THE CIRCUS IN THE WEST

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 19, 23 January 1926, Page 22

THE CIRCUS IN THE WEST

All through the little prairie town, 'Mid dusty levels broad and brown I saw the Circus pacing on; I felt its vague barbaric spell, I smelt the queer old circus smell, As old as Rome or Babylon. The tinsel gleamed, the big drum rolled, The ponies pranoed and caracoled In gaudy gilt caparison: And still beneath it wag the strange, Sad undertone of Time and Change,— Aa erst in vanished Babylon. I saw where, wrinkled, grey and wise, With swaying gait and brooding eyes, The elephant* w«nt pacing on, Unmoved amid the gaping throng, As if they only thought: "How longHow far from here to Babylon?" No longer than this restless hour, Its lust and folly, pride and power, To-day as in the ages gone; No further than this feverish, queer, New town which waa not yesteryear Need mankind seek for Babylon. New town* in strange new lands arise j But old as earth and stars and skies The Circu* of the world goei on; Still travelling on it* ancient round Where'er man's dust of dreams is found— Here—now —to-day—in Babylon. From "Songs in Sail," by C. Fox Smith.