will come later.
"As a said, besides being an excel
lent clown, a good manager and a reg
ular martinet for discipline, Mr. Price
I never .called him Sim in those days
was always ready with the cash to
help us out of a tight place. I used
to wonder at his success in holding
onto his money, but as his wife made
a big salary, as salaries went, and as
his earnings as clown almost equaled
my two-thirds of the profits, it wasn't
so unaccountable that he should al
ways have ready money. His wife
was perfectly devoted to him, and no
doubt they pooled" their savings.
"The only serious .trouble we had at
first was in keeping our troupe to
gether. . Sim was everlastingly firing
somebody mostly for drunkenness, I
admit, but always for something. 1
thought he was too exacting with the
men, but in spite of all I could say he
wouldn't tolerate any' kind of loose
ness of speech, habits or manners.
The preacher habit was so strong in
him that he thought nothing at all of
discharging a hostler, for cursing one
of the animals, and as for drunken
nessno man ever came back to the
tent drunk more than once.
"Well, we were down in West Vir
ginia somewhere doing a one-day stand
when the town marshal dropped In on
Sim and me while we were at supper
after the show. He said that one of
our people had flim-flammed a number
of the townsfolk right in the shadow
of our main tent. Sim was furious, of
course. I denied that any of our peo
ple could practice such a fraud, but
Price solemnly declared that he'd inves
tigate the whole troupe for himself.
And sure enough that night, when the
vans were all loaded he rounded up
the whole company, read an awful lec
ture about the marshal's complaint,
and said that, if he ever caught any
of his employes engaged in any fraud
ulent games, or even any games of
chance he'd spend his last dollar prose
cuting the culprit. We knew all of
our felloAVs pretty well then, and I, for
one, didn't believe that any of them
were crooked. But Price was suspi
cious. He used to slink around half
the time spotting the men, but try as
he might he couldn't get any proof
against them. He did catch Griff
Whelan playing casino with a bar
tender one night, and though Griff was
a first-rate elephant man Sim dis
charged him without hesitation. The
worst of it was that every town we
made after that developed some kind
of a complaint about the 'circus crook'
who had cheated somebody. Some
times three-cards was the game; some
times the shell game was used, and
again it was the flash-roll. Price was
frantic. He used to hang around the
dressing tent, peeking under, the can
vas, and he got his wife to come earlier
than ever so that she could help him
catch the rascal.
"It got so that I I was ringmaster,
you know I never could tell when to
expect Sim to gallop into the ring, on
his trick mule. While we were all per
forming in the ring he'd be outside
somewhere prowling after the swind
ler who was following us or who was
one of our own people, so closely did
he tag our trail. We had plenty of de
scriptions of him, too; a half-dozen
town policemen had described him the
same way short, stout, dark hair and
drooping black mustache. We had at
least three men who came near that
appearance, -but incessant watching
had failed to even hint of their guilt.
Besides, they were all acrobats, train
ers or riders, and the frauds were al
ways committed about the time we
were busiest in the ring. ,
"Well, one. day Sim loitered so long
that it was nearly time for the chariot
race and he hadn't made his appear
ance. I slipped out to the dressing
tent to see if he was there, and sure
enough, back of the little canvas par
tition that he always kept for his own
and his wife's privacy he was smear
ing his face with grease-paint in hur
ried preparation for his entree. I
helped him onto his mule and was
buttoning up the back of his baggy
pantaloons' when a stranger ducked
under the wall of the tent and laid
his hand on my arm.
" 'Where did that fellow go that just
came in here?' he asked me excitedly.
I told him that nobody had come in,
but he insisted that 'a bunko man had
skinned Dr. Schneider out of ?200 not
five minutes ago,' and that he had
seen the confidence man duck into
the dressing room within the minute.
"Well, sirs, poor Sim flew into a
rage. He was for jumping off his mule
"WHEN I HEARD THE FAMILIAR XETjZj OP
'dumpy humpi! "
then and there to help find the Iong-looked-for
swindler. I persuaded him
to gallop out into the ring by promis
ing to do the searching myself, and,
aided by the officer, I searched dili
gently. The bugler at the ring en
trance had seen nobody enter from the
dressing tent. We opened all the
trunks and hampers, kicked over piles
of rugs, straw, canvas and properties,
but found nothing. Finally we de
cided that the crook had slipped in at
one; side and out at" the other without
being seen by Mr. Price, wno was at
the time alone in his little dressing
cell. The officer looked nonplussed,
but he left, after carefulyy describing
the man's appearance. It tallied ex
actly with all the previous knowledge
we had of the elusive crook, and there
was then nothing more to do but re
new our vigilance.
