Circus


Springfield Journal Register, date of paper which originally published the following is unknown.



HOW BARNUM FEATHURED JUMBO WHEN SHOW WAS HERE IN 1884--
Remember Jumbo, Barnum's great circus elephant, the biggest animal ever tamed? If you do, you must be one of the real old-timers - around here when the show came through in 1884! In any event you have probably heard of this "largest of pachyderms" which headlined Barnum & Bailey, "way back when. The billboard poster shown above was of the type the show's advance men put up on that memorable visit to Springfield. It lured many patrons out to the old show grounds out on North 8th Street near Enos Park. When Barnum saw this great beast in the Royal Zoological Gardens in London, he couldn't rest till he had him in his circus. In 1882, he bought him for $10,000, took him to America and made him famous. Jumbo was killed in Canada in 1885, when he was struck by a locomotive. Of course, all such posters were exxaggerated in the flamboyant circus style - note the crowd of children parked on his back! - but Jumbo was really the biggest show elephant of them all, standing 11 feet 6 inches in height and weighing 14,000 pounds - far above the average.

Submitted by: Jeanie Lowe.



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