Jan. 21, 1892. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



61 



could not obtain admittance: and sarcastic allusions 

 touching upon the incendiary possibilities of the youne 

 lady's hair, led to serious consequences later, for I 

 soundly thrashed the culprits. Considering myself a 

 connoisseur I criticised the performance, much to the edi- 

 fication of the young lady, who could only ejaculate, 

 "Oh my." 



The following day, by a bribe to an usher, I obtained 

 admittance to the morning rehearsal and made some crit- 

 icisms on the clumsiness of some of the performers; and 

 these being overheard by the ring-master, he asked me 

 what I knew about it. I replied that I was somewhat in 

 that line myself, whereupon I was invited to give sn ex- 

 hibition of my skill, which was just what I was longing 

 for and proceeded to do, not omitting my back somersault. 

 It attracted the attention of the manager, and overtures 

 were at once made to me to join the company, and the 

 munificent salary of $3 per week was offered , resulting 

 in an agreement on my part to join. The circus was to 

 leave at early daylight the next morning, and my time 

 for preparation was short. My personal wardrobe was 

 not extensive; making it up into a small bundle I slipped 

 out about 10 o'clock, and as per agreement met a small 

 boy— a waif and hanger-on of the circus whom every- 

 body kicked and cuffed. I was to sleep with him, but 

 was somewhat staggered when I discovered we were to 

 lodge on a bundle of straw under the cage of the rhino- 

 ceros, which we had reason to regret before morning, as 

 the cage was leaky. 



As no provision seemed to have been made for me I 

 climbed up on one of the wagons with the driver and by 

 Bunrise we were several miles on our way. When it was 

 light enough to recognize faces I was surprised to find in 

 the driver a native of our village, Charley W., who on 

 discovering me was greatly astonished, exclaiming, 

 "Why, Dick, you little CU3S, what are you doing here?" 

 Mutual explanations followed. Charley had as much 

 reason to keep shady as I had, for his people were among 

 the aristocrats of the village, his brother being a rich 

 man and his brother-in-law the village parson. 



It was agreed with the manager that I was not to ap- 

 pear in the ring until we were beyond the probability of 

 recognition. Some days later, when several towns dis- 

 tant, I was notified that the next night I was to appear. 

 A stunning costume had been prepared, and my dress of 

 crimson satin and silver spangles gave me great delight. 

 I was billed as "Muchacho Don Ricardo, of Cuba," and 

 my skin was to be stained to imitate a Spanish complex- 

 ion. Thus disguised, I had less fear of recognition. The 

 evening came upon which I was to appear. That day I 

 had rehearsed satisfactorily to the management; and my 

 dress having, been donned and face stained, I stood ready 

 awaiting my cue. The horse selected for me was a splen- 

 did old fellow, steady in gait and reliable. I peered into 

 the tent and saw that it was crowded to suffocation, I 

 could not help feeling a little nervous; and the manager 

 was equally so, for he had visions of being held responsi- 

 ble for my neck. My friend Charley did duty as ring 

 attendant, and when at last my turn came and he gave 

 me a leg to mount, he whispered words of encourage- 

 ment. The band struck up; and as I took my prelimin- 

 ary canter around the ring the vast area of faces turned 

 toward me brought my heart into my throat. I was first 

 to give an exhibition of riding; and in this acquitted my- 

 self very creditably, judging from the applause. Then 

 came the hoops and back somersault feat. The band 

 struck up, and after riding once around under the hoops, 

 I rose to my feet, nodded to the men holding them, and 

 gathered myself for the spring. The first three I was to 

 go through forward, the last two backward. I accom- 

 plished the forward ones easily and successfully. As I 

 approached the last two I nerved myself, and when at 

 the proper distance sprang into the air and through, land- 

 ing firmly on my horse. Encouraged by this, I deter- 

 mined to outdo myself; and motioning the man holding 

 the last one to raise it higher, I bounded into the air 

 through the hoop and turned a second somersault, land- 

 ing equarely on my feet behind the horse, as I intended. 

