Page 107 - 1918 VES Meteor

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One day he was with a gl'oup of his fcllo\v-workmen, and he fell to amusing them with his mimicry, which he still possessed, as if iu mockery of his college days. The men responde\} with hearty applanse and suggested that he go on the stage. He laughed the suggestion away, but the idea remained with him. A few weeks later a circus came to the city, and l1e determined to obtain a try-out as a clown. His
talent At once assured him both success and money. Even
a circus clown, thought he, is a rise from a day laborer. As
his sou gTew, his father, eager to make amends for his past
life, and to give his boy a chance, did not want to divulo-e 0
his profession, but let him think he was a salesman.
So it was that at the time this narrative begins Jules :Mason was a circus clown, playing the buffoon in the tent, but sad and lonely without, for he realized the pity that he, a college man destined to be a great jurist and to play a prominent part in life, should be playing the fool beneath a roof of canvas. To him the life was but a means to educate
his son, and he lived in terror lest he discover his father's true status. He still chmg to the hope that he could make his son belie,·e him a success, oven though in his O\Yll eyes he was a pitiable failure. The applause of the crowds meant
nothing to l1im, for he knew that he wa::; but the mellus for them to spend an idle hour or so.
One day the show wns playing in a. small town near his boy's school. As he came out on tho sawdust tmck he saw his son with some companions seated in the "reserves." But it was too late for him to withdraw. He was under
contract, and did not care to answer embarrassing questions. He was relieved to find that Billy did not recognize the clown as his father. As he performed he thought ironically what his son would think if he 1·evealed himself. But he ·was spared the humiliation, and left the town undiscovered. His life was but a dry drudgery, with no joy nor hope of ever
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