The herald., 1895-09-10

than sufficient to upset the dslicately
poised equilibrium.
Therefore, the art of falling is one OF
the most important and it Is also one lof
the most difiuult of mastery among the
circus riders accom- plishments. 1t is al
ways easy to recognize veteran circus
rider IN the way he falls. AS soon as he
sees that the situation is hopeless, that
he must 60 down. his hands shoot for his
knees like fash anj he hugs himself up
automatically into round ball, with
nothing exposed that can break. unless
possibly it be a rib or two in some very
exceptional case. Usually striking in
this way, with the muscles all tense and
the body folded up tight and hard, the
rider escapes with few bruises and a
general shaking up.
''It's astonishing how many things you
can think off, said famous bareback
rider in recent talk | had with him,
I'm the time, when YOU are in the air fall
ing from horse. You see, we circus
riders have seen SO many accidents and
had 1t hammered into US so much ever
since we were children what we are to
do in such cases that it all comes rushing
through our heads like q whirlwind.
Il remember the worst fall l ever had
as distinctly as If it were last week, al
though really it was several years ago.
1t seems queer, but it happened when I
was sitting astride my horse. walking
around the ring after doing my act. All
OF a sudden something made the morse
shy and before l knew it I was gone
lifted in the air and turning over. half
from habit, Isuppose. IN a back somer-
sault. heard the ringmaster yell at me
and realized that unless l could get
around in the turn so as to clear my
head l would break my neck in striking.
Between that and my reaching the ground
was only the small part OF "a second, but
l4I -
argue out the whole situation. | won.
dered II the horse would step on me, de-
cided how | had better roll to get out of
the way, planned just how l would strike
the ground with my shoulders if l man
aged to save my head, and then dug my
chin down into my breast, body and m u.s.
Gle, on that turn.
"Well, it was close shave. They car
ried rc o"t senseless, and the doctor said
my eek WIS broken, but it wasn't.
was pro..y badly wrenched, though. and l
carried my chin pressed against my body
for weeks afterward. You can be sure il
l hadn't got up some fine speed on that
turn there would have been another dead
circus rider.
''Do you mean that circus rider can
make himself turn faster or slower after
he IS III shs aiT?' I asked.
Certainly l do; that is the most i'm
portant part of somersault work. You
see no matter how good fnan isrhe can
never leave his horse for a turn with ex-
actly the right amount of spring. Some.
times he will throw himself little too
hard and other times not hard enough !;
it depends partly on how he feels an d
partly on the way the horse is going.
Well, when he finds himself IN the air,
say half way round on the turn, he feels
that is, all good circus riders do-by
kind of instinct whether he is turning
too fast or not fast enough. so as to land
right on the morse. Besioes that he can
see most of the way round just where
the horse is and by practice tell whether
anything is wrong: Now, suppose he
simply lifts his head straight up, or even
little back, and that acts like putting
on a brake. Then. if he sees he is too
slow, all he has to do is to bend his head
down on his chest in the way was tell
inf inf you Of like bicycle going down
And how about swerving to one side
or the other? Can you correct that. too?
You can to q certain extent, bnt not
so much. For instance, if l see I am
going to land too far inside the horse I
can throw my body two. or three inches
out by turning my shoulder IN the other
direction. You can't count much on
that, though, and ii the hoYse's body has
sweryed out from under you or has s maze
you swerye in the air by sideway jerk
just as you jumped, there isn't much
c hance of Jour landing right. The
best thing you can do then is to hit your
horse and get away
How do you mean hit your horse?"
Come down near to him and push
off with one foot for turn and land safe
on the ground. If a circus rider can't
hit his horse at all he's pretty sure to get
nasty fall
Few people realize the immense amour t
of practice that is necessary to make an
accomplished circus rider. Nearly all the
famous ones have begun their work at a
very early age.-Philadelphia Inquirer.