Side Show Studies

Side Show Studies, by Francis
Metcalfe

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Title: Side Show Studies
Author: Francis Metcalfe
Illustrator: Oliver Herford
Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23542]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SHOW STUDIES ***

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SIDE SHOW STUDIES
BY FRANCIS METCALFE
ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY AMUSING DRAWINGS BY OLIVER
HERFORD
NEW YORK THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 1906

Copyright, 1905 and 1906, by THE OUTING PUBLISHING
COMPANY
First impression, March, 1906
THE OUTING PRESS DEPOSIT, N. Y.

CONTENTS
PAGE
THE LIBERTY OF FRANZ AND THE REBELLION OF FUZZY
WUZZY 1
THE BITE OF A RATTLER AND THE SAD FATE OF BIG PETE 23
THE AMOROUS BABOON 45
FEEDING THE SERPENTS AND A GRAND TRANSFORMATION
67
THE LIONESS SKIRT DANCE AND THE INCONSIDERATE
PYTHON 89
THE ANIMAL BAROMETER AND THE ETERNAL FEMININE
113

MAKING A STAR LION AND AN INTERRUPTED TEMPERANCE
MEETING 137
KALSOMINING AN ELEPHANT 163
THE HYPNOTIC BEAR AND THE SENTIMENTAL LECTURER
183
THE TRAGEDY OF THE TIGERS AND THE POWER OF
HYPNOTISM 211

THE LIBERTY OF FRANZ AND THE REBELLION OF FUZZY
WUZZY

THE LIBERTY OF FRANZ AND THE REBELLION OF FUZZY
WUZZY
Madame Morelli, the pretty little Frenchwoman who makes a
half-score of leopards, panthers and jaguars do things which nature
never intended them to do, had finished her act and driven the snarling
performers through the narrow runway to their separate cages,
fastening each one, as she thought, securely. Two French clowns were
filling in the time and making the audience of Coney Island pleasure
seekers laugh by their antics with a performing dog, while the stage
hands were bringing in the properties for the next trained animal act,
when the Proprietor came from behind the scenes and strolled,
apparently unconcerned, to the back of the Arena, where he could
command a clear view of the performance, the audience and the cages.
He said a few words to each of the trainers and keepers whom he
passed, and the Stranger, who knew the clock-like regularity with
which each one of them went through his allotted duties, noticed an
unwonted haste and suppressed excitement among them.
As he joined the Proprietor the sound of hammering mingled with the
noise of the blatant brass band and the cries of the ballyhoo spielers for

the other Dreamland attractions, which came in through the open
windows, and he saw that Stevenson, the mild eyed quiet man who is
always on hand to rescue imperiled trainers and keepers when their
own carelessness, or unexpected revolt on the part of the animals, leads
to a fight, was rapidly nailing boards over the ventilating spaces above
the cages. Madam Morelli, whip and training rod in hand, hurried from
her dressing room to the runway, and every keeper and trainer seemed
to be loitering in the space between the leopards' den and the audience.
He looked at the Proprietor inquiringly, but the little trickle of blood
which ran down his cheek from under his cap answered the question he
would have asked, an animal was loose and the Proprietor had
encountered it in his rounds. A crash of weird music from the band
drowned the sound of a cracking whip and sharp commands which
came from the runway, and announced the appearance of Brandu, the
snake charmer, in the exhibition cage, and the audience watched him
play with a cobra, all unconscious that Franz, the jaguar, which a few
minutes before had desisted from his attempt to tear the fair shoulders
of Morelli only after a dozen blank cartridges had been fired in his face,
was a gentleman-at-large in Dreamland. The Proprietor gave a sigh of
relief as the jaguar backed into his cage from the runway, snarling and
striking at the little woman who forced him backward with the whip
until she was able to slam the door and make him once more a prisoner.
When she passed them on her way back to the dressing-room, her dress
was torn, and her eyes were flashing from the excitement of the
encounter and anger at the carelessness of the carpenter who had left a
board loose at the top of the den.
[Illustration: The table in front of the Arena.]
"Of course, that might have been a serious thing for the jaguar and for
my pocket book,"