What Next for Ellsworth?

Part of the reason I've been following Ellsworth Humes is his employment by the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus — I was wondering whether he would be involved in the deadly train wreck on June 22, 1918.

But the local papers reported on the disaster without mentioning Ellsworth. I suppose that as a publicity agent he would travel ahead of the circus itself. Whether he had friends aboard that train is another question.

I don't even care anymore about the finger that his brother Kenneth left behind on a farm in Ainsworth; now I'm just following his career for its own sake. From the "Local and Personal" column of the Hobart News of September 26, 1918, comes news of a change of employer:

Ellsworth Humes, who has been with one of the advertising cars of the Hagenbeck-Wallace shows the past season, arrived home Saturday, the season having closed. He expects to leave soon for Boston, Mass., to begin work as advance advertising man for Thurston, the magician, playing in the larger cities.

I never heard of Howard Thurston the magician before, but then I'm not into magic. Yet according to his Wikipedia entry, he was bigger than Harry Houdini, in his day.


Image credit: Library of Congress.