This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
Growing up on the lonely Illinois prairie in the early part of the 20th century, 20 miles from Galesburg, George Stucky considered it good fortune that his family's farm was right next to the Cannonball Road, a somewhat improved dirt road marked by red cannonballs painted on the telephone poles, all the way from Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska. One of those newfangled automobiles occasionally came by, providing a break in the day's work.
Then one dusty hot August day in 1907, good fortune smiled even more broadly. A stranger appeared heading west and stopped at the Stucky farm. He was the advance man for a small traveling circus heading for the next show. He had noticed the windmill and the watering tank. The circus animals all needed water badly. He offered to pay George's father $10 if he would let the animals drink.
How could one be so lucky? George had been to the circus in Galesburg once in his life; he remembered the outrageous clowns, the daring aerial performers, the sequined dancers and all the exotic animals: the elephants, zebras, lions, trained horses. Now they were coming right here to the barnyard, close up. George could hardly wait.
A ball of dust in the distance materialized into a circus troupe. But how disappointing. Close up, the elephant and camels turned out to be old and wrinkled. So were the ostriches and water buffalo. The lions and tigers were in small, shabby cages pulled by the larger animals. The circus performers in once gaudy clothes themselves pulled the smaller cages full of animals. Flies swarmed everywhere. The elephant threw trunkfuls of dust over himself.
The animals as it turned out, were snobbish about whom they would drink with. Elephants would not drink with buffalo. Llamas would only drink with camels. Eventually all had drunk from the stock tank, and were on their slow, tired way to the next town on the Cannonball Road.
George Stucky paid a price for his excitement that day. When it came to circuses, he always had double vision. Never again was he able to sit up in the bleachers of a circus tent and see the sparkling performances in the ring without also seeing a long, thirsty line of animals on the Cannonball Road.
Rock Island Lines is underwritten by the Illinois Humanities Council and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, with additional funding from Humanities Iowa, the Iowa Arts Council, and Augustana College, Rock Island.
