CIRCUS DAYS 7 



which required every bit of the knowledge I had 

 gained in the few preceding years. I had charge of 

 all the circus property and I was boss of a large 

 crew of men. The job kept me on the jump day and 

 night. The canvas and property crews were made 

 up of the toughest characters I have ever struck 

 in my life a man had to be tough in those days. 

 They were hard to handle, but they were good 

 workers and I got along all right with them. 



They were always just a little bit tougher than 

 any local talent we came up against on the tour, 

 even though a circus used to attract the worst men 

 for miles around. At Albuquerque one night, four 

 "bad men" came to see the show. When they came 

 up, Fitzgerald, who was one of the partners, was 

 taking tickets at the entrance. He tried to get 

 tickets from them, but they pulled out guns. One 

 of them said: "These are our tickets." Fitzgerald 

 let them in and passed the word along to the crew. 

 The men took seats and, when the show started, 

 they let loose with their guns, shooting through the 

 tents and letting a few bullets fly into the ring. 

 Sometimes a bullet would strike near a performer, 

 raising a puff of dust and scaring him half to death. 

 The "bad men" were sitting with their legs dang- 

 ling down between the seats. Some of the crew 

 took seats near them, just as if they were part of 

 the audience, and a dozen property-men sneaked 

 under the tent. When the signal was given, they 

 grabbed the dangling legs and pulled. Then the 



