The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-13
TRAINED FtEAS.


ohariot Racing, Ballet Dancing and Tight.
rope Walking Among the Feats.
A correspondent sends the following
from Dantzig:
There was fair going on outside the
gates of this most picturesque city
wandering among the booths. our
curiosity was aroused by one which
bore the following inscription: PA
riser Floh Theater" The theater wa.
about the size of an ordinary tam bour.
ahe, which instrument it greatly re.
sembled. We looked with interest al
Certain cardboard boxes which stood
beside the theater. One of these was
open and showed a number of tiny
oehicles, carriages, bicycles, engines,
Roman chariots, all as minute as
possible. The other boxes, with
1ds, contained the actors them
selves. The enterprising manageress,
stout lady in cotton dress.
ing-gown, placed herself opposite at
the table and prefaced the entertain
rnent with short but interesting adj
dress. THE ordinary domestic fea,' -
she began, sis n creature of considera-
BILE intelligence and capable of a high
degree of intellectual cultivation. We
have no less than three hundred in
this esta blishment. They are not hun
cry" she added hastily, in answer to
some slight expression of anxiety that
doubtless portrayed itself on our ccun-
tenances. Il engaged man to come
every day and feed them
He bares his arm, the three hundred
are placed thereon and they suck until
they are satisfied. Our immediate APP
prehension thus allayed, the lady pro-
ceeded to explain that the first process
in the great work of tanning and edu-
eating flea was to fasten an invisible
gold thread around its neck, by
means Of which it could be
lifted q at pleasure or harnessed
70 any of the vehicles dis
played in the box before us. A we'll
nurtured specimen will often live to the
age OF eight years, and with evident
pride she remarked: 1--WE have several
among our troupe who are already six
years Old" and so saying she handed
us a powerful microscope and gratified
us by the sight of one of these vener-
able fieas (magnified to the size of
weep kicking and plunging violently,
in nowise impeded by the weight of its
golden collar. The entertainment be-
gan with a chariot race by feas of
various nations. The Russian was at
tached to its native drosky, the
Siberian to a sledge. England, France
and Germany had each their repre-
sentatives, the former harnessed, I
think, to common London omnibus.
Each competitor was supposed to be
able to draw a body of six times its
own weight The stage was slightly
tilted, however, in order to assist the
runners.
Next we were treated to a ballet as
danced by some really superior artistes.
The lady opened one of the cardboard
boxes and extracted thence with del
icate pair Of pincers dozen of dancing
IDEAS, each elegantly attired in-or
rather, / should perhaps say, covered
by-a petticoat of tissue paper, red,
blue, green, yellow, all the colors OF
the rainbow. Each dancer was an
nounced by name as she entered upon
the scene. Meess Elizabet, Fraulein
Anna, Mamzelle Barbe and others. and |
each and all, encouraged by the voice |
OF their directress, performed the most |
astonishing evolutions, whirling and |
hopping, skipping, leaping wildly into
the air in q way that was comical to !
behold. 1t was as if the minutest |
of ballet girls had been cut in
two at the waist, the lower half
performing minus the head and i
or like Sabbatical |
dance of fairy lamp shades bewitched.
Now and again, after some unusually |
prodigious leap, an artist would be up
set Then. beneath the gay, volumin-
Gus skirt, the struggling insect was for
, moment visible, quickly replaced on
its legs. however, by the watchful care
Of its mistress.
. Now came act the third. when the in
terest was supposed to eliminate, and
with much verbal flourish of trumpets
, female rope-dancer was produced,
second only in renown touthe famous
Blondin himself The young llady's
name was Eliza. She lived in a nest of
with one other companion,
who was probably in delicate health,
Is she was not called upon to perform.
Eliza not only danced on rope. but
twice traversed an imaginary unfath-
unable abyss on a nearly invisible wire
between two pins.-Pall
Nall Gazette.