The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-21
WORLDS GREATEST JUGeLER.
sOME OF CINQUEVALLrs FEATs
SEEM ALMOST INCREDIBLE.

from the Strano Magazine.
Marvellous in the extreme are the feats
of Paul Cinquevalli, the greatest juggler
of the world. Some of the seeming mira
cles of the Hindoos sink into insignif-
canoe when compared with the wonders
he performs.
1t was while boy at school that he
first demonstrated a talent for extraordi-
nary accomplishments Not in the pur-
suits of study, however, did these gifts lead
him. 1t was rather to conception and
achievement Of acts of what, in others,
might be called sleight-of- hand, but in him
were realities. Seated at his desk in the
schoolroom one day he threw his slate
high in the air, placed the pencil in his
mouth, and when the slate descended ne
caught it upon the point of the pencil, in
scribing in the contact the letter "A
Cinquevalli was also gifted as a wrestler
and athlete. He made little progress i'll
letters, and soon ran away from home to
become gymnast. Joining an itinerant
troupe of tumblers and acrobats, he quick
ly made a name which brought his fame
home and led his parents, previously sor-
rowing at his strange career, to entertain
Just pride in him. Although somewhat be-
low medium hight, CinqueVaIh possesses
remarkable strength and agility. He has
a world of patience and persstency, and
10 him the accomplishment of a feat re-
curing a year or more of practice is no
unusual matter. One of his leading per-
1OrmanceS requires all of his uncommon
elements of character. The juggler en-
ters the stage, wearing a spiked helmet
and carrying four sections of a pointed
pole. An assistant or attendant accom-
panies him, bearing a large tub, weighing
A pounds. CinqueValH then places the tub
on one section of the pole and causes it to
spin around at rapid speed. When the We
locity is very great he begins to lenghten
the by-fitting in the other sections, and at
last the lower end of the pole is resting
upon one of his shoulders, while the tub
head.
Raising one hand. Cinquevaln dashes
away the pole from beneath the tub
causing the latter to fall in a perfectly
straight line. The great juggler braces
himself for tremendous effort, and after
Judging the center he dexterously catches
the huge tub on the spike of his helmet.
And there the tub keeps revolving. But
only consider the thing! A forty-four-
pound tub falling twenty-five feet onto
mans headl IF l am only two or three
inches out of the center" said Mr. Gin
queVali, in speaking of this feat the
nearly breaks my neck with its whirling
impact"
Once, at Lyons, that tub hurled Cinque-
valli twenty feet from where he stood;
and to-day one may see the scars inflicted
at various times by the murderous rim.
A wonderful balancing feat is the most
repertoire.
1t required him eight years to perfect
this. a glass is held in his month. In
the glass is a billiard ball, on which is
balanced an ordinary billiard cue. On the
top of the cue are balanced two other bill
lard balls, one above the other. After
eighteen months of weary pratice he was
for three seconds. Then my will failed"
he says, in narrating his difficulty, land
! gave it up for a while" Finally, a few
years later he accomplished it to de-
Of
tion with his billiard feats CinqueValH
wears a queer garment.
This is his "billiard table jacket which
was made to his order by a Regent street
tailor. Briefly he plays an orthodox. sci
entidc game of billiards on his own sinewy
person. The jacket is of real billiard cloth,
with five beautifully made pockets of cord
and brass wire. The sixth pocket is the
juggler's own right ear, and his forehead
is Spot" His arms and knees serve as
cushions. and wonderful cushions they
are.
Roberts or Pean would consider the
whole game an W9 4a saIs pay 4y an ir oTdl
valli. "Cannons are made in the air.
There is a pocket on each shoulder, two
in front and one at the bottom of my
The game is a very miracle of neatness
and skill. The balls fly into the air can
non, and then descend, only to glide hither
and thither, in and out of the pockets, ac-
tuated only by a series of sharp jerks on
the part of the player. when the balls
by the sense of touch" he says. And
marvelously delicate must that sense be,
considering the relative lightness of the
balls and the thickness of the green jacket
and tights. The prettiest and most diff
cult move of all is from the low back
pocket into one of the shoulder pockets.
The ball does not seem to know where to
go 1t runs along hesitatngly, but at last
it recognizes it's destination, and seeks it
with a comical little squirt
Cinquevalli says that his next trick in
wolves much real danger. cannon ball
weighing 4S1 pounds is pitched to him and
he catches it on the edge of dinner plate,
If the plate has flaws in its composition,
causing it to shiver to atoms in the Jug
gler's hand he is cut and lacerated very
painfully, as indeed has often been the
case with Cinquevalli He states that the
farther the ball is pitched to him the bet
ter il is for his feat inasmuch as II gives
him a greater opportunity to judge OF its
speed and of the exact point at which it
will come in contact with the plate.
very peculiar act is that of CinQuevallps
with the use of blowpipe loaded with a
small dart and heavy knife. fork and
a turnip The fork is thrown briskly into
the air, followed by the turnip.
tnrnip G meets the I prongs of the ASCENDING
fork the blowpipe is used and the dart inn
bedded in the turnip. An instant later
of the knife, and the juggler claims his
This feat grew out of another. A. sup
Wallis host asked him TO do something
for the company's entertainment! He pro-
tested he had no apparatus. whereupon
the host handed him a knife and fork and
a potato that had been boiled in its
Jacket"
The famous iuggler tossed up these
things aimlessly for a time until the new
trick came to him like a fash. Rising like
one inspired he continued to throw up
the three articles higher and higher.
Suddenly, while the potato was falling,
CinqueVali sliced II in halves by a swift
movement, and then instantly received
each half on the point of the knife and
fork. He succeeded at first by almost a
superhuman effort. but when he began TO
practice II later he found that a potato
was Of shape so uneven as to make II
difficult to regulate uniformly the move
ments of its parts. after being cut i'm
two. and he therefore adopted the turnip
Cinquevall uses very homely articles i'm
his wonderful acts, as will he observed I'm
the turnip trick. Speaking of adapting
common things to his desires, he says
that one summer while pcnicktng on the
Thames he grabbed an umbrella and a
lemonade bottle. After juggling these I'm
various ways he threw the bottle. corkless.
above his head, so as to descend mouth
FIRST raised the umbrella and caught on
its point the bottle in time to shelter him
self beneath its folds from the shower of
lemonade So characteristic of the man
are these little impromptu tricks that