 Gary of the circus You set up this morning Pretty early, but you you don't have to get up and watch him unload, you know But I want to I've never seen him unload and set up and with a clay lot it you ought to be real interesting Interesting to you, but plenty tough for the canvas man. You know a mother clay lot is no sense to set up one It was mother shoot. Oh, here it is. I'll go out with you and introduce you to Paul Murray Who's he bombs? Well, he's a head canvas man And I guess you'll show you around if he's not too busy. Sure is gonna be fun And you learn a lot too. You know, there's a lot more to setting up the tops than you think What I can't figure out is how they do it so fair. It's all system Jerry Well, I'm ready. How about you? Okay? Can I take rags? I don't know about that. He might get in the way But look at him. He hasn't taken his eyes off us since we started to get dressed. You want to come with me, don't you rag? Not so loud there partner folks are all sleeping in this car He wants to come bomb. I'll see that he stays right by me. Well, all right But don't let him get hurt or stepped on. Oh, I won't come on rags Hey, no, I'll be quiet when we walk down the corridor Come on rags quiet now We could lose a lot of friends if we made any noise and woke up some of the performers at this hour Funny the noise of the train and and the unloading doesn't wake them up with circus folks get used to those noises Jerry It's unusual noises like footsteps and voices in the car this early that bothers Yeah, here we are Come on rags. Stay right alongside me now Let's get over there to the flat cars and careful where you step now, okay Oh, yeah, I hear Paul over there. Oh, Paul Paul Murray That's him waving that ladder It's Well, my pal here wanted to see the unloading and setting up today Paul want you to meet Jerry Jerry do I'm glad to meet you Mr. Murray I'm glad to meet you son. If you're not gonna have it too tough today I thought maybe you'd show Jerry round a little sure thing. I won't be in the way. I don't think so This is rags Paul Jerry's dog. Well, hello there rags See this is the dog that works with you isn't it bumps. Yep. That's my partner all right Oh, have you seen us work? I caught part of the show one night last week Clever dog If it's all the same with you I'm going back to bed for a while sleep is a whole lot more important to me than watching you set up You go back and finish your beauty sleep Jerry, and I'll get along all right All right. See you later and keep your eye on rags. Okay Here comes the first wagon from the mess top Jerry. Let's ride it over to the lot. All right Okay, Bert. I'll take it on over Climb up there in the driver's seat Jerry sure, but you hand me rags. Will you okay up you go boy? That's the boy your eggs. Come here boy up with you. I got him Thanks If I get up Not very far Jerry, I don't know exactly myself Then how do you know which way to drive? You'll see in a minute just as soon as we hit the street What's in this wagon mr. Murray mostly dishes and cooking you dance those and they're important My man get the big tough and the menagerie in the midway tops Their job is done and they'll be want their breakfast There's another torch over there on the curb stone. See it. I'm sure do That's what I was telling you about that's how I know which way to go to the lot What do you mean? You see Jerry the first wagon that goes over to the lot from the railroad yard is on the trail blazer They put those flares along the route to be followed That one on the right hand side of the street means that I'm to turn right at the next corner Probably that sure is a good system and you know something Jerry the drivers of the wagons don't even have to watch out for the flares They don't why not because the horses are so used to following the flares that they make the turns by themselves Oh, look Jerry, there's the lot ahead of us. I mean where all those torches are sitting on the ground. Yep, that's it Why are they sitting around like that? Oh, that's the way the lot's been laid out I can tell from the way the flares are placed just where each top is supposed to go up Even the places for the center poles of the big top have been mocked off I see what you mean those flares all in a row there Bull goes up where each one of them is huh? That's right Look at the ground Mr. Murray. Why it's all mud. Yeah, not such good putting here in this clay We'll be using plenty of sawdust today. This would sure be a bad lot if it rained wouldn't it? Yes, sir But it won't rain. You don't have to worry about that. Why because it rained so much before we got here Nope, I got a better way to tell in that how I can tell just by looking at the space between those flares Oh, you're fooling. How could you tell if it's going to rain or not that way? It's a pretty sure system Jerry don't miss very often Oh the weather is a lot to do with the way that they're placed Jerry you see our advanced men checked with the weather bureau pretty carefully Well, what's that got to do with it? Oh the flares mark off the distance between center poles The center poles are further apart on a dry day than they are in a day We expect rain we put them closer together on a wet