There are so bewilderingly many laws in the Outside World. We of the circus know only one law--simple and unfailing. The Show must... go on.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Winter and summer till old age began My circus animals were all on show,... Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot, Lion and woman and the Lord knows what.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The way to go to the circus, however, is with someone who has seen perhaps one theatrical performance before in his life and that ...in the High School hall.... The scales of sophistication are struck from your eyes and you see in the circus a gathering of men and women who are able to do things as a matter of course which you couldn't do if your life depended on it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One key, one solution to the mysteries of the human condition, one solution to the old knots of fate, freedom, and foreknowledge, ...exists, the propounding, namely, of the double consciousness. A man must ride alternately on the horses of his private and public nature, as the equestrians in the circus throw themselves nimbly from horse to horse, or plant one foot on the back of one, and the other foot on the back of the other.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Oh, play that thing! Mute glorious Storyvilles Others may license, grouping round their chairs... Sporting-house girls like circus tigers....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The folk artist is usually satisfied with somewhat more anonymity; he is less concerned with aesthetic context, and less with spec...ifically aesthetic purpose, though he wants to satisfy his audience, as does the popular artist. His art, however, tends to be thematically simple and technically uncomplicated, its production--the folk song, the duck decoy, the tavern sign, the circus act--not so strongly influenced by technological factors. Popular art is folk art aimed at a wider audience, in a somewhat more self-conscious attempt to fill that audience's expectations, an art more aware of the need for selling the product, more consciously adjusted to the median taste.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Blind with love, my daughter has cried nightly for horses,... those long-necked marchers and churners that she has mastered, any and all, reigning them in like a circus hand....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I went to the circus, and loafed around the back side till the watchman went by, and then dived in under the tent. I had my twenty...-dollar gold piece and some other money, but I reckoned I better save it.... I ain't opposed to spending money on circuses, when there ain't no other way, but there ain't no use in wasting it on them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »