THE BARNUM AND BAILEY SHOW.

If the visit to the Barnum and Bailey show in the afternoon yesterday was enormous, it was in the evening overpowering. Round the ticket offices in the afternoon the people swarmed, so that it was difficult even with the orderly methods which obtain to serve the people fast enough. So great was the rush in the evening that the doors were thrown open shortly after six o’clock to ease the pressure of the vast crowd, only temporarily thinned by the departure of many waiting people into the side shows, which appear be always open.

By throwing wide the doors earlier the public were enabled at leisure to spend most comfortable time round the “freaks” the meuagerie tent, an occupation usually followed by visitors for one hour before the circus programme commences. But on this occasion extra time allowed by the management gave people an opportunity not only of securing a good view of all that is be seen the first tent, but allowed them also to pay heed warning voice of the attendants and secure their seats early.

In consequence the two ends of the mammoth tent devoted to the shilling and two shilling subscribers were speedily filled, for their special entertainment clowns were busy, exciting roars of laughter long before- the regular programme opened.

Shortly after seven o’clock the shilling seats were entirely exhausted, and the only bare patch around that great Hippodrome track when the performance started was among a few of the higher priced seats. It was one great sea of humanity all around the tent: wherever one looked nothing but faces eagerly intent on the show.

There must have been over 28,000 patrons in the tents yesterday. The tramway traffic was great. The cars outward were filled long before they reached the terminus at Snig Hill, and to secure a seat one must make haste so the farthest incoming car. So that the spectacle of four five fully laden, which had not yet liad their heads turned towards Hillsbro’, the destination of all those eager people was quite a common sight. ‘Bus and waggonette, four wheeler and hansom, shared freely the patronage of those making for Queen’s Grounds.

Judging by advance booking for the remainder of the week, today’s business is not likely to be singular in the record of this week’s visit to Sheffield. Mr. S. A. Bailey, who now the sole proprietor of the show , need “therefore have no miserable forebodings the subject of the number 13.

He is, in fact, no believer in the ill-luck that is supposed to attend that fatal number. His opening day in Sheffield was the 13th. after the result yesterday it looks like the fore-runner of a successful time. Those who shudder the fate of “thirteen” may have their fears allayed when they know that he sailed for England on the 13th of the month, and on a Friday, too. When he unfolded his tent in the provinces it was the 13th of the month, and the first number that encountered the visitor entered the main road was 13 on the canvas side-walls. Moreover his first offices in New York were at No. 13, in West 27 Street. So much for believers in superstitions. He regards it as his lucky number, and well may.

In the preparation for the entertainment seen in such elaborate completeness there a vast amount of interesting detail and very careful organisation.

The army of grooms and attendants have a busy time, in the grand entry all the horses are be saddled in the anteroom, and harnessed with those gorgeous plush trappings which so signally mark that display, exacting in the minutiae of its attention to the period of Christopher Columbus.

Then as the cavalcade returns the riders dismount, the trappings swiftly moved and carefully folded up each in its allotted space, the banner-bearers marching on their fine feathers to the further wardrobe tent, where they are disembarrassed of their military and cavalier accoutrements.

The supers are all out 15 minutes after the show has begun, their dresses and armour stowed away. The pageant horses having been safely stowed away. The pageant horses having been stripped, are taken on their canvas stable, except those which are immediately required for the rings, and the thoroughbreds which impatiently stamp the grass in waiting for that famous display under the skilful equestrian director.

Mr. William Ducrow. In the dressing tent all is bustle and preparation for the pageant over every costume has to changed, and the clowns are coming and going every few minutes. They change as often as ten times the run of the performance.

Each man has his own trunk, and on the top of it, he rolls a bundle his pageant dress, which the wardrobe man promptly conveys the general stock. The clown meantime are getting into their gaudy and loose attire, imparting, with the aid of chalk, the requisite pallor to their features, touching them up with eccentric of colour: and the acrobats and other groups performers are clothing themselves the garb in which they are to appear. Changes of the costumes, it will be observed, are rule, and in two performances, should anyone visit both, the same artiste will be noticed in different colours and style, the result being freshen the entertainment even to the same eyes, while the position the take up in the great list is also frequently allured.

What with wig-fitting, and the Marvelle high-kickers and contortionists testing the flexibility of their limbs, the scene one which impresses, by reason of its content movement and ever-changing character. The wig-man has his hands full. He has some 200 wigs his charge, and in his cosy tent at the rear Mr. Gewis. who has that department in charge, re-curls and dressed all those false hair adornments; which have been affected by dampness or other causes, or which appear his eye to lack the artistic appearance necessary. These are details which show how the officials accomplish the task set them of keeping the turns in motion with the rapidity that characters the different displays.