Numerous other devices can be adopted by the juggler, and the suggestions offered above may be enlarged upon considerably. The merest tyro in the “art of balancing” should thus be able to contribute an excellent item to the home circus.
Every owner of a dog has taught his pet at some time or another several little tricks. The manager of the circus should therefore get those of his acquaintances who possess dogs to combine in contributing to the programme.
Then, again, a big dog might be clothed in a “bull’s skin” made from calico, and a farcical bull-fight arranged. Here the circus “horses” could be once more employed to good purpose.
The “strong man” is a character always associated with circuses, and there is no reason why the home circus should not possess one. The weights must be made from wood, painted black to represent the genuine article. After the “strong man”—who should be selected from the most powerfully-built of the reader’s acquaintances—has lifted the different “weights,” apparently with a great deal of exertion, he makes his exit, leaving them upon the ground. A little boy then enters, and picking up all the “weights,” walks unconcernedly from the ring.
As has been before mentioned, the home circus presents scope for almost every kind of amateur performance, but it must be left to the ingenuity of the reader to give further variety and make the programme as attractive as possible.
As a grand finale, a stirring, spectacular sketch should be given—such as an attack upon a settler’s hut by redskins, or a raid on the shanty of a miner. The main idea in this sketch must be to make a lot of noise, blaze away with toy pistols at frequent intervals, and burn as much “colored fire” as possible. The soldiers or mounted police should arrive in the nick of time, of course, and drive the marauders completely from the field. Thus everything ends quite happily.
CHAPTER XLIV
HOW TO MAKE AND WORK A PEEP-SHOW
An Old Form of Entertainment Revived
A peep-show makes an excellent and quite novel form of home entertainment, and a boy would be well repaid for any trouble to which the construction of one might put him.