 I think the roar of applause that followed could have 

 been heard five miles. Thpy yelled for an encore, but 

 my manager did not see it; he was not inclined to hazard 

 a repetition nor to trust too far in Providence. My status 

 was established; I was a star and too valuable to be made 

 common. It must be borne in mind that in those times 

 circus performers bad not reached the perfection of skill 

 of the present d«y; much more difficult feats are now an 

 everyday affair. 



A few days later we struck Cooperstown, the county 

 seat of Otsego; in expectation of a grand house the full 

 strength of the company was called into requisition, and 

 as anticipated, when the evening came the tent was filled 

 to its utmost capacity. The .court being in session, the 

 management had set aside a special section for the 

 judges, lawyers and aristocrats of that very aristocratic 

 old town. I was again to wind up the riding acts with 

 my "daring feat," as the bills had it. I had a new and 

 more elegant dress for the occasion, and was resplendent 

 in tights, crimson satin and silver spangles, and a silver 

 laurel wreath on my forehead, I was simply gorgeous, 

 and I resolved again to outdo myself on this occasion. I 

 had by this time become accustomed to the sea of faces, 

 and never allowed my mind to be distracted from my 

 work. Suffice it to say I did my best, and introduced 

 much fancy riding, and when the hoop business came I 

 had a notion to do three somersaults, but prudence 

 finally kept me within bounds. It so happened, or was 

 by design of the manager, that my last hoop was di- 

 rectly opposite the grand stand containing the digni- 

 taries, and when I landed on my feet and, by instruc-. 

 tions, faced them to make my bow, what was my 

 consternation as I glanced, up to see my governor and 

 Fenimore Cooper directly in front of me. I saw him 

 start as I turned and flew out of the ring, while Mr. 

 Cooper peered at me curiously and said something to my 

 governor, which I fancied was touching on my identity. 

 A few hours later we were safely out of town, greatly to 

 my relief. Our next exhibition was to be twenty miles 

 away and I fancied, as I had heard nothing, that the 

 governor had not recognized me, but had simply been 

 startled at some fancied resemblance. 



Things had not been going along quite to my satisfac- 

 tion. My salary was in arrears, and a feud had sprung 

 up between the clown and myself. He had two boys in 

 the company who seemed to make no progress; my suc- 

 cess angered him and he never missed an opportunity to 

 give me a cuff or kick when I passed. I complained to 

 the manager, but received no satisfaction. On the occa- 



sion of the performance on the first night out from 

 Cooperstown, when having just stepped into the ring with 

 the pole I had been holding for the garter act of one of 

 the female riders, as I passed the clown he gave me a 

 vicious kick. On the spur of the moment I whirled 

 around and brought the heavy pole down on his poll with 

 a resounding whack, which dropped him in his tracks; 

 but he was soon on his feet again and came for me. I 

 ran and jumped over into the pit, the clown after me. 

 A big six-foot lumberman rose up and said: "Here, here, 

 now, you leave that boy alone," and opposed his passage. 

 The clown was rash enough in his rage to hit the big fel- 

 low, who returning the blow with a will, knocked the 

 clown clear into the ring. The old circus call to arras 

 "Hey, Rube!" brought the circus men to the rescue. The 

 big fellow's companions rallied also; and in about two 

 minutes there was the biggest kind of a fight going on. 

 The audience, panic stricken, rushed for the exit, women 

 screaming, children crying; and in no time not one re- 

 mained. Meanwhile the lumbermen had cleaned out the 

 circus party, driving them out into the wet grass and 

 under the wagons. The animals became excited; the 

 lions roared, the jackals and hyenas "tuned up," the 

 elephant became excited and trumpeted, all of which 

 added to the confusion and scare. Even the fighters 

 thought the animals had got loose; and there was some 

 tall scrambling on to the wagons, which ended the fight, 

 every fellow being intent on saving himself. I was car- 

 ried out with the rush, knocked down and trampled on; 

 and when finally getting clear, I was but a faint resem- 

 blance of the gorgeous youth of a half hour previous. 

