18 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
jump, he drifted down into the King’s household, 
that is, the women’s pavilion, and caused an awful 
uproar among the inmates. He had to do a lot 
of explaining to convince the officials that it was 
no fault of his, that it was unavoidable, as the wind 
carried him there. I leave my readers to imagine, 
if they can, the fright and feeling of the women 
on seeing a man, a European, dressed in tights, 
dropping amongst them from the skies. It was 
weeks before the scare wore off, and it was spoken 
of for years after. The last I heard of Wilison 
was in Japan, when he intended to go from there 
to Hawaii and then to Australia. 
As the steamer having the Wilison show aboard 
left the docks, the old fascination of show life 
seemed to grip me. It brought back wonderful 
memories of the good old days when one-ring 
circuses were the real thing. I look back on 
those days with regret, days when I was the head 
or Boss Property Man, for next to the Proprietor 
the Boss Property Man was king of the dressing- 
tents, and woe to the performer who slighted him. 
When the Show would make its first start on the 
road, the Boss Property Man would place the per- 
formers’ trunks in position. Pay day, the per- 
former who neglected to give his fifty cents or 
dollar to the Boss Property Man, would find his 
trunk badly damaged, broken open or no trunk at 
all on arrival at the next town. It was a custom 
that few ventured to neglect, for otherwise they 
