The Billboard 1901-04-20: Vol 13 Iss 16 (1901-04-20)

ee <i _ -— or oe eee <= LATEST BATTLE. The Affair at Tien-Tsin to be Fought Here Again. With over 669 mounted men of all nation lities, In the costumes of their vartous onntries, under the leadership of Col) W. ~ Cody affale Bib, will appear here for four perforin nees, Cumminsville lot, on Monday and Tuesday, May 6 and 7, and thew will all be seen at every performance ot Buffalo Bills Wild West and Congress of ough Riders of the World. The leading features of this entertainment are well Loown the werld over, and with each sue eoding annual appearance It is) welcomed «on old friend, without which, the sex eons entertainment would not be complete his senson Messrs. Cody amd Salistearys have new features added to their regular attractions, and they are features of a pe collar appropriateness, which will appeal to all elasses of people Kussian Cossacks Kithen Arabs, Seuth American Gauchos, Mexteans, Indians, American and German seldiers, have all been brought from their distant homes in all parts of the world. Colonel Cody and Mr. Saushury have perfected them in giving, in the confined res oof their arena, the sports, pasties md war indulgenees that are character istic of their vartetts pre eopelers With ooo per knowing vething of “shows in muy Way, spesking different languages, with widely varving ideas and tastes, thoughts snd desires, the first few days is chaos, but with a mester mdénd and firm hand all is brenght te order the timely, exeiting and historic of the capture of Pekin is made a great and nttractive dition to the Wild West This ix « reoretnetion on a large seale of the atthe of Tsin Special seenery has been made from phetographs of the walls and surroundings. and the barricade has jeon ballt as nearly correet as the limited cow bows, lormers, episode space of the arena wil permit This is the est popnlar feature this season, and there will be a peeullar interest awakened in the public whe will wish to see soldiers of the allied powers representing the most exciting episodes of the late battle, and in which they were sueh important factors (Quite a number of Baden-Powell’s herole warriors have alse been engaged, and they will appear in the same field with Oom Pauls bray tors, the Northwest Mounted Police, Colonial Guards, Canadian Mounted Rifles aud other up-to-date horsemen. 33-Year-Old Three-Sheet. The winds, three years rains and storms of thirty have whistled, poured and howled about, and the small boy with com mendable energy and condemnable spirit has pulled dewn and torn inte strips the paper in each consecutive season since the spring of TSOS, when the old veteran shew man, Charles Lee, risking his small com petence, started out with two or. three Wagens and about twenty-five people to fll the country with his cireus fame, and, in cilentally, the country farmer, his wife and sWeetheart with red lemonade and cireus popeorn In those days cireus billing was het the selence it is now, but “Uncle Char lie.” with his humble start, realized that to “git there and stay there.’ he must do the advertising proper, so he made his advance brigade nearly as large as the institution it represent, and cover ad othe bill the barnsides and board fences over his territory with the best pa per he could procure. in that opening sea sen he gave the Russell-Morgan Company an order for a dandy lot of three sheet stuff, which was about the largest paper teed in those days. The order was filled at a cost of twenty-eight cents each, and an neunecd the comme of Charles Lee's “Great London Shows.’ The vears have flown by and “Unele Charles” has made the money he wanted, and sooner the fame he de served, starting out this season with a nine ear show under the same old name, to cover the same old territory, to put up the fine paper of today at the same stands where thirty-three years age his men stuck the old three sheets. Mr. L. KE. Grenger, his gen eral manager, arrived several days since to personally attend to the shipping of the ad vertising matter for this year, and while at close the Russell-Mergan plant found among some stuff stored in the cellar what) he prizes as the most valuable cireus souvenir in America, six of the old Lee three sheets printed in INES, The Thost enurious line In the bill is. “Wateh for the big Street Procession.” Mr. Granger presented “The Billboard’ with one of them, and, when contrasted with the paper of today, it Is the marked evidence of the growth not only of the cireus, but of bill printing ingenuity. Making the Route. Tt has always been a matter of consid erable curiosity te many people as toe how cireus managers determined on the route they shou'd take eaeh seasen Of course, In a business invelving steh enormous ex pense as attaches to the traveling of these mimense shows, it is a certain thing that their route is