With Tights and Spangles

With the song of the thrush comes the circus with its glittering street pageant - golden chariots, gaily uniformed bands, and richly comparisoned blooded steeds - to amuse the people of town and country in our northern latitude. In the more congenial clime of the “Sunny South,” their tents are often spread in the winter months. It was during one of these campaigns, “way down in Dixie” in an obscure Georgia town, that I first met the individual to whom I’m about to refer. Cotton was “down,” a general financial depression was felt throughout the Southland, and there was pretty close “cutting of cloth” all around among the managers and agents to “make both ends meet.”

With Charles H. Hall, then the advance of Laura Keene’s Comedy Company and formerly with Charles MacEvoy’s Hibernicon, I called at the railroad office to negotiate reduced rates fare over the road. The railway official was in close communication with a clerical individual whom I at once took for the pastor of a local church arranging for a Sunday school excursion. He was dressed in solemn black, wore a vest buttoned to his throat, and displayed no jewelry, while meekness and piety seemed to ooze from every pore of his placid countenance. Judge of my surprise when the ministerial stranger recognized Hall and I was introduced to Andrew Haight, of whom I had often heard in connection with the firm of Haight & Chambers. Mr. Haight was at this time contracting agent for the Stone & Murray Circus and I frequently met him thereafter as we worked our way over the same lines of railroad Alabama-ward. (16)

Stone & Murray closed their season immediately after New Years and returned to New York to fit out their northern tour. But Andrew Haight remained and connected himself with G. G. Grady’s Unprecedented Old Fashioned American Circus, until he met with P. R. Wooten at Atlanta, Georgia, and organized the Haight & Wooten Circus, with which he made a forty-six weeks’ season. Before the termination of which, Wooten withdrew from the firm. The Haight & Wooten show started from Atlanta; but before the summer was spent, explored the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and, traveling by rail, managed to avoid other parties in the main. (17)

At St. John, New Brunswick, manager Haight, who was in advance, called upon the mayor of the town, one Charles Reed, the son of a royal father in the mother country.

“Your honor,” said the manager, bowing profoundly and sanctimoniously, “we are coming to be with you for a little while and I have called to consult you in regards to license.”

“Not necessary, sir,” interrupted the mayor, at once mistaking the showman for a clergyman. “You are at perfect liberty to preach without a license.”

“But I don’t want to preach,” expostulated manager Haight.

“Pray then, what do you want?” interrogated the puzzled official.

“I want,” smiled Mr. Haight benignly, “to secure a license for the Haight & Wooten Circus, who propose to exhibit here with your honor’s kind permission.”

The mayor waited to hear no more but broke forth with a hearty laugh at this ludicrous mistake. When the account of the interview was related to the company, it was a question of who laughed the loudest and longest - Durand, of the eloquent quill; Jacob Haight; or the great admirer of Byron’s “Mazeppa,” George W. DeHaven.

The season of 1871, Stone & Murray, Haight & Wooten, G. G. Grady, and some others sent up hot air balloons every day with some venturous passenger as an outside attraction to draw the crowd to “the lot.” This species of ballooning was much like a display of fireworks, attractive enough for the second; but the moment it was over and the descent made, it was a disappointment to the beholders, who were wont to enjoy a little growl.

One afternoon with Stone & Murray, the balloon failed to travel miles into the blue ether and, after reaching a moderate height, made a rapid descent, much to the disgust of an Hiberian matron, who exclaimed:

“Fust, and it is going no fudder up than that?”

“Whist,” said a sister of the old bog who stood at her side, “how far would you have it go up for nothing?”

Another day, an individual who had brought to the grounds with him a descriptive program in which the airship was represented in red ink complained that the balloon was not the same color as that on the bill.

