him back like he was a
rubber ball on a string, and then he took pa by the elbow and held him
out at arm's length, and then swung him around a few times and let go of
him, and he fell down among the reserved seats which representatives of
the press occupy. Pa stood on one ear on a crushed chair, with his legs
over the railing, and when he came to, the newspaper men wanted to
interview pa. Pa said all he remembered was that the air ship was
sailing over the town, and they threw him out for ballast, and he struck
a church spire and bounded onto a warehouse filled with dynamite, which
exploded when he struck it, and the neighbors picked his remains up on a
dustpan and emptied them in here, Then he asked if his head was on
straight, and the circusmen took him away to the hospital tent.

[Illustration: "O, But the Jap Didn't Do a Thing to Pa!"]

The circus hands separated the Russians and Japs, or at least pulled off
the Japs, and the Russians limped to the dressing-room, and their act
was cut out. Unless the terms of peace between Japan and Russia include
the belligerents in our show, there will be rows every day.

Pa came to the car on crutches that night just before the train pulled
out for Philadelphia, and wanted to know where I was during the fight.
He said he rushed right in and grabbed a Jap in one hand and a Russian
in the other, and bumped their heads together, and threw one of them
towards the ring, and the other up among the seats, and he wanted to
know if I thought he killed either or both of them.

I hate a boy that will deceive his father, but I told him there was talk
about two performers, one a Russian and the other a Jap, that were left
at the morgue, but I didn't know anything sure about it, and pa said: "I
was afraid I should hurt them, but they brought it on themselves by
breaking the rules of the show against fighting during a performance,"
and pa rolled over and groaned in his berth, and went to sleep and
snored so the freaks wanted to have a nose bag, such as horses eat out
of, pulled over pa's face.

The queerest thing that ever happened in the circus business in this
country took place at Germantown, Pa. The teamsters went on a strike at
Pittsburg, for increase in wages and shorter hours, and for two days the
management had a great time.

We had to get drays to haul the stuff from the train to the lot, and
then our teamsters got the local draymen to join them, and when we got
ready to haul th