never Inid out in a haphazard Thanner, Upon this subject Mr. Whiting Allen, one of the agents of the Adam Fore papaugh and Sells Bros.” Twentieth Cen tury Colossus, writes “The Billboard: “No one need imagine that there is any Giesswork doue by the proprictors of ‘ gtamp. WM, WOQDARD, Le _ THE BILLBOARD shows like the one I represent. To begin With, the proprietors, Messrs. James A. bulley, W. W. Cole, Lewis Sells and Peter Sells, have been exhibiting their various shows all over the world for more than thirty veurs Betore they became proprie tors of their own shows Mr. Bailey and Mr Cole were both agents for other shows for # number of years, and acquired all the knowledge of the eountry and their busi hess from their employers, to which has been added the vast fund of information their own experiences have supplied. Map ping out a route for a season, the proprie tors of these shows, who also control the tours of Buffato Bill's Wild West, while Mr tailey owns the Barnum & Bailey Show, now in Europe, they take into con sideration almost everything that bears pon the condition of the country Agents are sent out tionths in advance for the pur pose of investigating the of the eountry, the of the erous, the tions, thew many various sections prospective conditions general industrial condi employed, and in What they are emoloyed, the remuneration they reeeive, and everything that bears tnen the subject ix theroug hiy in Vestigated and reported to the proprietors These reports in hand, the routes are made out There is another thing that has a great bearing unen the routing of these creat shows, and that is the ilituest license ques tion In the formation of a route, cireus Hhitwgers figure upen the license they will have te pay upon this basis: The smaller, the least progressive, the slower and poorer the community, the higher the license. This rute obtains te such an extent that it is altmest absolutely invariable Show me # town Where an excessive cirenus license is charged, and | will show you a town that ix standing sti'! As a matter of fact. it frequently Tabpe peers in stuall towns, where the business is bound te be poor for a day, but which of necessitv must sometimes be taken because of the distance between the town before and the town ahead of it. that the license is greater than in some of the larger cities o fthe country. The progres sive towns are too smart to keep the shows away by charging an exorbitant license. They know, as we do, that there is nothing that oeeurs during the year that brings more money into the town than the visit of one of these circuses. An investigation carried on by the cireus proprietors has dem onstrated as a nositive fact that the deposits in the local banks are the heaviest of any day in the vear after the visit of one of these shows. Now, if any show agent eould go inte a town and convinee the mer chants of that fact, which we know to be a positive fact, that in getting up some sort of a celebration or a fair causes that much money to be brought into a town and leaving it in the town, he would have no trou ble in getting the merchants to subscribe to bring such an entertainment into the town. With a cireus no such subscription is asked. On the contrary. they are actually fined in the shape of a license for doing the very thing that the celebration might do, and doing it infinitely greater and better. “But | suppose Pil surprise you immense ly when I say to you that shows like Adam Forepaugh and Se Twentieth Cen tury Colossus never get their eX\pelises out Is Bros.’ of a tewn of tess than 3.080) population. Yet is a fact of easy demonstration Cir cus proprietors lay out their route based on the caleulation that in ordinarily good times, and with ordinarily good weather, they will get in one in every seven of the population That is a liberal estimate when vou take inte aceount the old, the sick, the very poor, the religious and the very young, whe ean't or will not go to the show Phen, too, there is a large per centage of the visiters toe the shows of the town population that are deadheads. True it is that many of deadheads have done semething for the shows that entitle them te the courtesy they have received, but nevertheless they establish this aver age of one in seven. Therefore. we figure that, to get 1,000) persons in the show, we must have 7,000 of a population te draw from Now, figuring the prices at 2 and Mw) cents, and with the added prices for the reserved seats, and taking into considera tion the complimentary tickets, it requires three visiters to the show to make a dollar of receipts. Now, it is a simple calculation, then, to say that we must have a popula tion of 21.000 in the town to get $1,000 re ceipts in that town. There is not a town of that size which these shows go ta, or of auy size, for that matter, that the local ex penses do not amount