CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12928, 20 March 1906, Page 7

CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE.

A CROWDED FLRST NIGHT. JJostock and Wombwell's Menagerie and Circus combination opened yesterday a season of three nights on the Drill-shed Reserve, and the attendance at the first performancej filling the 3s and 2s seats (the latter to overflowing), showed that the people of Timaru and the surrounding district had formed high anticipations of the show, and they would probably say today that they were not disappointed. A circus "without horsemanship seems Jike Hamlet -Kith Hamlet left out, but Captain Frank Taylor, the director, gives a good shftTC-vcitiout equestrianism. Great interest was, shown during the afternoon in the erection of two huge tents, and smaller annexes, and in the various animals of the menagerie glimpses of some of which were obtainable from time to time. A huge elephant, a camel and a dromedary, were left some time out in the open. • iA,private-.view accorded to our reporter, enabled him to see the animals under conditions more favourable than when a crowd is about, as they were being attended to: and -several -of them were at large in the tent. This :is the largest- and most varied menagerie that "has ever toured the colony, and it is a valuable object lesson in natural history; would be still more set if every cage was labelled, as some of them are. There is a considerable number of mon- ■ keys and baboons of-different specks, including a, chimpanzee and a- hiehiv deeor- ! ated mandrill. There are half a dozen lions, besides a couple of pretty litt'e whelps about three months old. * Captain Taylor proposes- to ask the Premier to christen tiese, and also to offer to presenta male lion to the colony, to start a " zoo" with Other examples: of the carnivora mclude-beautiful leopards, hyaenas, a sea Hon, and number of smaller creatures. I Besides the elephant, the pachydermia [ are exemplified in = a tapir, a zebra, and a coupe of equine curios. Amono- birds gl6$ ' storks,.cranes, and°an as of parrots of gaudy plum age. The menagerie takes time to look? over. The circus presented a very fine appear■anew_ during the performance, fi^The frZ ™ g V ° f fapes - Inst^a - <> f an arena, a: , fit age was placed at one side of 4-he circle, and pear this ™ posted an+ axeellent brass and reed band a variety S W way Amusement S entertainment; . The ofthe turns were really them surprising. One tof the most remarkable was ancing himself- on an:'-UDsirpported ; ladder up and down which helclimoedV or £tood at the top, with marvellous ease, eraee and certainty, and moved about on it as a one-legged' stilt, Messrs Jarvis 'andCampbells scientific and comic jugcline with balls, dumb-bells, and other' things was another first-rate turn, their clever : trundling of hoops being new here, we behere. A "human ostrich," who ate or apparently ate paraffin, coal and fire, astounded the youngsters, as also did two turns of performing animals, a party of three acrobatic baboons, and a couple of clever little dogs, affectionatelv addressed as " you savage brutes!" W« must pass over several good items to praise particularly the performances of the Japanese troupe. _ Their show costumes were a revelation in that line, and their clever per-

formances were fully equal to anything that could have be«n expected of them, and that is saying much. The first act was a very telling one, a young man swinging bowls of water on the ends of a cord in a wonderful way. A big lad played monkey on a stick in a manner that called fortk lot 6 of applause, and a girl did some very pretty work with an -umbrella. Another lad showed some unusually good acrobatics of the arms. The most popular turn of the whole evening was the always and everywhere appreciated footwork "with a boy as shuttlecock. This was doubly and trebly encored, and some very clever feats were done in the course of it. For the final turn, the young woman who had played so cleverely with the -umbrella, walked up a slanting rope and then slid down it. It was now about half past ten, and there followed a lecture on hypnotism by Professor Bonner, who, under the eye of members of the committee of the afternoon, hypnotised his partner, Mr Wilson, and showed his insensibility to pain by getting a member of the committee to ram a steel hat pin through a fold of skin on each arm. When the pins were withdrawn no blood issued, and no mark was left. Mr Wilson was then put to sleep and carried out on a stretcher and buried in a big box in the menagerie tent, there to sleep till Wednesday night, under a watch to ensure that he neither leaves the box nor receives any nourishment. The box was buried under the supervision of the committee, two tubes being fixed to permit of the man being seen in his " coffin" at any time. >• Taken altogether, the slow is "a- very attractive one, and it is certain to do good business here. Another first-class programme will be presented this evening.