St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-08-14
LOST HIS NERVE.

nNE day when we were stepping
" down from an upper gallery and
were moving toward the main pool in
Millionaire Adolph Sutro's ocean bath
house at San Francisco ! heard the be-
ginning of the story of the man who
lost his nerve.
/ knew that Zeno had been boxing
instructor, foot racer, seller of bar
gain jewelry which the purchaser
rubbed at his own risk, and / had had
many hints to the effeet that he had
once been some kind of vaudeville per-
former, but in what particular the
stage was represented in him / did not
learn until that day. We sat on the
balcony, and, viewing the droves of
seals which squirmed in a potato-bug
fashion upon the rocks, Zeno told the
story.
"It's only a few years ago." he said,
Hand could turn somersault back
ward, then forward, then backward
again, as quick as one-two-three, and
that, let me tell you, isn't any fool Of a
trick. More than that, could turn a
forward somersault on tight rope;
there may be other people who can do
1t, but I've never seen them. Under
stand, I'm not blowing. | couldn't roll
over on the ground now. Do you re-
member the day in Carson when we
came to mudhole, and rather than try
to leap across it-four feet-I walked
Is yards around? That was because
I couldn't have made the leap for my
life, and / knew it. was afraid to try.
You couldn't get me to step off mov-
Ing car now for big mopey. | stick
right down to the solid ground. I'm a
coward on any movement that takes me
up into the air, even for 1s inches. al
ways want to feel this old earth under
me- And used to do somersaults on a
tight rope"
There was gloom on his face as he
spoke. He was evidently thicking of
those active old days.
''It's a case of gone nerve" Zeno
continued. "It wasn't the breaking of
bones when fell that drove me out of
the business. It was the realizing that
/ was coward when / was Up there in
the air. Look here. When a railroad
engineer begins to see men lying on the
track ahead of him and turns off steam
and finds that there isn't even ashadow
he knows what he's got to do. He's
got to quit. He may be as strong and
as intelligent as he ever was; he may
be able to recite time card backward.
but when he gets to seeing trouble
ahead of him on the rails he's done for.
He can't make title and he grows un-
easy and worried, and they get on to
him, and he goes by discharge if he isn't
slick enough to resign and quit while
his name is good. well, that's the way
with tight-rope man. AS soon as he
begins to be afraid the rope is slippery
or that he won't strike it just right
when he turns his somersault; as soon
as he commences to calculate about the
kind of breakage that would happen to
his body should he fall into the orches-
ira seats-why, just that quick he
wants to get off the rope and stay off
forever. He'll never be able to go back
to it. He's just got to know that he
can't possibly get hurt, or else he's go
ing to be killed.
"Well, in the days when did my act
j knew that couldn't miss that rope
coming down if / tried. felt that if I
wanted to fall off I couldn't. I was
sure there was no earthly show for me
to get hurt, and so l was successful.
had seen four or five men drop into
the chairs and be hauled off to the hos
pital, where one, at least, Burki, died
with pieces of bone stuck all through
him like cooked fish. but that didn't
bluff me. understood that those fel-
lows had lost their nerve, and I knew,
too, that / hadn't and couldn't You
know, this was at time when we
didn't use nets.
"one week / found myself lined up
In the Crystal palace at st. Louis.
was half way down the bill and the
rope act was about the best thing on. |
I was in big letters. The fellow who
ran one two with me as second favorite |
was mesmerist. He was long-haired,
guy, but / put him down
for fake the minute + saw hinns
told him ST, too. don't know how the
quarrel started, but the end of It was
some pretty mean words from mesand
some pretty sore ones from him, and
he stage manager had to run us apart.
/ changed my mind about that mes
nefist when he followed me, for he
vas star. He fdok twoSor three peo-
Pts fre1D aHong the spectators, and, 1