20 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
natural born musician. He could play any instru- 
ment and play it well. 
On arriving at any town, as a joke we would 
pick some one who had a local reputation as a 
ne’er-do-well and explain to him Shilleto’s weak- 
ness, flattery and whiskey, telling him to go up 
to Shilleto and say, “I beg your pardon, but are 
you not Shilleto, the great Musical Clown, now 
with Fryer’s American Show. I have seen you a 
number of times in different parts of Europe but 
never expected to have the pleasure of seeing you 
in Australia. You are the greatest I ever saw. 
Will you allow me to shake hands with you.” 
Shilleto never had been in Europe, although it was 
his boast that he had traveled all over that continent 
with shows. 
That would settle it. Shilleto’s chest would 
swell up and that person was his guest for days, 
introduced as his friend, from Europe, often giving 
him a title. Shilleto never seemed to get wise 
to the fact that in every town he would meet with 
some one who had seen him in Europe and with 
the same story. 
It was on one of the visits to New York that 
the late J. A. Bailey of Barnum and Bailey, sent 
me a telegram from Chicago to meet him two days 
later in New York, and, after mutual greetings, 
asked me how long it would take me to get to 
India. I told him I intended to stop two weeks in 
New York and probably three or four. weeks in 
