In Chrissy’s Endeavor, Chess Gardner explained to Joe the stable boy why Christians should not attend the circus: Sarah Jane may have longed to go to the circus, but Isabella Alden didn’t believe the circus was an appropriate venue for Christians. There is going to be one next week, and I would give most anything to go to it but there! I don’t suppose it is of any use.” I am dreadful sick of sticking here on this stony old farm and not knowing what is going on. In Stephen Mitchell’s Journey, Stephen’s sister Sara Jane sighed over the family’s poverty and her dream of being able to do things other people could afford to do:
It was natural, then that Isabella Alden would have mentioned circuses in her novels. It was heady stuff at the time, and circuses owned an exclusive corner of the entertainment market. The atmosphere under the tent was electric, with real performers and real animals executing larger-than-life tricks right in front of the audience. The circus was the only entertainment of its kind, thrilling audiences with new experiences and feats they’d never seen before. Clowns, jungle animals, and rare, exotic people rounded out the bill. Trick riders atop well-trained horses performed remarkable feats and thrilled audiences with their precision. The mainstay of the circus was the equestrian acts. When a circus company arrived in a new place, the acts and animals paraded through the town, firing people’s imaginations and enticing them to follow the parade back to the performance tent. Few had the means to attend the theater and the concept of “entertainment” was usually confined to people finding ways to amuse themselves within the drawing-rooms and parlors of individual homes.īut quiet American life changed the moment the traveling circus came into town (click on any of the images in this post to see a larger version).
At the time Isabella Alden wrote her books, there were no movie theaters, telephones, radios or televisions.
0 kommentar(er)
