FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



it only remains to gather up a few fragments 

 in the shape of such deductions if there be any 

 worth preserving as an old showman's recollec- 

 tions may be supposed to yield. The pleasure, 

 while memory is still able to aid and abet it, of 

 recalling visions of the past, ere they pass out of 

 mind, is a strong incentive to pin them down with 

 pen to paper in the trustful hope that it may not 

 lay one open to the charge of doing nothing better 

 than spoiling good stationery unpardonable in 

 these days of paper scarcity. But the mere desire 

 to be one's own chronicler is scarcely a sufficiently 

 good reason in itself for adopting the role. The 

 incidents of even a very ordinary life may, how- 

 ever, sometimes serve the purpose of direction- 

 posts, indicating which roads on the world's 

 highway are likely to be found " good going," 

 which are " rocky," and which lead nowhere. 



With this in view, I have endeavoured as far 

 as possible to render my narrative helpful to 

 any interested in the administration of such 

 societies as it has fallen to my lot to be answerable 

 for. As will have been seen from this record of 

 personal experiences, I learnt my business in the 

 first place under the somewhat hard condition 

 of having to serve my apprenticeship at the same 

 time that I had all the responsibilities of a master- 

 man upon my shoulders. Yet I must admit it 

 afforded just the training I most needed, for it 

 called for the exercise of all one's faculties, and 

 cast upon one the onus of finding out everything 

 for oneself and this represents the most enduring 

 of knowledge instead of having all things needful 

 in the way of educational equipment laid out 



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