Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1885 — FEMALE GYMNASTS. [ARTICLE]

FEMALE GYMNASTS.

Extraordinary Feats of Still, Strength, and Kndurance—How They Live. The weaker sex ? Yes, as a rule, but when they get up their muscle and on their muscle one of Evefs daughters is more than a match for the ordinary man—dude. Any one who has watched the performance of a professional female athlete must marvel at the strength, skill, and endurance that a woman is capable of. There are on both sides of the Atlantic over one thousand women who earn their living as gymnasts, and of these nearly three hhndred are found in America. * The humber is large, but so is the country over which the performers are scattered, and, therefore, the New-Yorker should not be astonished and cry, “Where are they aH?” Only at one or two variety theaters in the city are they to be seen, and at a big circus, such as Bamum's, which occasionally visits the town. California and the Western cities are their happy hunting grunds. These athletic ladies will tell you that the Westerner is the most ardent admirer of muscle and nerve, especially when displayed by the “softer sex. ” “If is a mistake to suppose,” said Mr. Todey Hamilton, long connected with Bamum’s show, “that the way of the female gymnast is hard, that girls only are in the profession, and that they soon wear out, line the pugilist, or that they don’t like the business. Ask them.”

If the reporter had been a- bachelor or a young man he might have been afraid of interviewing muscular ladies. But he was neither single nor young. Therefore he asked questions with great hardihood. Contrary to what might be supposed, these ladies have no special dietary for keeping up their muscle. They eat when they feel like it; eat heartily, too, and of anything that comes in the way. Ice-cream, beefsteaks,. apples and oranges, potatoes in any style, oysters in every style, peanuts and lish they can and do relish just before or immediately after their “work,” as they,call their performance. And liquor? Oh! no, thank you, sir; we have to keep a level head for our business, and we know full well that a “swelled” head with gentlemen is the result of drinking wine, spirits, or beer. Mile. Zoo is a trim-built young woman, weighing 145 pounds, and, like all her sisters, possesses the bright eyes and springy step indicative of health. She has been eleven years in the profession, first as a trapeze performer, and now as an artist on the “mid-air rings.” A few years ago she met with an accident in a Western town, and fractured her right knee through a fall from the trapeze. Since then she has confined herself to the “mid-air rings,” requiring the use of the arms principally. Next to what she calls the “shoulder-dislocation trick”—that is, turning a double somersault while holding the rings—her most difficult feat is swinging by the teeth. And yet she hgs not, so far, had occasion for a dentist’s services. “But don’t you feel timorous before performing these feats, and utter a prayer for safety?” asked the reporter. “Oh, I never have any fear,” .said Mile. Zoe; “I say my prayers both morning and night.” “And trust in the strength of your arm?”

“ And the strength of the rope, ” she answered, “which sometimes fails. My first accident was when I was fifteen years old, when the rope parted and I fell on some chairs, breaking two ribs. My corset did not save me. ” “And do you ladies Wear corsets while performing?” asked the reporter. “Oh, yes; we would not look a good figure without. ” r , Every female gymnast, by the way, is careful of her appearance. They all hate matinees, because in the daylight, they say, they cannot look as well as by an artificial light. Mile. Zoe, is a native of Binghamton, N. Y., and began her exercises when she was a school-girl. She had a “vaulting ambition,” and could take a fence better than many a school-boy. The remuneration these performers receive varies from SSO to S2OO a week.* —New York Herald.