 My beautiful spangled dress suffered dreadfully in the 

 melee. 



While I was thus half stunned and confused, who 

 should stumble over me but my defender. He stopped 

 and looked at me, saying, "Ain't you the little cuss the 

 clown was after?" I told him I was. He then interro- 

 gated me as to what I was going to do next. I said I 

 didn't know. "Well," he said, "come with me;" and 

 taking me by the hand led me to the little village hotel 

 and handed me over to the landlord, saying, "Take care 

 of this boy ; I'll pay the bill." It was a cool evening, and 

 being chilled I got as near as I could to the fire — an old- 

 fashioned fireplace. In the corner in an arm chair I saw 

 an old gentleman calmly smoking, who eyeing me closely 

 said, "Are you the boy all this fight was about?" I said 

 I believed I was. "Goin' along with the circus again?" 

 I said no, I was through. He then questioned me as to 

 who I was, and being in too forlorn a condition to pre- 

 varicate I told him the truth. His astonishment was 



great. "What !" said he, "You Squire 's son, and in 



a circus ?" I confessed the fact. To make a long story 

 short, the old gentleman, who knew my governor well, 

 took me home, and his old wife holding up her hands in 

 holy horror washed me and put me to bed. The next 

 morning dressing me up in a suit of one of their boys, he 

 hitched up his old mare and drove me to Cooperstown, 

 where my governor was attending court. 



It would lengthen this yarn out to an unreasonable 

 length to describe my reception, and how I was packed 

 off home, and was received with tears and rejoicing by 

 my mother and sisters, who looked upon me as the long 

 lost prodigal son returned. In the eyes of the village 

 boys I was a hero; in the sight of the old. tabbies and other 

 good people I was an unredeemable little reprobate. I 

 had saved and brought home my very much damaged 

 dress, which was surreptitiously exhibited to my admir- 

 ing crowd of boys, when they could escape the vigilance 

 of their parents, for every boy in town was forbidden to 

 speak to or associate with me. 



I awaited the governor's return with great anxiety and 

 uneasiness. When he finally arrived, I was called into 

 the much dreaded office; and asked what I had to say for 

 having disgraced myself and family, and shown such a 

 low taste for such associates. It suddenly occurred to 

 me what the governor had said on the occasion of the 

 cornfield episode, so replied, "I was simply following 

 your advice, sir. You said you thought the circus my 

 forte and that I would be a success; and I acted on it." 



It was the only occasion when I ever saw the governor 

 nonplussed. He was, as the boys say, "fairly stumped" 

 at my cheek and impudence. He evidently wanted to 

 roar when his astonishment was over, but dignity must 

 be preserved. I was dismissed with the remark, " We 

 will renew this subject later." It is needless to say it 

 never was renewed, and the episode was ever after a for- 

 bidden topic in our family. It was too painful to be 

 spoken of. The old tabbies aforesaid who were itching 

 to extend their sympathies to my mother met with such 

 a frigid reception that they confined their gossip to their 

 own circle, but they wagged their heads and prophecied 

 more trouble and sorrow "for his poor mother," the 

 most conservative opinion being that I would turn pirate 

 and eventually be hung. 



My country career, however, was soon after cut short 

 by a summons to a Western city to prepare for West 

 Point, and I lost my chance to fulfill their prophecy 

 of pirating, which disappointed me, as my early read- 

 ing rather influenced my fancy in that direction, and I 

 had some serious plans in that line of business, resolving, 

 however, to institute a reform in the pursuit so far as to 

 prohibit and omit all the plank-walking part of the pro- 

 ceedings. I had gone so far as to have selected a name 

 for my "low, long black craft" and a fanciful one for 

 myself, and had planned a very rich and and gorgeous 

 costume with silver-plated pistols in belt, a plumed hat 

 with a golden tassel hanging down over one eye. The 

 old ladies did not imagine how near they were to the pos- 

 sibility of the truth in their prophecy. 