Brilliant in color and capital in design are the mammoth posters spread upon the billboards to attract the eye by the various circus companies and menageries. During the season, it was the delight of Tom Barry (18) on Sunday in a rural burgh to take his position near a large stand of bills and listen to the remarks of the bystanders. If the performance had taken place on the preceding Saturday, he heard many a freely spoken comment upon the merits of himself and fellow performers. One day while eavesdropping, he heard a little group of citizens expressing themselves upon the performance and the performers. And with that they commenced to walk the length of the bulletin board, saying as they went:

“They did that and that and that, too.”

The clown followed carelessly along unnoticed. Stone & Murray had in the stand [of paper], a “rebus bill” (19) somewhat difficult to decipher, before [which the burghers paused for some moments in silence], while a shadow grew perceptibly over the face of a hitherto confident youth, who reluctantly and audibly admitted:

“Well, I swow, they didn’t do that!” an opinion [with] which everyone [agreed], while the clown stole away to enjoy a quiet laugh by himself.

If there ever existed a happy-go-lucky individual, he was embodied in Billy Burke, the clown. Ever the same genial fellow, it matters not to him whether the sun shines or is behind a cloud. After returning from his summer’s tour with James Robinson, he played an exceedingly brief engagement with Dan Rice and afterwards appeared for a few weeks at Lent’s in New York City. The balance of the winter he lived at his ease - where so many of the profession center - at the St. Charles Hotel. (20)

Among those who dropped in from day to day to chat with a friend or the managers who were coming and going was Ben Maginley, a famous jester and equestrian director of Joel E. Warner & Co.’s show. (21) The rotund humorist had a dog - a black, shaggy fellow that was always at his heels - who soon came to be on familiar terms with the waiters of the restaurant who fed him as regularly as he appeared. It came to pass that the wicked Burke conspired against the digestion of that there dorg and daily purloined from the table large quantities of rich cheese, [which he fed to the] purp without the knowledge of his master.

“How’s your dog, Ben?” asked Burke from day to day.

“He ain’t very well,” replied the unsuspecting jester. “I think he eats too much.”

When [Maginley’s] back was turned, the dog was again crammed with cheese, while the head waiter could not understand how it was that the patrons of the restaurant all of a sudden ate so much cheese with their pie. What would have been the fate of the dog no one can tell; but fortunately springtime came and it became necessary for Burke to join “the show” at St. Louis. When he came to settle the winter’s score, he found a discrepancy of three and a half dollars between his memorandum and the account on the hotel books.

“Let’s run them over,” suggested bookkeeper Warner.

Thereupon they commenced running over the items until they came to one in the bold hand of landlord Leland, which read: “Cheese for Ben Maginley’s dog - $3.50.”

The clown admitted the cheese as he laughingly explained:

“I wonder which got the worst of that, me or the dog?”

Footnotes

16. The Haight & Chambers Palace Show and Menagerie was organized in 1866. The company was to travel on the steamer Coosa out of New Orleans. However, floods made it impossible to meet most of their river bookings. At Henderson, KY, the boats’ boilers burned out. At St. Louis, the troupe was quarantined due to cholera. At Pittsburgh, the vessel was run into by a tow boat and sunk. Having lost seventy-five thousand dollars from this venture, Haight sold his interests in the show and went into the hotel business in Memphis. His connection as agent for Stone & Murray occurred during the seasons of 1869-70, for which he was paid $50 a week.
17. G. G. Grady had his Old Fashioned American Circus on the road from 1869 to 1874. In 1871, Haight organized the Empire City Circus (also referred to as Wooten and Haight’s New York Circus and Menagerie) with P. Bowles Wooten. Reference to this appears in the New York Clipper of March 11, 1871.
18. Tom Barry was with the Murray show from 1871 through 1877. See Reference Roster.
19. The “rebus” was a pictorial representation of the performance through a composite illustration of several of the acts.
20. Billy Burke was with James Robinson for the winter season of 1870-71 and the summer of 1871. See Reference Roster.
21. Ben Maginley was with Joel E. Warner’s Great Pacific Menagerie and Circus during 1871-72. See Reference Roster.


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William L. Slout and Circus Historical Society, Inc.