ter. Every feature
of the locale must be studied. Stock markets and boards of trade must
be consulted as to the financial outlook. Crop estimates, factory
production, and foreign markets are big factors in the planning.
Droughts, floods, crop failures, labor troubles, and great fires are
some of the many things to be avoided in the routings. All this must
be planned before a pitch is made.

"Aside from the management the personnel of a circus naturally divides
itself into three groups: the ring performers, the animal trainers,
and the roustabouts. The first named, consisting of acrobats,
tumblers, jugglers, aerial artists, and equestrians, are an exclusive
class that eat at the same table and use the same Pullmans. They are
not 'snooty,' just reserved. There are many foreigners among them. In
some acts the entire family takes part. They are a sober lot. Hard
liquor has no place on the refreshment list of a class whose life is
dependent on a clear brain and a sure hand and foot. Many of them are
good church folk. We could always tell when Sunday morning came by the
bustle and stir to attend early Mass.

"Roustabouts, the labor battalion of the circus army, join up out of
curiosity and quit when satiated. A wise boss never fixes a specific
payday or else, on the day following, not enough of 'em would be left
to light the cook's fire. They are the first to be rousted out in the
morning and never go to bed. They are supposed to catch naps during
the afternoon performance and of evenings before the menagerie is torn
down for another move. However, these naps are canceled if they can
contact the public for a 'touch' or gain an audience for their weird,
fantastic tales of personal heroism in their life with the circus.

"And because Mister John Q. Public contacts these ne'er-do-wells and
romancers, he forms wrong estimates of the business. Mister Public is
further deceived in believing that the 'con man' who has a pitch
nearby is connected with the enterprise. Circuses are widely
advertised to appear at a certain place on a fixed date. The skin-game
artists and shilabers, cheaters, flimflammers, and medicine men flock
to these gatherings as flies to a picnic. They are as barnacles on a
fast-moving ship, flies in the ointment of circus management. Happily
much of this odium has been erased. By close cooperation with local
authorities, the con man and shilaber is moved out before he starts.
Unhappily the stigma of past incide