by Laurel | May 17th, 2010
May 17, 1900
Yesterday was circus day in Holyoke, and the Holyoke schools were largely depleted in their afternoon sessions as a result. There was a big attendance at both the afternoon and evening sessions, and a considerable number of visitors in the city from outside of Holyoke, the trollies bringing quite an addition. The morning parade was delayed a little, but it was a good one and well worth seeing. A feature not down on the program was the massing of 100 or so high school boys and their friends on High street, at the corner of Suffolk, who devoted themselves with painful conscientiousness to “guying” everything in the parade. When the first gay-colored team, drawn by eight horses, appeared they struck up an impromptu strain something like, “A horse for you and a horse for me;” and when the squad of female acrobats of more or less attractiveness meandered into sight the boys with one accord made the street glad with the refrain, “I’d leave my happy home for you.” The colored band were greeted with that classic about getting one’s razor and gun, and the steam calliope was mocked in a ribald series of variations of the peculiar warblings of that mechanical tom-cat that were extremely funny. One or two songs were sung very well indeed. The animals came in for a good deal of advice, and some one in the crowd advised those about him to throw nothing but light colored bricks at them. At the close of the procession, the boys massed together and left, apparently for the circus grounds.
From The Springfield Republican.
