hat it was he said that was so funny, the time he started crying. Seems
to me it was something about his little brother.... Well, no matter.

Yes, sir, there are heads of families to-day, I'll bet you, that have
grown up without ever having heard a clown sing a comic song, and ask
the audience to join in the chorus. And if you say to such people: "Here
we are again, Mr. Merryman," or "Bring on another horse," or "What will
the little lady have now? the banners, my lord?" they look at you so
funny. They don't know what you mean, and they don't know whether to get
huffy or not. Well, I suppose it had to be that the Funny Old Clown with
all his songs, and quips, and conundrums, and comical remarks should
disappear. Perhaps he "didn't pay."

I can't see that the rest of the show has changed so very much. Perhaps
the trapeze performances are more marvelous and breath-suspending than
they used to be. But they were far and far beyond what we could dream of
then, and to go still farther as little impresses us as to be told that
people live still even westerly of Idaho. The trapeze performers are
up-to-date in one respect. The fellow that comes down with his arms
folded, one leg stuck out and the other twined around the big rope,
revolving slowly, slowly--well, the band plays the Intermezzo from
"Cavalleria Rusticana" nowadays when he does that. It used to play: "O
Thou, Sweet Spirit, Hear my Prayer!" But the lady in the riding-habit
still smiles as if it hurt her when her horse walks on its hind legs;
the bareback rider does the very same fancy steps as the horse goes
round the ring in a rocking-chair lope; the attendants still slant the
hurdles almost flat for the horse to jump; they still snake the banners
under the rider's feet as he gives a little hop up, and they still bang
him on the head with the paper-covered hoop to .... Hold on a minute.
Now.

Now... That story the clown told that was so funny, that had something
to do with those hoops. I wish I could think of it. It would make you
laugh, I know.

People try to lay the blame of the modern circus's failure to interest
them on the three rings. They say so many things to watch at once keeps
them from being watching properly any one act. They can't give it the
attention it deserves. But I'll tell you what's wrong: There isn't any
Funny Old Clown, a particular one, to give it human interest. It is
all too splendid, too magnificent, too far beyond us. We want to hear
so