Just for the sake of argument, consider the Ringling Brothers Circus of the year 1890, roughly 17 years before it became the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. That year, you could see Anzo, the Human Serpent, slither on the ground. You could see the La Role brothers, Chris and Harry, the two ‘‘Flying Men of the Air,’’ and the wondrous Nellie on her airborne trapeze. You could see Edward Billings, the King of the High Stilts, as he confounded audience members with his height and balance, and watch the ‘‘educated’’ horses ridden two at a time by one man. You could see Barretta, the Boneless Wonder, whom, years before, a young Winston Churchill had begged in vain to see. (According to Boris Johnson’s biography, ‘‘The Churchill Factor,’’ his parents decided the sight would be ‘‘too demoralizing and revolting’’ for a child.)
