y: When we left Washington we cut loose from every home
tie, and plunged into Virginia, and the trouble began at once. We met a
lawyer on the train, on the way to Richmond, and fed him in our dining
car, and got him acquainted with all the performers and freaks, and he
told us that we would have to be careful in Virginia, 'cause all the
white people were first families and aristocratic, and if any man about
our show should fail to be polite to the white people they would be shot
or lynched, but if we wanted to shoot niggers the game laws were not
very strict about it, 'cause the open season on niggers run the year
around, but you couldn't shoot white people only two months in the year.
He said another thing that scared pa and the managers. He said that if a
traveling show did not perform all it advertised the owners were liable
to go to state prison for 20 years, and that each town had men on the
lookout to see that shows didn't advertise what they didn't carry out.

Pa and the managers held a consultation, and couldn't find that we
advertised anything that we didn't have, except the ourang outang that
we took on at New York, which eats and dresses like a man, 'cause that
animal got whooping cough in Delaware and had to be sent to a hospital,
but we heard he was well again and would join the show in a week. Pa
asked the Richmond lawyer how it would be if one of the animals that was
advertised was sick and couldn't perform, and he told pa the people
would mob the show if anything was left out.

When we got to Richmond the whole population, principally niggers, was
at the lot when we put up the tents, and everybody wanted to catch a
sight of Dennis, the ourang outang, and the posters all over town that
pictured Dennis smoking cigarettes with a dress suit on, and eating with
a knife and fork and a napkin tucked under his chin, were surrounded by
crowds. It was plain that all the people cared for was to see the monk.

The managers held a council of war and decided the show would be ruined
if we didn't make a bluff at having an ourang outang, so it was decided
that I was to be dressed up in Dennis' clothes, and put on a monkey
mask, and go through his stunt at the afternoon performance.

Gee, but I hated to do it, but pa said the fate of the show depended on
it and if I didn't take the part he would have to do it himself, and I
knew pa wasn't the build of man to play the monkey, and so I said I
would do it, but I will neve