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Show Big Show Reaches the City Today ' '' The circus, coming on five special trains, will reach Salt Lake 'City at an oarJy hour this (Sunday) morning. Tho work of ostabLishincr tho bis show in its temporary home will be strenuously pushed to completion. The press representative of the Bar-num Bar-num & Bailey greatest show on earth, which will givo two performances hero tomorrow afternoon "and evening, tells an interesting story of circus day in an agricultural center. Circus day. What a world of joyous happiness the words foretell. Six weeks boforo the eventful day there appears an advauco man (the contracting agout) who begins to spond money for the whole six weeks; through this man and others the circus pooplo go on spending money, usually with a liberal hand. They do not slop spending money in that town until .tho show has "done como and gone." This is only a part of i.ho money a town lakes by reason of "circus day." The wholo conutrysido is placarded with announcements and heralds, and everybody every-body for thirty miles around (sometimes more) knows about tho circus far cuongli ahead to arrange for a day oil" without disturbing tho routino of tho farm. Jt is a family day with most families and a shopping da' with all. Early in the morning the chores arc hurried through, breakfast is had, the children are perked up, tho teams hitched, the dog driven hack to the house, and the big wagon with its happy load is rolling townward over the shady road. Father's Fa-ther's pocket bulges with a roll, if ho has not his chock book along, and mother moth-er has a list of things to be bought that she has been compiling ever sinco tho day when one of the little fellows emtio rushing in and said: "Going to bo a circus in town next month. Men pasting up some animal pictures on Mr. Brown's barn now'." It 's always a wagon load of happiness. The oldest boy may have put the best roadster into the buggy shafts and gone by himself after his young lady: every younger one in tho group is wallowing in a glow of golden merriment. It is circus day! And circus means more than unwonted refreshments. First there is. the reunion and happy meeting of old friends and relatives, and it means such a pageant. as no Roman emperor em-peror ever gazed upon because no Eoman Eo-man omperor had tho quick heart, tho 1 bolioving 030, nor tho warm imagination that all 3'oung Americans have. And it means animalsl Wild animals, from forests and .-jungles at tho far ends of the world, conciuerod, but sullen, and mastered br fearless men who walk right in among them and do such wonderful won-derful things! And monkeys! And tho most beautiful horses,, managed by ladies la-dies who only need wings to look like angels. And tho funniest clowns that ever made .iok:uS and and and oh, over so much. Even tho farm horses know something fine is coming when they are placed in tho light harness. Thoy know it is not to bo all day at tho plow. They aro going to town, a long rest with change of food and visit with other horses, and come homo in the cool of tho evening, to their own accustomed stalls and have a hearty night's sleep. Into tho town they pour, from overj' direction; tho first ones straggling and the later in steady streams until pretty much all the countryside is there, and then tho shopping begins. Circus day is the biggest shopping day of the year. No one ever heard a storekeeper complain tbnt a circus took too much money out of his town iu one day. The money tho circus took was only a fraction of tho money it brought into tho otwn. The stores got tho bulk of it all, and for what tho circus cir-cus received it gave good value, bc-causo bc-causo it lifted everybody out of tho grind for one bright and long remembered remem-bered day; it heartened them all up for tho working days to follow, and the children got out of it not! only enough to talk about for many a month to como, but a bit of practical education in natural history that couldn't have been had tin any other way. Love of tho circus is inborn; it lasts while life lasts. To tho town's people young, old and middle-aged circus day is tho most eagerly anticipated holiday of the entiro year; men havo enjoyed it since tho days when they used to carry water for the elephants or crawl under the tents to see tho wondrous Ehows of their .youth. Circus day is alwaj's an ovont and always will be. There is something about this wholosomo sort of entertainment that, is different f rom. airy other form of diversion. Perhaps it is tho wido diversity of the skill shown by tho performers, perhaps it is tho -noiso and the bustle, tho odor of tho mcnag-erio, mcnag-erio, tho sawdust, tho merriment of tho little folks, tho hilarious clowns, tho wonders of tho zoological collection; more likely it is a little of all these combined. com-bined. But whatever it is there is a fascination that catches the imagination of youth and stays with us through life. And to tho red-blooded oitizon, circus day is and always will bo an event. |