The seven Craggs mount upon each other, then fall away like houses built of cards. MM. Craggs senior turn MM. Craggs junior round their arms. One half of the Craggs always has the legs in the air, whilst the other half is head downwards. And what deportment! how completely it differs from the smiles, kisses thrown to the public, and rolling eyes [p304] of the Italian acrobat! We shall see that in the Molier Circus, authentic gentlemen have been converted into passable clowns. Messrs. Craggs have proved to us, a more unexpected fact, that perfect gentlemen can be made from professional clowns.
Since it is my mission to betray the secrets confided to me, I will tell the public, the whole world, that the Craggs are not seven brothers, as we might be tempted to believe, but a family consisting of the father, six sons, and one little sister Cragg.
Mr. Cragg, the father, is nearly forty-two years old, he looks like the brother of his eldest son, who is not yet twenty-four. The little girl who so bravely wears the black coat asserts that she is fourteen. I kissed her, after the performance, and complimented her most sincerely. [p305]
“She is a little Australian,” said her father, smiling kindly at her.
“An Australian, Mr. Cragg?”
“Yes, she was born at Sydney, whilst her brothers and I were performing in New Zealand and China.”
The Craggs have just returned from Pekin.
They have travelled round the world, with gardenias in their buttonholes, and Barnum has thrown golden bridges across the ocean for them.
I told you that the time had come for writing a monograph of the clown-king!