The "Greatest Show on Earth" enthralled New Yorkers when it opened in Brooklyn in 1871. Conceived by the American showman P. T. Barnum (1810-91), the circus featured exotic animals such as lions and African elephants, along with human "freaks" who exhibited grotesque physical abnormalities. Barnum's success helped touch off a craze for circuses, as suggested in "Across the Continent with a Circus," a serialized story that appeared in Boys of New York during the summer of 1887.
In the weekly segment (July 16, 1887) pictured above, mayhem ensues after a circus tent collapses due to foul play. It is left to the brave young ringmaster, Burt Leroy, to lasso the raging lion and thwart the sabotage attempt. In depicting Leroy upon the lion in a pose of commanding authority, the artist places the hero in the tradition of equestrian portraiture that dates back to Roman times.