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Circus

Creator: n/a
Date: January 1839
Publication: The Knickerbocker
Source: Available at selected libraries

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The sum is just resting on the borders of the horizon, and making the summer evening lovely, when the whole equestrian corps, a signal being given, sally forth and wind through the grass-skirted lanes of the village. A band of music goes before, drawn in a chariot by four dappled horses. The notes of the bugle floating exquisitely on the tranquil air, fill the rustic bosom with enthusiasm. The eques-trians follow in gorgeous, spangled dresses, the clown standing up on one leg, with a straw in his mouth, and giving a foretaste of those facetious inanities which he will exhibit at even. Just at dusk, they return to the pavilion. A motley crowd rushes hurriedly through the streets. The minister of the parish looks out from his window, and weeps. He is a good man, and God will shelter his little flock from harm. The scrupulous and the wavering are now decided. Those who but yesterday said, crabbedly, that they had 'no time, nor money nother, for such wild doings,' bustle off, 'just to see what's going on.' Many persons of approved gravity attend, who 'suld have known better.' To the negro population, the occasion is a heyday and holiday. The Pompeys are there, and the Catos are, there, and the noble lineage of the Caesars. Thus all the population are collected beneath the great tent. No; there are a few unhappy boys without, who peep hopelessly through the crevices of the awning, but whom the door-keeper will soon discover, and send harshly away. Just at this juncture, the gentleman who lives in the white cottage by the hill-side, and who has acted for a long time past in a very remarkable manner, having little intercourse with the neighbors, declining to an-swer questions, or to have his affairs inquired into, (he is either crazy or in love,) passes by that way, and thrusting his hand in his pocket, presents the lads a shilling each. Smiles and gratitude reward him.

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The area of the enclosure is divided into the ring, pit, and boxes. A circular wooden frame-work depends in the centre, containing a great many tarnished lamps, and magniloquently called a chandelier. 'Splendid'!' whispers the crowd. Let us inspect the company a few minutes, before the performances commence. The circular seats are crowded to the very roof. Behold there the bloom and flower of the country -- the daughters of stout yeomen, brought hither by the beaux to view this rare spectacle. Did ever a tent, since the days of Cleo-patra, contain such feminine charms? Was ever the circle of Old Drury studded with such brilliant gems? Those are no fictitious roses which compose that head-dress, and it is the livelier tinge of the un-rouged cheek which makes those roses blush. Let me direct your attention to that sweet girl opposite, just under the eaves of the pavi-lion, seven seats to the right of that ill-assorted patch. Simplex munditiis! How simple in her adornment! A single pale flower is in her jet-black hair, and her eyes were too dark, did not the softest lashes attemper their lustre. Alas! 'consumption, like a worm in the bud, feeds on her damask cheek!' And yet she knows it not. Light-hearted, she frequents the place of merriment, and mingles sportively in the dance. But she will pass away as doth a leaf, in autumn, or with the milder breath of spring. Her companions will lament her, and they will pluck the garland of the May-queen to pieces, to scatter it upon the grave.

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These thoughts are sadly out of place, but grim death will be thrust-ing his visage every where, and there are goblins in every masquerade. But there is nothing spectral in the looks of Helen --. She is seventeen, and very beautiful, and wild as a roe. Health sparkles in her eye, and riots in the rich bloom of her cheeks. She has more suitors than Penelope, but in two words her character may be told. She is a COQUETTE. We might sit gazing in that quarter for ever, for it is very hard to withdraw one's eyes from the fair. They are sure come back again, the truants; yet for the present, let us turn them to the rougher sex. Behold that man of gigantic stature, near the entrance of the tent. He lately emigrated from Connecticut, and stands seven feet two inches in his shoes. He wears a cerulean blue coat, buttoned up to his nose, and a tall, steeple-loafed hat. Sic itur ad astra. To see him entering the village, in this plight, driving a team of jack-asses before a square box of a wagon, and sitting bolt-upright on a load of pumpkins, you would be apt to call him, in the dialect of his own people, 'an almighty lengthy creatur.' When he walks through the aisle of the church on Sunday, he overtops the tallest man in the congregation, by a whole head. He will be a con-spicuous mark here. See if the clown does not take cognizance of him, before the play is done.

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There stands a dandy, his legs apart, and forming with the ground an isosceles triangle. He wears straps a yard long, his breeches being that much too short, and a very vulgar broach in his false bosom. His guard chain dangles in festoons about his vest, and a brass chain is terminated in a great ornament in the region of his knees. Mark his confused look. He thinks every body is gazing at him. 'How will you swop watches, onsight onseen?'

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