The late Lou Jacobs, one of the world’s most famous and beloved clowns, and the first circus clown I ever saw, has come home to Bedlam Farm. Jack and I haggled a bit – I think Jack builds haggling space into his prices – and he is going to go on a wall in my study, where I can look at him and gain some inspiration.

He will become a muse for me.

Jacobs, a Master Clown,  died in 1992, for many years he was Ringling Bros. star clown, one of the best known in the world. I wrote about finding him in Outback Jack’s shop yesterday. He cost me $200 and I think, for once, I got the best of Jack. To me, Lou Jacobs is priceless, he was the symbol of Ringling Bros with his tiny hat, his big nose, his painted lips and his rebellious Chihuahua Knucklehead, who stole the show again and again.

Because of Lou Jacobs, a great lover of the circus elephants, I became interested in the connection between people and animals, and I saw the remarkable things they could do together, before the animal rights movement made the entertaining of people by animals a crime.

Ringling Bros. will shut down in May, in great measure a casualty of the politically correct but unknowing way in which we have come to see animals and define our relationships with them. Many of the “saved” elephants will be dead soon, or banished to the very few preserves that can afford to take them. There, they will languish and vanish from our consciousness. Most people will never see a live elephant again.

The children of the future will only know clowns, circuses and elephants from You Tube videos, they will spend their time on Snap Chat or Facebook and never see the magic of the circus, or witness the great love the trainers and elephants had for one another. It will be a great loss for magic, for children, and four our imaginations.

The great clowns were amazing performers, athletes, comedians and entertainers, Lou Jacobs will not be forgotten here. I talked to Maria last night from India, and I told her the Lou Jacobs story and she said, as I knew she would, “of course you should have that, good for you!” This is one of the many reasons I love her so much, she understands just who I am and loves me anyway.

When I saw Lou Jacobs in Jack’s Outback Antique shop, I knew he had to end up on my wall, I would never have forgiven myself if I left him there.