Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-02-04
THE LITTLE ROPE WALKER.
An Incident I'm the Childhood of The
Famous Blondin.


An Incident in the Childhood of The
Famous Blondin.
A great many years ago-more than
half century, IN fact-a family of
French acrobats travelled through
Europe and made their living by giving
entertainments in the villages through
which they passed.
They did not perform in theatres or
opera houses because there were none
in tie hayn!e:s Of France and Germany
in those days. No, this family of
serobats performed IN the market
place or on the open green, and
stretched their long rope from the
ground to the top of the tallest
steeple.
All the members of the family were
scrobats, and their parents before them
had been acrobats, too, journeying
from one village to another, and buy
ing their bread with the pennies and
sixpences that the country people threw
into the fathers hat 1 said that all
the members of the family were aero
bats, but l had forgotten little Henri,
who was only four years old, and too
young, therefore, to do his share in
amusing the public. So little Henri
went about with his father and mother
and sister and big brother, and slept in
the wagon at night and played with
the big dog or toddled about the vii
lage green while his elders were dane
ing on the long rope.
1t was his sister Jeanne who took
care of him, washed and dressed him
in the morning, put him TO bed at
night, and taught him to say his
prayers before he went to sleep. She
was kind, good girl, and little Henri
loved her more than any one in the
world, and when he saw her take her
long pole in her hand and dance grace
fully up the long rope toward the top
of the steeple, while the people looked
on and clapped their hands, he thought
there was no one in the world so lovely
and charming as his sister Jeanne.
One day they stopped in a beautiful,
old-fashioned village on the banks of
the Rhine. They stretched their long
rope from the ground to the top of the
steeple, and Jeanne took her pole in
her hand, bowed and smiled to the
people and danced lightly and grace
fully up toward the top. And little
Henri, standing on the ground, with
his fathers cane in his chubby hands,
watched her with as much delight as if
he had never seen her do it before.
But when she had gone about half the
distance gust of wind shook the rope;
she tumbled, almost lost her balance
and cried out in terror.
"Fm coming" screamed little Hen
ri, and while his mother turned away
her face, and his father implored him
to return, he balanced his cane as his
sister balanced her pole and ran up the
rope to help her. 1t was the first time
he had ever been on a slack rope in
his life, but he was not afraid, nor did
it make him dizzy. He ran up to
where Jeanne was clinging and threw
himself into her arms. She held him
tight until his father came and carried
him down. "He will make great
rope walker" said his mother, as she
clasped the little boy in her arms.
''He takes to it as a duck takes to
water. 1t must be in his blood" said
the father; and from that day little
Henri's education as a tight-rope
walker began.
Years afterward this same little boy
stretched rope across Niagara Falls
and walked across it as easily as if it
had been barn floor, and then the
whole world resounded with the fame
of Blondin. And one day, after he
had performed in Paris in the pres
ence of thousands of people, he sat in
his tent and told me how he had run
up the long rope to save his sister,
Pittsburg Despatch.