National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-03-31

sHoulu uo, WHcn lHc slu'TcS son anu Iot
of young gentlemen came in and asked us
to perform for them, which we did and
they gave us a couple Of sovcreigns, 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
lIollol why, | see you call yourselves
Messrs. j. Ranford and W. Kerr. Nc
wonder you get no audiences | suppose
that these are your real names T., We
answered that they We're. ,t,.
"'Oh, that'll never do he said you
must have an alias you mustn't let the
public suppose you are Englishmen. II is
contrary to the rules Of professional eti-
quette. You must make ont that You are
foreigners
"Well, 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 Fosca-
ri-thc Spineless Siamcsc Of Syrian
"Well, sir, from that moment Ranford
and began to do well; but I'm sorry to
say that our good luck only caused my
partner to drink the harder, and, in con-
sequence, to behave more badly TO his
wife His child he certainly was very
fond Of, partly, think, because he had
only known her n short time, for Ranford
was one of those men who liked new faces.
As soon as he met IA stranger he was all
life and spirits and he would do anything
or 90 anywhere to oblge him; but when
be had known man some time he didn't
care for him, but grew cross and contra
dictory.
"At last we got an engagement at n
garden near London, where there was a
grand gala night every week, on which oc-
casion balloon ascended. ] scraped ac-
qaintance with the aeronaut, and one
evening | went up with hrm. The sensa-
tion was singular ] cannot describe lit
but liked it very much. The aeronau,
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 ~
Why not p | said and as | spoke the
idea flashed upon me what splendid tea-
! ture in the programme it would be: Per-
ilous Performance of the Two Foscar
| Brothers, who will go through their inim-
table Evolutions on Slack Wire suspend
ed from a Balloon floating thousands of
wards above the surface OF the earthp \
/ balloon, thought, that could bear the
weight of eight men inside the car, could
, bear the weight of two outside it. The
wire could be fastened to the sides of the
car, and, when at sufficient height, we
could get out on it and perform.
A. 4 l,..1 I
to Ranford, who first laughed at the no.
tion, and then agreed to it. The proprie
tor of the gardens asked us to name our
terms We did so. He tried to beat us
down, bat at last consented, and We went
up and did t.n
interrupted him by asking if the dan
ger were not extreme.
Not a Bit" replied my patient. If |
fell from a wire swung fifty feet from the
ground. the chalces are that | should
break my neck if fell from height Of
fifty miles | could do more. Then. if our
feet miss, we have our hands to hold on
by. However, | was saying we went up,
aud when we had risen a certain distance.
we got out of the car and commenced the
performance. 1t seemed odd to me at first,
tlmbling and swinging in the air, with
the gardens and the audience, and the
houses and the trees, such a depth below
us ; but what struck me as being strangest
was when we hung head downwards, and
looked up at the clouds. | used to feel
that the earth could not be so very dis |
tant, for high as we had risen, the sky
seemed as far off from us as ever.
"Our performance gave great satsfac-
ton, and was tavorably noticed in the
daily and weekly papers. We were told |
that the act that thrilled the audience |
most was the last one we performed before |
descending. Ranlord, who was a heavier |
man than |, hung from the rope with his |
head downwards; 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 on only by |
my right. never felt the least fear. We
knew each others grip, and it was all |
right.
"At first the aeronaut went up with us;
but after a few times we were able to |
manage Tor ourselves so well that, had an
accident happened to one of us, the other
could have got safely to the ground.
I'VE were earning great deal of money. |
but noticeu that MIS- halioIu iookeq
knew how her husband was conducting
himself ny mat ohe oiten toid me 'ha'
she wished they were poor again, as he
iaa peen t4 ii,utn A,'Ier n,, III .nose .',pes'
ohe liign'c-l c,l.'' slal, an nestt % lo'sea II
was returning IRON p .ne gaiu9Ils, anu 'E
pas ,ea ,he ooor OF haliloru ioug'neS' ~,
tie Eyellna's nurse ran out TO me, ana