Cousins; Part V "The Amazing Dan Rice" Discouraged by the great financial loss he suffered as the result of his unwise partnership with Adam Forepaugh�s "Menageries", Dan decided that perhaps politics was his calling. He had followed politics and current events with great interest as they had been great fodder for his acts in the ring and besides he was friends with most of the folks in power. After making a number of public speeches Dan surprised the everyone by announcing in Pennsylvania his intentions of running for Congress. A Pennsylvania soldier�s delegation nominated Dan as a candidate for Congress and the presidency (this same year P.T.Barnum temporarily left the circus world for politics as well). Once again Horace Greeley and his news associates pounced on the clown with headlines screaming for the Dan to stick to his smoke and mirrors and to not meddle in such noble matters as the presidency, but this only seemed to fuel the passion that Dan had for the White House! Shops began to place signs in their windows which read "Rice for Pudding and President" and it appeared that Dan would be the favorite, but unlike Barnum Rice Rice lost his bid for Congress and the presidency as well. Perhaps some of the voters assumed that it would be improper to elect an actor/performer to the nation�s highest office-the President of the United States of America. Undaunted by his loss at the elections polls, Dan decided to return to the circus life. His long-time friend and foe Dr. Spalding offered to sell the clown his newly built "Paris Pavilion" which was a portable wooden amphitheater that could be set up on land or on a river barge pulled by a tugboat. Elegantly appointed this was a versatile and novel arrangement not previously attempted and Dan was sure that this alone would prove to be a great attraction. Borrowing heavily, Dan purchased the vessel as his took his circus once again to the river towns along the mighty Mississippi. One hot summer day in the year of 1869, the "Dan Rice Great Pavilion" tied up at McGreggor�s landing as the circus was appearing in the small village. Dan needed to have some leather repair work done before he could open the evening show, so he visited August Rungeling�s harness shop. In payment for services rendered, Dan offered Rungeling passes to the show. The leather shop barely produced enough revenue to support his large family, but after his five sons begged him the father reluctantly accepted the tickets in lieu of cash payment. That evening Rungeling took his sons Al, Otto, Alf T., Charles and John to see the "Amazing Dan Rice Circus-the Greatest Show on Earth". The boys were greatly impressed by the show as they dreamed of running away with the circus. From then on most afternoons the boys would stage their own shows in the backyard and it was a big hit among their peers. Thirteen years later, they would change their name to Ringling and would move to in Baraboo, Wisconsin. They would adopt a Barnum trick by billing their first show as "Fourth Season, 1882 RINGLING BROS. CLASSIC AND COMIC CONCERT CO." Meanwhile in the summer months, Dan was taking his "Paris Pavilion" to the river towns along the Mississippi and during the winter he appeared in "Rice�s Amphitheater" which was located on Charles Street in New Orleans and had been built for him by his friends and admirers, but his audiences seemed to be dwindling. The clown was bewildered as he could not understand his loss of fans as he had made his circus bigger and better, but he failed to see that with the completion of the Great Railroad in 1872 transportation was greatly improved and that this would result in many new circuses starting up. They would have new acts and would steal many of Dan�s fans. Eventually Dan would not be able to make the hefty payments for his beloved pavilion and it was repossessed resulting in turning this once vigorous and gentle man into an irritable and irresponsible person. He turned to drink and would frequent taverns reciting his sorrows to anyone would buy him a drink. Potential partners disappeared and the clown was now nothing but a bum. Eventually, with great personal courage, the broken clown overcame alcoholism and became a Temperance lecturer, giving speeches in the some of the same churches who had earlier preached damnation of his circus. Dan sought to reenter the circus industry but the once "Greatest Clown on Earth" could not secure financing for his circus venture. The town he had donated $35, 000. to erect the Civil War monument refused to even meet with him much less loan him a dime! Dan Rice, the premier clown of the "Golden Age of Circus", officially retired in 1887. This extremely talented, humane and often pompous man lived a life filled with more victories and defeats than most will ever experience as he had made and lost three fortunes. He had gained fame through his gift to entertain and his colorful lifestyle. Dan Rice would go to the "Big Top in the Sky" at the age of seventy three on February 22, 1900 as the result of Bright�s Disease. The "New York Times" who once gave the thousand-dollar- per-week-earning clown entire pages now featured only a paltry two paragraph obituary located in the back of their publication! NOTE: The popular Rice name continued on however, and it appeared on unauthorized shows for 50 more years with the last being as late as 1954 and 1955. Sources: 1)"Two Hundred Years of the American Circus, from Aba-Daba to the Zavatta Troupe" by Tom Ogden, Facts on File Publishing, New York USA 2)"Circus Heroes and Heroines" by Rhina Kirk, 1972, Hammond Inc., New York USA 3) The Circus is Coming" by John Stewart, 1920, Westminister Press, Philadelphia USA