The Washington times. [volume], June 08, 1919, NATIONAL EDITION, American Weekly Section, Image 20

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
ZLT
m 'jl ty j f jr r i i f j f f M"r .
In Eleven Minutes tke H
i i r v .-ssaew ..- -.
unareas or m u h
Parts Are
Assembled.
and the Largest
Canvas
Building on
Earth Rises
Complete
-tiir1rtiflBfc3BMfrTrviIiy'?WfiMriB "WSiSgfSSffi-'MiSiMiSFl-'' Tfnffly'TflMi ' '-i - - SRSirJSflpMJflirtWm
As the Wagon Distribute Their Loads About the Circus Lot the Separate Crews Instantly Begin Driving Stakes and Setting Up the Centre Pole or "King Pole" of the Tent
t
w
F a ft M Bl B ' ? lrSfiKEuL Tk.Jv " JKHB't'U rJf-A.- N JESlH BflBBBBHn
With This "King Pole" Established with It Special Mechanism, the Remaining Poles Are Almost Instantly Hoisted Into Place by Horse Power.
HEN Barnum & Bailey's CircuB
combined -with, the equally big
Ringling Brothers Circus to tour
' around the United States a problem arose.
"Where was there a tent big enough to hold
(feifcese two combined shows?
r The most gigantic tent ever conceived
'by the mlqd of man had to be designed
,2&nd built This huge acreage of white
canvas must be bigger than the largest
liajhilding in America. And so ft mammoth
Client was made that will easily cover the
reat Madison Square Garden in New
tork with a lot to spare. The Garden
jats about eight thousand people, but the
juge tent seats eleven thousand,
Madison Square Garden is 425 feet long
id the tent is 620 feet long. The tent is
renty feet wider than the Garden. It
Ikes 240 men to handle the canvas. It
fcupies the attention and strength of
tty men to lift the centre pole of the
iL After this is up the heavy work 1b
je by trained circus horses. There are
500 miles of rope sewed into the can-
ind used as hoisting lines and for tying
le stakes.
ien these extraordinary figures have
grasped it is hard to believe that this
three acres of canvas can be assem-
Ifrom its hundreds of parts and act-
set up in the space of eleven mm-
It is a tribute to the efficiency of
Ircus men and their faithful attention
mte detail that this great canvas
lg can rise complete from its many
tin less than a quarter of an hour.
problem of handling the tent has
studied with microscopic thorough-
While the show is still going on
rainmaster in charge of the circus
receives a telegram during the even-
from men who have gone ahead and
2d out the location in the next town,
telegram will read, "Poles to the
3e," or "roies to tne engine, xnis
le first step in efficiency In setting up
tent in the next town.
the train enters the circus lot so that
le cars containing the big sixty-foot poles
lght to pass on to the end of the lot then
Poles to the engine" means that the train
bhall be loaded with this purpose In view.
rery pole, stake, section of canvas, rope,
'reserved seat chulr, grandstand frame and
plank belongs in a certain wagon, and this
wagon belongs in a certain car, and this
car belongs in a certain place In the train.
Nothing is put loose into the train. Every
thing is packed into wagons so that it can
come off the train packed in the wagonB
and be driven to the very spot where It
belongs.
As soon as the circus train comes to a
full stop at the circus lot the wagons are
run out from the cars, the horses hitched
on and the material in each wagon is un
loaded exactly where it belongs.
Sixty specially trained men seize the
centre pole of the tent, known a"s the king
pole. By hand this pole is pushed up into
the air and the base of the pole fits se
curely into a foundation. When once the
king pole Is erected, the other poles are
swiftly raised into place by horse power,
using the centre or king pole as a lever.
While the poles are going up the stake
men are driving the fifteen hundred stakes
to hold the canvas from blowing away.
While this crew is busy a special crew of
canvas men are unrolling the bundles of
canvas which have been distributed around
the lot. As the sections of canvas are un
rolled another crew follows along them
and laces the dozens of separate sections
together into one complete three-acre tent.
Simultaneously all crews hae finished
their work the stakes are driven, the
poles are up. the canvas is unrolled and
laced together, the ropes from the canvas
running up over the tops of the poles and
off to the twenty circus horses are all in
position. At a signal from the chief the
horses start forward and the huge canvas
rises swiftly into the air to the top of the
pole. In eleven minutes the fifty wagons
with the thousands of separate parts have
'onie out of the cars, been unloaded, the
parts assembled and the complete tent
erected.
But this is only one of the tents the
ircus carries. This is the largest tent and
is called by the circus men the "Big Top."
This big tent Is divided into forty sections,
the smallest section having an area of
4.200 square feet of canvas. The entire
roof of the big tent contains about 130,000
square feet. To this, of course, mu.st be
added the canvas used to form the walls
of thiB enormous tent. Besides this "Big
Top" the tent which exhibits the menagerie
I an enormous affair about as big as the
main tent of the circus in previous years,
and there are more than thirty other tents
s in y M li.' .. "iJSM- jjyLJBgWMl.MIJilTXLW-l.rT.!BHBAW()LKl)i. Jl . P&SiJ&3MwtfM&-' VkwKv .
,,i n i 1 inilM "'i I ' ,( V " " Fvl'a"aiBM'',''a"''lkM"a'MYCT
ilfefi-Tii fWri nW t v V XZ
WmUB&smS&52&&z in- jv mA,, , ,t, ,,. TX,11 IM.Yw A. x iv 'p n mi fnnr
iBiaaWttHKaBniaDOR2MilfciK7iP
The Sections of Canvas Are Rapidly Unrolled) Laced Together and the Poles Secured to the Stakes
At a Signal from the Tent Master the Circus Horses Start Forward' and the Most Enormous Piece of Canvas in the World Rises to the Top of the Poles.
used for the equipment and feeding and
comfort and necessary paraphernalia of
this great travelling show.
