Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-12-05

thorpe, we had no audience at all w
were without money, and were asking eacl
other what we should do, when the squire
son and lot of young gentlemen came il
and asked us to perform for them, which We
did !; and they gave us couple of sovercigns
and, more than that, asked us to supper a
the hotel. After supper the squire looked
at one of our bills of the day, and said
''Hollo. why | sec you call yourselves
Messrs. j. Ranford and W. Kerr NJ
wonder you get no audiences I suppose
these are your real namcs?'' We answered
that they were.
"'Oh, that'll never do he said. You
must have an olias-you mustn't let the pub.
lie suppose that you are Englishmen. 1t is
contrary to the rule of professional etiquette
You must make out that you are foreigners.
"Well, at that all the gentlemen began
to laugh; but it was settled before we broke
up that night that, for the future, we were
to call ourselves 'The two Foscari-the
spineless Siamese ofSyria.'
''Well, sir, from that moment Ranford
and | began to do we'll; but I'm sorry to
say that our good luck only caused my part
ner to drink the harder and, in consequence,
to behave more badly to his wife His ciild
he certainly was very fond of, partly. think
because he had only known her short time,
for Ranford was one of those men who liked
new faces. AS soon as he met stranger
he was all life and spirits, and he would do
anything or 60 anywhere to oblige him; but
when he had known man for sometime he
didn't care for him, but grew cross and con-
Trajectory.
eat last we got an engagement at a
garden near London, where there was a
grand gala night every week, on which oc-
casion balloon assembled [ scraped ac-
quaintance with the seronaut, and one even
ing [ went up with him. The sensation
was singular [ cannot describe it, but [
liked it very much. The aronaut showed
me how he managed to steer through the
air, when to throw out the sand and how to
descend. AS we were sailing over London
he said to me:
"'You couldn't do the slack rope up here,
Foscari, could you 2
"'Why not?' [ said and as I spoke the
idea flashed upon me what splendid feature
in the programme it would be -'Perilous
performance of the two Foscari Brothers,
who will 60 through their inimitable evolu-
tions on slack wire suspended from bal
!fa !lafeaae ot dr X
could bear the weight Of two men outside it..
The wire could be fastened to the sides of
the car, and when at sufficient height, We
could get out and perform.
''As soon as I reached the ground went
to Ranford, who first laughed at the notion,
and then agreed to it. The proprietor of
the gardens asked US to name our terms.
We did So He tried to beat US down, but
at last consented, and we went up and did
it r'
I interrupted him by asking if the danger
was not extreme.
"Not a bit" replied my patient. eff I
fell from wire fifty feet from the ground,
the chances are that should break my neck;
if fell from height of fifty miles [ could
do no more. Then, if our feet miss, we
have our hands to hold on by. However,
was saying we went up. and when we had
risen certain distance, we got out Of the
car and commenced the performance. II
seemed odd to me at first, tumbling and
swinging in the air, with the gardens and
the audience, and the houses and trees such
depth beneath us but what struck me as
being strangest was when we hung heac
dawnwards, and looked up at the clouds
[ used to feel that the earth could not be Sc
very far distant, for, high as we had risen
the sky seemed as far off from US as ever.
"Our performance gave great satisfaction
and was favorably noticed in the daily ant
weekly papers. We were told that the &C
that thrilled the audience most was the las
one we performed before descending. Ran
ford, who was heavier man than I, hung
from the rope with his head downward
then, taking hold of both his hands will
both mine, swung by their support anc
then by way of climax, let 90 my lef
hand, and hung on only by my right
never felt the least fear We knew eacl
others grip, and it was all right"
cat first the eronaut went up with US
but after few times we were able to man
age for ourselves so well that, had an acci
dent happened to one the other could hav
got safely down.
''We were earning great deal of money
but noticed that Mrs Ranford looked pale
and more careworn every day, and [ kne,
how her husband was conducting himsel
by that. She often told me that she wishc
they were poor again, as he had been muc
kinder in those times.
zone night shall never forget it
was returning from the gardens, and pass
ed the door of Ranford's lodgings, little Eva
lina's nurse ran out to me, and said
"'For heavens sake, sir, 60 in. Maste
and missus have had a dreadful quarrel, an
missus is going to kill herselfr'
II ran into the house. found the par
lor door open. Mrs. Ranford was in tn
room alone; her back was toward me, bu
[ could see her face in the large mirror tina
stood over the chimney-piece. She had
razor in her hand and was about to use
on herself when she caught the reflection o
my face in the glass. She stopped, turne