8 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
circuis-men in the seats jumped up and, without let- 
ting the audience know what was happening, they 
snatched the guns. Down went the “bad men” 
between the seats. It all happened so quickly and 
so quietly that the audience didn’t realize what had 
become of them. The canvas-men “‘toe-staked” them; 
that is, they hit them over the heads with the toe- 
stakes that are driven into the ground to keep the 
seat-stringers from sliding. A toe-stake is of just 
the proper size and weight to use in a fight, and it 
is the circus-man’s idea of a good weapon. The 
crew buried the four men while the show was on. 
I thought there would be trouble before we could 
get out of town, but the men weren’t even missed. 
The Fryer outfit had a Pennsylvania Dutchman 
called Charley. He was one of the strongest men 
I have ever seen. One night, when the stake-wagon, 
drawn by eight horses, was stuck in the mire, he 
lifted the rear end of the wagon on his back while 
the horses pulled it out. I think that if Charley 
had got a good swing at a man and used his full 
strength, he could have killed him with one blow. 
One day, in Christchurch, New Zealand, while Fitz- 
gerald was taking tickets, a larrikin—a tough— 
came along and said: “Ticket?—I’ll spit in your. 
eye.” Fitzgerald knocked him down and called for 
Charley, who was working at the ticket-wagon. 
Charley took the larrikin in his arms just as easily 
as if he had been a baby, and carried him out into 
the street. There he dropped him and said: “If I 
