Daily globe., 1883-07-29
Il CIRCUS RIDER,S LIFE.
Tho Manner la Witch Equestrte3t1aes Are
TrGi,ted--HdTd Experiences.
from tha pb{1o da1rI{o D~nsc1

The Manner ia Witch Equestrie,,saes Are
T'Gi'sed--Hard Experiences.
From the Philadelphia Press1
The work of the leading equestrienne
is one of the most laborious in the whole
range of the circus profession. It re-
quires physical courage Of the highest
order, combined with great powers of
endurance, and a capacity for adapting
ones self to constant change Of scene
and surrounding. People who witness
the brilliant performances in the ring
In an atmosphere laden with Light and
music little dream of the wearisome
toll and drudgery which precede them"
The speaker was Miss Lily Deacon,
fmr-haired English lady, with the form
OF Juno, who came to this country
from London to fill an engagement as
leading equestrienne in circus.
"The training necessary to success in
equestrian performances" continued
Miss Deacon, "is monotonous in the ex-
treme, and In some parts very danger
GUS. None but those in rugged health
ever Withstand it, and no one without a
perfect physical organization should
undertake it. The ordinary exercises
of the riding-school are trifes as COM
pared with the tasks of professional
training. No woman, unless she is pos
sessed of extraordinary natural skill,
ought to appear in the ring before an
audience until she has graduated from
a riding-school, and then practiced in
the ring four or five hours every day for
at least six menths. Those six months
will be period of torture and WEAKNESS
to her, but she must undergo them or
run the risk of almost certain failure
and humiliation upon her first appear
ance in public.
"The best equestrian instructor in
Europe-in fact the only one of estab-
hshed reputation-is NJ. Salmonsky, of
Berlin. He is one of the greatest horse
men in the world, and his great circus
includes some Of the finest stock on the
continent. He saw me first in London
my native place, many years ago, when
was performing with my brothers and
sisters in Henley's Regent street circus,
and offered to take me with him to Ber-
lin and complete my training. I &C
cepted, and entered his circus at the
German capital, where I received the
most careful instruction he could give
Inc.
N. Salmonsky would send me into
the ring with his most spirited horses
every day and stand by to direct my ex-
ercises. Sometimes thought I should
never survive the terrible discipline, and
often thought should go back to Lon
don and content myself with being
second-rate rider, but the kindness of
my good old instructor softened the in
Vulnerable bumps and bruises Ireceived,
and at last triumphed. Emperor Will
lam and the Grown Prince attended the
circus the night I made my debut, and
complimented me formally and person
ally from their box.
IN Salmonsky's course of training is
very rigid, and that accounts for its
thoroughness The pupil must surren-
der wholly to the instructor and be-
come very much as ball of Wax in his
hands. At the outset, however, the
scholar must obtain complete mastery
of her horses. Fear is a quality utterly
hostile to successful equestrianism, and
unless the pupil can Danish it from the
start, she had better give up her ambi-
ton and abandon the profession. She
will never succeed SO long as she is
afraid either of herself or her horses.
Gas I said before, no one unacquaint-
ed with the dangerous preparatory in
struction of an equestrienne has any
proper estimate Of the toll and weari-
ness which her performance represents.
One never knows the boundless capac-
ity of the human frame for pains and
aches until one has gone into training
for eircus-riding. What with unruly
horses, uncomfortable saddles, and the
violent exercise involved, five or six
hours of practice every day for months
is certain to do one of two things-it
either kills the pupil OF brings her up
to the perfection of physical woman
daring rider escaped with broken
limb to die long years after in distant
land, upon a far nobler battlefield
OHT Continent.
An old topper complained to a doctor
- 4bo orJa,o& foi1od fO ~