A CIRCUS AGENT MEETS HIS MATCH.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1772, 24 October 1879, Page 3

A CIRCUS AGENT MEETS HIS MATCH.

Yesterday afternoon, (says a Virginia paper) a dapper little man, with a two-ounce cane and a half-pound cluster diamond pin. come into the -< Chronicle ” office and asked if the amusement reporter was in. When the man he sought was pointed out the stranger grasped him warmly by the hand, remarking, ‘ Delighted to meet yon, sir, really, I am. I’ve heard of you every place I’ve stopped on my way from New York. I had such a curiosity to see you that I got off at Ueno and took a run up. All of our boys told mo to be sure and see you, if I didn’t get aboard of anything else in the town.’ ‘ Ah,’ said the reporter, blushing in four colors, ‘l’m glad to see you. Might I inquire your name ? ’ ‘Well, here’s my cord,’ said the little man, handing out a piece of pasteboard about five inches square; ‘ y T ou may have beard of me before—Clarence de Lacy Slocum, agent for the Sebastian Van Buena Vista Circus and Menagerie. 1 hia is by far the hugest combination of gigantic circuses ever put on the road. We started out about five years ago in a small way, with not over 400,000 feet of canvas, only nine tents, and scarcely I£oo animals, but we gradually absorbed all the small-fry shows. They’d go into bankruptcy along tbe route, and we would buy their outfits Sebastian, our owner, is the most sympathetic man on earth. He’d buy their little shows and pay double price, just to help the poor devils along. Money is of no account to him. He’s travelling simply for pleasure and a desire to see the great West.’ ‘l’d like to know him,’ remarked the reporter. ‘ Oh, he knows you —that is by reputation. Ho has yonr picture set in a frame that cost him over one hundred dollars. He was saying to me one night that whenever business was dull he just took a look at that phiz of yours, and it always made him feel as happy as if he were obliged to turn five hundred people away at the door.’ * How came he to get hold of my picture ? ’ ‘ Oh, he begged it of Do Murska, or Modjeska, or Clara Morris—l forget which. She hated like thunder to part with it, but ypu see he had loaned the great actress 10,000 dollars once in Paris to buy a wardrobe and some jewellery for a new piece, and as the debt was never cancelled she couldn’t very well refuse. But I just came in to give you a little information about our show. I always like to give a man all the points when I know he possesses the talent to handle them in the right style. Some fellows down at Reno and Carson tried to pump me, but I didn’t propose to let a description of my show to be mangled np by scrub writers. Besides Sebastian telegraphed to me from New York last night not to let anybody but you get aboard this description. Just mention four miles of cages containing wild beasts, with twelve new varieties of elephants, and a recently discovered monster from Africa, called the Jabberwook, which weighs 3000 pounds,’ ‘lndeed!’ ‘Yes, sir, and a man like you, with a fine descriptive ability and inexhaustible command of language, which has made you famous in two continent —’ * How many columns do you want?’ ‘Oh, as many as you please.’ * When will your show be here ? ’ * Perhaps not for two months ; it takes such a long time to move the animals that our progrers across the country is slow. ’ 'Just so. Well, our figures for big circuses like yours are 150 dollars a column, cash down, and 30 per cent, of the gross receipts it the show is a success,’ The circus agent seemed greatly affected. ‘ Isn’t that rather steep ?’ he said. ‘lt wonld be, perhaps, for a small provincial journal like the “New York Sun,” or even the London “Times,” but we calculate such a mammoth edition that the price is comparatively trifling. Fourteen freight cars come up every day with paper for our edition, which is worked off on five big Walter presses, lightning geared. Oar expense for steam alone, sir, is 2000 dollars a day. We have more carriers than you could pack into your largest tent. Our Eastern circulation has been increasing at the rate of a thousand a day for the last two years. By simply cutting down the size of the paper an eight of an inch onr proprietor has saved enough money to bnild four school houses worth 40 000 dollars each, and endowed an orphan asylum in each country of the State. He doesn’t run the paper for money, but jest simply for his health and because he likes the country. Our mailing and folding machinery wonld remind you of the Risdon ironworks.’ Is it in this building ? ’ * Oh, no; this is simply the branch office—the place where we write up circuses. Our principal establishment .’ The circus agent groaned as if in agony and fled from the office,