Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — GYMNASTS AND ACROBATS. [ARTICLE]

GYMNASTS AND ACROBATS.

A few months ago an accident happened in view of a Dublin audience, to a (supposed) female performer on the trapeze; she missed her hold, and was dashed against the ground with considerable force. Nor was the matter much mended when, a day or two after, a letter appeared in the'pkpers, written by her, or "in her name, stating that it was only by the failure of a spring-board that the accident occurred, that she was only bruised and that she hoped Soon to reappear before her patrons the public! Apart from considerations as to the propriety of such an exhibition as this the •question is: Who is to blame here ? There are multitudes of persons in humble life not brought up to any regular trade, or influenced by unsettled habits, who seek to earn a living as public exhibitors. Tumbling, posturing, vaulting, somersaulting, rope walking, rope swinging, pole balancing, trapeze flying, don . taqaing, all have more or less of danger attending them. And herein lies the evil. The -public, 'or a considerable. section of the public, eviq.ee a relish for witnessing feats which have in them an element of peril. The consequence of this may be easily traced. If people.prefer the sensational to the graceful and elegant, they attend in greater numberi; the speculator or proprietor of the exhibition takes more money at the doors; he offers a higher salary to the performer, and the latter is thus tempted to try more aud more danger-ous-and daring feats. It would be better if these matters could by regulated by the good sense of the public than by legislative or governmental interference; but so long as the taste of sight-seers has a leaning toward hair-breadth escapes, so long will there be a succession of exhibitors aud performers ready to make money out of it. The danger attending trapeze ( feats can easily be understood. - Two ropes are suspended vertically and two horizontal bars ore 4 fastened to them,' one above Another. The performer usually, springs up, catCh<£ • hold of the lower bar, and achieves various acrobatic twistings and turnings,, now on his head, now hanging by one foot, now twisting like an eel between- the upper and lower bars, now dropping head foremost from the upper bar to the. lower. Any slip of hand or foot, and down he falls. - Some years ago in Loqden a mqn combined this acrobatism with aerostation. He ascended in a balloon, add when at a height measured by jiundreds of feet, went through a series of performances On a trapeze suspended unde? the car. Whether the height were ttundreds or thousands mßttered little to him; a fall would dash him to,pieces in either case. The proprietor or she gardens a larger number of shillings or sixpences on this occasion than if an ordinaty balloon ascent only

