Legendary teamster Jake Posey is seated here, surrounded by fan Charles Puck at left, and Tony and Arky Scott, and their sons.
Of Posey, Fred Bradna, whom I selectively quote out of sequence, wrote in his tome THE BIG TOP, for his list of "A Circus Hall of Fame"--The Greatest Teamster--Jake Posey, a taciturn Indiana hostler, who drove James A. Bailey's celebrated forty-horse hitch through five years of European barnstorming. He knew every horse by name, and though he drove the twenty-eight ton ensemble more than ten-thousand miles...every foot of it strange to him...he never had a wreck. ...So when [Bailey] conceived his thirty-six-foot-long bandwagon, an ornate swan boat on wheels so elaborately decorated with wood carving that an artist worked two years executing the designs, Posey was the only circus teamster capable of handling the forty matched bay Percherons which pulled it. The float, called 'The Two Hemispheres,' depicted highlights of European and American history, was painted a blue green called 'seafoam blue,' and mounted a band of sixteen men."
Bradna further recalled a runaway down Beacon Hill, in Boston, by a 24-horse hitch, brought under control by Posey, who "alone remained calm. His foot firm on the brake, his strong hands demanding obedience to the rein, his voice clucking quietly, his eyes on the [dreaded] Tremont Street corner, he slowed to a trot, took the sidewalk turn exactly right, then reined up, giving the rest of the line time to catch up. When I drove by to congratulate him, Posey was examining the sprained wrists of both his hands. 'Gave 'em quite a show today, didn't we?' he said, and clucked his teams again into their stately walk. A thrill such as this is of the very essence of the circus."
So it was with the record-book career of Dick Sparrow, the true heir to the throne of Jake Posey. The Great Teams on the Big Lot are in the best of hands.
Roger Smith |
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