e and chain wagon. They was two fellers-both jugglers, acrobats, and tumblers-and a balloon. The circus had busted without paying them nothing but promises fur months and mont

put an advertisement in the Billboard, which is like a Bible to

name was Tobias. The other was heavier and blonde complected. His name was Dobbs, he said, and they was the Blanchet Brot

't go up in her, not knowing that trade, but still they ought to be s

able to sell that team and wagon, which it was eating its meals reg'lar in a livery stable, and they had be

r. And I seen he was sicking his inte

ble with the wagon

about 'em all the time, and studies up ways to make 'em better, and has got no more idea of business outside of that than a rabbit. We all went t

t balloon. What we want is a lot with a high board fence around it, like a baseball grounds, and the chance to tap

s wasn't worth knowing. He had even went in for

ductions came very near s

love with a pair of Siamese twins and commits su

the little ones," he says. "But like a fool I booked i

down. He hired the place cheap. And he goes and talks the gas company into giving him credit to fill that balloon. Which I kept wondering what was the use of

Kompany and O

ess Personnel of A

the Galaxy o

ey L.

n travesties, buoyant burlesques, inimitable imitations, screaming im

nchet B

Danger-Loving, D

contortionists, exquisite equilibrists, in their

The Patagon

type of hum

that he is no longer a cannibal, and it is now safe to put him on exhibition. But to

Balloon!!

also presents

Ackerman The

he has

cension and

eaching remar

Balloon!!

M. Old Vandeg

ion 50

u might say. I seen right off I was to be the Patagonian Chieftain. I was getting more a

s Alonzo Ackerm

"and the man that invented parac

is he?"

ld I know

going up, t

if it says Alonzo Ackerman is going up. Well, it don't. But any one would of thought so the first look. I reckon that bill was some of a liar herself, not lyi

wd finds out Alonzo ain't goi

ublic are a good-natured set of chuckle-heads, m

could talk any crowd into any notion, or out of it, either. And he loved to do it jest fur the fun of it. He'd rather h

iving yourself a chancet. And Saturday morning we got the balloon filled up so she showed ha

od luck there may be as many

here. The doctor and the Blanchet Brothers was tickled. When they quit coming fast the doctor left the gate and made

Blanchet Brothers' wagon and our wagon, and our little tent. I was jest

me more of Doctor Kirby's refined comedy, as advertised. Next, more Blanchet. Then a lecture about me by the doctor. All in all it takes up about an hour and a ha

alloon go up?" asts

asts Doctor K

owd took it up and yelled: "Balloon! Balloon! Ba

but he gets back on her, and stretches his ar

at I have to say-harken to the utterings of my voice! There has been a misunderstanding here! There h

nd more than he meant them to. I was wondering how

y and Company are like Caesar's wife-Kirby and Company are above suspicion. It is the province of Kirby's Komedy Kompany, ladies and gentlemen, to spread the glad tidings of innocent amusement throughout the length and breadth of this fair land of ours. And there she is before you, the balloon as advertised, the gallant ship of the air in which the illustrious Ackerman made so many voyages before he sailed at last into the Great Beyond! You can see her, ladies and gentlemen, straining at her cords, anxious to mount into the heavens and be gone! It is an education in itself, ladies and gentlemen, a moral education, and well worth coming miles

a lot of 'em laughed; and he told a pitiful story, and they got sollum agin, and then another funny story. Well, he

Many has. He says that is well, and then he starts to telling another story. But in the middle of the story that hull dern crowd is took with a fit of laughing. They has looked at the bill close

ral born kicker everywhere,

as in a kind of a black pocket, and he was jest natcherally laying

wagon. As he does so that hull bunch of about a dozen moves in under the

patch over his eye to Doctor Kirby,

octor, eying him

die?" asts

erstand," says the d

t of his

es

rous trade, I hear," says the f

says Doctor K

aeronaut yourself

ays the

en up in

N

oing up in one

mean?" asts

balloon ascension-and we'

hull crowd made a

ctor Kirby hadn't gone clean crazy. His back was to the fence, and he cleaned out everything in front of him, and then he give a wild roar jest like a bull and rushed that hull gang-twenty men, they was-with his head down. He caught two fellers, one in each hand, and he cracked their heads together, and he caught two more, and done the same. But he orter never took his back away from that fe

the parachute bar, and tied his feet below it. He was still fighting, but the

plumb off'n the ground. He slewed around on the trapeze bar with the feller's weight, and slipped head downward. And as he slipped he give that feller a swing and let loose of

d he couldn't fall complete, fur where his feet was tied would likely hold even if his knee come straight-but he would die mebby with his head filling up with blood. But finally he made a squirm and raised himself a lot and grabbed the rope at one side of the bar. And then he

n, stumbling along and looking up. She was getting smaller every minute. And with my he

friend I ever had, and no way fur me to help him. He had learnt me to read, and bought me good clothes, and made me know they was things in the world worth travelling around to see, and made me feel like I was something more than jest Old