The Old Country Circus - song lyrics 
American Old-time song lyrics from www.traditionalmusic.co.uk 
THE OLD COUNTRY CIRCUS. 
How dear to my heart is the show of my childhood, The old country circus my infancy knew; In these days of three rings, hippodromes, railroads, How fond recollections present them to view; For weeks while the posters on fences and church sheds, Portrayed to my young eyes the scenes that should be; No soft thrill of love, no throb of ambition, Has equalled the bliss I gained dreaming of thee; The old country circus, the shambly old circus, The wandering old circus my infancy knew. 
How faithful I worked in the ways that presented, To gain the few pennies my ticket should buy; No toil was so sweetened, no reward so stupendous, No miser e'er cherished his hoard as did I; How fair the sun shone on the glad day appointed, How rife with strange bustle the sleepy old town: And when o'er the hill came the rumbling wagons, The bound, of my heart said, "The circus has come; " The old country circus, the faded old circus, The one horse old circus my infancy knew. 
What pageant of now can that "grand entry "compass? What wit of to-day like those jokes of the ring? And those divans of pine boards-such ease oriental, No reserved stuffed chair of the present can bring; One elephant only-satisfying, majestic, Nor Jumbo, nor sacred, neither painted nor white; Take them all, and the whole gilded fraudulent humbug, For a single return of that honest delight; The old country circus, the wandering old circus, The shabby old circus my infancy knew?