The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1898-05-27

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pitiful pigmy,"
I Aesop uttered a roar Of rage and an
ger, then suddenly calming himself.
returned to the meter, and after hav-
ing followed with an eye of hatred the
ascent Of Icarus, began fumbling with
the mechanism of the stopcocks.
A great clapping Of hands. A fran
tic ovation. Two hundred pretty
women dropped their fans and leveled
their opera glasses, and, a trifle pale,
smiled with a delicious dread. Icarus
was up there-high up at the top Of
the circus-hanging to the last trapeze,
and turning over and over in it, slowly
and without an effort.
At times he paused, and his face
was seen radiant in the foolish pride
of triumph. Below, in the ring, the
clowns were stretching a circular net,
and in all the circus reigned deep 81
lence, broken only by n feminine whis-
per-: How graceful! What a handsome
fellow"
The gymnast then, finding his public
sufficiently warmed up, raised himself
at n pull, stitfening himself on his
wrists.
The trapeze, violently thrown back,
described n great arc, and, letting go
the bar. the man shot forward like an
arrow into space.
There was a feeling of apprehension
in the crowd, and an OH of alright
uttered by a thousand breasts. The
acrobat reached the second trapeze, and
calmly let himself swing in its decreas-
ing oscillations.
Slowly he thus darted eleven times.
calm and smiling, as he made the tour
of the circus, and rejoicing at feeling
beneath him the immense painting of
the throng.
AT this eleventh trapeZe he paused
to prolong this emotion-his glory
and his yes sought out Rita. The
equestrienne saw him. and with the
handle of her whip threw him a kiss.
The elated Icarus. hanging by one
hand, saluted her; then he brought his
trapeZe to rest. He was about to COM
piete his task.
Enough" said some voices.
mo! Bravo! Encore!" cried the
ladies, eager to feel once more the per-
verse joy of an enticing pain.
Fol the twelfth time the handsome
gymnast, stiffening his muscular arms,
essayed his terrible flight.
But an appalling cry of terror, a
frantic shout arose.
In an instant, suddenly-like a. can
die put out by the flap of a bats wing
the thousand glistening lights of the
circus were extinguished all together
at the precise and fatal moment when
the man was darting into space.
At the same instant there rose from
the ring a laugh, terrible, vibrating
with hate.
Then in the black and hideous OBJ
security. in the pitchy darkness that
filed the circus lately 50 blazing, poig-
nant shrieks rolled from row to row.
Women tainted and the spectators, with
their hearts crushed in hopeless terror,
shudderfngly sat as If petrified in their
places, and peered into the night that
filled the dome. The net was empty,
the acrobat must be looked for in the
gloom. In the search lanterns were
brought and carried toward the top Of
the circus. Five minutes-fve CEN
turtles, elapsed. Some one cried: "Ben-
gal lights"
Then, while here and there people
were trying to relight the burners, a
blaze Of violet and red. of green and
azure, flashed out and with a powerful
illumination lit up at one flash every
corner of the circus with it's fantastic
and trembling CLEANS.
And suddenly, as in the flames OF &
transformation scene, was seen, rigid,
clamped to the trapeze, Prince Icarus,
hanging motionless.
An unheard-of horror paralyzed him
in a supernatural frenzy. His hair
stood out. His distorted mouth grlnned
an idiot grin terrible to see, and his
face, whittier than that of a corpse, his
haggard eyes, %protruding from their
sockets, rolled convulsively.
Soon his comrades were near him.
With the handle of his knife Aesop
struck the gymnast's hands, and with
great difficulty detached. from the bar
the clenched hands of the miserable
man.
The gas was r~elighted and the crowd,
silently and without a breath, watched,
as it slowly lowered down, the descent
Of the living corpse.
There is today near Marseilles in the
asylum of Saint Pierre a poor mailman
who stalks straight forward, his arms
held in front and contracted in an i'm
aginary grip. 1t is a frightful sight.
1t is prince Icarus."
I do not know what Jail holds Aesop.
AS to that fairy Rita, she is now a prin-
cess somewhere in Germany.-(Adapt-
ed from the French of Paul Bonnetain.)