Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-02
rur LADIES OF THE CIRCUS.
Gymnasts and TraPeze Per-
formers.
From the Chicago Tribune. J


N VS. possesses the bright eyes an,
slo: step indicative of health. Sh,
sPiiIl icon eleven wears in the profession
G FIRST as a trapeze performer and now as al
.1.tist on the mid air rings. A few years
~, She met with an accident in Western
a. An and fractured her left knee through
f,il from the trapeze. Since then she
', confned herself to the mid air rings
I La" the use of the arms principally
Tort 70 what she calls the shoulder dislo
,otion trick-that is, turning a double
SC.anr ', while holding the rings-hel
most difficult feat is swinging by the
10th And vet she has not. so far, had
oocasion for a dentists services.
~Rut don't you feel timorous before per-
t,rming these feats, and utter prayer fo1
s5fptv?" asked the reporter.
20 never have any fear" said Mile.
Zoe: IL say my prayers both morning and
night"
8And trust to the strength of your
ams?,'
"And the strength of the rope" she
answered (Which sometimes fails. My
first accident was when | was Is years
oId when a rope parted and l fell on
some chairs, breaking two ribs. My cor
SET did not save me-"
"And do Won ladies wear corsets while
parforming?" asked the reporter.
80. yes; we would not look a good
figure without"
Every female gymnast, by the way, is
careful OF her appearance. They all hate
matinees. because in the daylight, they
saw. they cannot look as well as by an
artificial light Mile. Zoe is a native of
Binghamton, New York, and began her
exercises when she was a school girl.
The remuneration these performers re-
ceive varies from $50 to 5000 a week.
The best OF them, and of course the few,
can command the latter sum. But it
must be remembered that for several
months in the year they are idle. Many
also have to support a mother or younger
brothers and sisters. The latter is the
case with one well-known gymnast, who
is the niece of a United States Senator.
Her father in his latter days was finan-
cially unfortunate, and, dying poor, left
boy and a girl to be provided for by his
eldest daughter. Her uncle told her she
was disgracing her family by becoming a
circus performer, but she did not regard
it in the same light. She said she was
able to take care of herself, the re-
muneration was good, and her brother
and sister had to be supported.
Nine. Zarah is a heavyweight bru-
nette, who does daring feats of balancing
on the swaying trapeze. One of her acts
is a swift descent on a sloping wire which
she holds in her teeth. But she particu-
larly prides herself on ascending a rope
hand over hand, feat which she defies
any other woman to initiate. Now, many
men, and certainly very few women,
have such a muscular arm capable of
doing the hand-over-hand work. She has
been ten years in the profession. She is
married to a Spaniard named Ceballos,
and they have one boy, now about 10
Years old. Nine. Zarah is of Scottish
irth, her maiden name having been
arah Fergus, and she came to this
nntry when quite a child. Her hus-
Ind trained her for about a year She is
an excellent circus rider, but gave up the
Practice because she could not keep a
horse of her own. With strange horses
circus riding is dangerous work. Nine.
Iarah is quite a linguist, speaking Span
sh like a native and French quite flu
entity. She also cOnverses in the Malay
tongue and in Hindostanee.
Nine. Zuila is a small but well-built
woman. She is a high wire evolution
list, what Mr.. Barnum, when a young
man, used to call a tight-rope dancer.
She performs some wonderful feats on
the high wire, such as walking across
with her feet encased in baskets, walking
over blindfolded, and with sack over
her; but her most daring deed is riding
across on a bicycle. She was born in
Sydney, Australia, and was trained by
her husband, Mr.. George Loyal. She
has been in the profession thirteen years,
has travelled considerably, and is proud
OF decorations from the Emperor of
Brazil, the King of Siam, and the Mikado
of Japan. She has plenty OF nerve, and
is quite in love with her work. She has
had one accident. Some years ago in In
diana her balance pole broke and she fell
from the wire. After ten days, however,
she was again performing. She has one
girl years old, who is trick bicycle
rider
Mile la Fevre, seen in an ordinary
black dress, looks little body, but when
in costume her development of arm and
limb is surprising, and her achievements
on the zenith floating ring remarkable.
She is a Californian, a widow, and the
mother of 14-year-old girl. Mile. la
tevre was so unfortunate three years ago
in Indianapolis as to fall with a trapeze.
Her great trick is the rapid descent of a
rope, face downward, holding only by
one leg Like all female gymnasts, she
Is, she says, oblivious of her audiences.
All these performers are obliged to con-
centrate their whole attention upon their
work, and applause or disproval is quite
lost upon them for the time being.
Most of these ladies have an exalted
opinion of their profession, and wonder
why society does not take to them more
kindly. They consider themselves quite
as good as a Nilsson, a Patti, or an Ellen
Terry, and would scorn the idea of APP
pearng at a fifteen-cent show. Their
great delight is to have Turner" au-
dIence, such as the German population
alone can furnish, and then they are
Seen at their best. These people are
experts, they say, +" and can appreciate
U.s. They understand the difficulty of
NJ ylr acts and applaud in proportion.
Many OF your opera singers don't take
i'aIl as much pains to please the public
as a., We We do, and yet are thought more OF.
l. like to see Nine. Patti turn a somer-
set on trapezel"