The queerest thing that ever happened in the circus business in this
country took place at Germantown, Pa. The teamsters went on a strike at
Pittsburg, for increase in wages and shorter hours, and for two days the
management had a great time.
We had to get drays to haul the stuff from the train to the lot, and
then our teamsters got the local draymen to join them, and when we got
ready to haul the stuff back to the train nobody would do any work, and
the walking delegates from the Teamsters' union just took possession of
the show, and we were stuck, like an automobile when the gasoline gives
out.
We had got to looking at the teamsters as of no particular account when
they walked out, but when they wouldn't work, they became the most
important part of the show, and after the show was over the managers who
had told the striking teamsters to go plumb, found that they had gone
plumb, and they had to rush all over Pittsburg and find them, and grant
their demands, and get them to go to work.
Pa was sent out to find a bunch of them, and it cost pa over $30 to get
them out of a beer garden, and back to the lot, and it was almost
daylight before we got our train started for the next town.
Well, at the next town we could see there was something the matter with
the animals.
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