latest collection of _facetiæ_, their merry interludes with the ring-master rehearsed before-hand. They are, as a rule, long-lived, and seem never to become superannuated. Stickney died at forty, I believe; but Astley was seventy-two when he departed this life, Pablo Fanque seventy-five, Madame Saqui eighty, and Saunders ninety-two. Constant practice enables even gymnasts and acrobats to continue their performances when they are far down the decline of life; and I have seen middle-aged, and even grey-headed men, who had been ‘pitching’ or ‘tenting’ all their lives, and could still throw a forward somersault, or form the base of an acrobatic pyramid. Both men and women generally marry young, but the latter go on riding or rope-dancing until they are superseded by younger ones; and their husbands ride, vault, tumble, or juggle, until their— ———‘little life Is rounded with a sleep.’ The human mind craves amusement in every phase of society, and in none more than in that which is exemplified in the large towns of Europe and the United States, where, and especially among the commercial and industrial classes, the brain is in activity, the nerves in a state of tension, from morn till eve. Released from business or labour for the day, the nervous system requires relaxation; and if its demands are not attended to, the strain of the day cannot long be sustained. The entertaining classes are, therefore, a necessary element of present society; and, in now taking leave of them, I cannot too strongly urge upon all who may read these pages the appeal which the inimitable Dickens has put into the mouth of Sleary: ‘People mutht be amuthed. They can’t be alwayth a-learning, nor they can’t be alwayth a-working; they an’t made for it. You _mutht_ have uth. Do the withe thing and the kind thing too, and make the betht of uth; not the wutht.’ Let us indeed make the best of our entertainers; for we owe them much. THE END. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INDEX. ------- PAGE Abbott, the clown 247 Adams, the equestrian 62, 86 ” ” clown 263 Adrian, Miss, the equestrian 203 Agouste, the juggler 110 Airec, the gymnast 162 Alexander, Brothers, the acrobats 192 Amburgh, Van, the lion-tamer 89, 97, 117 ” ” ” circus proprietor 238 American circuses 223