The sun., 1901-12-12
STAGE TOUCHES OF CIRCUS.
TIE MAN OR THE TIGERs NICE
QUESTION FOR A GIRL.

,ife and Death Both Disagrecabie for .
Persistentiy Pursued Maiden In .
Third Avenue Drama-Bicycie Feats
SHOWN in tho Vaudeville Theatres.
A Girl Is persistently pursued and fire.
oueutly overtaken In Tho Orphan Heiress.'
She Is neither an orphan nor an heiress
when the drama begins. Her father is
murdered In the first act by wicked woman.
Her mother Is murdered In the second act
by q wicked man Those two bad ones.
bent on keeping her inheritance. abduct her
again and again. but her devoted lover
and a brave young woman rescue her just
as many times. fendish money lender
ioins in the attack and a faithful servant
in the defence. The opposing forces are
further recruited with a clergyman. who Is
for the right. and circus manager. who is
for the wrong. London and Paris policemen
mix In and confusedly help both parties.
The poor girl is all the while mussed up by
the alternating seizures OF friends and
foes She is lost and saved so rapidly that
she never knows for more than a minute
where she is at between strenuous life and
impending death. Audiences at the Third
Avenue Theatre became intensely excited
Jy her adventures. Early In yesterday
afternoons performance n cry from the
gallery assured the female murderess that
she was no lady. and later en- orange was
thrown at the male boss Of the murderers.
The man who had to dodge an orange
is 80 busy with his villainy. so tremen-
dously overworked in robbing and abduct-
ing. that II is not until the final act OF the
play that he bethinks him OF the stage
scoundrel's habit Of loving the heroine,
and resolving that she shall be his. AT
this time he has bargained with the circus
manager 10 take her of to Africa and never
bring her back, The Snowman is a rea-
soner. Why go to the trouble and risk
of e1portation? Better make domestic
lob OF IT, How? Put her into the tigers
cage 10 be eaten up. The chief pursuer
likes that plan, The maiden is brought
into the tent. savage growl comes from
the cage. as though the ravenous beast
were hungering particularly for that deli
oous girl. 1t is at this very moment that
the two-legged brute for the first time
takes that devouring Wow Of her.
BE my wife," he says. 'or enter that
cage It's life with me. or death with the
Iiger Choose"
She has knelt to plead piteo usly for mercy.
Now she rises to her feet, surveys the villain
critically. and walks right into the cage;
The concluding line Of this article shall
not be- Continued In our next. The
reader shall know at once that the animal
hidden in the cage is the hero lover, and his
hr.g Of the heroine ends the play.
Athletic exhibitions have taken a sudden
boom In vaudeville. Keith, Proctor and
Pastor had race for racers, but the first to
announce some novel bicyclists will be
the last to show them. Keith described
some wonders 'ie was going to import,
and before the could get to this country
4 ats NtlAK
performers before their audiences. Harry
Elkes and Tom Butler, the bicyclists, started
to race on home trainers last Monday on
Tony Pastors stage.
A machine called the cycle-whirl was
shown for the first time here at Proctor's
In Twenty-third street yesterday. The
exhibition Is extraordinary. The cycle
whirl Is a miniature bicycle racing track
made to occupy the full stage surface. In
shape IL resembles large wooden bowl
Its sides are formed by wooden stats, placed
about an fnoh apart and. according TO
the announcement. at an angle OF sixty
degrees. These Stats are fastened at the
bottom to a circle about thirty-five feet
across its centre and at the top to a like
circle of sixty-foot diameter. On this
apparently almost perpendicular track
bicyclists race and perform startling feats.
The spaces between the stats make every
thing visible. This track has been used
for several weeks at the London Alhambra,
and Billy Link. who has just come from the
Ahambra. copied IL for Mr.. Proctor.
Blanch Sloan. a sister OF Tod Sloan. Is
appearing at the Dewey this week on the
trapeze. Her performance is courageous,
but not dssimilar TO those by many gym
nasts In her line. The only rather un-
usual thing about II is that she flies over
the heads OF the audience. and usually
without a net TO protect herself or persons
below in case Of fall. Miss, Sloan may
like to endanger her fair neck, but a poll
of the audience would perhaps discover a
minority in favor Of such "A conclusion TO
visit 10 the theatre. Seriously, she should
he stopped from endangering lives Ia such
a way.