The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-09-30
THE FLYING TRAPEZE.
TERRIBLE EALL OF MAN AND WOMAN
HEADLONG TO THE FLOOR.

hALL OF MAN AND WOMAN
HRADL0NG TO THE FLOOR.
The New York Sun gives the following: A
part Of the entertainment in Robinson Hall
this week has been q trspeze performance
by "The Casinos" man and a woman. At
the matinee yesterday the audience filed
the little hall. The trapeZe fests were put
in the programme near the end. A large
trspeze and a small one above and within it
hung from the ceiling over the front Of the
auditorium. No net was suspended be-
meath, as the law of this state directs. When
the time came for "The Casinos to perform
they spraDg out on the stage with the
sPrlghtliness that custom prescribes for
athletic exhibitors, bowed, stepped on
the orchestra railing, and jumped
tSence to the floor. The woman
hat. looked small on the stage,
where persons seem to the spectators
larger than reality, but on level with the
people her diminutiveness was appreciable.
She yvas less than five feet in height. pro-
portionate..C slender, and wore the ordinary
dress of a male C.. Gus performer. Inc man
was big and muscu.~; Iurtner dWarhng
her by contrast. He climbHd a rope TO the
trapeze and then hOisted her atter him. AS
she sat on the dangling bar by her DraWny
comrade, there was no trace in her o. phys
ical fitness for her task. Her bare erns
were slim, her hands small and it seenNe1
TO require all her strength to lit herseO
from arms length to a sitting posture on
the trapeze. Their 1eats were commonplace.
The man hanging by his hands or feet
swung the woman below him in various at
titudes. She had little to do except inertly
risk her life. Alter they had executed sew
ersl of the usual performances, and were
taking breath on their perch, the woman
said something to the man and he replied
with
SEsTURE
that besokened vexation. One OF the dancing
girls xfterward said that the woman had
previously asked him to omit the feat next
in order, she was afraid of falling, and
that their talk was repetition of the re-
quest and refusal. Her face wore pout-
ing expression TOR an instant, and then, as
though recslling the presence of the people,
she smiled mechanically and kissed her
hand. The intended feat was doubtless
planned to surprise by its unexpectedness.
The man, without moving from his sitting
posture on .ne bar, clasped one OF the
woman's ankles "a she stood at the other
side OF the center rope OF the Irapeze. Then
she threw herself forward, and he simultan-
eously slipped from the bar. His feet should
have caught the snspending ropes at their
junction With the bar, so as to hold both
with their heads down after their bodies
had fallen to perpendicular line
But his feet did not catch
There was no stoppage Of the
tall at the proper point, and they went heads
foremost to the floor, striking it with a
heavy, thudding impact that Jared the
building. The man hit on the back OF his
head and shoulders, and then lay limp and
senseless. The woman fell on her side,
partly under him, and drops of blood came
ont OF her mouth as she, too, lay uncon-
scious. She had made 10 cutlery as she fell;
nor were there any screams in the audience,
tor women do not habitually attend the cur
rent entertainments in Robinson Hall. An
usher took up the little woman and carried
her out 20 the office, and several spectators
followed with her eomrade. A physician
was Summoned hurriedly, and after an ex-
animation he said that one of her legs was
broken, but that the man was not seriously
hurt. 1t might be, he added, that there
were internal injuries which would make
themselves known later. There was only
a few minutes of inssrmissioR, and then the
entertainment was finished.