Chapter 28 postscript

The inspiration for this work came unexpectedly. In early 2003, I was preparing to write a completely different book.One day, the Chicago Tribune photographer Edward J. Kelty toured the United States with a circus in the 1920s and 1930s. The photos attached to the article aroused my strong interest, so I bought two copies A collection of old circus photos, namely Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J.Kelty and Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: American Circuses as Glacier Witnessed Regiment" (Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The Americann Circus as Seen by FW Glasier).After reading, I was so fascinated that I canceled my original writing plan and plunged into the world of traveling train circuses.

First, I think the archivist at the Circus World Museum would like a list of suggested books.Located in Baraboo, Wisconsin, this museum was originally the winter home of the Ringling Brothers Circus.There are many out-of-print titles in the book list, but I managed to find them through antiquarian booksellers.In a few weeks, I'm heading to Sarasota, Florida to visit the Ringling Circus Museum.As luck would have it, they're churning out copies of the library's rare books.When I returned home, my purse had lost hundreds of dollars, but there were too many books to carry. Over the next four and a half months, I spent the next four and a half months developing what I needed to know to write about the topic, during which time I took three research trips (revisiting Sarasota, visiting Baraboo’s Circus World Museum, spending a weekend at the Kansas City Zoo, Ask one of their former elephant rangers about elephant body language and behavior).

The history of the American circus is colorful, and some of the most startling episodes in this book come from fact and anecdote (the line between the two is notoriously blurred in circus history).These plots include a rhinoceros exhibited in formalin, a 180-kilogram "strong woman" remains paraded through the streets in an elephant cage, an elephant constantly pulling out iron stakes to steal lemonade, an elephant from The elephant that the circus ran into the vegetable garden in the backyard, a lion and a dishwasher were trapped under the sink, the dead body of the circus manager was found in the canvas bundles of the big tent, and so on.There is also reference to the dreaded Jamaican ginger ale paralysis, a real tragedy that ruined the lives of an estimated 100,000 Americans in 1930 and 1931.

Finally I would like to mention two old female elephants from the circus.Not only did they serve as inspiration for important episodes in this book, but they deserve to be remembered for posterity. In 1903, Topsy's trainer fed him lit cigarettes, and he killed.In those days, unless the circus killed the people, it was generally okay to kill one or two people.But that was the third time Tassi took a life.The owners of Coney Island's Luna Park have decided to publicly execute Tassie, but plans to hang her have drawn criticism. After all, isn't hanging a cruel and unusual punishment?The directors of Tassi had a plan and turned to the inventor Edison for help.In order to "prove" that the alternating current of rival George Westinghouse (George Westinghouse) is not safe at all, Edison has publicly used electricity to kill wild dogs, wild cats, and occasionally horses or cattle for many years, but never with elephants so big animal.Edison took up the challenge.At that time, New York officials had already used the electric chair instead of hanging, so the public did not object to the electrocution of Tasi.

It is said that the owner once poisoned Tasi with radish mixed with cyanide, and then switched to electric shock after failing.Another theory is that it was given an electric shock immediately after eating the chlorided turnip, but Edison did bring a movie camera to the scene, had Tassie put on copper-covered shoe covers, and, in front of an audience of 1,500 Six thousand six hundred watts of electric current was injected into Taci's body.Tassi died in about ten seconds.Edison thought the execution demonstrated the dangers of alternating current, and video of the execution was broadcast across the United States.

Let's have a lighter, real story.Also in 1903, a Dallas circus bought the elephant Old Mom from circus legend Carl Hagenbeck.The buyer expected a lot from her, as Hagenbeck declared her to be his smartest elephant.But no matter what the new elephant trainer did, Mom just shuffled around.They were upset, saying it was useless and "had to be pushed and pulled each time to get it to the next ring".Later, Hagenbeck went to visit his mother, and when he heard that the new owner disliked his mother for being dull, he couldn't help being angry and began to curse. He used German when he cursed, and everyone realized that my mother only knew German.Since then, things have turned around, they re-trained mom in English, and mom's acting career shines. In 1933, he died at the age of eighty, surrounded by friends and members of the regiment.

I toast to Tassie and Mom--