The Autobiography of a Clown

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CLOWN
“IT TAKES A WISE MAN TO BE A FOOL.”
AS TOLD TO ISAAC F. MARCOSSON ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1910
Copyright, 1909, by THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1910, by MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY New York Published March, 1910
TO THE CHILDREN WHO LOVE THE CLOWNS
This story of Jules Turnour interests me more than I can say. I have known him for more than twenty years; have seen him at very close range in all the shifting movement of a great circus organization, and I have yet to find a man with a cleaner, higher aim. Mr. Marcosson, I think, has admirably brought out the contrast between his whitened and motley face and his patient, serious purpose to make his life helpful. The world has been made better by the presence and work of Jules, and I am glad that at last the real story of his somewhat unusual career is now told.
Alfred T. Ringling.

When the article on which this little book is based appeared in the Saturday Evening Post we were amazed at the response it evoked. It simply proved that all the world loves a clown. In most of the comment and communication, however, there was a question as to the authenticity of the subject. I beg to say that Jules is a real personage and still the nimble producer of many laughs.
It was while writing a series of articles on an entirely different phase of the circus that I first met Jules. I heard of him the moment I stepped into the circus world. So thoroughly had he impressed his personality; so deeply had he become at tached to its life, and so profoundly had he gained the respect of its people, that not to have heard of him argued that I was deaf and blind to everything about me. I found him the friend, philosopher, and guide of the nomadic city of tents that rose with the dawn and slipped away into the night. Despite its transiency, there was much permanency of character in its varied inhabitants. No one contributed more to its moral structure than Jules, the clown.