In a lifetime spent with the circus I have learned the heart of the
people. I have felt the pulse of the multitudes who have made the
history of the West. This insight into conditions of things in the West
brought me many and varied experiences, some of which were rough and
severe. They had their interesting sides, however, and many of them are
worth the telling, if for no other reason than to throw light upon the
character of the people with whom we had to deal. That the show was
appreciated by these frontiersmen there can be no doubt.
In the earlier days it was the custom to have a concert in a side tent
before and after the regular performance in the circus. At one place
where we stopped the people paid their money and went in and enjoyed
the concert; but so well pleased were they that they insisted upon a
repetition of the performance. At the point of their pistols they
compelled the poor minstrels to continue their antics nearly all night,
until ready to drop from sheer exhaustion.