It is almost impossible to give an intelligent idea of the cost of wild
animals, since this depends entirely upon the operation of the law of
supply and demand. The cost of cages varies, of course, according to
size and decorations, and the same observation applies to the railroad
cars. The most expensive of the latter are the highly ornamental cars
used for advance advertising. These are comfortably, and even
elaborately, fitted, and are provided with a huge paste boiler and
other conveniences. They cost anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000. The flat
and stock cars used by circuses are much more substantially constructed
than the ordinary ones used in the railroad freight business, and are
considerably larger, most of them being sixty feet in length and fitted
with springs similar to those of passenger coaches. Cars of this
description cost from $500 to $800 each; passenger coaches from $1,500
upward, according to the quality of interior, fittings and decorations.
Some circus proprietors also have their own private cars, fitted with
every imaginable convenience and luxury, and such a car costs high in
the thousands. The expense of the wardrobe depends, of course, on the
amount used and its quality, and whether the costumes are intended for
a spectacular show or for an ordinary circus. The wardrobe and papier
mache chariots used in the production of our "Congress of Nations" cost
Mr. Barnum and myself more than $40,000, and I am told that Mr. Bailey
expended a like amount on his "Columbian" display.
The price of the canvas has been wonderfully reduced within the last
few years. We paid $10,000 for our first hippodrome tent alone, and
this did not include dressing-room tents, horse tents and camp tents.
Afterward, however, we had a larger one made for very much less money.
The small circuses that hover around Chicago and the larger cities of
the West in summer usually use a tent about eighty feet across, with
two thirty-foot middle pieces. This, equipped with poles, seats and
lights, costs about $800. These tents are made of light material. The
larger canvases have to be made of stouter stuff, and a tent suitable
for hippodrome or spectacular shows, which must be about 225 feet in
width and 425 or 450 feet in length, would cost about $7,000.