David Lannarck, Midget

An Adventure Story

by George S. Harney

David was small, but Oh my!

Circus life was exciting enough, but young David Lannarck was tired of being stared at and bullied because of his small size. So when a tall Westerner saved his life in Cheyenne, and David and he became friends, why, the circus midget decided to make his home in the wide open space.

With big, rangy Sam Welborn, David started out to become a rancher and live out his days in peace and quiet. But excitement seemed to follow the circus midget wherever he went. The big man and the little one ran into gunman, thieves and rustlers, and where big Sam's strength was not enough, David's wit had to get them out alive.

Circus life and Western adventure are a highly unusual as well as a delightful combination, but the author George S. Harney has a first-hand authentic knowledge of both. As a young man in Indiana, he was a personal friend of Lew Graham, the circus announcer for the Big Show, Barnam & Bailey's Circus. Lew Graham, handsomely dressed, told the big audience what came next on the program. During the long winter lay-ups, they would swap yarns in the unique circus lingo, which Harney has recorded in David Lannarck, Midget.

Later, Mr. Harney served in the Spanish-American War. After the war, "Cap" Harney became active in the development of southern Idaho, and although he sold his holdings there 1945, he confesses that he is still "haunted by the wild isolation of that district west of Cheyenne."

Mr. Harney is a native Hoosier, a resident of Crawfordsville, Indiana.