“SAMWELL’S COMPANY.”
Another penny show: “The Wonderful Children on the Tight Rope, and
Dancing Horse. Only a Penny!” I paid my penny to the money-taker, a
slender “fine lady,” with three feathers in a “jewelled turban,” and a
dress of blue and white muslin and silver; and withinside I saw the
“fat, contented, easy” proprietor, who was arrayed in corresponding
magnificence. If he loved leanness, it was in his “better half,” for
himself had none of it. Obesity had disqualified him for activity, and
therefore in his immensely tight and large satin jacket, he was, as much
as possible, the active commander of his active performers. He
superintended the dancing of a young female on the tight rope. Then he
announced, “A little boy will dance a hornpipe on the rope,” and he
ordered his “band” inside to play; this was obeyed without difficulty,
for it merely consisted of one man, who blew a hornpipe tune on a
Pan’s-pipe; while it went on, the “little boy” danced on the tight rope;
so far it was a hornpipe dance and no farther. “The little boy will
stand on his head on the rope,” said the manager, and the little boy
stood on his head accordingly. Then another female danced on the
slack-wire; and after her came a horse, not a “dancing horse,” but a
“learned” horse, quite as learned as the horse at Ball’s theatre, in
Show III. There was enough for “a penny.”