Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-15
BETTER THAN A CIRCUS.
How the FashiOna5ly Constructed Girl
Climbs a Fence.


Did you ever see a girl trying to climb
a fence: 1t is more OF a show than
circus with a whitewashed elephant. This
is the way she does It:
First she looks around to find out
whether anybody is in sight. Then, if
the coast is clear, she puts one foot on
the second ralI of the fence and looks
around again. Then she gives little
hop and gets her other foot up Oh the
second rail. Here she stops for aInOment
to rest and straighten her hat.
The next manGuVre is the critical one
to get one foot up over the top rail.
She steadies herself for a moment, then
gives a quick little upward kick that does
not quite reach the mark, but causes her
10 jump down on the ground again with
a tiny scream and tuck her clothes IN all
around her. Again she surveys the sur
rounding country, and again hops up on
the second rail.
This time she is holder and throws her
foot clear to the top Of the fence, where
il catches by the heel on the top rail. 1t
is now or never with her then-s0mething
must be done instanter. Grasplng the
top rail with all her might she pulls her
self up until she sits astraddle Of the
fence, with the landscape spread out be-
meath her like a map. If anybody appears
in sight, she just drops off the fence as if
she had been shot, and gathers herself up
when she gets there.
If the coast continues clear she pro-
ceeds in a very leisurely manner to get
down on the other side of the fence. First
she turns around, facing the way she
came, and feels backward with the foot
which is already over the fence for a
good, steady, reliable rail. Having found
such a rail, she plants herself upon 1t
and sets to work to get the other foot over
the fence.
This is a very difficult and embarrass-
ing piece of strategy, and a good many
girls will sit on the top of fence half
day before they will attempt it. Some
even stay there till a hOrrid man comes
along and lifts them off. Not so the truly
courageous girl-she who is no more
afraid to climb a fence than to SIT in the
same room with a mOuse-trap. She will
never give up the fort till she gets of that
fence in the ancient and honorable man.
ner of her sex.
She grasps the top rail and leans as far
back as her arms will allow, and then
tries to coax the refractory limb over
after her. Alas, it is too long, and as
she jumps back astraddle, with a little
laugh, she tucks her skirts around her
again,
After a brief rest she tries another
wrinkle. She lies down fiat on her face
on the top rail and tries to slide off side
ways, as she has often seen her little
brother do.
This would be all well enough, and
would place her on terra hrma again, If
she only mad the courage to carry out her
intention. But just as she is about to slip
OFF pallid fear seizes her. She screams,
rights up and straddles the fence once
more.
This sort OF thing continues for five or
ten minutes. Then the fair acrobat be-
gins TO get wrothy. She looks at the
ground, only three or four feet away, and
makes up her mind she will reach it some
way, or die. Die she will have to some
time, anyway.
So she settles her hat on her head with
a determined look, steps back on the reli-
able rail, and, with a mighty effort, draws
back her other foot to the very edge Of the
top rail like an archer drawing an arrow
TO the head.
Oh, if it only were not for that French
heel she would be free. But, alas, it holds
her with the dull persistency of fate. A
look of terror and despair comes over her
cOuntenance; her eyes stick out like but
/ tons; she gives a quick, backward leap
and let's go.
What surprise, what delight. She finds
herself alighting right side up with care
on the soft turf without so much as a
! feather jOstled in her hat. She can't
| imagine how it happened so. She fully
expected to be picked UP a complete
wreck and carried home to die among her
sOrr0wing friends.
But now that she is really safe and
sound upon the dear old earth again, she
| looks up with unspeakable gratitude to
| the clear blue sky; then, brushing her
] skirts and beating them out so that they
! will hang straight, she VOWS that should
4 she ever have occasion to go cross lots
! again she will either 60 in a balloon or
! else have a young man along to pub
| down the fences.