ON THE ROAD. FOR FIFTY YEARS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 42, 19 February 1908, Page 3

ON THE ROAD. FOR FIFTY YEARS.

A VETERAN SHOWMAN. MR. H. P. LYONS IN WELLINGTON. There is an "advance" in Wellington who had the eld of agent business upon him when even the "Much-Travelled" j Mr. Smytho wps comparatively a> stay-at-home juvenile. This veteran, beside whom other showmen are mere boys in the business, is Mr. H. P. Lyons, who has been ''on the road" in many lands, east and west, for over fifty years. But even he is weary at last ; he is tramping Australasia and Asja lor the last time. He is piloting Mr. Carter, the illusionist and when he has taken his charge through the East — China,, Japan, India, and tho Archipelago — he will leave the road for other f©s. f . Other showmen can stir up the dust, and from a cosy corner somewhere he will compare their treks with the grand marches ot his own. "MANY CLIMES AND LANDS." Through Australia, over and over, and New Zealand, has Mr. Lyons wandered ; through Java, Burir.ah, Siam, Singapore, Penaflg, China, Japan, Manila, India, Ceylon, Honolulu, Fiji, Cochin China, California, he has been again and againHe has headed all sorts of combinations ; he has shepherded rare artists and quaint freaks of nature, with equal zest. Ho has made smooth the path for tho lions of the stage, and the lions of tho desert. All manner of men and animals have been in his train, and he is now sixty-eight, not out. His attractions havo included: — Lyons and Wciland's "Great Australian Circus" ; Chevalier Blondin, "the Hero of Niagara" ; Cooper and Bailey's /'Ton Allied Shows"; W. W. Cole's New Orleans Circus and Menagerie ; Stewart's "Rainbow Revels" ; Louisa Pomeroy's Shakespearian Dramatic Company ; Emslie Melville's English and Comic Opera Company ; Kennedy, "the World's Greatest Mesmerist" ; Zulu and Zulea, 'Queens of tho Air" > Fryer's \ American Equescurricujum ; Lyons' j Tourist and Pleasure Party ; Wirth'a Grand Circus ; Japanese Village ; Klaer's Canidrome ; Cousbi's Oriental Hippodrome ; Thatcher, "the Poet Laureate of the Australian Goldfields" ; The "Origi.nal Barlow" ; Fred Younge and Dominic Murray's Comedy Company; Fitz-Gerald Bros.' Australian Circus J "The Congress of Wonders" ; The Silbon-Stirk Troupo ; j George C. Milne's Snakospoorian Re- ! rivals ; Soil Bros.' Combined Shows, Roman Hippodrome and Menagerie ; Lyons' Operatic Burlesque Company ; I Valdai e's World of Novelties ; FitzGerald Bros.' "Huge Australian Shows, Circus, and Performing Wild Animals" ; i Frank Thornton's London Comedy Company ; and many others. In 1856, at the age of sixteen, Mr. Lyons started his theatrical career in tho guise of Topsy, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," at Sydney, and three years later he went ahead of Frederick Younge and Dominic Murray, groat comedians ; from that tune , onward he has been in advance or at the head of various troupes THATCHER AMONG THE DIGGERS. Thatcher, the "Bnsh Laureate," was not a poet, as Mr. Lyons frankly "admits, but ho could string doggrel together in a style that pleased the diggers mightily. This -rough-hewn bard was brought to New Zealand in 1861, and bestrode a very buck-jumping Pegasus at Tuapeka. v and Hokitika. The miners camo for miles to hear Jiis rhymed quips and cranks on topical subjects ; they were rhymed, and that is tho best that can bo said for them. Howev-er, the halls could not hold all the diggers' who were anxious to pay half a ciown or more. A '"cold deck" was put upon Thatcher. VFtis local allusions severely pained one Wertland gentleman, and in return ho sent a "small token of esteem."' unsigned, to the poetaster. Whea he opened tho little package the versifier's eyes gleamed with pleasure. There- was a' lovciylooking watch inside, but close inspection revealed a thing of brass, and tho inner works were missing ; a battered penny was in their place. THE CHEVALIER BLONDIN. Who has not heard of the Chevalier Blondin, who stepped from a side-street of Paris on to the pinnacle of aevial glory by a tight-rope. He was once plain Jean Francois Gravclot, and he rose to be decorated by Queen Isabella of Spain. Mr. Lyons tells many stories of his association with the "Hero of Niagara," the man who carried another on his bark over the great chasm, walked blindfolded, wheeled a barrow, and did other feats, over the abyss. The manager was j the victim of a practical joke. A man wagered him that Blondin was not the original Blondin, and £5 notes were staked. A book of undoubted authenticity showed that a "Blondin" walked a tight-rope very many years before Gravelet was born. Mr. Lyons lost, but his opponent, conscious that he had bet on a certainty, allowed the showman to escape with £I—"drinks1 — "drinks for the crowd." When Blondin was taken by Mr. Lyons to Sydney in 1874, the Governor, the Marquis of Normanby, was invited to see the performance, but he was pros- { trated with gout. His Excellency's curiosity, however, remained healthy, and he watched the bold Frenchman from his bed besido his window. At Mcl- ! bourne the Governor, Sir George Bowen, went to the "show," and had an adventure. He had ordered his carriage to return for hixn at 4.30. At 3 o'clock a heavy thunderstorm burst over the scene, and ripped up the great tent. His Excellency had to take refuge in the magazine tent (where fireworks wore stored), and there was a "fizz," but only with champagne, which had been procured for tha lordly Blondin. The groat Blondin was brought to New Zealand in 1876, and had a triumphal tour. He and his escort, Mr. Lyons, were content with nothing less than a carriage and pair, men in livery, and other appurtenances of affluence. IN PERIL. By land and" sea Mr. Lyons has been through many adventures. . He was on board the Flintshire when sho was wrecked in Torres Strait, about 1874, and the passengers had a very anxious night. They had little- between them, the deep sea, and the Australian blacks, who were up to deviltry at about that time, but they survived. About a' dozen years ago, Mr. Lyons was in Calcutta, at the time of the great oarthqu-ike. The steeples of Christian churches wero prostrated, but tho moresolid mosques of tho Mahommedang withstood the heavy shocks which swayed the structures for five minutes. Afterwards the Mahor.imodans boastpd that tho religion of the Prophet must bo -the true one. becauso his temples came out unscathed. THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME. When Nellie Stewart was niheteerf yoars old, sho was in Wellington, and Mr. Lyons happened to be at the same hotel ; he is at the same hotf>l to-day. In 1880, when tho Rotomahana was the star steamer of the Union Company, he chartered the vessel to bring him arid his troupe down from Auckland ; to-day the Rotomahana is being elbowed into the bac-ksjround by tho turbine steamer Maori. '

Tor Bronchial Cmijh* take Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. 1j 6d.— Adrt.