Alamo Express [San Antonio, TX], September 1, 1860
On any night of the week if you happen to strole [sic] down [illegible] street, you will be greeted with the enlivening strains of a hand organ, proceeding from an establishment with the above sign on it. The building is devoted to the lovers of “lager beer” and an occasional “hop” takes place in the upper rooms. But if you neither wish to take a whirl in the German waltz or “wet your whistle” you can step into the back yard and look at the hobby-horse performance, which will cost you nothing unless you are silly enough to straddle one of the “fiery steeds” and try your luck at stringing a couple of rings on an iron poker. Night after night is this “hobby-horse” arrangement resorted to, and affords an easy and simple mode to our people for throwing away their surplus and unnecessary dimes. The “Olymp” is one of our varieties, but in its performances present the same variety every night, especially the “hobby-horse” department, —the “artistic ” gentleman from Italy “grinds” us the same tunes over and over again, and the “steeds” never deviate from their circle, which we must call the “magic circle” as it congregates the humble, the proud, the rich and the poor about it nightly—there must be a charm that we can’t see. Truly is man a simple being chasing bubbles on life’s current. The wise and the simple ride their hobbies.