Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-02-18
AGILE ACROBATS.
REMARKABLE FEATs IN A JAP
ANEsE THEATRE.
a Japanese "Caruwazar- ar-Tickets of
Admission Foot Long-Mar-
velous Balancing-An
Odd Show.

shlladeiphia Times
Having completed our purchase--or
rather, emptied our purses-we turned
back to retrace our steps to the foreign
settlement, but were attracted by a crowd
on an opposite corner, which had gath
cred round person who appeared to be
talking loudly and gesticulating furious
ly. s'What is it, YasabreY we asked.
more foreigners2p suggested one. 'rNo,
a monkey and its keeper" said another.
"Oh, you would not enjoy this, !" inter
4 posed Yasabre, lit is only Japanese
caruwaza." tAnd what is caruwaza2 ~
we inquired, with new curiosity. Not
being able to explain the term, recourse
was had to the dictionary, from which
we learned that the word had reference
to acrohatic feats. Upon this we de-
cided to go in.
The price Of admission was the large
sum Of two cents each, which we paid
without a murmur and received our
tickets. These were pieces of wood
twelve inches long and two or three
broad, with the great black characters
written all over them, would have looked
strange at a place Of amusement in Phila-
delphia Grasping our tickets, we
crowded in at the entrance, where an
official relieved us of the unwieldy affairs
and courteously directed US to an upper
region. The outside of the building was
so very imposing and spacious, with its
gay posters and larger signboards, that
we were rather surprised to find ourselves
in such close quarters. The ''pit' con
sisted of plain, square apartment,
where the audience squatted on the floor
in close proximity to the actors, almost
too close for comfort, we thought when
thereckless performance with tubs and bar
rels commenced. These people seem
quite happy, however, and chatted and
smoked their pipes over little braziers dur
ing the performances, and had refresh
ments passed around between the acts.
These refreshments I noticed were not
composed Of the vulgar peanut nor Of the
ssHnREsRs snRDss aEee6Red chocolate c3raWeL but Wers
served upin different styles. The bal
cony," to which we were conducted, was
nothing more than square opening in
the floor, through which we could look
down upon the audience and the actors
below. This was carpetcd and arranged
for foreigners and those who wore shoes,
while those who wished for seat on the
lower floor were expected to remove their
shoes to prevent injury to the mats.
At the moment of our entrance the re-
nowned acrobat Dekichi was balancing
tremendous tub on his feet with won
derful agility, while he lay on his back
on the top Of large box. A nice look
ing, talkative young man was sitting
near tanning himself and talking with all
his might in praise of the gymnast.
soThe wonderful man, he said, glancing
at US as our heads appeared over the
railing above, is the greatest acrobat in
Japan; even in America there are none
to equal him. He has been there twice
and astonished them all with his skill. "
Two or three assistants stood by and
amused themselves by shouting "Oya, }"
and 'sYe-owr' when any especially diff
cult feat was achieved.
Our arrival created such fiutter in the
pit that these worthy people were obliged
! to shout themselves quite hoarse to recall
/ the wandering attention of the audience.
| To the tub were now added, one by one,
several firkins, the tub surmounting them
all. Suddenly the talkative young man
clapped together two tickets Of admis-
sion, which he held in his hand; the
drums and flies in the orchestea struck up
a dreadful din, as by quick movement
Dekichi sent the frkins whizzing through
the air into back room and caught the
original tub skilfully on his feet again
/ The gymnast rested few moments after
this feat, had a cup Of tea and bit Of
cake. In the second act a little boy
climbed up the side of the tub,
stood on his head and then scrambled
down into it, and stretching himself IN
side like the spokes Of wheel was rap
idly whirled round and round until one
could not distinguish the youngster at
all, nothing being visible but confused
jumble of arms and legs.
There was afterward short interval
for refreshments during which q couple
of finely dressed actors dragged about
two foolish apes for the amusement Of
the audience.
Dekichi'snext appearancewa welcomed
/ by shouts of 'sYaai yaal' from as
sistants and audience, who watched
with breathless interest his performance
with alarge, heavy jar, which he tossed
about on his feet with perfect ease. The
| irkins were brought into use again, to
which number Of fancy wooden boxes
were added, until the struc-
ture reached up nearly to
the upper story. A small boy. Of about
seven years, then crawled into the jar,
which lay on its side atop the irkins and
the boxes BY some mysterious means the