As to my circus experience, all I had to show for my 

 services was a much-soiled suit of satin and spangles 

 and 25 cents drawn on account of salary, the balance 

 never being realized. Even to this day a circus per- 

 formance always has the preference over anything else; 

 and as I sit and look on I feel the old spirit come over 

 me, and an almost irresistible inclination to pull off my 

 coat, jump down into the ring, mount a horse and do 

 the old double somersault again — and I have always had 

 an abidiag faith and belief that I could do it, malgre the 

 gray moustache. 



IT. 



Twenty years later, dating from my circus experience, 

 I was on one occasion seated on the box or driver's seat 

 of one of those splendid six -horse stage coaches, crossing 

 the Sierra Mountains. We had just changed horses and 

 drivers. The new man and myself soon got into conversa- 

 tion; and he happened to mention his birth place. I re- 



plied, "Mine, too. Your name?" " " "What," said I, 



"Charley W.?" Charley replied, "Circus," and nearly 

 rolled off the box, laughing until the tears rolled down 

 his face. Then, turning suddenly, he said, "In the old 

 biz yet?" Well, we did have a good laugh over our early- 

 day experiences. We had never met since the night of 

 the row. Charley had beard that I reached home safely ■, 

 and here we met again with an interval of twenty odd 

 years. Charley's love for horses had led to his driving 

 other people's, never being able to own any himself; and 

 as we rattled down the grade at a keen run into Lake 

 Valley, Charley gave a yell and the old war cry, "Hey, 

 Rube!" and in imagination I was again in the ring, with 

 lights flashing, the band braying, and in the air doing my 

 "double backward" through the hoop. Podgers. * 



CAMP LIFE AMID THE PINES. 



IT was in August. Inspired by such fairy tales as 

 "Winthrop's", "Nessmuk's" and those of others, 

 we insisted upon exploring something also. The laurels 

 of those men did not let us sleep, Besides we suspected 

 ourselves to be ailing and deemed it imperative to recuper- 

 ate. Our project was to "discover" the infant waters of 

 the Wisconsin,supposed to be en wreathed with arabesques 

 of Indian legend?, and to see its wavy cradle, the history- 

 enshrouded Lac Vieux Desert. 



We started from Fond du Lac. Our packs weighed 

 401bs.; with gun and revolver perhaps oOlbs. The ride 

 over the Lake Shore & Western was' entertaining. At 

 State Line we alighted. This flourishing town consisted 

 of the station. Here my troubles began. My boots — 

 new ones— chafed my ankles, which during the nine days 

 of our stay was a constant annoyance. For the last days 

 blood and socks were so pasted together that the latter 

 were not taken off before the return. The lake was not 

 reached that evening. We camped under a very primi- 

 tive hut, erected of poles and brush, in a rocky glen. In- 

 stead of an epicurian supper of bear, venison, grouse, 

 maskallonge, etc., as we had fondly imagined, we gour- 

 mandized on coffee, crackers and cheese. 



Next morning we cached our duffle for a while and 

 arrived at the placid mere, where we selected a fine camp 

 place, near which my first partridge on that ramble was 

 potted. We visited the only pale face in that region, His 

 wife is a equaw. We bought some potatoes and hired 

 bis dugout at fifty cents per clay. We intruded upon 

 some summer ducks that spent their honeymoon up 

 there, and they quacked off in disgust. While we were 

 on the beach writing letters which were to be carried to 

 the nearest post-office by a half-breed there approached a 

 birch-bark canoe. The telescope revealed two Indian 

 women, who handled the paddles with an enviable dex- 

 terity. Landing again at the camping site, we built a 

 brush shanty, and our hammocks were suspended. Then 

 we fished. The night following was very cool. Espe- 

 cially the damp draft from below seemed' to be directly 

 imported from Greenland. 



