The Director then made a speech, as follows:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you Monsieur Moukounj and his Elephant. My valued friend and assistant, Mr. Oldham, informs me that this Elephant is a remarkable animal, whom he has seen execute a difficult and interesting exercise without any previous instruction. As a member of our Troupe, he will do honour to our Company, already so celebrated. I bespeak, therefore, a kind reception for the Elephant and his Master."
The Company came forward very politely, one after another, to greet Moukounj, and to caress me; and Mr. Hardwick, addressing Moukounj, introduced each one by name.
"This, Monsieur, is Mr. Oldham, with whom you are already acquainted. He is our Premier Clown, and Stage Manager.
"This is Mr. Edward Greathorse, our Ringmaster, and his wife, one of the most distinguished Equilibrists in the world, and their two children, Master William Greathorse, who has not his equal for vaulting through a paper circle, and coming down plumb in the right spot on his horse—and Miss Annie Greathorse, who has made a study of the Trapeze, and has acquired all the secrets of that difficult art."
Mr. and Mrs. Greathorse did not please me at all. Mr. Greathorse was a very tall, thin man of about forty; one felt at once that he was in the habit of speaking only to horses—and of speaking to them brutally! Mrs. Greathorse was about the same age as her husband, and quite as tall. She was as fat as he was thin; her vulgar face had a look of hardness, and her nose was extraordinarily flat. The reason of this I learned later on; it was occasioned by her specialty of balancing upon that feature a pole with a heavy iron ball on the end!
Master Greathorse, who might have been about seventeen or eighteen years old, displeased me excessively; he had a sly look, and seemed to enjoy nothing so much as playing malicious jokes at the expense of the other members of the company. The only one of the family who attracted me was Miss Annie. She was a very young girl, almost a child, not over fifteen at the outside, and very fragile, with arms developed out of all proportion by her exercise on the trapeze. It was easy to see that she worked too hard and was a sufferer; she had a pale, gentle face and fair, pretty hair.
After the Greathorses there advanced six persons, all wonderfully alike, although their ages varied from nine or ten to thirty-five years.
"The Smith Brothers, Monsieur," said Mr. Hardwick: "most interesting gentlemen!—Until you have seen them form the 'uman Pyramid,' you do not know to what heights the Acrobatic Art has attained!"
The "Smith Brothers" all smiled at once, with the same smile, which seemed to have coagulated and become a fixture upon their lips.