Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-05-17
Circus Apparatus and Accidents.

The most important business, after
the tents arc up, is the formation OF the
s'ring'' and the setting of the gymnastic
machinery for the performances OF the
acrobats.
The ''ring' is generally a little more
than forty feet in diameter, and it looks.
like a rude enough affair, but its prepa7
ration calls for both care and skill. The
ground for it is leveled with nicely. The
barrier, circular mound OF earth OF
about one hundred and twenty-five feet
inside circumference, is raised to O
height of somewhat over twenty inches
on its inner face. IL must be thick, firm,,
and strong, to bear the hard blows of a
horses feet or the sudden leaning upon
il of an elephant. 1t must, therefore,
be banked and pounded with sledge-
hammers until no strain TO which it can
be subjected will break it down, and it
must retain no looseness or unevenness,
to trip q horse or endanger the life of o
rider. 1t is the work of few hours on
ly, but there Is man busy upon almost
every square yard of it while it is rising.
AS to the machinery for the acrobats,
simple as is the appearance of the up
rights. and oss.bars, they must be set
up with especial care, so as to leave no
possibility Of their breaking down. The
performer using them must be able TO
trust his appliances absolutely, or he
could never have the nerve and conf
dencc to delight the crowd at the risk of
his neck. All his feats of skill and
daring, moreover, have relation to the
exact distances at which he has prac-
ticed them, and there must be no .varia-
ton from those precise measurements
in the daily adjustment of his machin-
cry. He, or she, as the case may be, is
sure enough to meet with what are
called "accidents." When a "great
show' recently came to the city of
Brooklyn, family group of three per-
sons sat down together in the breakfast
tent. They were acrobats OF unsur-
passed agility and skill. A sad-faced
woman, q young man of middle size, a
girl just entering her teens. There had
been four of them prior TO q recent per-
Torrance, but the "star," an older girl,
the most daring of them all, had "miss-
cd her motion" in feat OF uncommon
peril, and had fallen upon the receiving
net. "She was but slightly injured"
all were told who cared or thought to
ask, but the little group at the table
knew that she was dying. They per-
formed their parts, that day, Us skill
fully rs ever, though with so much more
weight than usual to carry, but when
the evening exhibition was over there
were, indeed, but three of them. The
fourth had gone forever.
Such an s'accident" may come to the
best-trained and most experienced per-
former, and yet it is mistake to sup
pose that acrobats are necessarily q
short-lived race. The constant exer-
else, the enforced temperance, the out
of.doors life, amount, in fact, to care
full observance of well-known laws Of
health. If professional athlete cs-
capes the most serious disasters which
are continually possible to him, it is his
own fault If he does not remain for
many years man of comfortable body.
His worst perils do not come to him in
the "ring," but during the long months
when he is necessarily unemployed, and
when he has no immediate and pressing
need for careful training. For, in this
interval, he is in danger of relaxing his
habits of careful living, and very little
over-indulgcnce will put out of order
that wonderful machinc--hi body-on
the perfect condition of which depends
his power to do the feats required of
him.-W. o. St0dddrd, IN 81. Nicholas.