Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1901-12-04
ACROBATS PRACTICE.
FAMOUS RESORT IN LONDON FoR
STRANGE SPECIALISTS.
Mon and Women Tumbling, walking on
Their Hands, and Comforting Their
Bodies in Gymnasts' School for Pro.
ressionals- Some specIaltles.

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,
grin y windowed coffee shop. Above
the door is the legend familiar enough
hereabouts-"B Beds sixpence night.
1t IS obviously poor mans hotel"
Yet any weekday, from 10 to II III the
l'molaing up till | Or in the after
noon the curious in such matters may
observe passing ia and out never
ceasing stream Of well-dressed and
well-set-up men, clean shaver, spruce
and alert the very last sort Of lndi-
yiduais one would imagine to patrou-
lie for its boa:l or lodging an estao-
lishment such as this. Nor, as a mat
ter of fact, do they do So Follow any
one of them ana GU will find that he
poseed straight through the little shop
down a dark passage to emerge even
tually into a lofty hall. around the wall
of When are ranged all kinds of gym
nastic apparatus. And on the floor,
suspended from rings in mid-air,
dangling from trapezes near the cell
Ing are men--and women-tumbling
lying, swinging, walking on their
hands, standing on their heads, throw
ing somersaults by the score and
twisting themselves into every conceiv-
able contortion to which the human
form divine is capable of lending it.
self. For this is professional" ac-
robats' practice room and its name and
fame are known from end to end of
Europe, and, indeed, all over the world
wherever gymnasts and such like folk
travel. and they travel far. They are
largely foreigners. these people. Lis
ten to the babel of tongues Regard the
various types. Yon little dark-eyed
lassie, who is turning Catherine
wheels" with such zest; is Neapolitan
and debutante. apprenticed to
troupe by parents who were too poor
to keep her Like 1t? Ask her. She
knows today poor child, for almost the
first time in her hitherto sad young
life what it means to go to bed I'M
hungry. Here is an Austrian lady
training under Mr.. Harry Ara. He
has only been a few months with the
troupe and already Che tells you proud
ly) he can turn forty "fiipfaps' with.
out pausing for breath. A child wo-
man, with black elf locks and Jew
ish cast of countenance, is solemnly
engaged in throwing her arms and legs
about and around, now like the sails
of a windmill anon like the tentacles
of some strange species of octopus. She
is an Armenian, the sole survivor of
her village, at the time it was raided
by band of iKurds early last winter.
OF the inanimate things that are
ranged round the walls, the most are
not what they seem. A billiard table,
for instance, which looks as solid as
one of the best so guinea match ones,
proves on investigation to be fitted
with dummy bed" of green baize
covered canvas, upon which the per
former can fall headforemost, If need
be, from almost any height without
hurting himself Originally one of the
nabitues of the place, says the London
Mail, this curiously situated practice
hall was penny gaff' of the APP
| proved type. On the little stage at
the back blood and thunder melo-
dramas were presented night after
night to admlring audiences of boys
and girls. For the better part of a
couple of decades afterward the bare,
| gaunt hall, masked by the grimy cot
fee shop, remained closed and we'll
nigh forgotten until one day an enter
prising PRO" acrobat in search of a
place wherein to practice discovered
| IT and made it known to his brother
and sister "pros.;' since when 1t has
taken on new lease of life and pros
perity. Every day acrobats pass in and
out, bent upon learning new tricks
which they have conceived, but which
they are not as yet perfect in. The
little room is in fact a training college,
and it never lacks a full complement
Of adult pupils and learners. No pub
lie audience sees the tricks before they
are presented on the stage, but critics
in the shape of brother pros" are
plentiful.