PRICE 5 CENTS.
A STORY OF
THE SAWDUST.
The Pathetic History of “Old
Props’” Darling.
SHE DIED FOR HER LOVE.
She met her Fate in New Zealand.—Ignorant,Uncultured,
Who is there who can BlameHer?
MULTUM IN PARVO LIBRARY.
Entered at Boston Post Office as secondclass matter. Published by A. B. Courtney,Room 45, 74 Milk Street, Boston.
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A STORY OF THE SAWDUST.
Her mother was a slack-wire performer in thecircus, and Patty was born in that part of thedressing-room reserved for the feminine talent,the privacy of which was a pleasant piece of fictiondue to the strip of canvas that “Old Props”stretched across the tent in the centre. Immediatelybehind the “wall” the male performersstruggled into pink tights, smoked cigarettes andstreaked the air with loud-mouthed oaths, regardlessof the proximity of the ladies, whose ownlanguage, to tell the truth, was none too choice.
Patty came into the world somewhat unexpectedly.Her parent, the only one she ever knew,had been seized with a sudden dizziness right inthe middle of her great balancing act and hadfallen heavily in the ring, from which she was tenderlycarried to the ladies’ dressing-room, where,two hours later, on a hastily improvised bed ofelephant trappings, camel coverings and spangledsuits, snatched from the property wardrobe, a littlemite of humanity was ushered into the worldamid the roaring of the lions, the hoarse bleat ofthe hippopotamus, and the savage trumpetings ofthe elephants in the menagerie adjoining.
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From her birth Patty was a great favorite withOld Props, who, in the absence of a legitimatefather, constituted himself the male protector ofthe petite girl baby, whose tiny fingers toyed carelesslywith the grizzled, brick-dusty beard of thegruff circus man whenever he took her in his arms.For Patty was raised with the circus. When shewas two weeks old her mother resumed her “act”on the slack wire and from that time until herdeath, which occurred when Patty was ten yearsold, the little girl lived almost continuously in theatmosphere of the sawdust ring.
“OLD PROPS.”
Patty was a veritable daughter of the arena. Ata very tender age she had been taught to balanceherself on the back of a horse, and when hermother died her education in bar