New-York tribune., 1905-08-20
PIGEONS IN A BALLET /.
Trained To DO Pretty Tricks by
SeUen German Sisters.

Around about an apartment house "a street of
the upper West Side the neghbors have taken to
collecting their roofs at two different periods
OF the day, early morning and late afternoon
Sometimes fringe of spectators hangs all along
the roof edges, and the of all directed TO
the roof OF No. 522. while and then a soft
murmur Of applause is heard
The spectacle on the roof of No. 529 is sufi-
cently strange for apartment house roof
to attract spectators Seven girls in a row. with
waving white arms Seven baskets of pigeons with
man in charge. The man let's the pigeons out OF
the baskets, two by two. and each pair hys always
TO the girl perching her arms her shoul-
ders. her head. wherever they have been taught
to perch. Then they go through all sorts of may
evolutions-the girls and the pigeons. The pigeons
coo and autter the girls and hutter. 1t is
pretty sight
who arc they?" ask the neighbors
They the Grigolatis. rehearsing a new ballet
trick.
Seven sisters, all looking just about the same
age-those the Grigolatis. The youngest is
fifteen. but she is just large and looks just
about old any of the rest. The oldest is
somewhere IN the twenties. but she doesn't look
older than the one that is fifteen. Aerial
ballet dancers the Grigolatis When before
the public eye they are ever floating perilously
through the air under the surface of the
like the nymphs in "Das Rheingold." But at home
in the fat they just seven merry German girls,
who came to America with their father and mother
only a few months ago, and with the opening of
ica with their aerial bird ballet"
The pigeons reside in the back bedroom of the
apartment, where the stationary wardrobe has
been converted into a pigeon hotel There are
nine rooms in the hotel Seven occupied by
the birds that belong each of the seven Grigo-
latis The eighth is the hospital ward and the
ninth IS the nursery. In the nursery are the ap-
prentices. various little naked, squawking squads.
whose education is just beginning.
The doors OF the pigeon hotel are opened, the
md call eAtlLr
and the pigeons fly from their rooms. each to its
own mistress talking mucn love talk in bird
language, which the sisters answer melodi-
ously in their own tongue. 1t is all very pretty
The pigeons taught their parts entirely by
love. Each has it's name. and is trained TO its
it's trick solely by calling and petting with suit
able rewards in the shape of choice morsels when
they have done their best. Some in
telligent than others. Hans. the slender. shining
white bird slim and graceful a flower. is the
star OF the troupe He learns most quickly of all.
Then there is Gretel, a beautiful pearl gray bird
dernure little Quakeress. who is exceedingly
intelligent. and Erna, not blooded bird, of the
cheapest of the lot, who demonstrates that genius
exists in the common bird. In all there fifty
two members in the pigeon troupe, including the
SQUAD understudies. The stupid are sifted
out. In all. eighteen pigeons have found their
to the janitor's stewpot since rehearsals began.
The seven sisters cannot bring themselves make
their pets into pigeon pie Not only in the house
and on the roof does the rehearsing go on, but
every night the Grigoats and the fifty-two
pigeons and their trainer to empty theatre
and rehearse by electric light.
At home the Grigolatis not CIyigolatis at all
and they never saw Italy. Their name is Zschies-
ner, which they couldn't the programme
because nobody could pronounce it. Their
father is Frederic Zschiegner, the German inventor
of wire system for the aerial ballet. The girls
are Emma, Hilda. Freda. Elsa, Lucie. Mia and
Charlotte. The father started to give par
ticulars of each:
5zis one, Emma, said he. is the Principal. She
has been on the stage fifteen years She leads all
the figures
A laughing, dark eyed young woman shook a
finger at her father and said in GerAan: Don I
you dare tell any one that have been the stage
And sis one" resumed her father. pointing at