William Palmer
When the Circus Came to Town
IN EARLY 1899 an advertisement appeared in the South African press:
Savage South Africa in London: Wanted, horned animals, baboons, zebras, giraffes, koodoos, springbucks, hartebeests, Young Afrikander girls (good looking and to be slightly coloured).
The man who placed the advertisement was Frank Fillis, an entrepreneur whose shows and circuses had toured the Far East and Africa with great success. His reconstructions of famous battles were especially popular, although they sometimes rewrote history, as when overenthusiastic and probably drunk white extras in a 'Representation of
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