Sawdust & Spangles: Stories & Secrets of the Circus — John Shaqi
Sawdust & Spangles: Stories & Secrets of the CircusCoup, W. C. (William Cameron)
History
Sawdust & Spangles: Stories & Secrets of the Circus
Coup, W. C. (William Cameron)
Circus
A little inside information on this hidden side of the showman's
business may be entertaining to a public which has often experienced
the pleasure of being humbugged. Certainly no fake is entitled to take
precedence over the celebrated "Cardiff Giant." This was the invention
of a certain George Hull. He lived, I think, at Binghamton, New York,
and manufactured the giant in a rude shop on the small farm which he
worked. Hull was shrewd, energetic and very persistent, as may be seen
by the fact that the elaboration of the idea of his fake and its
execution occupied him more than four years. He thought the whole
matter out, even to the most minute details, before beginning work on
it. Without any knowledge of the art of sculpture or the science of
anatomy, he set himself resolutely at work to remedy these defects of
education. He had considerable aptitude with the chisel, and gradually
developed the skill necessary to hew out a figure that was to be put
before the public as a relic of an age so remote that no person would
be likely closely to criticise its proportions. Hull also knew that, no
matter what the age in which his giant was supposed to have lived, the
"remains" must show pores in the skin to pass the scrutiny of even the
unlearned, The making of these pores required more time and labor than
all the other work of making the "Cardiff Giant." The work occupied
many months, and was all performed in the "studio" or shop where it was
at last finished to Hull's satisfaction.
THE BURIAL AND RESURRECTION OF THE "CARDIFF GIANT"
Preparations were then made for the giant's burial in order that when
brought to public view it might show the proper evidence of antiquity.
It was buried in the side of a hill only a few rods from the
outbuilding, where it had been chiseled from a huge block of stone
taken from that very hill. In all this work, huge and heavy as the
uncut stone and the giant hewn out of it were, Hull had only the
assistance of one man, a sled and a yoke of oxen in moving them. This
helper was a green and stolid German immigrant, utterly devoid of
curiosity, and the man who helped to bury the giant was another of the
same description.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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