Spring 1882Whit Smith
Actor, Juggler, and Clown
Chicago, Illinois
In 1882 my wife and I toured the Midwest little suspecting we were about to become supporting players in a real-life tragedy. We were with a good sized show, running continuous varieties from eleven a.m. to eleven p.m. A dozen railroad cars were required to carry the scenery and costumes, and we steamed into Kansas City in late April.
Mr. Milton LeGrow, our producer, could smell a good act fifty miles away. He was sitting in the empty seats of the Theater Tragedian, I recall, supervising the unpacking and smoking a cigar. He was reading a newspaper article about the death of Jesse James, when he suddenly jumped up and dashed out.
He disappeared for a week and didn’t return until he’d brought his quarry to earth—that inf
