CIRCUS TONGUE GONE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 77, 17 April 1937, Page 15

CIRCUS TONGUE GONE

No Soecial Slang of Profession

g 1 5l«f 'l Engliph he* beaerae the , riug'B English, aays a writer from Lonj« don to the Christian Science Honitor, The dariqg young man on the flying trapege,, hie «ster} the tightrrope welke?> tfef white-faced elown— in fact, all cireu§ folk-^speak slang no longer, or, gt any rate, no zpecial slang of their prolepsion, accofding to Mr. Jqhn fflirke, Whese stqtgment is, cettfirmjd by the eythsritie! «t Ber|?Rm liiUs'f ^tcus in L@id.iP, Where there are g@rfqnners from all over the world. Mr. Clarke was a rough rider 1$ the 10§ @f ten, and a trainer of herpes qnd wlli bfasts at twentyf wo. Siucp thpn hf haj t>?en an author and leeturgr ftit ft Uirab@r of Parliament. fhft fide Qf ipecialisgq circus slqng. feew%¥@rf has nqt receded without legvIPf P@P1@ flotsam and jetsam behind, tnbeddfd in the fahiie of ecunmon, •Tifyduy speech. the 03fpressiqn-Ts'Gut the eqekle, and ftl lo the *eea@p?Ms a legacF nf tb« Mfflded idng, fiud the harker. whc rfioufed its attraotions' to th@ erow^ ptleTeil the trayelUPg hioths 4 eackler was % talker— B|ekeus'! Jipe, a t.ireua artist in (( JJax'd Txmes,'

jj..., ■si'r ■yyt ■ o was said to be a good qackler, though "loose, in his ponging" (tumbling) — PUd tbi exhortatiop merely means, Get thp preliminaries over, and let the performanee feegin. One of the reasons for the rqpid growth in earlier days of a vivid circus slang was the, frequent inter-marriages th§t toolf place betwpen well-knpwn Circus famiHgs4 whieh tended to keep travellin^ showmep. of this kind a speeial grOup of feopie cu| off from fhe rest of the cqmmunity? with their qwb customs and langqage. They etill, however, have a large iurmber -o# te^hnical terms, just as other professions ha-ves The move" ment by which an acrobat Teturns to a, sitting position on the horizontal bar, after hanging from it upside down, is knpwp as "the Plymouth." There are , several mich terms, bpt thesp canpot be deserihed prpperly as slang/ But . though slang is almost completely obso- ' lete, it still occasionally manages to > IhTow out a fresh phrase now and ' ngaio, "Big TQP, ' ' whieh originatet . ip 4meriea, has tffl.ly recpntly sprend 3 fp Eijrope as a synon.vm i°i' ihe f'ircus ' tent.