h
age--"_The greatest attraction of the world._" The Cahuilla will give
his last peso, if he has not spent it on drink, to see not only wild
animals--for these abound in the San Bernardino Mountains--but to see
the circus girls, athletes, clowns, and all its wonders, which seem to
him as "a great medicine"--that is, magical feats, impossible of
accomplishment except by the aid of supernatural powers.

Mr. Hirsch, the proprietor of the circus, would be very angry with any
one who would dare to say that his circus only attracted Mexicans,
Indians, and Chinese. Certainly not; the arrival of the circus brings
hither not only the people of the town and vicinity, but even those of
the neighboring towns of Westminster, Orange, and Los Nietos. Orange
Street is crowded with buggies and wagons of divers shapes, so that it
is difficult to get through. The whole world of settlers come as one
man. Young, bright girls, with their hair prettily banged over their
eyes, sitting on the front seats, drive some of these vehicles, and
gracefully upset passing pedestrians, chatter and show their white
teeth; the Spanish senoritas from Los Nietos cover you with their
warm, ardent glances from under their lace mantillas; the married
women from the country, dressed in their latest and best fashions,
lean with pride on the arms of the sunburned farmers, who are dressed
in old hats, jean pants, and flannel shirts, fastened with hook and
eye, and without neckties.

All these people meet and greet each other, gossip, and the women
inspect with critical eye the dresses of their neighbors, to see if
they are "very fashionable."

Among the buggies are some covered with flowers, which look like huge
bouquets; the young men, mounted on mustangs, bend from their high
Mexican saddles and peer under the hats of the young girls; the
half-wild horses, frightened by the noise and confusion, look here and
there with their bloodshot eyes, curvet, rear, and try to unseat their
riders, but the cool riders seem to pay no attention to them.

They all speak of "the greatest attraction," which was about to excel
everything that had been seen before. Truly the flaming posters
announced genuine wonders. The proprietor, Hirsch, that renowned
"artist of the whip," will in the arena give a contest with a fierce,
untamed African lion. The lion, according to the programme, springs
upon the proprietor, whose only defense is his whip. This simple
weapon in his hands (acc