"We were doing a three-day stand
at that particular town, so Sim and I
sat up half the night discussing the
scandalous doings of the bunko man,
who had now clung to our route for
two months'. Sim was almost sick
with anger and the sense of his disap
pointment. He scratched his bald,
shining head till It got red; he puffed
out his fat, cherubic cheeks till he
looked like an apoplectic, and then he
came as near swearing as I ever heard
him. What made him so particularly
mad was the fact that the confidence
man always did his tricks right by the
tent wall, so that every village pape$
that had made a sensation of his swin
dles credited them to 'an attache of
the Rockwell-Simpson-Price Circus.'
That fairly ate into the sensitive soul
of Sim.
"Well, sirs, just to show you the au
dacity of the fellow, the very next af
ternoon at the matinee, or rather just
after it had begun, he attracted a
crowd of men and boys to a clear spot
near the very dressing tent which Sim
55
had just left to enter the ring, and
shell-gamed a farmer out of $40. When
Sim heard that I thought he was going
to faint. He made" up his mind to re
frain from his work in the ring until
he had caught the rascal, and, as I
was beginning to realize the odium at
taching to our names, I reluctantly
agreed that he should not appear that
night. He stayed around the tent all
afternoon looking distrait, pale and, for
him, venomously disagreeable.
"I think that night was one of the
best we ever had so far as 'the attend
ance was concerned. I was obliged, at
Sim's solicitation, to announce- that
'Dumpy Humpy' (his ring name) the
famous clown would be unable to ap
pear on account of a sudden indisposi
tion. Sim was such a stickler for fair
dealing he'd have returned every dollar
taken in if the people had asked it.
But it was a good-natured crowd and
they stayed for the show. We never
had less trouble. Every performer
seemed to be on his or her mettle and
even the trained animals did their
tricks with extraordinary success.
Mile. Du Barry was just at the climax
of her thrilling bareback act the piece
de resistance of the whole show, when
I heard the familiar yell of 'Dumpy
Humpj',' the clown, as he. galloped fu
riously into the ring.. In a flash I re
alized that one of two things had hap
penedeither he had already caught
the bunko man or he was trying to
surprise me with a novelty of his own
invention. For, clinging to the tall of
his ruule,. came a stranger in street at
tire, tugging like a demon as it to stop
the beast. Everything happened so
quickly and so unexpectedly that I
didn't have time to think that Sim
was ruining the effect of his wife's act.
"The mule neai-ly collided with Mile.
Du Barry's charger just In front of the
reserved seats, and the next thing I
knew the stranger had dragged the
clown down into the sawdust and was
choking him. Mademoiselle screamed
and galloped out of the ring. The
spectators laughed loud at what
seemed to them the clown's grotesque
entree, but when I pushed into the
cloud of dust and sawdust raised by
the scuffler's I found the town police
man slipping a pair of handcuffs on
my partner's wrists.
" 'Here's your bunko man, he
grinned, standing up and stripping Sim
of his motley. 'Here's the shells and
here's three cards, and here's "
"The officer pulled out each article
as he spoke. 'Here's the flash roll,
and oh,' look here! Do you want any
more evidence? Here's his false mus
tache and his wig!'
"The audience wanted to lynch the
poor clown when they began to see
that he was in the hands of the law,
but we slipped poor Sim out through
the dressing tent and left town that
night. I never saw him again, but I
understand that his beautiful wife
stuck to him and that they have been
doing well without working ever since.
Trust 'em for that." John II. Raf tery.
in the Chicago Record-Herald.
Steel-Cutting by Electricity.
A Chicago electrician has invented
a way of applying electricity to iron
and steel so as to burn the material
as easily as if It were the softest
wood. The invention was tested a
few days ago and its success ac
knowledged. A big boiler fpundation
was' to be removed from Ihe basement
of a building, and the inventor was
called upon to do the work, as It was
impossible to get the mass of metal out
as it lay, and cutting it under ordinary
methods would be a long and tedious
task. The carbon point used burned
or cut away a wide space in the plate
at the rate of about a foot every five
minutes and proved its value. The ap
paratus is simple. A carbon is at?
tached to a wooden handle by means
of a metal clamp; to this clamp a
wire is attached, the other being con
nected to tli3 object to be operated
upon. After the connection is made
this carbon is moved along the ob
ject, cutting and burning its way
through, even though it may be Bes
semer or chrome steel that Is attacked.
