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"The Circus" 215
dishes. The donkey, who has taken a dislike to him, chases him into the ring where, in a grand dish-spill, a fall into a woman's lap, and a shove into a barrel, he again blunders into circus stardom, winning roars of laughter from the audience.
Charlie is about to toss some food up to the illtreated Merna, practicing on the rings, when the boss enters. Charlie pretends to be practicing juggling. When Merna fails to catch a pie and it messes the giant propertyman's face, Charlie sidesteps blame by locking his thumbs in a gesture implying that a bird did it.
It is kept from the new prop man that he is the hit of the show and he is given menial cleaning tasks to perform. The resulting comedy bits include the wiping of live goldfish; the accidental exposure of the magician's bag of tricks and the release of his menagerie of rabbits, birds and pigs; his frantic efforts to put things in order again; and a veterinary sequence in which he is to blow a large pill down the throat of a sick horse, only to have the horse blow first and get the pill down the ''doctor's" throat.
In another sequence the unfriendly donkey chases him into the cage of a sleeping lion. As Charlie reaches out for the gate handle, the outside latch falls and he is locked in. Timidly waving his handkerchief for help, he tiptoes to another door which opens into a tiger's cage. Knocking a tray of water off the wall, he catches it just in time. Then a little dog begins to bark at him. Charlie orders him off, and when that fails, tries tearful pleas.
At this point Merna appears and seeing his plight she faints. Through the bars Charlie sprinkles water on her and, as he does so, the lion yawns, rises, goes over to Charlie, apparently finds him not to his taste, and lies down again. Charlie feels himself to see if he is really intact. When Merna revives and opens the door for him, Charlie lingers to take a few heroic poses as conqueror, cockily approaches the lion, only to have a roar from