My whole life, I've been a travelin' man.  First with The Greatest Show on Earth, Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus, and then with a tented circus, Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros., and then with a succession of rock n' roll tours.  In one year, I counted 300 different motel rooms.  You'd wake up and not know which town you were in.  But, as they say, the acorn never falls very far from the tree.  Long before I was a travelin' man, I was a travelin' boy.  Because Dad was a military travelin' man.  Grandad was a railroad travelin' man.  Great-granddad Alex was a show biz travelin' man.  At the turn of the century, he traveled the world with his small show, but especially in the Orient, where it was a big hit.  Alex had a flea circus, called the P.T. Thimble Flea Circus, the Smallest Show on Earth.  He stole the P.T. from P.T. Barnum, figuring people might confuse the two .. and they did.
 

Alex left his family behind (a familiar story) as he journeyed to China, the Phillipines, Korea, but particularly to Japan.  It was in Japan that the P.T. Thimble Flea Circus had its biggest successes.  From 1892 through the 1930s, Alex played his show up and down the islands of Japan, and he never failed to draw a crowd.  Fleas that pulled carts, fleas that walked a high wire, fleas that did acrobatic tricks .. and even fleas that were shot from tiny little cannons!  Just imagine!  Patrons were asked, as you could certainly understand, not to bring their dogs to the performance.  Since fleas only have a life span of six weeks, Alex was constantly training new generations to perform the acts of their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

Alex would send postcards from his travels in Japan to his family, to relatives, to friends and just casual acquaintances from his odyssey.  He spoke eight languages, so there are even some he wrote in Danish or German to friends in those countries.

Over the years, the addressees of those postcards passed on and the forgotten cards languished at the bottom of old trunks or boxes. Only recently have many of them come to light.  Presented herewith, for your edification and education, is this wonderful collection .. postcards from a travelin' man.

March 4, 1902 Winter Time & Japanese Belle	The graves of the 47 Ronin at Sensakuji, Tokyo

Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo	The five colours cherry trees at Arakawa

Behold Yokoiso from Shinhama at Atami	Alex, of course, was fluent in Japanese - June, 1928

Concubine on a bench (that's what it says on the back)	Farmer (no duh!)

Chuzenji Lake, Nikko	June 16, 1907

Ferry Boat, Makurabashi, Tokyo	Gajoen Meguro, Tokyo

Fujia Hotel, Miyanoshita, Hakone	Luggage sticker

Hachiman Temple near Kobe	Karuizawa, 1930

Tamadare waterfall, Hakone	November 16, 1911

Children from a wealthy family	Motomachi-Dori (shopping district), Kobe, 1920

Maiko-no-hama near Kobe	Kobe Station, 1915

Cherry blossoms of Koganei	The Maruyama Park blossoms, Kyoto

Marayama-Machi, Nagasaki - prostitute quarters (Hmmmm .. Great-granddad was a playboy!)	View of Matsushima

Cherry blossoms at Mukojima, Tokyo	Shimbashi Street, Tokyo, April 3, 1907

Yoriai-Machi, Nagasaki	June 28, 1909

Maruyama, Nagasaki	Nagoya Castle, one of the old feudal castles of Japan

Niomon Gate, Nikko	Rice field, 1915

Rice farmers	Rickshaw, 1917

Furuichi odori, Ise .. a selection of women for .. ??	Shiba, 1905

Visiting a garden	A shrine along the road

O-Koto-san dresses to go visiting	O-Koto-san arrives at her friend's house

O-Hana-san provides music for O-Koto-san	O-Koto-san chats to her maid while partaking of supper.

While her maid makes ready her bed, O-Koto-san indulges in a smoke, and thinks of her soldier lover.	Women washing clothes

Teahouse	Up side of Kudan, Tokyo, 1911

Tokyo National Museum	Monument of Saiga, Ueno Park , Tokyo

Ueno Station	Wisteria blossoms, Kameido, Tokyo

Benten-dori, Yokohama, March 31, 1907	Isezakicho-dori, Yokohama

Nigiwaiza Theater, Yokohama, the scene of the Acme Miniature Circus's greatest triumph - 10 soldout shows!	Hiye Shrine, near Yokohama, 1919

Motomachi at Yokohama	Yokohama - Motomachi Street

Bashamichi, Yokohama (Specie Bank)	Festival, Yokohama

Grand Hotel, Yokohama	Yoshidabashi, Yokohama

Plum tree of Sagita, Yokohama	Bashamichi, Yokyohama

When Great-granddad Alex grew too old to travel with his Flea Circus any more, he retired to a home in the mountains.  He missed show business and he missed traveling.  On occasion, he would take out some of his performers, and they would do tricks for Alex's closest friends, but no one else.  Then, one day an old friend in Japan mailed him this commemorative postcard and luggage tag from the fabulous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.  The occasion was the XII Olympics that were to be held in Tokyo in 1940.  Alex smiled at the thoughtful gesture, then he ordered that the entire cast and crew of his beloved P.T. Thimble Flea Circus be released into the lush vegetation of the mountains out back.  For decades afterward in that small mountain town, people would tell stories that no one believed, stories that were said to be caused by the moonshine whiskey, stories of insects up in the woods doing the strangest things, pulling wagons with tiny wheels, doing acrobatic tricks and .. being shot out of a cannon!  Imagine!

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