The heat and light are intense, but
the eyes and face of the operator are
protected by having the carbon point
thrust through a small steel box lined
with asbestos. The apparatus can be
operated with a eurrent of fifty volts.
Better Than Love.
A sentimental editor out in Kansas
asks: "Are there any sweeter words in
the English language than these, 'I
love you?" Perhaps not, but the
words, "Here's that dollar I borrowed,"
are not lacking in eloquent and delight
ful enunciation. Davenport (Iowa) Re
publican. ..- h
THAT WHICH WAS LOST
A lover said, "I do not hate the years
That touch to gray the softness-of her
hair,
For me remembrance leaves the sunlight
there. . .,
"I love the lines that colder eyes than
mine ?
Read on the spirit fairness of her face.
The soul's handwriting tells its inward
grace.
"But once around her beauty, still so dear.
Blew an enchanted air; a mystery
That shook my heart, but kept its own
from me.
"There was a secret hidden in her eyes;
And in her voice one note I thrilled to
hear.
nave the vear3 slain it, ere I read it
clear?"
Even as he spoke, . her soft eyes met his
own
And answered. For behind their love
and truth
Shone the lost magic and immortal youth.
A. L. G. H., in St. James's Gazette.
Poser "Which nation do you think
lovos America the most?" Bighead
"The one that needs her the most."
Town Topics.
Mrs. Hatterson "What! You've had
fourteen cooks in three months!" Mrs,
Catterson "Yes. And I didn't please
any of them." Life.
She "They consider themselves
among 'our best people.' " He "Of
course. They don't know any better."
Town and Country.
She sat with him at midnight;
She called him "Mr. Brown."
Her father came from realms above.
And promptly called him down.
rnuaaeipnia decora.
Teacher "Tommy, if you gave your
little brother nine sticks of candy and
then took away seven, what would
that make?" Tommy "It would make t
him yell." Tit-Bits.
"That was an ideal course the Auto-
t ' 1 -- 1 i. .1 Ji 11.. Anf
moDiie ciuo seieeieu 101 11$ race.
"Think so?" "Yes; there was a black
smith shop and a pharmacy every half
mile." Chicago News. '
How hard it is to classify!
All outlines blend and shirk;
Some work is sport; and, then Oh,rnyi
Some sport is downright work!
. -Puck.
"Goodness!" exclaimed the bay to
the river, at the height of the spring
floods, "how big your mouth has
grown!" "Yes," replied the river,
"that's because my head's so swollen.'
Philadelphia Press.
"No man with any sense at all would
approve of your action," said the angry
husband. "But, my dear,"" calmly in
quired his better half, "how do yotx
know what a man with any sense
would do?" Tit-Bits.
Mother "There were two apples iav
the cupboard, Tommy, now there Is
only one. How's that?" Tommy
(who sees no way of escape) "WelL
ma, it was so dark in there I. didn't see
the other." Glasgow Times.
"He calls hi3 poems 'the children of
his brain. " "Dear me, then 1 should
think the horrid critics ought to be.,
taken in hand by the Society, for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children."
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
"People used to think he was a won
der," we said, referring to the village
prodigy. "Yes," answered the dis
cerning individual; "but come to findt
out about It, he was merely a bad
guess." Baltimore American.
Nell "You ought to have seen the
pleased expression on Tom's face whea
I accepted him." Bess "Yes. It must
have been so very different from the
pained expression on his face when I
refused him last fall." Chicago News.
Young Minister' Unhappy Phrase.
Dr. George C. Lorlmer, of the Madi
son Avenue Baptist Church, New York
when visiting Philadelphia recently,
told this story:
"It is queer what a liking young;
students have for long wors and.
Latin quotatioins, and what a dread
possesses them of appearing conven
tional. I once knew a promising candi
date who was given charge of a
funeral in the absence of the pastor
of the church. He knew it was cus
tomary for the minister to announce
after the sermon that those who
wished should step up to view the re
mains, but he thought this was too
hackneyed a phrase, and ha aid in
stead: "'The congregation will now pas
around the bier. " Philadelphia:
Times. -