to anywhere from 31.0) to S1.S00. These local expenses are money that is spent in the town among the people for lots, licenses, water, feed. adver tising of all kinds, and the usual inciden tals that cause necessary expenses. “So you see the claim that they do not get their expenses in any of these towns from the people living in the town is true. The people who come from the country are the people who give the shows their profit, and practically receive uething in return except the entertainment with which they are provided. It is a very easy and reasonable caleulation to say that for every dol lar spent with the shows, these people from the country will spend an average of S3 with the merchants in the towns. “As a watter of simple fact, the high li cense charged to a circus is the shortest sighted exercise of the taxing power by a munteipatity that can be Imagined. But I have no idea that these statements which I make, and which know to be true. will effect the result tha® seems to be fatuity in these municipal governmetts that can not be , overcome. The only relief the cireus pro prietors have is te remain away from such towns, and they do so wherever possible.” WAS THO= 0.000 ag agents to manufacture and sell patent medicine. Full particulars for a¢ hart, Tena, COOPER & CO,'S RAILROAD CIRCUS WANTS People in all branches—a Side Show Manager and Attractions, Musicians, a swift Boss Canvassman and Bill Posters. Address: Knoxville, bebe YOUNG ADAM FOREPAUG THE ELEPHANT s-sereeee TRAINER, HIS ASTONISHING ADVENTURES AND EXCITING EXPERIENCES. I have the remnant of an edition of this. perhaps one of my best show stories, and historically correct, as au early record of tne old Forepaugh aggregation under the reign of ADAM I, I will mail copies, as long as they last, on receipt of ten cents, coin or stamps CHARLES H. DAY, P. 0. Box 74, Whitneyville, Conn. Buffalo Bill’s No. | Car. The handsome advertising car No. 1 of the buffalo Bills Wild West Show spent several days in Cincinnati last week, bill ing the town for the Wild West perform ances in this city, May 6 and 7. Phe car is a very handsome and very handsomely equip be “ one sae roster is as follows: il. . He «dy car Oo’ Donald, aeeee. aaunt: Oliver Lester, brass bill moster: Ed Tlanson, assistant bess bill poster: Ben Deshane, R. J. Wheeler, Thos. sovlan, Frenchy Perault, Dick Lefever, Frank Ward, C. Lackis, C. Inman, J. Law ton, W. Hope, P. Steight, George Frazier and KE. Boges, bill. posters; Steve Dwyer, Jim Dee, Jim Power and H. Long, lithogra Manager Frank phers: Kid Werbe, programmer: Ed Bry ant, chef; L. Lever, waiter; B. Casey, por The World Over And you will find CANVAS wi Nothing too large or too TENTS. small for our shop. All the Big Shows use the best tents and we make them. Balloons and sporting tents of every description made to order. Second-hand — for sale. Write for particulars H. LUSHBAUGH The Practical Tent ph Covington, Ky. AL BUSINFsS PERTAINING To THE ADvance of Pawnee Bill's Wild West. address WE ‘_ USON, General Agent. care “Bill board, *? 427 KB. Righth Street, Cincinnati, O JOB LoT OF SAW BUCK COTS Net Prices, f. o. b., Detroit, Mich. In car load lots, 35¢ each; lots of 100, soc each: lots of so, at 4:c each; in lots of one dozen, £6 oo and in less than dozen lots, ssc each. Brand new; never been used. Apply quick, at J.C.GOSS & CO. MAKERS OF SHOW CANVAS. DETROIT, MICH. **And the World Moves On.’’ DOE WADDELL, **The Man with the Passes.’’ CIRCUS MEN All Stop at HOTEL EMERY, “'NSINS4T": OHIO. Steam heat, electric light and large committee rooms Kverything first-class and up-to-date. Rates $1 os dav and upwards Aroade entrance. ARION L TYSON, Manager. S.F.TAYLOR, | SIDE SHOW PAINTINGS 265 West Randolph Street, Chicago, illinois. Scenery and Show Paintings! JOHN HERFURTH, No. 2183 Boone St, CINCINNA TI, O. CIRCUS CANVASES, Poles and Stakes, SEATS, Flags, Ete. agents tor KIDD'S PATENT CIRCUS LIGHTS. Black Tents for Moving Picture Work. THOMSON & VANDIVEER, xtzszes And Manufacturers of Circus, Side Show, Camp Meeting, Military and Lawn Tents, Balloons and Parachutes, Stable Canvases und Sporting Tents; Dray, Horse and Wagon Covers; Tar ulins, Mops, Canvas Signs and Hose; Steam| Screens and Windsails; Hammocks, etc. Flags of every description made toorder. Tents for rent + HOMSON & VANDIVEER, St. Charles Hotel. 230 and 230 East Third Street, Cincinnati Ohio Show Canvas, Largest Tent Maker Inthe Rast Write for estimate. F. VANDERHERCHENS, 5S. EK. cor. Water and Vine Sts., Philadelphia, Pa. ©.O.0.0:.0:O:0'O.O:O:O'©:©O'O.O'O.E'O.E'O.O CALL John Robinson's 10 Big Shows SSasss COMBINED. SSee<e Show Opens at Columbia (Suburb of Cincinnati), Saturday, April 27th. All performers report Answer this call by letter to April 24th, on lot, to WILLIAM DUTTON. J. G. ROBINSON, Terrace Park, Ohio, ©.0.0:0:0:0:0.0:0:0:0:0:00:0:0:0:.0:0.0.0.0