“This is the smallest baby-elephant ever exhibited in a circus, and the visitor is requested not to feed it peanuts or crackers, as it does not yet know how to eat alone.”
Whenever a large crowd gathered before this cage, one of the Police would make a great flourish of drawing back the curtain. Necks would crane and those visitors standing in the back could not see the elephant at all. But a loud shout of merriment would tell all that it was a good joke, so they waited till the others left when they could go closer and see the elephant.
It was a little papier-maché toy-elephant such as are sold at Christmas time for the children’s nursery. There it stood in the center of the great box and beside it was a great dish of water and a huge bundle of hay for food.
The fake side-shows being over, the visitors began to fear their old tease, Mr. Talmage, had played a joke upon them in bringing them so far to witness nothing at all. So they walked away from the cages wondering what would take place next; then a few of the Police directed them to the seats at one end of the diamond.
“What next? Are you going to play a few more jokes on us?” demanded one of the visitors of a Policeman.
“Naw—the reel circus is jus’ goin’ to start! You see Miss Martin has charge of our show whiles Mister Uncle Ben agreed to provide side-shows and wild animals. Now he’s done with his’n.”
“Oh, I see,” said one visitor.
“Thank goodness,” said another.
But the majority of them laughed at the fun and said it was all part of the game as Barnum said: “An American public loves to be fooled.”
Soon after the audience was seated on the hard wooden benches that reminded them of the real circus seats at a dollar a seat, Mr. Richards appeared in the sawdust ring to speak. He was immediately welcomed with shouts and claps and such a noise from his city friends that he could not be heard.