"What for a looking fellow was he?" said the policeman.
"Dark complected," was the reply. "Black mustache. He understood his business, I tell you now. Swallered five or six knives to onst, and give good satisfaction to any audience. It was him that brought us Gerty and Anne,--that's the other little girl. Ididn't know as they was his children, and didn't know as they was, but one day he said he got 'em from an old woman in New York, and that was all he knew.""They're smart," said the man, whom Gerty had just coaxed into paying three cents instead of two for Number Six of the "Singer's Journal,"--a dingy little sheet, containing a song about a fat policeman, which she had brought to his notice.
"You'd better believe it,"said Madam Delia, proudly. "At least Gerty is; Anne ain't. I tell 'em, Gerty knows enough for both.
Anne don't know nothin', and what she does know she don't know sartin. All she can do is just to hang on: she's the strongest and she does the heavy business on the trapeze and parallel bars.""Is Gerty good on that?" said the public guardian.
"I tell you," said the head of the establishment.--"Go and dress, children! Five minutes!"All this time Madam Delia had been taking occasional fees from the tardy audience, had been making change, detecting counterfeit currency, and discerning at a glance the impostures of one deceitful boy who claimed to have gone out on a check and lost it. At last Stephen Blake and his little sister entered, and the house was regarded as full. These two revellers had drained deep the cup of "Election-day" excitement. They had twirled all the arrows, bought all the jewelry, inspected all the colored eggs, blown at all the spirometers, and tasted all the egg-pop which the festal day required. These delights exhausted, they looked round for other worlds to conquer, saw Madam Delia at her tent-door, and were conquered by her.
She did, indeed, look energetic and comely as she sat at the receipt of custom, her smooth black hair relieved by gold ear-rings, her cotton velvet sack by a white collar, and her dark gingham dress by a cheap breastpin and by linen cuffs not very much soiled. The black leather bag at her side had a well-to-do look; but all else in the establishment looked a little poverty-stricken. The tent was made of very worn and soiled canvas, and was but some twenty-five feet square. There were no seats, and the spectators sat on the grass. There was a very small stage raised some six feet; this was covered with some strips of old carpet, and surrounded by a few old and tattered curtains. Through their holes you could easily see the lithe brown shoulders of the little girls as they put on their professional suits; and, on the other side, Monsieur Comstock, scarcely hidden by the drapery, leaned against a cross-bar, and rested his chin upon his tattooed arms as he counted the spectators. Among these, Mr. De Marsan, pacing slowly,distributed copies of this programme:--THIRTEENTH ANNUAL TOUR.
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MADAM DELIA'S MUSEUM AND VARIETY COMBINATION-WILLEXHIBIT.
---- PROCLAMATION TO THE PUBLIC.--The Proprietors would say that they have abandoned the old and played-out practice of decorating the outer walls of all principal streets with flaming Posters and Handbills, and have adopted the congenial, and they trust successful, plan of advertising with Programmes, giving a full and accurate description as now organized, which will be distributed in Hotels, Saloons, Factories, Workshops, and all private dwellings,by their Special Agents, three days before the exhibition takes place.
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MADAM DELIA WITH HER
PET SNAKES.
MISS GERTY, THE CHILD WONDER, DANSEUSE AND CONTORTIONIST,will appear in her wonderful feats at each performance.
MONS. COMSTOCK, THE CHAMPION SWORD-SWALLOWER,will also exhibit his wonderful power of swallowing Five Swords, measuring from 14 to 22 inches in length.
It is not so much the beauty of this feat that makes it so remarkable, as its seeming impossibility.
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MASTER BOBBY, THE BANJO SOLOIST AND BURLESQUE.
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COMIC ACROBAT, BY MISS GERTY AND MONS. COMSTOCK.
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MADAM DELIA, THE WONDERFUL AND ORIGINAL SNAKE-TAMER, with her Pets, measuring 12 feet in length and weighing 50 lbs.
A pet Rattlesnake, 15 years of age, captured on the Prairies of Illinois,--oldest on exhibition.
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In connection with this Exhibition there are ANT-EATERS, AFRICAN MONKEYS, &C.
Cosmoramic Stereoscopic Scenes in the United States and other Countries, including a view of the Funeral Procession of President Taylor, which is alone worth the price of admission.
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Exhibition every half-hour, during day and evening.
Secure your seats early!
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ADMISSION 20 CENTS. Particular care will be taken and nothing shall occur to offend the most fastidious.
Stephen and his little sister strolled about the tent meanwhile.
The final preparations went slowly on. The few spectators teased the ant-eater in one corner, or the first violin in another. One or two young farmers' boys were a little uproarious with egg-pop, and danced awkward breakdowns at the end of the tent. Then a cracked bell sounded and the curtain rose, showing hardly more of the stage than was plainly visible before.
Little Gerty, aged ten, came in first, all rumpled gauze and tarnished spangles, to sing. In a poor little voice, feebler and shriller than the chattering of the monkeys, she sang a song about the "Grecian Bend," and enacted the same, walking round and round the stage whirling her tawdry finery. Then Anne, aged twelve, came in as a boy and joined her. Both the girls had rather pretty features, blue eyes, and tightly curling hair; both had pleasing faces; but Anne was solid and phlegmatic, while Gerty was keen and flexible as a weasel, and almost as thin.
