The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-08-15 00:00:00

FEARFUL FALL OF LU•LU.

The Du blin papers give lens accounts of an accident at
LEL
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wenrd.
uoht.firste buildingappear.
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as even
roof. The sex of In•Lii is a matter of question, but as she
saillinneangeeniginthilaebr.r.erosackcanroCeniwrqndn:thaoUrdotdlinnarifilofleelfaces rose from the ring to the
performs in the character of a girl she may with propriety
be designated by the feminine pronoun. She is short and
square, with a broad, deep chest, and hands and feet
remarkably small. Her features are regular, though some-
what masculine, and she wears a profusion of flaxen
curls. Lam-Lu and her manager, Mr. Fermi, took their
place upon the improvised platform, from which it was
announced that she would leap to a trapeze fifty feet
above her. Lu-Lu stepped upon a spring on a level with
the floor of the platform. There was a slight
click of machinery, and 1.,u.1,ta stepped quietly from the
spring on to the platform. The manager explained that
the mishap was due to come easily remedied defect in the
machinery, and that meantime Ludhu walked slowly
round the ring. Again she mounted the platform and
stepped on to the spring, cautiously th:s time, and with a
very noticeable hesitation. Fora moment she stood half
lent, with her hands down, and a nervous treaptur
passed through her limbs and body. Thu silence was
complete, the excitement, heightened by the previous
failure, was Intense. Again the signal was given, and this
time with terrible effect. Lii•Lu was shot up through the
air like a rocket. But instead of rideg, as she
should have done, in a slanting direction, to-
wards the bar which she was to catch, she
was shot up in • perpendicular line into open
space. A fearful sight it ws.s. She seemed for one
moment as she reached the highest point to be poised in
mid air 50 feet above ground, quite clear of the ropes and
the trapeze. She grasped wildly at SeaCe, and then with
all her limbo rigidly extended, fell with fearful rapidity.
Yew eye* could follow her as she rose, and fewer still as
she fell. Those that did perceived that half of her body
struck the netting. which was not sufficiently extended
to save her, but which broke her fall. She was jerked out
by the rebound, the back of her bead struck the cushioned
edge of the orchestral compartment. and she rolled
beneath the platform. Scarcely one in the vast crtoect
doubted that she was killed, and the circus was the scene
of the wildest excitement, and it was wills the utreoet
difficulty the injured girl was conveyed to the dreadne-
room behind, and Dr. K. A. Whitt was at once procured.
Soon the resuming rntrumr,. Afterwards officially con-
firmed, leaked out thet the injuries were trivial, and that
the sufferer was already conscious and almost reCOeetell.
The reports of the doctor were, however, too late to correct
the rumour that rapidly spread through the city, that the
acrobat had been dashed to pieces on the Found. In the
seven years that Lu-I,u has been exhibiting, this lithe
only mishap she has eneountered. The Circus was nuA
being the scene of • double accident. In some wsur the
end of one of the cords that bung from eet caught
ere in the gas lamps, a eireUlti'',4gme In itself of
no consequence. But thc ...ay of " Fire" was
raised, and numbers cf :aides, already hysterical from
excitement, rutted frantically from the how.e. Mr. Vred
Hengler climbed up • rope to the net, and extinguished
, the spark and with it the fears of Mu. audience. Ins
letter dated from the Cirque, " Lu.Lu" writes : I have
at this hour (II 45) all btit completely recovered the severe
shock I received, and I denim at the mutest moment to
return my sincere thanks to Dr. White, who so kindly
and so promptly Caine to My assistance- I also closure to
thank the vast audience that filled the building for the
considerate manner in which they enabled the arrange-_,_
meets to be perfected for my removal from the o
to my dressing-room. The explanation of the ficelTe7rit
asimple one. The machinery, by the aid el w 4,11 4 aju
shot to the trapeze bar aloft, became ;it Oh, unit attempt slightly disarranged, and on l.er o.ally4ited I foe the ' second time placed Myself 410.1% the trap. unfortunate,
for me the mad-flair ',WA Proved defective, and in mi
fall I unitarian, d Aver. asking, but, thank
nnothing
worst: I hope in a short time to be myself and an
be able to fulfil my professional engsgeatents.