AN OVERCROWDED CIRCUS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 2

AN OVERCROWDED CIRCUS.

LIVELY SCENE AT HAMILTON. Such a scene as occurred at the performance of Wirth's circus at Hamilton, last week, owing to the overcrowding allowed by it-he management; has surely never before been ■witnessed at Hamilton, says the Waikato Times. As soon as t'he doors were opened, a dense crowd poured into the tent, and soon every seat was occupied. Despite this fact, no attempt was made to stop the sale of tickets, and people continued to stream in. Finding no seats available, many seated themselves on the ground, but several hundreds took up their station, standing in front of those already seated. Naturally this led to a demonstration of indignation from the sitting ones, cries of "Sit down in front," blending with boo-hooing for the management which had allowed such n state of affairs to come about. And s:' the people streamed in. At last there was a solid wall of humanity in front of the tiers of seats, and the people on these had themselves to stand if they wished to see anything. 'The patrons who had paid the highest price for the seats (7s 8d) seemed to be Mie worst off, for there was a dense mass in front of them.

So .great was the uproar that the manager and circus staff were compelled to make an effort to get the standing people to sit down on the grass; but the crowd had by that time swelled to such proportions that it was a hopeless task. As a result probably more than half of the huge audience had to stand throughout the whole evening if they wished to obtain a glimpse of what was happening in the ring. Naturally the audieliae was indignant, and gave, the manager a hostile reception whenever he appeared in the ring to announce the performers. There was a perpetual simmer of unrest, which frequently culminated in an uproar, causing the performance to be frequently held up. It must have been rather trying to the performers, but the audience could certainly not be blamed. Nothing of what was said in the ring could be heard by the audience owing to the noise.

Most, of those present anticipated a riot, and it is doubtful if even the small section who could see the ring properly enjoyed the performance, owing to the spirit of uneasiness in the air. Had such a riot occurred the results would have been disastrous, for the huge tent was densely packed.

Severul free fights threatened owing to the fact that some of the people standing became annoyed at the personal remarks, and the clods of earth that were hurled at them by the indignant ones at the back. There were many heated arguments, which added to the electrical atmosphere. Altogether, it was an evening which will long be remembered by those who were present.