Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-06-17
70 PLEASE TIE PUBLIC Eye.
MANY STRANGE THINGS PEOPLE
WILL DO IN ORDER TO EARN
THEIR LIVING WITHOUT
MANUAL LABOR.

q WOTlu anu these people uU oil hlluo
of things to stay In it. They like the
world they desire to remain in it just
as long as tneir destiny will permit.
To accomplish this many there are
who are willing to perform all kinds of
hard labor, but at the same time, there
are others-men and women who prefer
to perform strange and difficult feats
for the edification of their brothers and
sisters whose hard earned dollars help
to swell the Golfers of the circus or
amusement hall manager. !.
1t must not be imagined from the
foregoing remarks that those who pro-
vide the amusement for the laboring
classes have nothing to do. They, too,
have to work and the work that they
do is actually almost if not fully as
laborious as that of the man who lives
from the sweat of his brow; for, al
ways before them there is the thought
of the public, the dear public that is al
ways hungry for something new.
The feats that were easy, the achieve
ments that were commonplace, have
no longer the power to attract and the
public turns away with disgust, to re-
turn no more until some other man or
woman has succeeded in achieving the
impossible.
This love for novelty is the trait that
is responsible for two important feat
ures in the modern amusement world:
The vaudeville and the American cir
cur. A few years ago 1t was the dime
museum, but now the dime museum it
self has ceased to be a novelty and the
continuous show LaS taken its place.
Here are to be found nearly all the old
friends and those who have no place in
this creation of modern conditions may
still be found at the circus or the side
show that is SO closely allied to it.
Fents Under Water.
There Is, for example, the tank lady.
How many hours these women have
spent beneath the water since the day
when someon discovered that it would
be a pleasure to the public to see an
attractive woman emulate a fish it
would be impossible t o surmise, but in
to the tanks they have gone scores Of
times a day, and beneath these waters
they have performed many unique
feats.
The impossible things that can be
done with the human stomach have al
ways been good bread winners. There
is a competency in having a throat and
aesophaguS SO constructed that a. is
possible to push a wat11 and chain, a
twenty or twenty-five inch cavalry
sabre or a bunch of sharp bayonets
down into it without fear of killing
oneself, while the coal eaters and the
glass eaters of both sexes have a source
of income that is still to be relied
upon.
Feats of strength or those that de-
mand a steady han and a cool head
are always great money makers. Strong
men and strong women are great al
fractions and so are the acrobatic per-
formers, especially when they display
merit in their work as was shown by
the troupe of Japanese and Chinese ar
lists who took the amusement world
by storm last winter. To balance one
self almost upon air and her perform
all kinds of unusual feats while in that
position is a certain road to public ia
Vor.
The male and female contortionists
VINO tie themselves up into bow knots
and slip nooses mat would startle an
angleworm, are old timers, but the old
feats, impossible as they seemed, have
been surpassed from year to year until,
at the present time, the ~contortionist
who desires to perform acts that are
A-Wp-inSn1r1nQ has mo Cimnln taCly ho-
fore him.
Mounting a ladder, the rungs OF
which are swords or sharp knives. is
an old trick, but 1t is still a favorite,
especially when it is performed by a
clever Japanese acrobat, for on such
occasions the public has reason to be-
lieve that there is no fake" about it.
There is a little japanese girl who is
an expert in sword walking and her
feats enable her to draw a large sal
airy.
Before she became an expert she
suffered awful tortures, for, as she ex-
plains, the trick consists in knowing
how to grip the e0ge of each sharp
scimitar with the toes. 1t must be
done fearlessly and the performer must
mount with firm, quick step as o 0
as the foot is in position. The secret
of sword walking is one that cannot
be learned from books, however. 1t
is all a matter of experience and prac-
tice and in this case the experience is
apt to be unpleasant.
Daring Air Feats.
Daring performances high in the air,
tricks of tumbling that make the per-
former seem more like a rubber ball
than a human being of flesh and bone
and blood are popular spectacles, ever
when lot accompanied by undressing
acts and other features that novelty
hunting showmen have devised. Walk
ing with the head downward, living
a good portion of ones life with their
heels in the air; running foot races
or hanging on by ones toes to the
rungs of a polished horizontal ladder
or with big suction shoes on ones feet
perambulate about a ceiling, a verit-
able human fly, are diversions of the
human functions that are still a de-
light to the populace.
These are but a few of the tricks
that are used as a means of winning
the applause of the public and from
season to season they undergo a
change, always becoming a little more
novel, which is another wora for dan
gerous." AS soon as the public shows