Waterbury Democrat., 1901-10-03
WHERE ACRoBATs PRACTICE.

WHERE ACRoBATS PRACTICE. A Famous Resort in London For All
 Sorts of Specialists.
 There are very few Londoners who know that down in the unsavory New Cut, on the right hand side as one goes toward Waterloo Road. is a little, grimy coffee shop
 Above the door is the legend famil- far enough hereabouts Beds sixpence a night'~~ 1t is obviously poor mans "hotel." Yet any weekday, from 10 or II in the morning up till 1 or 2 in the afternoon, the curious in such mat l ters may observe passing in and out a never-ceasing stream of well dressed ! and well set up men, clean Sshayen, I spruce and alert, the very last, sort of ! individuals one would imagine to pat 1 ronize for it's board or lodging an es- 1 tablishment such as this.
 l Nor, as matter of fact, do they do l so. Follow any one of them and you will find that he passes straight l through the little shop, down dark l passage, to emerge eventually into a 1 lofty hall, round the walls of which i are ranged all sorts of gymnastic ap- ,paratus.
 ,. And on the floor, suspended from 1 rings ill mid-air, dangling from tra- pezes near the ceiling, are men-and -tumbling, flying, swinging, l walking on their hands, standing on 1 their heads, throwing somersaults by 1 the score, and twisting themselves in to every conceivable contortion to l which the human form divine is capa- able of lending itself. For this is a professional acrobats' practice room and it's name and fame are known from end to end of Europe, and, in deed, all over the world wherever gym, nasts and such like folk travel, and they travel far. They are largely for. eigners-these people. Listen to the babel of tongues. Regard the various types. Ton little, dark-eyed lasslt who is turning catherine" wheels s with such zest. is q Neapolitan, and [ debutante, ,apprenticed to q. troupe by parents who were too poor to keeI her. Like it? Ask her. She knows today, poor child, for almost the frs l time in her hitherto sad young life what it means to go to bed unhungry
 Here is an Austrian laddie training under Mr Harry Ara. He has only been few months with the troupe and already (he tells you proud1y) ht can turn forty flip flaps" witIou pausing for breath
 A child woman with black elf lock. and a Jewish cast of countenance f soiernnly engaged Tn throwing her arm
 and legs about and around now lii
 the sails of a windmill, anon like tht tentacIes of some strange species O octopus. She is an Armenian, the sol
 survivor of her village, at the time i
 was raided by q band of Kurds earl, last winter.
 Of the inanimate things that ar, ranged round the walls, the most ar
 not what they seem. A billiard table for instance, which looks as solid a
 one of the best S0-guinea match ones : proves on Investigation to be fitte, i with a dummy tsbed" of green baize
 covered canvass. upon which the per former can fall headforemost. if nee, be, from almost any height withou
 hurting himself,
 Originally, one of the habitues 0
 the place informs us. this curiousl , situated practice hall was a penn
 gaff'' of the old approved type. O.
 the little stage at the back, blood an
 thunder melodramas were presente
 night after night to admiring audience . of boys and girls. This was fort
 years and more ago, but by degree
 the patrons fell away, and. at the sam
 time. awkward inquiries began to
 instituted concerning the license.
 told Mother Potter" the proprietres
 who superintended the production (
 ss1ramas" galore, aye, and played
 them, too, on occasion. found, liE
 Othello. her occupation gone and il
 continently died.
 For the better part of couple { 1 decades afterwards the bare, gaui
 hall masked by the grimy coffee sho
 remained closed and well nigh forgo
 ten until one day an enterprising ''prs acrobat in search of a place where r. to practice discovered it., and made i existence known to his brother aI
 sister sspros,'' since when it has take
 on new lease of life and presperit Every day acrobats pass in and o' ' bent upon learning new tricks whi, they have conceived, but which tn, : are not as yet perfect in. Tue lit : room is, in fact, training college, ar it never lacks a full complement adult pupils and learners. No publ S audience sees the tricks before tn F are presented on the stage. but Qriti t. In the shape of brother s'pros." a