From Joey Ratliff #1

cheerful00, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Buckles, here some extra photos of some fine gentlemen that have been mentioned recently on the blog, starting with Cheerful Gardner on the Al G. Barnes Circus. Joey "In one of my dad's letters, he detailed an incident when "Barney" (seen at left) somehow snapped off a tusk half way up. "The Old Man" raised Holy Hell demanding to know who found it. Like Capt. Queeg aboard the USS CAINE, he interrogated everyone and went far as to search their crumb boxes. Later in the day someone noticed what appeared to be a coin on the ground but on closer inspection it turned out that "Barney" had driven his tusks deep into the clay and managed to snap one off even with the surface. I bring this story up because in the picture above, "Barney's" ivory appears to be trimmed back, possibly to even them up. If my hypothesis is correct, the picture would be dated 1922." Buckles "Now in the Golden Years of life with so little time left, I have managed to squander 10 precious minutes by not noticing that Mr. Gardner is partially obstructing the view and "Barney" does indeed have a full brace of ivory. So like the Wizard of Oz, I now command everyone to ignore the the story above!" Buckles