The weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1869-18??, 1870-06-08
From the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Telegraph.
The Martyrs of the Trapeze-Something
of the History of an AcrObatIc Family.

From the Kalamazoo Mich Telegraph.
The Martyrs of the Trapeze-Something
of the History of an AcrobatIc Family.
Seeing in many papers an account of an
accident which occurred in Baltimore re-
Gently to little Zoe De Lave, the first female
gymnast that performed the now less novel
feat of the flying trapcze," | am tempted
to write for your readers few facts con-
corning the troupe of which she is men,
Der. My information is from Il lady who
became acquainted with them during stay
of week or two they made at Il hotel at
Grass Valley, California.
The " De Lave Troupe" or " family" con-
sists of Monsieur (whose speciality and sole
part of their entertainment is an act on the
tight rope,) his wife, German girl, about
years now, and who is advertised as Lila,
or Zoe, child about 10 years old, his
daughter by former marriage In the first
part of their entertainment, before the real
fatiguing business commences, Lila dances
some OF the fancy dances, well known in the
days of the ballet. Then she and Zoe do
the double and single trapeze, rings, parallel
bars. &C., in short, all the business that the
Hanlons are SO famous for, only that they do
different parts much more rapidly than the
Hanlons. Zoe also does an act on the tight
rope NJ. Dc Lave once CLOSED Niagara
river on a rope, with Zoe then six years old,
walking in front of him. One of her feats
is for Lila to percipitate herself from The
gallary ceiling of a theatre, catching ira
peze or ring hanging from the centre of the
ceiling, where she hangs by her feet, and
Zoe filings herself to her, is caught and is
again flung to some one on the stage.
whose business it is to catch her, and who
does it or not, as the case may be, as she had
an instance of it in Philadelphia this Fall.
Mrs. De Lave has warned her husband time
and again that the child was getting too
heavy. and some day she should be unable
to catch her. This and the flying trapeze
act are the most dangerous of all the feats
they attempt, and in doing these Zoe is con-
tiuually missing her hold, and has narrowly
escaped death several times.
These girls detest the life they are obliged
to lead. Mrs De Lave says every night
when she goes upon the ropes, the cold per-
SEPARATION, started by sheer horror. breaks
out over her, so that the rosin put there to pre-
vent slipping will not stay upon her hands.
She enters upon every performance with a
protest. Zoe has musical talent that, if cul-
tivated, would lead to fortune much quicker
than the means she at present is obliged to
adopt. She is small for her age. Slender,
though very muscular-her face thin and
peaked-she is not what would be called
pretty child. She is ignorant-does not
even know how to read. She is self-willed-
viii. not even venture upon either tight or
slack ropes until satisfied they are secure
Her father has educated her to believe that
as long as he stands by the rope or bar she
will never be hurt, at least dangerously
This of course, gives her confidence He
excuses his sternness to them by saying that
unless they do just as he orders, they would
in many instances have been killed. But
this will never palliate the brutalities he
was known to have been guilty of in Phila-
delphia. At the time my informant met
them, De Lave was Independently wealthy,
and promised, after exhibiting Zoe at the
Paris Exposition, she should be Withdrawn
and placed in convent to be educated.
But the pledge has been broken, and last
month she was SO injured i'll Baltimore that
it was thought she would be cripple for
life, and so l suppose her life will DC held
thus cheaply by her inhuman father until
she is crippled, or death intervenes and sets
her free from daily contact with the things
she loathes.
Knowing this, and that there are para
lcl cases, as for instance the apprentices
the Hanlons have, one cannot but wish that
freedom might always be the reward of
bravery, and wonder which is the mos. to
blame for this cruelty 10 these girls-the
Frcnchmall, De Lave, or the real power be-
hind the throne, the public who patronizes
and applauds these liieimperiling perfor-
manclS