CHAPTER II

I tramp from Bristol to London with my properties. A one-day show with the “Retort” Circus at the Crystal Palace. The seats collapse. I join Croueste and Nella’s Circus. A “double somersault over five horses by the Little Clown.” An unexpected catastrophe. How I “performed” on the slack rope. With Powell and Clarke at Southampton. The preacher and the monkey. I appear at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, for a benefit at Sanger’s Circus. A lion in my dressing room! Practical joking among circus lads. Am tired of circus life and go in for “mumming.” I take an “engagement” at Royston’s Circus at Carlisle. Playing “Little Willie” in “East Lynne” and the “ghost” in “Hamlet” under difficulties. Am disappointed with “mumming” and go back to the circus. My first shave. Terrible death of Macmart, the lion tamer.