FILLIS’S CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9903, 17 May 1893, Page 2

FILLIS’S CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE.

A SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE

Mr Fillis has every reason to feel gratified at the measure of patronage accorded him’for the inaugural exhibition of his oircne and menagerie. On their part the audience were generous enough with their applause to leave to room lor doubt that they were thoroughly satisfied with the quality ol the entertainment provided them. Tho vast expanse ol canvas which forms the circus proper affords room for seating an enor. icons audience, and thisi accommodation was fully occupied last night. As the peoole passed by the ticket offices they entered the tent containing the menagerie, which consists ot four lions, a Royal Bengal tiger, a leopard and a panther, a collection of monkeys, five small elephants, and a number of diminutive and beautifully, groomed ponies.

r J a St h . e l°™ ‘k® circn « performance began LordandLndyGlasgcwamved. accompanied by their children, and attended by Mies Kallowea and Captain Hnntor-Blair, ADC The orchestra played the National Anthem! and the audience stood up until the last stratus had died away. A word ol praise ia due the orchestra. Excepting a niauo, ooruet and kettle-drum, it consists entirely of stringed instruments, and under the leadership of Signor Caprara, It discoursed a capital programme of muslo in the course of the evening. The performance began with a display of vaulting by a party of eight acrobata who tamed somersaults in their bounds from the spring-board over the backs ot two, then of four, next of six and finally of eight horses. The act culminated in the chief vaultor (Mr Rogers) turning a somersault as he cleared in his aerial flight the hooks of 10 horses. In the end tho aorobats vaulted over the shoulders of a man standing on a horse. After this tho performing elephant, Little Bess, displayed its docility and cleverness by going through a variety of tricks, stand, log first on a large upturned tub, then walking over a bridge ot skittles, then trundling a barrel upon which it maintained its equilibrium, and next see-sawing on a plank with the Javanese pony Resident seated at the opposite end. The funniest item of all followed. The elephant and pony seated themselves In chairs at a table, and a monkey, attired .as a waiter, brought in plates, and then fruit, to which both of the seated , animals helped themselves with evident gusto, the elephant soon despatching his own share and assisting also to put away the pony’s moiety. Meanwhile the monkey had gone far liquor, bat, being a thirsty sou I,he halted midway, and proceeded to quaff the contents of a battle of lemonade that he was entrusted with. The elephant retired with the pony's forelegs resting on his book. Miss Minnie, a handsome and graceful equestrienne, performed next on a galloping steed, jumping through hoops, &o. Clowns diversified all these performauo-a and those that followed by tho usual buffoonery,’; but they etriotly eschewed panning or singing. Their funnyiems lay in sotion rather than in speech. One of them, bearing tile sobriquet of Comical Joey, gave a specimen of hie eklll ia turning eamerssalta and In skipping whilo extended full length upon the turf, There was also a comio encounter between Walter Holt | (got up as a very obese personage) and Agoust, the ‘dummy.’ Agoust likewise assisted Bonham, (an old favourite) ia hie ahalr-btknolng feats which have been seen and appreciated here before. Mr Fillis exercised the trained Shetland pony Dolly in a variety of clever and skilful tricks. The little animal chased the clown, and raoed him, andthen pushed his trainer out of the ring. Fred Stalling went through a ‘gate and hurdle act’ on the back of a cantering horse, and Master Taylor, a tiny funambulist of about seven years of age, performed very skilfully upon the high tight wire. He came out in full evening dress, and then upon .tho wire stripped himself of gloves, coaV vest and pants, emerging therefrom in trunks and tunic. He also performed with a small hoop, and sat down upon the wire and stood erect again. Madame Fillis proved herself to be an accomplished rider by her display of ‘ high school riding ’on her thoroughbred Capo horse Victor. The evolutions she performed were : the passage to right and left, the high trot salute, the galop, the figure of eight oirele first on right shoulder and then on left, the change of feet by the horse every four paces, the trot backwards, the looking of the legs, in which the horse, using its forelegs as a pivot, twists one around the other as he turns ronnd, and the grand Spanish trot. This act was very warmly applauded. It and ;Mr Fillie' great jockey act, which immediately followed, were the best of the equestrian performanoea. Mr Fillis executed quite a variety of daring and skilful sots upon a galloping steed, bounding from the ring to a standing position on the horse’s baok,aod sitting back almost on its tail. On the triple horizontal bars the Brothers Martial executed very deftly a number of (backward and forward double somersaults, and the olowna Walter Holt and Little Georgy also took a very good band at the gymoastia exercises. Then there wse another display of elephantine sagacity and skill. Tho entire company of elephants (five in number) balanced themselves on tabs, reared up on their- hind legs, one of them waltzed, another walked on the knees of his fare-legs, and three of them performed a pyramidal aot, the oantral one standing nn hie hind legs upon a narrow cask placed upon one of the tubs. One of them lifted a man on to his back, and allowed him to ride on bis trank, and then allowed another man to place bis head right, inside his capacious elephantine mouth,- a piece of business whioh ‘ My Lord Elephant ’ evidently did not quite appreciate, as his roaring betokened. Eight ladies and gentlemen mounted on grey horses and olad in tha uniform of lanoers, execute i in capital style a set of Isncors.quadrilles, and a * field ' of five small pones, ridden by monkey jocks, competed in a hurdle race. Benham, the clown, furnished some mors amusement, with the assistance of four lads taken from the audieuoe, After this mors graceful tricks by beautifully trained horses—first by three thoroughbred Hungarian entires, and then by four beautiful whits Arab Lorres, purchased in Persia, whose closely - trimmed coats glistened like silk. The most apt of this quartet—Housseia by name—in re. eponse to Mr Fillis’s commands, indicated ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ with humanlike intelligence, threw op bis head and opened bis mouth in equine laughter, snorted, and finally, taking hold of his trainer by the coat sleeve, led him out of the ring. The clowns, Funny Freddy and Agoust, showed their dexterity in spinning, and then the long and diversified programme closed with the most exciting aot ol all—the performance of the lions. The elephants dragged in the iron cage to the centre of the ring, the elephants roaring and the Hons quiescent. Mr John Oox, the lions’ trainer, entered the cage armed with a whip, and started operations bv making them promenade. One of the; lions, named Pasha, appeared to be in an ill humour and snarled and struck out with his paws, and it was noticeable .that Mr On never ceased to look intently at this particular animal. Ho made it step on a chair, and with its mouth pall a cloth to fits off a pistol, and 'the whole four of them he forced to bound through a flaming hoop quite a number of times. Then by tha reports of pistols they were all made to rear up against the further side of the cage, while the intrepid trainer (quite a young man, by the way) made a speedy exit. We are requested to'state that tha first matinee will be given this afternoon, and the usual performance to-night, and that for the remainder of the season there will be two performances daily one at 3 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m.