Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 118: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SHEM was the days. But, in the words of a great man, now they = just ain’t no more. In them days the Columbia Carnival ‘Company was on the road. Class to that name, eh? Pete picked it himself. It was Pete Girston’s show. — [ don’t mean to say that Pete was any king of the movies. Maybe a few slant- eyes way off in the jungle ain’t never heard of Pete. But they ain’t in the business. -__‘Yhere was a time when you could say Pete - to any trooper, and they’d think Girston -_. Yike Yale and Harvard or knife and fork. When you think what Pete done to the ‘carnival game—he made it. He took it a dog fight, and dolled it up with class till it was safe to take sister. Class was Pete’s _. middle name. He invented that gag, no contracts and no concessions, and put the _when it was a cross between a hold-up and — rough babies sometimes. smoothed them down. SS - By KENNETH MacNICHOL first show on the road that owned every pitch on the lot. His people worked on paid salary and a take-off on what they drew. No strong arm stuff ever got over with Pete. Where > we made a set we could always go back again. It was all straight, and after we left a burg, we left it clean. That goes both ways—a clean getaway for us, and them hick towns would have to put in a hurry call to the next village to lend them some chicken feed. We left them crying for a dime. We took everything but the bank,-arid we left that crippled. We didn’t need any rough stuff. Working with Pete we grabbed the works without. Not, understand, that he was any board of censors. Ill say we carried some pretty =But =-Pete- He- had three commandments: = keep s Eomicbhooks €O