The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1862-06-05
$3.50 PER- ANNUM IN ADVANCE.
UP I'm THE AIR.
From the London Packet.

Some few months pack was c5lleu III Ill
surgeon byprofession-to attend Senior Iol
s nados, who despite his name, was as true a.
Englishman, by birth and -parentage as tn
parish of Lambeth ever bred and reared.
found him suffering from extreme debility ant
D nervousness brought on by the overstrainet
f. tension of the muscles and sineWs. He toll
me that he was a rope-dancer, slack and tight
tumbler, stiff and loose ;sprite, acrobat, am
bottle-equilibrist and many other things which
have escaped my memory. sf rsa.
His family consisted of his wife-a pale sick
ly looking woman, somewhat older than him
; self-and very handsoms little girl Accns
toned as was to witness The devotion of Wo
man by sick bedside, and the irritability o
male patients, the selfsacrifce of Madame Tor
nados and the demonstrative gratitude of hel
husband for each act of attention surprised me
4 He was under my cafe for some months, and
as he recovered, grew takatiye and familiar
One evening, as be sat iii an easy-chalr, prop
ped up by pillows he favored me wi tn the fol
lowing narrative. | purposely suppress any
professional techncalities and acrobatic arg0t
which would be unintilligible to the ordinary
reader. s70---
''You see, SIR" he began, "my father was
hawker over in Lambeth Marsh. never knew
my mother, because she died when was quite
, young. l don't know how it was learned
tumbling. The first thing can remember is
standing ON my head close to the Westminster
Bridge, and gentleman going by give me a
d shilling. Now my boy, the gentleman! !; said
do that again. which I did. Now! said he
spring. which I did, and came on my feet
again. Good boy said he. and he patted me
on the head. That gentleman, sir was the
great Mr. Ducrow Well sir, Of course, after
such encouragement from such a man, "a tumbler
l became spared neither pains nor trouble,
and practiced till became master of my art
and head of my profession. PIG f-a.as..a7
about seven years ago-I was just twenty
three-I first met with James Ranford, who
was also in my line, and he proposed that we
should work together 1 consented and we
travelled about and exhibited at town halls and
assembly rooms, and large rooms at inns but
we did very badly. Ranford had wife and
child so it fell harder upon him. ] was forced
to lend him what little l had to spare, for l
could not see young woman and little baby
60 without while had it, could /?
well, sir things got from bad to worse and
my partner, being man of violent temper, took
TO drink-he was always given that yay-and,
| | am sorry to say he used to beat his wife
Sometimes my blood has boiled, aud | have
walked away for fear that / would Interfere
However, I used to cheer up the missus as well
as | could and nurse the little girl land they both
grew to like me very much. .. t.
| One night, st a place sailed Peddlethorpe,
we had no audience at all. We were without
money, and were asking each other what we
should do, when the squires son and lot of
young gentleman came in and asked us to per-
form for them, which we did and they gave us
a couple of sovereigns, and, more than that,
asked US to supper at the hotel. After supper
the squire looked at one of our bills of the day,
and said, I'Hollo why see you call yourselves
Messrs. J. Ranford and Vim. Keer. No won
der you get ITO audiences. l suppose these are
your real names o. We answer that they
were.
'Oh that' never do he said. You must
have an alias; you musn's let the public know
that you are Englishmen. 1t is contrary to the
rules of professional etiquette. You must make
out that you are foreigners 20 '&
We'll at that all the gentleman 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 ST.
amese ofSyria!'
WELL sir from that moment Ranfofd and l
began to do well but I'm sorry to say that our
good luck only caused my partner to drink the
harder, and, in consequence, to behave more
| badly to his wife His child, he certainly was
fond of, partly think, because he had only
known her a 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 go anywhere to oblige
| him but when he had known man for some
time he didn't care for him, but grew cross and
contradictory,
AT last we got an engagement at a garden
near London, where there was grand gala
night every week, on which occasion balloon
assembled. | scraped acquaintance with the
seronaut, and one evening [ went up with him.
! The sensation was singular | cannot describe
it, but l liked it very much. The 9ronaut
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 mo:
You couldn't do the slack rope up here, Eos
carl, could you !?
why not q l said and as l spoke the idea
! flashed upon me what splendid feature in the
programme it would be :-'Perilous perform
/ ance of the two Fosear Brothers, who will 60
| through their inimitable evolutions on a slack
wire suspended from balloon floating thou
sands of wards above the surface of the earth J!
! A balloon, thought, could bear the weight Of
! two men outside it. The wire could be fasten-
/ ed to the sides of the car, and, when at suffi
cient height, we could get out and perform.
AS soon as l reached ground wen t to Ran
| ford, who first laughed at the notion, and then
agreed to it. The proprietor of the garden ask
! ed US is name terms We did so. lie tired
| to beat us down, but at last consented, and we
went up and did it,
/ interrupted him by asking if the danger
! WAS not extreme.
Not Bit, replied my patient. IF 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
{ 4 t. "a z 70 ma t Ercf
tum6ling and swinging in the air. with the gar
dens and the audience and the houses, and the
/ trees such n depth beneath us but what struck
me as being the strangest WAS when we hung
/ head downwards and looked up at the CLOUDS.
| used to feel that the earth could not be so
very distant, for, high as we had risen the sky
seemed as far fran US as ever
Our performance gave great Satisfaction ana
was fayorably noticed in the daily and weekly
papers. We were told that the act that thrilled
the audience most was the last one VIC perform
ed before descending. Ranford, who was
heavier man than |, hung from the the rope
with his head downward; then, taking hold OF
both his hands with both mine, swung by their
support and then by way Of climax, let go
my left hand, and hung only by my right. l
never felt the least fear We knew each others
grip, and it was all right
! AT first the eronaut went up with us, but af-
ter a few times we were able to manage for our
selves so well chat, had an accident happened
to one of US, the other could have got safely
down
I'VE were earning great deal of money, but
/ noticed that Mrs. Ranford looked paler and
more carewwrn every day, and I knew how her
husband was conducting himself by that. She
often told me that she wished they were poor
again, as he had been much kinder in those
times
sOne night shall never forget it was re-
turning from the gardens, and as passed the
door Of Ranford's Lodgings, little EYallna' .
nurse ran out to me, and said
For heavens sake, sir, go in. Master and
missus have had dreadful quarrel, and mlssus
is going to kill herself
ran into the house. found the parlor door
open. Mrs. Ranford was in the room alone
her back was toward me, bat could see hei
sana IN the larne mirror that stood over tne