Until within the last few years it was supposed that the circus-loving portion of the metropolitan population was not numerous enough to support more than one equestrian establishment; but the contrary may now be regarded as proven, and, though it may still be doubted whether London would support as many circuses as the much less populous city of Paris, we trust to see the company and stud of Mr Hengler at his most comfortable _cirque_ in Argyle Street, and those of the Brothers Sanger at Astley’s, for many years to come, and to be assured that with each recurring season the proprietors of both establishments are augmenting the fame and fortune which they have so deservedly won. CHAPTER XIII. American Circuses—American Performers in England, and English Performers in the United States—The Cookes in America—Barnum’s great Show—Yankee Parades—Van Amburgh’s Circus and Menagerie—Robinson’s combined Shows—Stone and Murray’s Circus—The Forepaughs—Joel Warner—Side Shows—Amphitheatres of New York and New Orleans. The circus in America is a highly popular entertainment, and is organized upon a very extensive scale, as everything is there, like the country itself, with its illimitable prairies, rivers thousands of miles long, and lakes like inland seas. Americans have a boundless admiration of everything big; they seem to revel even in ‘big’ bankruptcies and ‘big’ fires, such as that which desolated Chicago a few years ago. Circus proprietors bring their establishments before the public, not by vaunting the talent of the company, or the beauty and sagacity of the horses, but by announcing the thousands of square feet which the circus covers, the thousands of dollars to which their daily or weekly expenses amount, and the number of miles to which their parades extend. ‘This is a big concern,’ say those who read the announcement, and their patronage is proportionate to its extent and cost. The American circuses are all conducted on the tenting system, and, as there are few towns in the Union which could support one only of the many colossal establishments which travel during the summer, most of them are idle during the winter; many of them are combined with a menagerie, in which cases one charge admits to both. Except in the matter of size, they do not differ materially from tenting circuses in this country; but the tents are larger, the parades longer, and the rifle-targets, the Aunt Sallies, and the acrobats in dirty tights who follow Sanger, and the Ginnetts, and Quaglieni, and other tenting circuses in England, are replaced by small shows, such as attend fairs in this country, and in which giants, dwarfs, albinoes, and monstrosities of various kinds are exhibited.