Page 206, line 3 from top, _for_ “Naet Salsbury”, _read_, “Nael Salsbury”. [Illustration] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page ORGANIZATION 1 CHAPTER II. THE FAIR 37 CHAPTER III. PERMANENT SHOWS OR ENTRESORTS 57 CHAPTER IV. THE THEATRE BOOTH 81 CHAPTER V. THE TRAINERS 107 CHAPTER VI. THE TAMERS 133 CHAPTER VII. THE EQUESTRIANS 159 CHAPTER VIII. THE HIPPODROME 183 CHAPTER IX. THE EQUILIBRISTS 209 CHAPTER X. THE GYMNASTS 241 CHAPTER XI. THE CLOWNS 277 CHAPTER XII. THE PRIVATE CIRCUS 307 INDEX. 333 [Illustration] [p001] [Illustration] CHAPTER I. ORGANIZATION. Parisians live in scandalous ignorance of the beings who surround them and of the world in which they move. Although fond of curious entertainments, they have never made any serious inquiries about the origin, the private life, or the terms of enlistment of the skilful artists whom they applaud in the circus, the theatre-concert, or the playhouse. I have often heard persons who considered themselves well informed, and who spoke with much reserve and many hints of deeper knowledge, assert that secret manufactures of monstrosities exist in the world, training schools for acrobats, registry offices for mountebanks; and that by diligent search, with a little discreet assistance from the police, one might discover branches of these picturesque establishments in the thieves’ quarters of old Paris. [p002] This story is enough to frighten children, but it must be allowed to pass away with the dust of other fabrications destroyed by time, whilst you may rely upon the accuracy of the information contained in this book; its sole ambition is to enlighten you on this mysterious subject by telling you the truth about it. The collection of all these facts has been a work of time. The mountebank is too jealous of his freedom to talk openly to every one that approaches him. The same patience which travellers use in their relations with savages must be employed before one can hope for any intimacy with this people, who are still as much scattered, as varied, as strangely mixed, as vagabond, as their ancestors, the gipsies, who, guitar on back, hoop in hand, their black hair encircled with a copper diadem, traversed the Middle Ages, protected from the hatred of the lower classes and the cruelty of the great by the talisman of superstitious terror. This tribe, recruited from every nation and every type, is called, in its particular _argot_, the _banque_;[1] there is the _grande banque_ and the _petite banque_: its members are called _banquistes_.