day to allow for the shrinkage in the canvas Come on boy. Come on. Look if the canvas was stretched tight and then it started to rain and it began to shrink It would split the top wide open. I never thought of that Well here we are son up down okay Down Getting right Jerry the old son is coming up. We can use plenty of light setting up on a clay lot like this and Everything will get all money on it. We hope not. Oh, here comes a load of sawdust now I'll have some spread around before I unload the canvas Hey, hey Pat Get some of that sawdust down in a hurry. I got unloaded canvas We dump the canvas and then we unfold and spread it Of course, you know by that time the center poles are and then we start tying on to the bail in Those are the big rings that go around the center poles We pass in the top of the canvas to them and then heist them up. Oh Then we lace on the sides and tie her down Well, here comes my first load of canvas. Let's get over there. Okay. Come on You see that smoke over there to your left Jerry Breakfast starting already. They got the players up before the mess top standing. They sure work fast. Don't they? Well, they got it the thing I can't figure out is how you know just where each top is supposed to go and every time we play We have a different layout. Yeah, say why is that? Well, Jerry I'll bet there's over a thousand different ways to lay out a circus It all depends on the lock the size and the shape and all that The first thing is to get the midway and main entrance to the big top Nears the best street so it's easy for the folks to know just how to get to the circus Oh, I see and we have to figure before we set up just how we can break down Notice a lot of the things start moving and being loaded that before the night show is over And I wondered about that we couldn't very well wait until the show is all over and then start moving Or we'd never get our work done So we start taking the things off the lot that have been used Mean big things you like to steal for Jason's act The minute he finishes we break it down and take it right over to the cars By that time the mess dance and the kitchen is all on the train. That's right Over here town All right, you men let's lay it down. They sure work fast. Uh, look over there Jerry Why it's a mess dance. It's almost stopped. Suppose you take a walk over there and watch them fix breakfast now I'm gonna be a little busy for a while Ask for Leo. He'll show you around. Okay, mr. Murray. Thanks for showing me all you did See you later. All right, Jerry Well rags, aren't you glad we got up early and got to see all we did There's just no ends of things you can learn about a circus and every bit of it's wonderful Oh, you think so too, huh Morning lad. Good morning. Uh, are you leo? No, no leo's over there with that white chaplain. Oh, thanks. Come on rags Colleague, you're pretty this time of the morning when it's getting light. Hello. Hello there. Are you leo? I've been my name ever since I can remember. Well, I'm Jerry Dugan. Mr. Murray just sent me over here. Oh, what's paul on? Oh, nothing. Oh, what he sent you over here for? Oh, he's been showing me how they set up and he's afraid I'll be in the way I guess I mean when they put up the big top besides I'd like to look around the cook tent here Well, so that's it, huh? Well hop to it my boy. Look around and ask some lessons. That's the way to learn Thanks, I will suppose you'd like to know what I'm stirring in this big kettle What is it? Well, this is the makings for about two or three thousand hotcakes. Yeah, well Two or three thousand. Yep This and those other seven kettles full of batter Those razorbacks will be bloody hungry when they finish setting up in this mud field Do they get as much as they want to eat? Oh, I guess they do. I haven't had any complaints. He look at what? Well, here comes mr. Randall the governor himself. Oh, mr. Randall Hello, Jerry What are you doing up this hour? Why I've been watching them set up. Excuse me, Leo. I'll I'll see you later Okay, my boy. Hey, where are you going, mr. Randall? I'm looking for Paul Murray. Have you seen him around? Well, sure There he is. Oh, yeah, say Paul. Yes, mr. Randall. Come here a minute. Is something wrong? Well, I don't know but it kind of looks the way, Jerry You're looking for me, mr. Randall. Yeah, Paul. How's it going? A lot pretty tough Now I've seen a lot worse places. We'll be up on time. Yeah, good What's on your mind, boss? Well, I just got a telegram back at Redwood station. Things don't look so good further up the line What's the matter? Yeah, listen to this Advise you to cancel next stand Heavy rains of past week have weakened trestle over horn river And doubt safety of taking your cars over it jw Thornton superintendent horn river division s l and m lines Hey, that doesn't look so good. What are you gonna do? Well, I'm gonna play our next stand folks in that town expecting the circus tomorrow and I'm not gonna let them down But maybe the bridge will be weakened if we try to cross it with all those cars with elephants and everything Well, we'll go as far as the trestle and then examine it and If we can't get across we'll find another way, but we're going to play that town