Arizona Republican

AN EQUINE PARADOX
Sixty-One Horses Acting at One Time in One Ring.

Among the hundreds of star features announced with Ringling Brothers' circuses this season, nothing has attracted more attention or excited more admiring comment than the marvelous performance of O'Brien's school of high-bred equines. Embraced in this equine company are sixty-one of the handsomest horses ever seen in a circus ring: a fact which all who witness the performances of Ringling Brothers' circuses when it exhibits in Phoenix on October 15 will be able to attest. Three features of this great equestrian spectacle are particularly notable: the large number of horses, the greatest company of equines ever trained in this way, the brilliancy and costly magnificence of the trappings, and the immense amount of paraphernalia used in the production. The display is given in the middle ring. This arena is especially constructed for the act, and is carried by the show. Instead of the usual circle of earth, there is a wooden parapet, the top of which forms a narrow circular platform encircling the arena. In the center of the ring is a succession of circular stages rising like terraces one above the other, and ending in a fifty-foot pedestal. The director takes his station in the arena. A signal is given and a handsome thoroughbred, with arched neck and waving plumes canters into the ring. This proud specimen of horsflesh, the matchless charger, "Silver King" is the avant courier of sixty beautiful equines superbly caparisoned in unrivaled splendor by ring or hall, which approach with the whistle and speed of a cavalry charge and then, suddenly halting in their mad flight, line up in solid column, awaiting with proud impatience the further orders of their intrepidly obedient trainer. The performance that follows staggers even the evidences of the senses. The equines trot, with-out the slightest hesitation or prompting, execute the most difficult evolutions, dance, pirouette, form colossal tableaux, and go through the movements of a difficult military march.

Then a score or more of the horses take their places on the parapets of the ring others group themselves upon the circular central stages. At the apex is the shapely "Silver King." Vaulting upon the back of this beautiful equine and raising the superb animal until he seems to be poised in the air, the trainer nods his head. Instantly, the great company of horses is in motion. Some run to the right, others to the left, but without leaving the narrow platforms. With their sleek coats gleaming, with their radiantly beautiful trappings glittering in the light, and the waving of their vari-colored plumes, they form a picture of indescribable beauty, loveliness in its adorning, and thrilling in its dramatic effect. The finale never fails to lift a sensation. O'Brien's famous sixty-one horse act is only one of scores of features with this great show which presents the finest zoological display, the most complete circus performance, the most historic hippodrome, and its in street free street parade ever seen on earth.