The Old Circus Man

"The first souvenirs I ever knew of baing given out in the show business," said the old circus man, "we gaveaway in our show at the time we had the big 18 foot giraffe. We never had an attractiou that beat the big giraffe. The people were just carried away with him. There wasn't anything about him but what interested them, even the slightest little things. Ou clear days, wheu we were where we could do it and the sun was right for ua, we used to get the giraSe out in front of the entrañes of the inaiu tent and have him stand there like a great sentry. People used to stop aud look up at him, and then the first thing you know somebody 'd discover bis shadder. Anybody'd cast a long shadder at that hour of the day, of course, but the giraffe's shadder reached as far as you could see. And as soon as one ruan begun to look at it 40 others did, and then you'd see 'em, I've seen 1,000 people at a time line np long that shadder and just stand along the edge of it down past the main tent and the sideshow tents, just standing there lookin at it. The giraffe was great, but bis shadder fairly staggered 'em. And there they'd stand till the sun dropped clown uuder the edge of the earth, and the first thing they knew there wasn't any shadder. Then they'd stare at each other for a minute, and then all bunch up togetheragidnand look at the giraffe till we took him in. "We used to have a line on the programme saying that at 3 o'clock and at 9 o'clock the great giraffe would hand around ice water. That's where the souvenirs come in. We used to give away the glasses the water was in. The glasses were marked, 'Souvenir of the Great Giraffe, ' and whoever got 'em could keep 'em. The seats in our circus were divided into four sections. We used to give away four dozen tumblers at every performance, one in each section. When the time come, we'd maren the giraffe around the edge of the ring, and in front of each section bis keeper would hand him awire holder holding a dozen glasses, which he would take by the handle in his mouth. Tall as he was, he could reach easy to the highest back seats. It's astonishing how people used to grab for those glasses. It seems as though the whole section would stand up on the seats and all grab for the holder when it come near 'em. They'd spill the water and get wet and bave the greatest time you ever heard of, but nobody got hurt, and so we just let her buzz along. But finally something did happeu. "At one evening entertainment when he was serving out the souvenirs, when we come to one of the sections, there was a man sitting on the fourth tier from the top who picked up his boy, a bright lookiug youngster about 10 years old, who was sitting alongside of bim, and sat him up on his shoulder. The giraffe lifted the holder up and swept it along tbe seats with the people grabbing, and when it come near this man with the boy on his shoulder the man just lifted him up so that the boy could stand on his shoulders. He was going to get one anyway, and when the bolder carne along the boy made a grab for it. There was only one glass left in it then, but the boy got it. Heupset it lifting it out of the holder and scattered the water all over everybody, but that didn't count. He got the glass and was coming down with it when his father, instead of f eeliug him jounce down on his shoulder, feit bis weight growing lighter, and the next minute be and everybody else saw tbe boy suspended in the air. When tbe giraffe saw the last glass go, ho lifted the holder, the way he always did, to clear the people before swinging it around and down to the keeper. This time when he lifted it the buttons on the outside of the cuff of the boy's jacket got caught in the wires. They were sewed on the way mothers sew on buttons, and they beid the youugster's weight easily, and when the giraffe lifted the holder up he lifted the boy with it. "Then there was a scène. We knew the giraffe wouldn't hurt a fly, but it looked to the people as though he had the boy in bis teeth and was going to sling him through the other end of nowhere. The whole audience rose up and stood leaning forrard, watchin and naver sayin boo, but the giraffe swung his neck around as gentle and easy as the arm of a crane and lowered the holder and the boy hanging to it safe into the arms of the keeper in the ring. The boy hadn't even dropped the tumbler. "Then the people did holler, and the giraffe walked off as stately as you please, the boy climbed back up to his pop, and the show went on. Nobody hurt, but when we run out of the tumblers we had on hand we adonted