Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-17
The Girl Athletes Fall.
Details Of the Accident-The Scene in
 the Circus Side Tent Afteryvard.

Details Of tle Accident-The Scene in
 the Circus Side Tent AfGerVard.
 [From the Philadelphia Times.J
 At the afternoon performance of the great combination circus yesterday, just after Roy al, who is styled in show language the human
 cannon ball, had been shot from the mouth of
 the great howitzsr, in the Forepaugh ring
 twenty feet up into the air and into the arms
 of Mile. Zuila, who hung head downward
 from trapeze, and while the great audience
 were breathlessly watching the feats of the
 wonderful Davene family, consisting of one
 man and three women, who were going
 through their daring trapeze acts, above
 the London ring, Miss Lucy Davene, who
 had just launched herself from pedestal
 nearly twenty feet high to make 8 swinging
 leap and be caught in the arms of her father,
 who hung head downward fifty feet away, was
 seen to quit her hold on the bar of the flying
 trapeze and fall with a sickeuing thud to the
 ground below. Men groaned and women
 shrieksd and hid their faces For an instant
 the poor girl lay stretched out upon the
 ground like one dead, save for slight tre-
 nor of her limbs. It was only for an instant, and then stalwart athelte, gathered her in his arms as he might baby and ran with her all limp and senseless into tho adjoining tent, from which the performers enter the ring.
 ''Ay God, my child, my child! Lot me down." came cry from the lips of woman dressed in fashy tights and blonde wig who hung by her feet from high trapeze, and who in turn held by his feet Davene, who was to have caught the girl if the leap had been success fully performed. The woman forgot that she was circus performer and that ten thousand eyes were upon her, and only remembered that she mother. Davene dropped to the ground, and his wife freed herself in an incredibly short time aud followed him, and both almost flew after the swift gymnast who carried the bleeding girl out of the sight of the mortified audience. While this was happening Dr Fraak Muhlenberg of l, ,9O9 Chesnut street, nr HeWGnn fOr1c cf1 1 Pino and Dr. H. Earnest Goodman of l, ,427 Ches- nut street, left their places in the audience and disappeared behind the curtain which hung in the passageway through which poor Lucy Davene had been carried. All this oc- cupied but few seconds, and the audience had scarcely time to comprehend what hadoc- cured before word came ut'She is all right" and in Q minute more Fish and Melville were whirling around the ring in their lightning bareback acts, in friendly rivalry, and the per formance went on as though nothing had oc- cured, so far as the audience could see.
 But just behind the curtain which separated the unemployed performers from the public on @ rude stuffed tick used for tunbars to alght upon in their prodigious leaps, lay the unconscious girl presenting sight which made old showmen turn away sick and shud- dering. Her blonde wig was gone and her brown hair, dripping with ice water, was brushed back from her face, from which every particle of color had fled. Her eyes wsrs closed, and her breath came in short, quick gasps. On her left temple great blue lump, nearly as big as mans fist, had raised up, and to this one of the physicians was holding lump of ice. In the back of her head there was great gash, from which the blood flowed freely until it was staunched by another physician. Lucy is little, slight thing, and as she lay there in her ring cos tune, which WAS soied and bloody, she look ed like mere child, broken and dying. The mother, sobbing wildly and talking incoher- ently, bent over the girl, bathing her head in ice water, while Davene was running around like distracted. There no lack of willing hands and willing feet to lend their aid to the relief of the sufferer. It was a strange and touching sight to see the troops of performers, in their fantastic costumes and horror-stricken faces, pressing around to offer their assistance. The grotesque painting on the faces of the clowns even could not hide the looks of sympathy and kindly solicltude. There wore many expressions of anger and in- dignation by the male members of the com pany that women should be permitted to at tempt such dangerous feats. 'tBy-," said one of the clowns, ''this whole flying trapeze business should be abolished some one is always getting crippled or killed by it. I cannot look at it. I have known so many accidents that the thought of it makes me sick. The only merit of flying trapeze act is it's danger. It should be forbidden by law" Many similar expressions were heard from Otner aLnleIes auu ByLnHESLS, WAo were SLdHu- ing about. It was long time before the cause of the accident was generally under stood, even by the members of the company. Many said that the girls hands were sweaty and had slipped. The truth, however, is that as she sprang from the pedestal and went to throw her feet over the bar on which she was holding by her hands, her head struck, with terrific force, the pedestal on which her feet had stood moment before. This knocked her senseless, and relaxing her hold, she stiff fened out and fell, without the power to make an effort to save herself.
 After the first efforts at restoration had been made, and the flow of blood had been stop ped, the mattress on which the girl lay was picked up and carried into the ladies' dressing room where for half an hour longer the phy- sicians kept up their efforts to revive the in- jured girl, but without success. Many be- lieved that she was dying, and word went round that the physicians said she could not live. This was an exaggeration, though at one time they said that her symptoms were very and that her pulse was very weak and uncertain. In half an hour six strong men again took up the mattress, and passing out under the edge of the canvas bore Lucy, &C., by the physicians, to her boarding house, on the opposite side of Broad street. On the way she vomited freely, throwing up considerable blood. After she had been plac- ed in bed the physicians renewed their efforts in her behalf, aad her symptoms improved gradually, although she only partly regained and her face looked like the dead. The doctors said that her skull was not fractured, but that it was impossible to tell what internal or spinal injuries she might have sustained. At one time she showed some symptoms of concussion of the spine. They said last night that they believed she would recover and without sustaining any permanent