Of course, the problem of setting up the
tents Is not the only thing which has to be
taken care of. Travelling over nearly half
of the States of the Union, the varying diet
and water supply of the people of the
circus and its animals becomes a matter
of very serious Importance. A physician
and a surgeon are carried by the Bhow to
look after the welfare of the 1,500 human
beings in the great camp.
The circuB furnishes its performers and
its labprers with distilled drinking water.
Nobody is permitted to drink a drop of
water in any town which does not come
from the steam boiler of the circus, which
la an immense affair where condensed
steam is caught in mammoth cauldrons and
the purified water transferred to water
coolers and distributed at various points
throughout the teqted city.
Constant watchfulness must be exercised
by those having immediate charge of the
hundreds of horses that are carried on
tour. They are never allowed to drink
from public watering places, but quench
their thirst from collapsible water-tight
canvas tanks which are swung from iron
frames. These portable troughs are filled
from tank wagons which obtain water from
the municipal hydrants.
The problem of securing just the right
kind of hay for the show's army of work
horses and its scores of trained equines is
not always easy of solution. To feed hay
that is too green would result In colic or
something equally as distressing. Yet the
show frequently visits a particular section
of the country when the "hay at hand Is
quite fresh. To overcome this obstacle
Ringling Brothers employ agents who
travel many weeks in advance. These men
contract for a sufficient amount of proper
fodder. This hay is stored until the com
ing of the circus, and so when the show
arrives at the point of exhibition it has an
ample amount of just the right kind of
feed.
But, inconvenient as this procedure may
seem, the management of this "modern
rolossus" has still greater problems to
.solve in connection with feeding its
menagerie animals. The troupes of per
forming seals carried by the show supply
an instance. These discriminating epi
cures insist upon one particular kind of
fish, namely fresh herring They con
sume approximately a half-barrel every
day. The herring must come on by ex
press, and it is one of the duties of the
circus commissary to order the shipments
well in advance and always from the near
est seaport town. When it is remembered
tnat the show will sometimes spend a
month or more In States as far removed
from ocean waters as Kansas, Missouri or
the Dakotas it can readily be seen that
tills "chore" on the part of the commissary
is not one to be lightly considered. Other
animals having special food requirements
Include the giraffes, who must have a cer
tain amount of clover hay each week.
To the onlooker jt may seem as though
the scores of wagons used for the purpose
WMn
li
M
:
E53M -
3
t3
S8kr
li
m
EK
ytHa'S
m
a -Wat
Ja
swsaiiM
fcEXHH!
rrmTm
i nw-nTMrnr i ii n im r i
. .-. .- jifT-rrstrzTTrr-f
R&ss&i&s
i3
SSbssA
Vifw'.fr
j - ji jmew ''gagssscsjBgaeg. aa
gun W ' - 'litutm
t&e-
J?'-
fZ-2
8R&
ZEZZZZZZZ
' "" - .'
atfOMiB
,fc--.V :-'
Photograph Showing the Arena Grandstand Ready to Be Assembled
for the Seating of 11,000 People.
of transporting properties, paraphernalia
and all the various sized poles used in
building the tented city are placed in more
or less haphazard fashiqn
This, however, is far from the case.
Every single one of the more than 200
wagons used to transport the physical side
of the show is stationed with the nicest
of consideration in relation to their con
tents. Thus, when at night the many tents are
torn down, every wagon is found to be on
a bee line with and the shortest possible
distance from that which, a half hour
later, is to compo.se its contei ts. When
the tent poles, ranging in size from what
are known as .side poles to the giant ta
pering timbers that form the masts of the
gigantic "big-top," are taken down they
point on an exact line with the waiting
wagons. Because of this there is no t!nB
lost in turning either to the left or to the
right on the part of the men who carry
them to their destination.
And when the laboiing men carry either
these poles or what are known as seat
planks or those timbers that are called
stringers and which hold the many circus
seats firmly in place, it Is not necessary
for them to cast about for the point of
balance when they raise them to their
bhoulders. When you next i.-it the circus
on the lot, take a careful look at the seat
planks and stringers and you will note
Copyright, 1919, by Star Company.
that a red stripe is painted across the
centre of each. Thi is the centre of bal
ance and the point that the working man
brings In contact with his broad shoulders
when he carries this or that plank to the
particular wagon in which it is trans
ported. Were It not for rope there wquld proba
bly never have been a 'circus. Hundreds
of miles of it are used in building the
"frame" of the canvas tents, and still more
miles used in holding these tents in posi
tion. To the average layman the rope, used
In connection with a circus looks more or
less alike. Yet there is hardly a coll of it
that has not a characteristic all its very
own. The circus man can pick up the end
of any piece of rope and tell you exactly
in what department it b'elong-; and In what
particular part of that particular depart
ment. This the circus man is ablo to do be
cause he finds platted into the strands of
every piece of rope a bit of colored cord.
If the cord be yellow It means that the
rope is used in connection Mith the side
poles that are painted yellow. If it wear
a red badge he knows that It Is used in
connection with what, in circus parlance,
are known as the "red-quarter-pole-. " iH
so by means of ari-eolored twine h li
able to correctly place every single om oi
the hundreds of coils of rope that form
one of the essentials of the big circus.
Great Britain Rights Reserved.
TW
jSw
ft "S ,.
;
;t.
T3
s
K
p
..
if
!
;?:!
J. - , .-. ' iaaor.IMPr&sSIBB5:-. -iJM
How the Canvas Is Hoisted Up to the Top of the Tent Poles.
"tV
l
S-iflh-
ir
1
i
.- "V