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SHOWMAN
When I got there, I found competition. Somebody else wanted the Boer War— none other than Mr. Wall, the eminent wholesale druggist, who was itching to turn showman on his own hook and tour the thing through the south and southwest all winter a la Buffalo Bill. He knew nothing about shows, but was convinced that this was the biggest thing in that line since Jumbo, and his prominence among the original backers of the scheme gave him an inside track. The thing was already something of a mess. Wall and Lewis were at loggerheads most of the time, and Lewis, to keep his foot in the door, had sewed up Cronje, the centerpiece of the show, in an exclusive contract at $1500 a week. I liked the strength of Lewis' position, so I hitched up with him and tried to get Wall to bring the outfit to Coney Island the next summer, as soon as he'd lost all he wanted to in his southern tour. If he didn't, we figured, we could take Cronje and Viljoen, who was also under contract to Lewis personally, hire some likely riders and shooters from western talent, and put on our own Boer War, regardless of Wall and the rank and file. The show without Cronje would be Valley Forge without George Washington.
But Wall, stubborn as amateurs always are, insisted on taking enough rope to hang himself, so I settled back to wait till experience had wised him up. He started his troupe off through the south and came a cropper at every stand. He stuck to it longer than anybody had expected, but even so it was still early spring
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