These opposition fights greatly benefited the local bill posters and
were frequently urged on by them. Sometimes a show would send a brigade
over the country at night, placing its own dates on the paper of its
rival, thus getting all the advantages of the first show's paper.
Sometimes the indolence and laziness of my own men have annoyed me
greatly. I am reminded that, while my advance brigade was billing
Texas, one of my agents became utterly disgusted with the sleepiness of
his men. They were mainly of corpulent build, and their captain
actually sent me this message:
"WACO, Texas, July, 1881.
"W. C. COUP,
"Sturtevant House, New York City:
"There is one more shade tree in Texas; send another fat man to sit
under it."
On numerous occasions I have had to pay dearly as a result of the sharp
practices of unscrupulous people, and it is a well-known fact that a
circus man has to deal with a great many of this class. Our advance
agent always engaged the lots on which we were to exhibit, and he did
so at Austin, Texas, renting the necessary ground at a most exorbitant
figure. As usual, he gave an order on the company which was to be paid
immediately on our arrival. But the owner, or pretended owner, inserted
a clause in the agreement that the lots were to be used if still in the
possession of the signer. Immediately on our arrival the bill was
presented, and as promptly paid. Imagine my surprise when, as the show
opened at night, another bill was presented for $150. It seems that
this sharper had made a fraudulent sale of one of the center lots on
purpose to swindle me. Of course I paid it, under protest, in order to
enable the performance to proceed, as, anticipating a refusal on my
part, they had illegally attached some valuable ring stock.
Some years ago when George Peck was struggling with Peck's Sun, long
before it had been recognized as a "leading comic paper," I visited
Milwaukee with my show. My invariable instructions to my agents were
to advertise in every paper, but especially to place an extra
advertisement in all young papers struggling for recognition, provided,
of course, that they had merit. For some reason, or through oversight,
George Peck's Sun had been entirely forgotten. Nevertheless, I found on
reaching Milwaukee that Peck had, on several occasions, good-humoredly
alluded in his columns to my coming, and had not "roasted" me, as many
other editors so slighted would have done. Accordingly I sent him a
check which would have more than paid for the advertising he should
have had but did not get. To my surprise he returned the check, saying
I owed him nothing. I declined to receive it, and once more sent it to
him, telling him not to come any of his "funny business over me," and
to reserve his jokes for his paper. This brought him around to my
hotel, and I was delighted to become acquainted with one of the
cleverest men I have ever met. Later he became Governor of his State.