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 
