Lions 'n' tigers 'n' everything

By Courtney Ryley Cooper
The Cross-Cut The White Desert Under the Big Top The Last Frontier Lions ’N’ Tigers ’N’ Everything
CAGEMATES. Frontispiece.
LIONS ’N’ TIGERS ’N’ EVERYTHING
BY COURTNEY RYLEY COOPER
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1924
Copyright, 1922, 1923, 1924 , By Courtney Ryley Cooper. All rights reserved Published August, 1924 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO CARL BRANDT WITH THE GENUINE AFFECTION OF “THE DEAR OLD RHINOCEROS”
OF course, you’ve been to the circus. You got there just in time to hear the sideshow spieler tell you that there was fortay-y-y-y-y-five minutes for fun an’ amusement beforah th’ beeg show, th’ beeg show, would begin! Fortay-y-y-y-five minutes in which to view those stra-a-a-nge people, to see The Cannibal Twins, the Skeleton Dude, the Fat Lady who has taken everay-y-y-y known method of reducing in an attempt to rid herself of her half a ton of flesh, but who gets biggah, biggah and fattah, Ladies-s-s an’ Gents, everay living-g-g breathing-g-g moment of her life!
You’ve given yourself plenty of time, so you think. You want to see the menagerie and the lions and tigers and elephants, but the first thing you know, that sideshow spieler has inveigled you inside the tent and the next thing you know, somebody with a fog-horn voice is yelling in your ear:
“Hurry! Hurry Everaybodi-e-e-e-e-e-e! Th’ Beeg Show is Starting-g-g-g-g!”