[Illustration: TRANSFORMATION SCENE.] THEATRICAL AND CIRCUS LIFE; OR, SECRETS OF THE STAGE, GREEN-ROOM AND SAWDUST ARENA. EMBRACING A HISTORY OF THE THEATRE FROM SHAKESPEARE'S TIME TO THE PRESENT DAY, AND ABOUNDING IN ANECDOTES CONCERNING THE MOST PROMINENT ACTORS AND ACTRESSES BEFORE THE PUBLIC; ALSO, A COMPLETE EXPOSITION OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE STAGE, SHOWING THE MANNER IN WHICH WONDERFUL SCENIC AND OTHER EFFECTS ARE PRODUCED; THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF NEGRO MINSTRELSY; THE MOST ASTONISHING TRICKS OF MODERN MAGICIANS, AND A HISTORY OF THE HIPPODROME, ETC., ETC. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings and Fine Colored Plates. BY JOHN J. JENNINGS. CHICAGO: Globe Publishing Co. 1886. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by GLOBE PUBLISHING CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PROLOGUE. The theatre and the circus, both sources of unlimited amusement to the world, are also objects of the greatest interest to all who have had even a single peep at the stage or pressed their feet even once upon the sawdust precincts of the tented show. The tricks and illusions that are mystifying to nine-tenths of those to whom they are presented rarely fail to be productive of pleasure, and the performers, whether before the foot-lights or within the circus ring, generally succeed in so thoroughly winning the hearts of the public, that, though their faces, when the paint is off and the atmosphere of glory has departed, might not be recognized upon the street, their names are so fixedly identified with the pleasant moments associated with their art, that they become household words, and are spoken, with admiration and praise, by all classes, from the newsboy and bootblack up through the various strata of society even to the ruler of the nation.