Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth

I couldn't do it!! I ran!!

I was supposed to take my final exam, but I couldn't do. The squirrel outside the window was too fat; the girl next to me coughed too loud; the wind pushed the leaves too quickly.

I jumped aboard a fast traveling train. I thought I was safe, but a huge, filthy man, (whose name I later discovered is Blackie) held me out of the side of the freight car. Thankfully, an old man named Camel saved me from a crushed body.

Camel handed me off to Joe who put me to work with Charlie shoveling out horse crap.

We went for breakfast where I was called a First of May. There was a curtain separating the "Kinkers" from the workers.

After breakfast, I went to work with Camel's friend, Cecil. He showed me the menagerie:

"Brilliantly painted red and gold animal dens line two of the four walls, their sides propped open to reveal lions, tigers, panthers, jaguars, bears, chimps, and spider monkeys... I searched in vain for an elephant when my eyes came to an abrupt stop on a woman... she reaches up and smoothes the horse's forelock against his face."

When the circus began, chaos broke loose. Men complained violently because they were tricked into seeing something so amazing, so shocking, something not suitable for women.

I stood outside Barbara the stripper's tent while she entertained men. I wanted to watch the show in the big top, but I was too afraid. I did catch a glimpse of the woman from the menagerie. She does an act with the Liberty horses. Camel tried to talk to Uncle Al so that I could have an official job, but Uncle Al wouldn't give him the time of day. Performers don't appreciate the work workers do for them.