PASSING OF THE CIRCUS TONGUE

Evening Star, Issue 22638, 3 May 1937, Page 11

PASSING OF THE CIRCUS TONGUE

Tha King’s English lias become tha ring’s English, says a writer from .London to the 4 Christian Science Monitor. • The datrinc young man on the flying trapeze, his sister, the tight-ropa wa&er, the white-faced down-in fact, all circus folk—speak slang no longer, or at any rate, no special slang pf them profession, according to Mr John ». Clarke, whose statement is confirmed 'by the authorities at Bertram Mills circus in London, where there are performers from ajl over the wprld. Mr Clarke was a rough rider at the age of 10, and a trainer of horses and wild beasts at 22. Since then he has been an author and lecturer and a member of Parliament. .... v, The tide of specialised circus slang, however, has not receded without ing some flotsam and. jetsam behind embedded in the fabric of common, everyday speech. . ~ The expression— 44 Out the cacklej and get to the bosses ”—is a legacy of the sanded ring, and the barker who shouted its attractions to the crowds gathered outside the travelling booths. A. c adder was a talker—Dickens June, a circus artist in 4 Hard limes. ; was said to he a good cackler, thoiiga 44 loose in his ponging ” (turn blmg)--and the exhortation merely means, bet the preliminaries over, and let the per--formance begin. . • Travelling showmen used to call tn« places where they set up their tents their 44 pitches.” Anything that held up their performances, such as an interruption by the police,,was known as 44 queering the pitch,” a phrase tliafc has passed into ordinary speech. V . Another such term which used td ba more popular in certain circles than it is to-day is 44 rot.” which circus men employed to designate anything of which they disapproved. This is .said to he the term which most circus people applied to the description .of their lives and occupation > which Dickens gave in 4 Hard Times.’ , One of the reasons for the rapid growth in earlier days of a vivid circus slang was the frequent intermarriages that tooik place between well-knowa circus families, which tended to. keep travelling showmen of this kind a special group of people cut off from, tho rest of the community, with their own customs and language. They still, however nave a lar*s number of technical terms, just as other professions have. The movement by which an acrobat returns t<» a sitting position on the horizontal bar, after hanging from it upside down, is known as 44 the Plymouth.” . There ara several such terms, but these cannot he described properly as slang. But though slang is almost completely obsolete, it still occasionally manages to throw out' a fresh phrase now and again. 41 Big Top.” which originated in America, has only recently surecd to Europe, as a synonym for the circus tent.