ABSTRACT
ON MARCH 14, 1919, THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE REPORTED “THE colossus of all amusements is soon to descend on New York in all its pomp and grandeur.” Although the article referred to the impending arrival of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, it ironically foretold of another side-show spectacle preparing to hold the state spellbound in the ensuing months. For on the facing page of the same edition, the Tribune printed the conclusions of the archconservative Union League Club’s investigation into the causes and nature of Bolshevik agitation in New York.1
