THE LURE OF THE CIRCUS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 May 1924, Page 4

THE LURE OF THE CIRCUS

(Ethel E. Malinin in - Daily .Mail.’’) In a few week", now the circus will take to tin* road again. At LI it* first whisper of .spring in the air the wagons and chariots are painted and gilded; cracked mirrors replaced, tents overhauled. All through the long winter the circ-us community lms lived that queer, unobtrusive life unheard of by anoyne who drcs not get a pivp behind the scenes.

The circus business is a very big buisiness. and n profitable one. It is not. as so many people seem to imagine, a gipsy affair conducted by picturesque people with a taste Tor vagabondage. It is run bv men with .sound business instincts. It is usual' for the proprietors to accompany the circus on tour. They travel in cars and put up at hotels along the route. The winter quarters' of the circus are on the proprietor’s estate—of two hundred acres or more. The ( irons people form a colony of their own. On the estate will be found the proprietor's imposing house, and, if it be a family concern, the houses of hisons or brothers in the business with him.

The pictursque people who are “the circus” the outside world sees live in roughly i-onstrueted lints and bungalows. sometimes in caravans, according to individual taste and the size of their families. They divide their dwellings up into streets and avenues, and name them in the manlier the men in France during the war gave familiar street names to different trenches. In one circus community known to me there are a Piei-adilly-circus and a T.ei-ccster-square. The dwellings of the circus hands form a complete village, with the horses, paddocks, kennels, etc., all conveniently at hand, together with one or two spacious gymnasiums where men and beasts practise their tricks ami keep fit ; anil there are huge halls where very costly professional wagons are housed- Everything is up-to-date. And every year in the early spring there are queer vagabond people who come applying for the humblest (>f circus jobs. During the rest of the year they “pad the hoof.” Tho same people come back year after year, borne r.f them even throw up regular jobs in order to do so. It is the lure of the circus that will not be denied. . - • Once the circus lays its magic touch upon a man it has him for all lin.c. There are hut few circuses left in tho country now. but never leless it is a big and picturesque and irresistibly romantic c-aravanserni that every spring makes the long trail to the big towns, where it is always welcome.