Friday, glad when the gray of morning came, I cut a 

 path through the undergrowth down to the margin of the 

 water, chopped wood, etc., while my companion still 

 snored the snore of the righteous. He is an accomplished 

 sleeper. The invigorating morning air, the rising sun 

 gleaming through the woods at the silver-crested expanse, 

 whose indented coasts have beheld in ages gone by 

 flotillas of pirogues filled with war-painted savages, 

 rallying in grave council at the camp-fire, eager to fall on 

 the settlements further east; to the right an interesting 

 isle of historical value; in the vicinity chirping birds and 

 gossiping squirrels; from afar the maniac laughter of the 

 loon; nearer the splash of a leaping fish; here a screaming 

 kingfisher, there one that sat motionless on the leafless 

 branch of a topless tree ; around the virgin forests — all this, 

 leaning on my breechloader, the dog at my side, I con- 

 templated, and enjoyed the ceaseless motion of the lap- 

 ping element at my feet, and then slowly wended my 

 way toward camp, The day was spent in improving our 

 cottage, fishing, eating, smoking, playing sixty-six and 

 a mouth-organ, making loafing and lounging about a 

 specialty, and by the time the gloom had gathered over 

 the forest and the last embers had changed from red to 

 gray we were in the land of dreams. 



Already the night before we bad listened to startling 

 crackling in the neighborhood. Our spaniel had whined 

 but dared not leave our domicile. So we made sure that 

 our blunderbusses, charged heavily with buckshot, were 

 within easy grasp. At the first blush of Aurora we were 

 aroused by the growling and snarling Hector. We could 

 plainly distinguish the scratching of a ponderous animal 

 descending an immense pine not far off. Knowing dis- 

 cretion to be the better part of valor, we urged the dog to 

 go out and fight, which he did with a warlike roar. A 

 few moments later we heard him howl and yelp piteously. 

 Doubtless his flanks were being torn up by bruin. We 

 were about (bravely but cautiously) to rush to the assist- 

 ance of our canine, when we saw him return with an ex- 

 pression as if some one had snubbed him, and his mouth 

 full of porcupine quills, which he in vain tried to wipe 

 off. The insinuation of Bob's that the chronicler had had 

 the bear fever is not forgiven to this day. He, lazy like 

 a porcupine, went to hammock again, and your bear 

 hunter paddled out and trolled. Returning with a mess, 

 Bob was caught still sleeping like a log, and the quill pig 

 of this morning was "targeted" near our mansion. This 

 forenoon we had a call from a Michigan hunter. After 

 noon we harvested five black bass. They averaged 21bs. 

 Otter like, we only used the backs. When our fish were 

 browned to a nicety they were put away until the potatoes 

 were baked. It was somewhat dusk in the cabin, the 

 fire having gone down. Bob stepped into the full pan. 

 The bass had a delicious flavor. 



Sunday morning an eagle was seen floating through 

 the azure. They are said to be of frequent occurrence at 

 Lake Desert. Afterward we amused some loons by wast- 

 ing powder at them. After dinner we went to the island, 

 where was an Indian village, to barter moccafins from 

 its coffee-tinted inhabitants. These are remnants of a 

 once powerful tribe, who were removed to Minnesota. A 

 number of roaving bands stole back to their native haunts 

 in the Kahtakitikin country, as they term the territory 

 around Vieux Desert; and nobody begrudges them this 

 display of patriotism. When our gondola grated on the 

 pebbles we left our guns and stepped ashore. A pathway 

 crawled up to six or seven cedar- bark lodges. Behind 

 the cleanly looking huts were patches of garden planted 

 with corn and vegetables. Strewn about were utensils of 

 birch bark. Everything was still as death. We knocked 

 at every door. Not a stir. We had to leave without 



