Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-10-07
DARING FEAIS Of
SlE|GH1OFHAND.
REMARKABLE TRICKS EMPLOYED
BY JUGGLERS TO AMUSE THE
UP-TO-DATE THEATRE
GOER.

This promises to be a season OF Jug
glers, and vaudeville managers are
outdoing each other in the selection of
experts in the art who will afford en-
tertainment for their audiences, and.
incidentally, increase the box receipts
Of the playhouses where this particular
amusement is made a speciality.
Conjuring, Juggling, and feats of
strength are such ancient means and
methods of amusement and entertain
nent, that one cannot help wondering
why it is they have not failed in public
attraction centuries ago. Possibly it is
because that, although SO old to many
" us, they are still new to the major
ty, and because, also, ancient ideas
are always being dressed in new gar
ments; but whatever the reason, the
fact remains that we are as delighted
to-day with sleight-of-hand tricks,
Juggling performances, and displays OF
physical endurance as were our ances-
tors of a couple of thousand years ago.
But nothing mediocre in this line can
survive to-day and he who is to pro-
vide a twenty minutes entertainment
that shall not be productive of a sense
of depression ere it has we'll begun
must indeed be clever, and prepared to
show us something that cannot be done
equally well by any other person who
has undertaken this means of making
q living.
A first water juggler's sense of equil-
tbrium is only equalled by his physical
strength. He can juggle with any
thing from, one might almost say, a
needle to a railway engine, and for
that matter, with both of them at once,
Notwithstanding the disparity between
their weights.
Wonderful Feats.
A clever Juggling trick is performed
with two cigars and a cigar holder.
The holder is sent whirling through
space to fall, as it should, between the
lips of the juggler, but ere it has fin
ished its flight a cigar is in its wake,
and as naturally as if placed there,
drops into the tube of the cigar holder.
In a moment it is snatched out to make
way for the other cigar. It sounds
easy. but try it. Also try juggling with
a cigar holder, a cigar and a lighted
vesta. Having caught the holder in
the lips, catch the cigar in the holder,
and then the match on the end Of the
cigar, which it must light.
Feats requiring the combination Of
not a little strength, particularly in
the teeth and mouth, and a fine sense
Of equilibrium, are those most admired.
One would think that there was
nothing new to be done with the bicy-
Gle on the stage, but some of the feats
performed by up-to-date artists are SO
remarkable that they refute this Idea
q, Immediately. One is to take the ma
chine apart and play with the two
wheels and the frame in a light-heart-
ed sort Of manner, throwing Them
about as though they were but three
paper balls.
Another with the bicycle is far more
difficult, and calls for considerable ex-
srtion and some clever balancing. 1t
Is to lift bicycle and rider with n
hand high above the head, and hold
them there while the cyclist INDUCES
in a ride IN nothing. In doing this the
juggler grasps the top bar of the ma
chine at the spot essential to securing
perfect equilibrium, and bicycle and
man are hoisted safely enough-about
as awkward a fourteen stone weight as
it is possible to imagine.
From the bicycle the up-to-date ar
fist usually turns to cannon balls
sound, solid shot of glittering steel
handling them as though they were
only pills in weight. Still, they turn
the scale at % pounds. What he can
not do with a cannon ball in the way
of Juggling is not worth doing. In his
hands the ball appears to become a
thing imbued with life. He sends it
all over his body in every possible di-
rection with a seeming light touch Of
his hand. He runs it round his neck
SO speedily that it looks like a silver
collar.
A Dangerous Trick.
Then, as a grand finale, he treats one
to a feat that smacks Of real danger.
He gives his assistant a few cannon
balls to throw at him. Then the Jug
gler stands inclined towards the man,
watching for the coming of the mis-
sile. 1t comes-a quarter of a hun
dredweight of hard steel, and he
catches it-not with his hands, that
would be nothing, but with his head,
OF rather at the back of his head in
the nape of the neck-catches it, and
hurls it off again to the other end Of
the stage.
Another variation of this feat Is seen
when he throws the ball some six feet
in the air and it falls, not as everyone
seems to think, on the top of his era
mum, scattering his brains, but in the
nape of his neck. 1t is an exciting few
seconds; up goes the ball, which he
watches in it's descent until it is a foot
above him, then, as you shudder at a
prospective smashed skull, a sharp in
~clination of the head and the ball is at
home. And the place where it falls is
not padded.
OF course, the secret of doing this so
that 1t doesn't damage you is just the
same as catching a base ball without
hurting your thanksgiving with the
ball a bit, but it requires both time
and work and there are loads of money
In the trada