The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-06-26
THE CIRCUS RING.
WHAT A SAWDUST TUMBLER
- SAYS OF THE BUSINESS. -,
How Ground and Lofty Acts Are
Done-ExecutingD Divers, Tucks,
Twisters and PirouetteS-
Difficult Feats.

Y Y boys-and some big boys,
too-there is probably nc
one thing in circus life that fascinates
them SO much as the tumbl1ng. When
they see half hundred athletic men,
clothed in feshings, run down the
spring board and turn somersaults
over each other and over the backs OF
elephants their delight is complete
and they think that if they could only
be circus tumblers their lives would
be perfectly happy.
"You would be surprised" said
Alexander Sieburt, big, brawny and
athletic performer, eff you knew the
number of boys who every year wish
to become tumblers in the show. Yet
the business does not pay very well,
not nearly as well as other acts. An
ordinary tunbler gets only about $35
week, and IN extraordinary good
man about $50. A leaper who is able
to turn double back spiral cork
screw pirouette over four elephants
on the ground and one elephant stand
ing on the tub may get $50 a week.
If he can do a trapeze act, too, ne may
reach the limit of 500 per week.
''I'll tell you how I learned the
business, and my experience I think
is that of many. When 1 was green
country boy 1 used to drop corn for
six cents a day and sell wild black
berries for three cents a quart to get
money to go to the circus ring. With
the other boys used to look forward
to the circus for months before it ar
rived, talking of it daytimes and
dreaming of it nights. 1t used to
walk ten miles to the town to see the
show. I was not satisfied unless 1 saw
the side show and all. I wanted to
SEQ the anaconda, the bearded woman,
and the educated hog, which could
spell backward and forward and was
immensely better in figures than ]
was, lust as much as l wanted to see
the regular ring performance and the
menagerie.
"Well, one time the Barnum show
came along. There was trick mule
with the show, and it was a part of the
programme to ask somebody from
among the spectators to ride it. ]
thought could do it. I got on the
mules back and he began to buck.
chung to him like grim death. He
backed me up against the centre pole,
he rolled over and over in the saw
dust ring, but still I chung to him.
Finally the clown lifted me off, and
lost my senses. When came to was
in the dressing room, and I have been
spending much of my time there ever
since.
'The men said was very plucky
fellow, and somebody made an offer to
me that should travel with the cir.
Gus. I was glad of the chance, as my
father had been making plans to send
me out on the towpath with canal
boat. I was taken with the circus as
an apprentice for four years without
any definite plan as to just what was
to do. My teacher and patron gave
me my board and clothes, some spend
ing money, many whippings, and,
when 1 had become little proficient
and was entitled to salary, he drew
my salary as we'll as his own. He used
to make me practice an hour day,
and it was hard work at first. I first
learned to balance myself on my hands
and then to turn a back somersault.
1t is much easier, by the way, to turn
a back somersault than a front one.
Then I learned to turn fip-faps, hand
springs, forward somersaults, rows of
forward somersaults, progressive and
retrogressive fip-faps, aud at last the
round-off fiip-fap and twister COM
bines. This is feat which belongs
to cross tumbling, the most difficult
thing. A fiip-fap is turned by throw
ing yourself on your hands on the
very spot your feet were a moment be-
fore and then springing to an upright
position. A good tumbler can throw
twenty-four fip-faps in succession on
space six inches square.
cit took me two years to learn the
routine of t1mbling and five years to
become really proficient. Inever lost
practice for a single day. In winter
as well as simmer had to keep it up,
so you can see that there is plenty of
work for one who goes into the bust
ness"
els it difficult feat" he was asked,
t'to turn somersault over five ele-
phants?"
cit is feat that requires great
nerve and self-confidence. A timid
man could never do it. Sometimes
we fall because we do not strike the
springboard correctly, and sometimes
because we do not take the right step.
We very seldom meet with very seri-
GUS accidents, though-that is, any
thing more serious than a spraln or
the breaking of an arm. Short men
seem to make better tumblers than tall
ones, and alertness is a greater re-
quisite than strength. When the men
run down to the springboard in line.
as you see us run every night, the
least skillful tumblers are always sent
out first and the most skillful ones
last. That is done so that there will
be no failures to mar the act.
"All first-class tumblers can do the
double somersault backward and for
ward, but the triple somersault is a
hard one. Somehow or other we can
not get command of the third turn.
An expert performer hits upon it by
accident, but he is never sure. In the
third somersault one whirls around
three times as fast as he does in the
first one, and it Is only by chance that
he may strike on his feet, or keep on
his feet when he does strike.
s'The success of tumbler depends
entirely upon the grace and ease with
which he performs his feats. An
easy style means a good salary. There
Ire trnblers who are very expert in
5;MorI4 faots Int who have an awk-