Worcester daily spy., 1861-11-14
Tha Tr.aaneze.

From Chambers Edinburg Journal
The French, to whose powers Of invention
(so long as you do not insist upon utility there
is no liait, have invented for the world the
Trapeze a means Of locomotiun not SO gene
rally convenient as steam vessels and railways
but so far as it goes perfection. Imagine "the
swing" Of your childhood suspended from a
lofty ceiling by two very long ropes, and that
instead of sitting on the bar you grasp ii with
your hands, and hang from it al arms length ;
the TrapeZe is merely series of these swings
The art consists, when all these are set III mo-
ton, in passing from one to the other, and so
flying by the hands through a vast space. The
Trapeze has already many homes, but let us
select the Alhambra as cur scene formerly
that Ptnopticon, which classical scholars cy-
nically translated the all my eye-and 'the
wonderous Leotard,' who winds his nightly
way there, as our performer
Late in the evening, Il few supper parties III
the body OF the hail bave TO break up, III order
that the narrow plalform-formedo OF number
of spIing boards laid upon what look most
painfully like coffin trestes, may be laid across
it, extending, too, far back across the stage
Upon this, with three layers OF carpets, the
performer has TO come down heels over head
whenever he wishes to rest himself, and is
tard of swinging. The Trapezes are steadied
by guy lines, to moderate their swinging, but
still the platform is often at Il vast distance,
lateral us well as perpendicular, from the per
former, and seems TO be but very narrow
path to calculate upon arriving at in an invert
ed attitude, while TO leap anywhere else would
be fatal.
The unhappy professor of the Trapeze who
Immediately preceded NJ Leotard at the Al
hambra, was killed in that very hall, and the
circumstance no doubt contributes to lis pre-
sent occupants great popularity. The eXhlbl'
ton ls at least as terrible as that OF Nj. Blon-
din and n0ught but the perfect self posses
sion and GOODNESS OF both these men-cOlubn-
ed with their evident physical gifts-enabIes
one to gaze upon them at all. Nothing can
exceed the grace and elegance OF Leotards
motions. No ballet dancing can compare with
it for beauty. When he has climbed the little
ladder that leads from the spring boards to the
gallery, and standing upon that elevation, has
the longest Trapeze handed up to him-the
bar being removed from it, and couple OF
stirrups for the hands set in lis pace---he pre-
sens a model for scu ptor. The mighty
chest, the muscular arms and wrists, remind
one in their power Of the gorilla in their
beauty, of the Apollo Belvidere. Now he
draws long breath, grasps the stirlups firmly
and projects himself with a great impetus INTO
space, he swings right across the vast arena,
and raising himself by his wrists, returns to
the gallery again. which he attains by a sum-
mersault. His flight is as swift and graceful
as the exit and return Of a swallow to her'nest
in the house root,
A second Trapeze is now put slowly in mo-
ton in front of him he swOops down be-
fore to meet it, and loosing his hold at the
moment he has calculated upon, flies through
the intervening space-ten feet, or twelve, or
twenty, just as it happens-and, 10 lie is
swinging by the second A third Trapeze is
then added, and the man flies across the whole
arena with the stage added, his hands shifting
so rapidly from bar to bar that the change is
almost impercepube. But his hands, agile as
they are, are equalled by his other eXtremi-
ties he often projects himself from his legs,
arrives in perfect safety by that strange meth
cd, and before you have done wondering,
comes down head over heels, with a great
whack on the spring board, amid tumultuous
applause Sometimes he performs summer
sault in the air between the Trapezes, some
times he turns rounds perpendcuarly, as
though tc see how his deserted bar was going
on his absence, but the unvarying conclusion
of every feat is to come down on the spring
board. Surely never before were human mus
cles so schoOled, never has the story OF Peter
Wilkins received such wonderful contirma-
ton. Ii he were all feathers and wire work,
it would be impossible for this man TO throw
himself about with msre apparent reckless
ness, but at the same time, as | believe, with
a greater safety. The impression derived
from beholding the feats OF these two great
gymnasts is that Blondin could not fall and
that if Leotard did fall, be would yet, somehow
save himself