The railroad show was then an untried
experiment. Barnum and Coup and others were planning the great
innovation, but there was a grave question as to its practicability.
Later on Coup made the venture, transporting his show by rail. Such
men as Yankee Robinson, Cole and even P. T. Barnum traveled by wagon
road until that brave attempt was made. The railroad was soon to solve
the "bad roads" problem for all of them. Short jumps would no longer
be necessary; profitable cities could be substituted for the small
towns that every circus had to make on account of the distances and
the laborious mode of transportation. Still, if you were to chat
awhile with an old-time showman, you would soon discover that the
"road circus" of early days was the real one, and that the
scientifically handled concern of to-day is as utterly devoid of the
true flavor as the night is without sunshine.
Three times during the long, dark hours before dawn the chariot was
stalled in the mud of the mountain road; as many times it was moved by
the united efforts of five or six teams and the combined blasphemy of
a dozen drivers.
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