bad been announced; and tlnw a trapeze performer wawtempted to hazard his life by the receipt of an additional tee. An increase of peril occurs wheh two trapezes are suspended many feet or even yards apart- the acrobat swings or takes a dying leap from one to the other, loosing hold of the one and afterward seizing the bar of the other. The slightest miscalculation of distance may be fatal. Leotard—the hero of this kind of achieve-ment-performed the feat on five at six trapezes in succession, turning a somersault between each two. He was amazingly successful in a commercial sense, receiving a high salary. Mark.the consequences; imitative Leotards have been numerous, and many a broken limb or life-injury has resulted. (We may here in parenthesis, that a clever “Automaton Leotard” was exhibited at the Polytechnic Institution a few years ago; a life-size figure that performed in a neat and complete way many of the tumblings of a trapeze performer—those in which the hands do not quit hold of the bar; and latterly we have witnessed the pleasing performance of Heller’s automaton trapezist, which hangs by its feet as well as by the hands,) Walking head downward is another of these foolhardy displays. The ceiling prepared for thia exhibition is provided with grooves, slides, or springs, barely perceptible to the audience, but sufficient to give a hold for an instant to a pecu-liarly-shaped boot; the oerformer is suspended from on foot while he thrusts out the other to catch hold of the groove or spring, and thus laboriously wends his way onward, step after step. If he fails to insert one foot before freeing the other, we know the inevitable result. In one exhibition, several brass rings were suspended in a circle, and the performer made his way from one to another, holding on by hands or by feet as the case might he. A netting, spread out some distance under him, or soft mattresses E laced on the ground, lessened the probaility of broken bones; but the very provision of such precaution sufficiently shows that peril is Known to be involved? (It may here be remarked that there was a netting some distance below the trapezist to whom the accident lately happened; but it failed in its intended service, ana she (or he) fell heavily twenty or thirty feet to tho ground.) 4 Tight-rope walking is one of those achievements in which the slightest mishap of footstep, the slightest failure of nerve, brings the gymnast to grief. The famous Blondin eclipses all other exhibitors in this line. The baskets on his feet, the blindfolded eyes, the wheelbarrow trundled before him, the chair, the tabic set out with refreshments, all balanced on a stretched horizontal rope—these are marvels, indeed. It shows what a morbid state of feeling, however, is engendered by this exhibition, when Blondin pretends to miss his foothold once now and then, and regains it after quivering movements of the body and limbs, in order to send a thrill of terror through the spectators! One of his achievements is to carry Mme. Blondin while he walks his 1,000 feet or so of rope; but this has been found too much for English taste to bear, and it is not included in his regular programme. The veteran may possibly be so completely void of bodily fear and nervous trepidation as to be nearly as safe on the rope as on the ground, and may die a quiet, natural death when his course is run. But his example has not been without evil effect. There have been and still are “ English Blondins,” “ Female Blondins,” and “Juvenile Blondins,” who imitate some of the perilous exploits as a means of earning a livelihood; many and many a limb has been shattered or neck broken in consequence. In the days of our fathers, or perhaps grandfathers, one Mme. Baqui obtained great notoriety for her achievements on the tight-rope; If we remember rightly, her career was cut short by a frightful accident; but whether so or not, it is certain that a “ Female Blondin” only a few weeks ago came down with a crash while attempting to cross the auditorium of a theater on a rope—with what result we need not say. The slack-rope has its heroes and heroines as well as the tlght-jope —and its victims also. Why the performer does not fall off, while sitting on the rope in full swing, with arms folded, and no hold or grasp by the hand, is a mystery and marvel to many of the ' rudience, and the greater the marvel the greater the attractiveness—according to the logic of showmen and exhibitors. The fact is that the performer is familiar with a law of dynamics without knowing or caring about its scientific meaning; a law .which tells him that he must incline his body backward during the onward swing of the rope, and forward during its reverse swing. A wonderful exhibitor appeared amongst us many years ago, though not so many as to be beyond the recollection of some of us; an Italian or Spaniard who chose to assume the professional title of “II Diavolo Antonio.” His slack-rope swinging was daring beyond precedent, and he had few followers who could equal him. The, pendulum movement of his body during’ the full swing of the rope was in a curve of very wide sweep. While sitting on the rope in sweeping oscillation he would tie his right ankle to it with a piece of cord half a yard or so in length; then, when at the utmost extremity of his onward course, he would fling himself from the rope and hang head downwards, attached to the. rope by one ankle only ; assuming very nearly the traditional attitude of “ Fame blowing the trumpet,” he played on a horn or bugle, accompanying the orchestra in the “ Overture to Loaoiska,” with his head farther from the rope than any part of his body and limbs, and consequently swaging in w greater arc than even the rope itself. What applause! What a thrill of excitement!, What a fascinating horror at the supposition of the cord breaking or the ankle-fastening becoming loose! But look a little behind > the scenes. Many a coroner’s inquest has recorded the dismal end of some or other of these rope-swingers; poor mangled creatures who have died in giving “pleasure” to others. We must “ take the gilt off the ginger-bread” before we can right- ■ ly estimate these things. Circus-riding, when kept within’ moderate limits, is often very elegant. I It illustrates two scientific principles that are ever operative in such exhibitions. One is, that the horse and his rider must both incline the body toward the center of the ring; else the centrifugal force of the circular motion would sOon bring them to trouble, pitching one or both at a tangent over among the spectators; and the higher the speed the greater must be the angle es this inclination. The other is, that the rider, standing on ahorse, may leap up and down in various ways, and may jump over bars and shawls, or through hoops or casks, and yet alight upon the horse again, although Ip a gallop. This is because the rider partakes of the onward motion of the horse, and is really moving on when he seems to be only lumping up. But oh, the falls, bruises and disasters that have to be encountered before the smiling, be-

