Sawdust & Spangles: Stories & Secrets of the Circus

by W. C. Coup

		[Foreword]	ix
CHAP.			PAGE
I.	[Boyhood with the Old-Time Wagon Show]		1
		My First Exciting Experience	4
		The Intelligence of Elephants	5
		Fights with the Grangers	6
		"Doc" Baird and the Bully	9
		Teasing Old Romeo	10
		The Story of a Stolen Negro	12
		Horse Thieves in the Circus	15
II.	[The Perilous Business of Stocking a Menagerie]		18
		Beasts at Wholesale	20
		The Professional Animal Hunter	21
		Striking into the Interior	22
		Hunters' Life in the Jungle.	23
		Why Baby Elephants are Hard to Capture	26
		Across the Desert with Captive Beasts	29
		The Adventures of Specimen Hunters	31
III.	[Freaks and Fakes]		35
		The Burial and Resurrection of the "Cardiff Giant"	37
		The Rival White Elephants	40
		How the "Light of Asia" Embarrassed the Lecturer	41
		The Wild Cave-Dweller of Kentucky	44
		The Two-Headed Girl's Three-Headed Rival	46
		Missing Links and Dancing Turkeys	49
		The Salaries Paid to Freaks	50
		The Love-Making and Merrymaking of the Freaks	51
		The Exposure of the "Aztec Children"	54
		An Adventure with a Circus Shark	56
IV.	[Moving the Big Show]		59
		The First Attempt to Move a Circus by Rail	61
		The Spartan Habits of the Old Timers	63
		Seven Heartbreaking Days on the Long Road	64
		Performing by Day and Traveling by Night	67
		On a Runaway Circus Train	69
		Panic Among the Animals	71
		A Single Track and a Broken Rail	73
		The Bronchos' Charmed Life	75
		Old Romeo to the Rescue	77
		An Unexpected Midnight Bath	79
V.	[The Prairie Fire]		86
		A Chance Meeting with a Great Man	96
VI.	[Booming the Big Show]		104
		Novel Advertising Features	105
		The "Devil's Whistle"	106
		"Spotters"	108
		Rivalry in Exploiting Opposition Shows	112
		Costly Rivalry	113
		Idle Bill-Posters	116
		The Courtesy of Editors	118
		Jumbo's Free Advertising	120
VII.	[Parades And Band Wagons]		124
		The Fifty Cent Rivals of the Ten Thousand Dollar Hippos	124
		A Skillful Appeal to Public Sympathy	126
		A Silent Parade from Albany to the State Line	128
		The Fluctuating Level of Circus Values	130
		What it Costs to Ride with the Band Wagon	132
		Requirements and Cost of the Circus Horse	134
		A Page from the Invoice Book of the Big Show	136
VIII.	[Anecdotes of Men and Animals]		139
		Origin of the American Circus	139
		The First Elephant Brought to America	141
		The First Drove of Camels	144
		The Fight of the Ostriches	145
		The Belligerent Alligators	149
		Parrots and Cockatoos	153
		Educated Dogs	154
		A Wounded Horse in the Grand March	156
		Intelligent Bronchos	158
		The King of the Herd	159
		An Elephant's Humor	160
		Zulus in London	162
IX.	[Training Animals and Performers]		169
		The Perils of a Trainer's Life	170
		Where Steady Nerves are in Demand	172
		Captured Animals Preferred to Cage-Born	173
		The Education of a Young Jaguar	174
		The Leopards at Kindergarten	177
		How they Punish Unruly Pupils	179
		Punishment of Treacherous Beasts	180
		A Single-Handed Fight with Five Lions	182
		Teaching the Horse the Two-Step	186
		Ring Performers Trained with a Derrick	187
		Circus People a Long-Lived Class	189
X.	[Mobs, Cyclones and Adventures]		192
		Forcible Argument with a City Marshal	193
		Breaking Camp under a Hot Rifle Fire	195
		Ambushed and Shot at on the Road	197
		The Studies of the Apprentice to the Clown	201
		Devotional Services Upset by a Demon	204
		The Wild Beasts Loose in the Big Crowd	205
		The Midnight Stampede of the Elephants	208
		A Polar Bear Hunt on Fifth Avenue	209
		An Equine Officer of Artillery	211
XI.	[Stories of Old-Time Shows and Showmen]		214
		Dan Rice's One-Horse Show	215
		Tan-Bark Oratory and Harlequin Pluck	217
		An Imitation Patriot Shown Up	219
		In which Cupid was Master of the Ring	223
		Barnum's One Unconquerable Superstition	227
		Gullible Patrons in Early Days	229
		Expedients of Advance Agents	231
		Plantation Shows	234
		Exhibiting "Yankees" in the South	235
		Sleeping in Strange Attitudes	236
		A Circus "Crier"	238
		Showmen's Names	239
		The Escape of a Leopard	241
		Hotel Keepers	243
		Early Breakfasts	245
XII.	[How the Great New York Aquarium was Made and Lost]		247
		The Quest of the Tree-Tailed Kingio	249
		Half-Hours with Bashful Whales	251
		A Slippery Deal in Sea-Lions	254
		An Eventful Monday Morning at the Aquarium	258
		The Ultimate Fate of the Aquarium	260

