The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-05-27
ON THE TIGHT ROPE.

ON THE TIGHT ROPE.
Saqui, the Rope Walker who was once
the Sensation of Paris.
Pail Mall Gazette. l.
The most famous rope.dancer of re-
cent times was undoubtedly Nine.
Saqui, and her long career would seem
to show that if the practice of rope
dancing brings some Of it's profession
TO sudden end, it must in itself be far
from unhealthy. We may fairly infer
that in her case it was conducive to
longevity; for she had already made
her reputation at the end of the eigh-
teenth century, and was still dancing less
than twenty years ago. when she had
attained the age of 76. According to
some authorities Nine. Saqui was born
of French parents. Her father, Jean
Baptiste Lalanne, was himself distin-
guished acrobat, and he introduced his
daughter to the public at very early
age in q melodrama on the subject OF
"Genevieve de BrabAnt," the part
of Genevieve,s child being confined to
the debutante. It was as a dancer on
the ordinary boards that the youthful
Saqui made her first appearance in pub
lie; but she soon aspired to higher things
and after the troupe ofthe "grandes dan
seuses du roi" had been broken up at
the time of the revolution, she took a
regular course of lessons in repentance
ing from friend of the family. who d.
vined the bent of her genius. The coun:
sellor and instructor who discovered and
fostered her talent for balancing herself
on the tight-rope was, or had been, q
medical student, who, to escape the
tediousness of lectu1e les, had turned &C
robat: and it was through his earnest
representations that the parents of the
future rope-dancing celebrity were pre-
vailed upon to allow their daughter to
quit the regular stage for less digni6"
ed arena.
The child practiced with ardor, and
was soon able to maintain herself firm
and erect. upon the rope without the as
sistance of the balancing pole. Her de-
but was attended with the most bril-
liant success, and for upward of half a
century this prima donna of the dane
ing art travelled from capital to capital,
applauded and feted whereyer she per-
formed. There was no town in France,
no country in Europe, which she did not
visit. After time she established g.
theatre of her own at Paris. The EN-
peror Napoleon, who appreciated her
talent, and was personally much pleased
with her, named her first acrobat of
France"-a title which so pleased her
that she had she it inscribed on the
wagon containing her costumes and
apparatus by which her travelling coach
was followed. Napoleon used to engage
her for all public fetes, and frequently
invited her to perform at his own pri-
vate entertainment. She was the spoiled
child, moreover, of all the princes and
dukes, all the marshals and generals
of the empire; and she was as great
favorite with the people as with the
members of the imperial court. No
Italian singer, even in our own day,
enjoyed such popularity as fell to the
lot of Nine. Saqui.
For q time her star seems to have
faded; or perhaps she retired on the
immense sums of money which her
performances had brought in. How.
ever that may have been, circumstances
forced her in 1851 to reappear, when
she made tour in Spain, in Algeria,
and in the principal towns of France.
In 1852 she went to Paris and gave a
series of performances at the Hippo
drome. The next year she made SEN
sational ascent of the tight-rope in the
Champ de Mars, and the Hippodrome
was the scene of a final performance
given for her benefit in 1861, when, al
the age of rs she went through q series
of funambulistic exercises and fan.
tasias which few, if any, of her rivals
could have equalled. Some four years
afterward, when she had already com.
pleted her 80th year, this highest and
most aerial of balkerine died.