Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-27
FROM THE FLYING TRAPEZE.
A standardization Leap to Certain
Death.

SeVenty-Ftye-FOOt Leap 10 SeEt"A"
Death.
"r road a French novel the other day."
said the man to whom everything was
reminder of something else. land 1t made
me wonder IL the author had ever lived in
Australia. Twenty years ago l was there
as the manager of a circus. or what they
called a circus In that country, and among
our people was pretty little woman who
swung on a flying trapeZe, and wound up
her turn by tumbling from the highest
available point into net. 1t did not make
any difference how high that roof might
be- that little woman rugged her PLATFORM
right up to the ridge pole and dove down
through the air like flying fish. I've seen
her drop as much as seventy-five feet ana
come up smiling every time. She was about
twenty wears old, as pretty as a picture
and as guileless and good as she was pretty
She was the star of the show and there
wasn't q man or woman connected with
the entire establishment that wouldn't hght
for her. She was always cheerful, and
never afraid. and the audiences loved her
as we did. 1t was the most natural thing
in the world that she should fall in love.
and she had done that year before she
came to us. The man in the case was a
worthless kind of fellow. with some
money, and, might have been expected
she just wasted herself on him. 1 knew he
was going to break her heart the first time
| met him, and / wanted to break his in
fernal neck, but 1 had no good and suffi-
cient cause to, and so l couldn't do any
thing but stand by and see him do 1t. Her
contract with us was for year, and she
couldn't marry till that had expired, and
he loafed around waiting for her. At least
that was the imitation he was giving, but
a couple Of months before the time he dis
appeared, and two weeks later he had mar
ried another woman in Melbourne. Our
show was doing New Zealand at the time
and when the news came our little woman
went down under 1t like flower under a
Sahara sand storm. We had to lay her of
for ten days, but she rallied and went to
work again l saw, though, the first time
she took the high leap that she was rat
tied and was liable to break her neck, so
told her she could cut that part of the act
until she got all right again. She knew
was rigi- and cried like a baby, because
she was ambitious little thing and was
proud of her jumping and loved the ap-
plause 1t always brought her. She insisted
on keeping 1t in, and l gave her another
chance or two, but she couldn't do 1t, and
| cut ii out.
"AH the paraphernalia was left however
as it was when she did the jump, except the
net which was removed, or rather was
not stretched when it came her turn. I was
glad l had been firm with her. for when
she came out that night she was very nerv-
Gus and her eyes kept wandering around
the audience, II she were looking for
some one who was not there. She went
through the trapeZe business all right and
when 1 expected that she would come
twisting down the rope as she always did
l was mistaken, for she caught hold Of
guy rope and went hand over hand up to
her high platform. 1t was at least sew
enty-tive feet from the ground, and the
audience went wild when she did the act
You see. It didn't know but that was
part of Il show-something new Won un-
derstand. / didn't know myself what she
intended to do. and l couldn't help giving a
hand with the audience, she did it so grace
fully. But the next instant all of us knew
for she stood straight on the platform
away UP there, nearly out of sight, and
with kiss thrown from her finger tips to
down straight to the hard ground, holding
her body rigid and striking square on her
head. She never stirred after she struck.
and the audience was paralyzed that we
got her out into the dressing room before
a single person moved from his seat"