rouged. tinseled performers are fitted to make their bow or courtesy to the public! An “Elik,” or an “ Elise." or an “Angelique" has to pass through a wearisome, long-continued, prosaic discipline before she can appear as a fascinating eguutrienne, jumping through hoops of fire, or dancing in a pat de deux with a male performer, on two horses. How manv broken limbs occur, during the apprenticeship the public never know; the “profession” does not talk of those things; but Mr. Frost, who has written some singularly curious books about showmen, circusriders and other public performers, has much to tell concerning the ordeal which such person? have to undergo—the fractures, the bruises, the heartaches, the poverty. the disappointments, too often end, ing in untimely death. It is noticeable, he remarks, that they are mostly quiet people in private life—rather serious than “jolly,” and very little prone to drinking. The necessity for maintaining keen eyesight and steady nerves in an occupation naturally perilous day after day, makes a man cautious against “ putting an enemy in his mouth to steal away his brains.” Perhaps it is an effect of reaction that those who eam a living by makiug others laugh are often melancholy rather than gay when removed from the glare of stage-lights. Buch was Liston, and such was Grimaldi. When the. performance is intended )o excite wonder at feats of peril, therfc is an additional reason why the performer should be anxious, careful, often foreboding. Lion-tamers, men who dally with the animals in a menagerie in make-believe play, are special examples of a sensational heroism. When a man lies down in a den among lions or tigers, opening the mouth of one, leaning upon another, taking the huge paw of a third, aud ending by putting his head into the openea mouth of a fourth, he does one of two things—he either what a poor spiritless thing becomes when under the discipline of fear, or he exposes himself to danger of a most horrid kind. What those men go through before they have trained themselves and tamed the animals up to the required point can be known only to themselves; but it is known that moments of agony fall to their lot when spectators are wondering and applauding; some movement on the part of a caged animal, some look of the glaring eye, tells the experienced exhibitor that it is a mere toss-up (to use a homely phrase) whether a fatal catastrophe is imminent. In the days of Van Amburgh, the most famous of all “ lion-kings,” it used to be said that one visitor attended the exhibition night after night, fearing lest he should be absent when the final scene of the “ king ” being torn to pieces should occur. The story may have been an exaggeration; but there can be no doubt that the feeling excited by such an exhibition is a morbid one. Of the Spanish bull-fights we will not speak; the exhibitions in our own England are quite sufficient' to illustrate the point in hand. “Strong men” and “strong women” are among the attractions at country fairs, and when a second Hercules or Sampson is really keeping within the limits of his exceptional muscular development no great harm is done. If a man can twist an iron bar into a knot or hang a half a ton weight round his neck without hurting himself, and if he can earn a living more easily this way than by ordinary work, we will not criticise him tooclosely. But it is a depraved taste that encourages women to such displays. To bear two weights of fifty or sixty pounds each suspended from the hair is unfeminine enough; it is much worse to see a woman lying down, shoulders on one chair, feet and ankles on another, an anvil placed on her body, and two men wielding heavy hammers on the anvil! William Hutton’s strong woman, Phoebe Bown, who could lift a hundredweight with each hand, carry fourteen stone, or walk forty miles a day, was not an exhibitor; she honestly earned her living at the mannish employments of driving a team, guiding a plow, thatching ricks, and breakingin horses—disliking the womanish avocations of sewing, knitting, spinning and cooking. Legitimate exercises carried to excess lie beyond the range of feats which we have here in view. The training of boys and youths in a gymnasium ground is an excellent thing, strengthening the muscles and expanding the chest, but to stand on your head on the top of a pole is neither useful nor ornamental. Putting an oar on a pleasant stream is beautiful and invigorating exercise, but it may be doubted whether emulation does not carry the Oxonians and Cantabs too far in the violent struggle of the annual boat-race on the Thames; constitutions have been permanently injured by this. Swimming is so capital a thing, so useful for everybody to learn, that we welcome any encouragement given to it by striking displays in our rivers and channels; yet here again there is a loophole for strivings much oetter avoided. Capt. Webb has done what no one ever did before, and’ wisely resolves to rest content without strainingfor further glorification; but he has had Imitators who narrowly escaped drowning while attempting that which they could not accomplish; and he has unintentionally been the means of tempting a new class of * exhibitors—girls or young women, who make a public display of swimming ten or twelve miles down the Thames, nearly hemmed in by steamboats laden with sight-seeing visitors, mostly of the opposite sex. Even well-to-do folks Who climb mountains are a little too prone to tbe sensational in connection with emulation. To go half way ,up the Matterhorn is as useful as to reach the summit; but then the glory—and the danger!— Chamber!' Journal.

—Mr. Robert Colston, of Jersey City Heights, gave an example, on last election day, of his high appreciation of the right of suffrage, which is certainly worthy of more than passing notice in these days when men allow the most trivial obstacles to keep them from the polls. He was working in this city a few days prior to the election, and met with an accident which rendered the amputation of his left arm necessary. The operation of amputation bad scarcely been perperformed before Colston began to display the most intense anxiety lest he should not be allowed to go over to Jersey City and vote for President. He repeatedly gave expression to his anxiety, and, at length, the attending physician promised that if he would be quiet until election day he should be taken to his voting place and allowed to cast his ballot. From the moment that this promise was made, Colston was the quietest man in Bt. Luke’s Hospital. On election morning he was placed in a carriage and carefully driven to his home in Jersey City. He cast his vote, and then returned to the hospital, where he is still confined—fortunately none the worse for his trip across the river. —N. Y. Timet. Thb regular demand for timber for the bonanza mines is. 2J309.00Q feet a month. t