Part IV Chapter 2 Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
THE PATENT MEDICINE RIOTS
John Dolittle himself grew a little alarmed as he saw what an ugly mood the crowd was now beginning to show. When he had first mounted his ladder and interrupted the quack doctor's lecture he had meant to do no more than warn the people against buying fake medicines. But as he watched the throng swarm over the platform, wrecking and smashing it on the way, he began to fear for Brown's safety.
When the riot was at its height the police arrived. Even they had considerable difficulty in calming the crowd. They had to use their clubs to make them listen at all. There were many broken heads and bloody noses. Finally the police saw that their only chance of restoring order would be to clear the circus enclosure together.
This was done--in spite of the people's objection that they had only just come in and wanted their admission money back before they left. Then the circus was ordered by the police to remain closed until further instructions.
It was not long before the further instructions were forthcoming. Much indignation had been aroused throughout the respectable town of Stowbury over the whole affair. And the Mayor sent word to Blossom about noon that he and the aldermen would be obliged to him if he would pack up his circus and take it out of their town immediately.
Brown had escaped and got away across country long before this. But that wasn't the end of the affair so far as John Dolittle was concerned. Blossom, already annoyed, became so furious when the Mayor's order was brought that everybody thought he was going to have a fit. Fatima had been railing against the Doctor to him all the morning; and on hearing the last bit of news, which meant considerable loss, he got almost black in the face.
Many of the showmen were with him when the policeman delivered the order. On them too Fatima had been working, trying to arouse bad feeling against the Doctor.
"Blast it!" yelled Blossom, rising to his feet and reaching for a thick walking stick that stood behind his wagon door. "I'll teach him to get my circus closed up! Come on, some of you fellows!"
With waving fists Fatima and four or five of the showmen standing near followed the ringmaster as he marched off toward the Doctor's stand.
Both Jip and Matthew had also been hanging around Blossom's wagon. They too now departed, Jip running ahead to warn the Doctor and the Cat's-Meat-Man going off in a wholly different direction.
On their way to the Doctor's wagon Blossom and his party of vengeance were joined by several tent riggers and others. By the time they arrived at his door they numbered a good dozen. To their surprise the Doctor came out to meet them.
"Good afternoon," said John Dolittle politely. "What can I do for you?"
Blossom tried to speak, but his anger was too much for him--nothing more than spluttering gurgles came from his throat.
"You've done enough for us already," shouted one of the men.
"We're going to do for you now," screamed Fatima.
"You've got the show turned out of the town," growled a third; "one of the best places on the road. You've cost us a week's pay."
"You've been doing your best to put my show on the blink," snarled Blossom, finding his voice at last, "ever since you've been with us. But, by Jiminy*, you've gone too far this time!"
Without further words the group of angry men, led by the ringmaster, rushed upon the Doctor and he went down under a football scrum of kicking feet and punching fists.
Poor Jip did his best to drag them off. But it was little help he could give against twelve such enemies. He couldn't see the Doctor at all. He was beginning to wonder where Matthew was when he saw the Cat's-Meat-Man running toward the fight from the other side of the enclosure. And beside him ran an enormous man in pink tights.
On reaching the scrum the big man began pulling off the showmen by their feet or hair and tossing them aside as though they were wisps of straw.
Finally Hercules the strong man--for it was he--had thinned the fight down to two, Blossom and the Doctor. These still rolled upon the ground trying to throttle one another. With a hand the size of a leg of mutton, Hercules, grasped the ringmaster by the neck and shook him like a rat.
"If you don't be'ave yourself, Alexander," he said quietly, "I'll slap your face and knock your brains out."
There was a little silence while the rest of the showmen picked themselves up from the grass.
"Now," said Hercules still grasping Blossom by the collar, "what's this all about? What are you all settin' on the Doc for? Ought to be ashamed--a good dozen of yet--and him the littlest of all!"
"He went and told the people that Brown's ointment wasn't no good," said Fatima. "Got 'em all worked up, asking for their money back. Called him a fake in front of the audience--and 'im the biggest fake that ever walked himself."
"You're a nice one to talk about fakes," said Hercules. "Didn't I see you painting bands on your pore harmless snakes last week-- to make 'em look like real deadly ones? This man's a good doctor. He couldn't 'ave mended my busted ribs for me if he wasn't."
"He's got the show turned out of the town," growled one of the men. "We had our thirty-mile trip from Ashby for nothing--and another forty-mile ahead of us before we take in a penny. That's what your precious Doctor has done for you!"
"He's not going any further with my show," spluttered Blossom. "I've taken about all I'm going to stand from him."
He wriggled himself out of the strong man's grasp and advancing toward the Doctor shook a finger in his face.
"You're fired," he yelled. "Understand? You leave my show to-day --now."
"Very well," said the Doctor quietly. And he turned away toward the door of his wagon.
"Just a minute," Hercules called after him. "Do you want to go, Doctor?"
John Dolittle paused and turned back.
"Well, Hercules," he said doubtfully, "it's rather hard to answer the question."
"What he wants 'as got nothing to do with it," said Fatima. "The boss 'as fired 'im. That settles it. 'E's got to go."
As the Doctor looked into the jeering eyes of this woman that hated him, he thought of the snakes who were in her care. Then he thought of several other circus animals whose condition he had hoped to improve--of Beppo, the old wagon horse who should have been pensioned off years ago. And while he hesitated Swizzle pushed his damp nose up into his hand and Toby plucked at the tail of his coat.
"No, Hercules," he said at last. "All things considered, I do not want to go. But if I'm sent away there's nothing I can do about it, is there?"
"No," said the strong man. "But there's something others can do about it. Look here"--he spun Blossom around by the shoulder and shook an enormous fist under his nose. "This man's an honest man. Brown was a crook. If the Doctor goes, I go too. And if I go, my nephews, the trapeze acrobats, will come with me. And I've a notion that Hop the clown will join us. Now how about it?"
Mr. Alexander Blossom, proprietor of "The Greatest Show on Earth," hesitated, chewing his mustache in dismay and perplexity. With Sophie the seal gone, deserted by the strong man, the trapeze brothers, his best clown and the pushmi-pullyu, his circus would be sadly reduced. While he pondered, Fatima's face was a study. If looks could have killed, both Hercules and the Doctor would have died that day twice over.
"Well," said the ringmaster at last in quite a different voice, "let's talk this over friendly-like. There's no end for hard feelings--and no sense in breaking up the show just because we've come a cropper in one town."
"If I stay," said the Doctor, "I insist that no more fake medicines be sold while I am with you."
"Huh!" snorted Fatima. "See what he's goin' to do? 'E's beginnin' again. 'E's goin' to tell you how to run your show."
"Also," said the Doctor, "I shall require that this woman no longer have the handling of snakes or any other animals. If you want to keep me, she must go. I will buy her snakes from her myself."
Well, in spite of Fatima's screaming indignation, matters were at last arranged peaceably. But that night, when Too-Too was sitting on the steps of the wagon listening to a brother owl who was hooting him from the town cemetery, Dab-Dab came out and joined him, with tears in her eyes.
"I don't know what we'll ever do with the Doctor," she said wearily. "Really I don't. He has taken every penny we had in the money box --the whole twelve pounds nine shillings and sixpence which we had saved up to go back to Puddleby with. And what do you think he has gone and spent it on? He's bought six fat snakes with it!" (Dab-Dab burst into a renewed flood of tears.) "And he--he--has put them in my flour bin to keep till--till he can get a proper bed for them!"