*This is directly transcribed. All misspellings are intentional to maintain consistency with the original.
Source:
Prince & Wyman, "The Waterville Mail (Vol. 48, No. 11): August 10, 1894" (1894). The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine). 1552.
"The Modern Circus""Circus life!" What a vision of spangles, pink tarleton skirts, flashing eyes, reckless dare-devils, prancing horses and strange beast, together with an incistant, an all-prevading odor of sawdust," said an old timer yesterday, as he stood reading the attractive bills of the great Forepaugh Shows.
He was one of those genial, whole-souled old gentlemen who never seem to grow old, and who gloried in the fact that during 60 years of a long and useful life he had never missed a single opportunity of going to a circus.
"Of late years," said he, "I always take the children, and say that it is for their pleasure I go, but down in my heart I feel a hypocrite, for it is my old boyish love for the sawdust ring that compels me.
"Circus life is much different from what it was in the old days. Now, everything is as well ordered, and thoroughly respectable as it used to be the reverse. There is no longer a vast army of thugs, pickpockets, and other disreputable characters following a first-class show, and there are only two, by the way, in the country, the Forepaugh, and the Barnum & Bailey shows. Everything moves like clock-work and the vast machiney of an up-to-date circus is as well regulated as the municipal affairs of any city in the land.
"Each man belongs to one or another gang, each presided over by a capable boss, and every individual man knows just what is expected of him and does it with celerity. The tent men, or "peggers", as they are called, the stable men, drivers, hostlers, trainers and keepers all know their places, and at the pitching or break-up show, where all seems confusion, there is in reality the most perfect order.
"One of the most interesting departments is the cook tent and canvas walled dining-room. The chef of the Forepaugh show is an Alsatian, and one of the most skilled in the country, as attested by his salary. Messrs. McCaddon & Anderson, the proprietors, travel with the show and live with it, and naturally have the best obtainable. Appreciating the fact that well fed men work better than poorly fed men, the Forepaugh show, to-day, stands with the reputation of taking better care of its employees than any other.
"Another innovation is the establishment of a police system, which regulates the behavior of the men, fines and confines obstreperous characters, quelis brawls and boisterous conduct, metes out justice and in other ways helps to keep up the character of the show.
"The inner life of a circus is much like that of a family. The individuals have their pleasure and troubles and occasional romances.
"There are lives as loyal, loves as tender and hearts as true among circus folk, as among any class of people in the world.
"They all stick together, too. in case of need, as even at this late day a cry of 'Hey, Rube,' on the circus grounds, would quickly demonstrate, for before the old circus way-cry could be repeated, men would be seen running from all quarters towards the point of presumed attack, each with the intention of standing by each other and doing, and if need be, dying in the attempt. The circus police, however, would quickly disperse the crowd. This is a relic of the old days when circus men, by their own behavior, had become well-nigh Ishmaelites, with every man's hand against them, and so frequent were the riots between them and the country people, that they were forced to band together for protection and 'Hey Rube' was the battle-cry.
"There is one thing I am glad to see," concluded the old gentleman, "and that is that Forepaugh has dropped that spectacular nonsense. Never could stand that sort of thing and I never saw any one else who liked it, did you?"
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