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FOREWORD

The notes from which the following narrative was drawn were dictated by Mr. W. C. Coup at odd moments in the big show tent, the special car or the hotel where he chanced to find himself with a half-hour at his disposal. The manner and the motive of their writing unite to contribute to their charm and effectiveness. His unbounded enthusiasm for his peculiar calling and his desire so to state the facts of his experience as to give the general public a fairer and fuller understanding of its real conditions inspired him to the labor of crowding into his busy life the pleasant task of putting upon paper the main points of his interesting career.

Nothing could have been more fortunate than the fact that he was compelled to do this in a manner wholly informal,—intending later to put his haphazard notes into good literary form. His recollections fell from his lips as they came into his mind, in the forceful and picturesque phraseology of the typical showman. To preserve this original quality has been the effort constantly held in view in grouping these notes for publication. The terse idiom of the offhand dictation has been consistently retained and gives the true "show" color and flavor to the stirring scenes, adventures and incidents with which the book deals.

Of Mr. Coup's prominence in his profession it is scarcely necessary to speak, and I think none will venture to question the statement that he was the founder and pioneer in America of the circus business pure and simple, as distinguished from other lines of show enterprise, and that the story of his life would incidentally furnish a concise history of the circus on this continent. His name was a family word in homes of the people of every part of the United States during the period of his greatest activity. The main incidents of his career may be tersely stated as follows:

William Cameron Coup was born in Mount Pleasant, Ind., in 1837. While he was still a boy, his father bought the local tavern in a small country village. The business of hotel keeping did not commend itself to the future showman, who left home and took the position of "devil" in a country newspaper office. Soon, however, he became dissatisfied with the opportunities which the printing craft seemed to present, and started out to find something which better suited his unformed and perhaps romantic ideas of a profession. After a hard tramp of several miles he chanced to encounter a show, and immediately determined that this was the field to which he would devote his energies and in which he would make for himself a name and a fortune. With this show he served an apprenticeship, in a humble capacity, and gained a clear idea of the essentials of the business.

In 1861 he secured the side-show privileges of the E. F. & J. Mabie Circus, then the largest show in America. He remained with this firm until 1866, when he secured similar privileges with the Yankee Robinson Circus, with which he allied himself until 1869. In the latter year he formed a co-partnership with the celebrated Dan Costello and entered upon the first of the original ventures marking as many distinct epochs in the history of the circus in America. This departure was the organization of a show which traveled by boat and stopped at all the principal lake ports of the great inland seas. This enterprise was a decided success.

At that time Mr. P. T. Barnum had never been in the circus business, and Mr. Coup had not personally met this king of showmen. He keenly appreciated, however, the prestige which Mr. Barnum's name would give to a circus enterprise, and went to New York for the purpose of interesting Mr. Barnum in an enterprise of this character. This object he had no difficulty in accomplishing, and in the Spring of 1870 they put an immense show on the road, which toured the eastern States and was highly successful.