Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1899-10-21
The Crime of the
~ Great Gorilla.


Nm
w for her pretty, pale face,
but because she was a quiet, ten
der-hearted, plucky little woman,
who found her way into all our
hearts without any effort. and then
3nnocently shut her eyes to the havoc
she had wrought, treating us all alike,
from the proprietor TO the humblest of
the performing troupe and tent men.
circus crowd" is not exactly the
kind of society in which refinement and
tender consideration are likely TO be
encouraged and developed. ButZenobe,
1.-The queen of wire-walkers," as she was
described in our flaming bills, never had
any reason to complain of the treat
ment she received from the highest TO
the lowest person connected with Herr
Shoffie's world-famous circus and
menagerie. No one ever uttered a
swear or coarse word or expression
within ear-shot of her, and no one ever
ventured 20 chaff or joke with her. Yet
she was only a little simple girl of Il,
with only n very poor performance on
the programme, earning less than near
ly all the other artists, including my
self, who had the honor of introducing
phants to audiences twice daily on six
days of the week.
But Zenobe Was good; the worst
among us saw that and respected her for
it Yes, the worst among us. Probably
that person was myself, so I am more
than right
And it is strange that the possible
best, certainly the steadiest and clever
est man in the 'crowd," respected her
least 1t was not because he was, OF
Thought he was, better than she, but be.
cause he loved her more than we did
more deeply, less tenderly, and conse-
quently more selfishly- Wewere content
for the day with little word floating to
us on her silvery voice, and followed by
one of the cheering, sunny smiles from
her pale lips. But he-Stavarta, 1.-THE
agile wonder of the world--would not
have been contented with her soul
could she have sacrificed IT to him; no,
not with thousand souls as honest and
as womanly as hers would he have been
content if she had had thousand and
one to sacrifice.
1t was at Preston, at the Great Iron
hall, that the awful thing occurred sc
suddenly and hideously that il was over
before any of the Mortified on-lookers
could realize how il began.
The circus performance was in full
swing. The huge audience, which filed
every seat in the great amphitheater
Except those in the gallery, which had
been temporarily closed as unsafe)
had exhausted the attractions of the
menagerie section of the show ii the
hour between opening of doors and the
commencement of the circus perform
ance, and they sat in their serried tiers
of faces, ashy white in the blue cleo
trio light, gazing down with awe or in
terest upon the circus of sand and saw
dust as one turn followed ANOTHER.
Zenobe's performance was evidently
awaited with great interest; she had
made a stir in the town from the start,
owing to her daring rather than her
skill, however. When the company had
arrived at the Iron hall on Sunday, Herr
Shoffie discovered, to his dismay, that,
owing to architectural shortcomings,
it was impossible to erect Zenobe's
slack-wire or her fall net satisfactorily.
Consequently he had fallen in readily
with Zenobe's suggestion that the net
SHOULD substitute her tight-rope walk.
ing feat for the slack-wire. And 1t SO
befell that Zenobe created a huge sensa-
ton in Preston by walking a 100 foot
rope so feet above the arena, and amid
the glazing, kissing arc-lamps which
hung like balls of light from the lat.
tice girding of the roof walked
bravely forward and back with only a
two-inch rope between her and an aw-
full death.
Zenobe was less nervous than any of
Us about her dangerous feat, and that
alone was something in her favor. For
my part I had stood each night during
her performance and watched her at
that dizzy height through the slightly
parted curtains, with my head giddy,
my heart sick. and my pulse scarce