Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-26
THE demand today for perilous and /,

THE demand today for perilous and
foolhardy acrobatic feats has
been compared to the enthusi-
asm in ancient times for exhibitions
of brutality and bloodshed. Modern
audiences pay, and pay enormously,
to see a man or a woman face death
in midair and miss it by hairs
breadth, all to afford them a moments
diversion. A Roman gladiator would
have been terrified at the risk of any
one of score of these modern feats.
The parallel may be carried even fur
ther, since the stoicism of the modern
audience, at the circus or in the the
ater, when one of these acts goes
wrong and the performer meets death |
in a horrible form may well be COM
pared to that of the crowds which once
filled the Roman Coliseum.
Judged by ordinary theatrical stand |
ards, the salaries paid such performers |
are extraordinary. No other class of
performers except few actors and |
singers of the highest rank, can COM
mand the same salaries. 1t is the
aerial bicyclist or automoblist who Is |
featured and who is depended upon to
draw the crowds. A performer, |
whether a man or a woman, who can
devise some new and startling manner
of breaking ones neck in midair, and
who has the courage to chance 1t, can
command a princely income. Today
the automobile is in the highest favor
in this class of "thrillers"
Each season brings some new act.
To make an automobile, weighing a
ton or so, gyrate in some startling
manner in mdair, and from 1t reach
the ground in safety, passes for art.
1t would seem that the limit had been
reached in the feats of daring possible
to this class of performers when an
automobile was made to loop the gap
and bring it's occupant away alive A
still more amazing feat of this kind
has been devised recently in France,
in which an automobile actually turns
a somersault in midair.
Are Soon Old
The thriller" of one season becomes
tame enough the following year. The
entire series of aerial feats as we look
back form a gradual evolution and in
it's way logical one. How much fur
thcr this development may be carried
is uncertain. For il seems probable
that the law will step in very shortly
to regulate them. In the first of these
feats, which was considered marvellous
enough at the time a bicycle rider rode
his wheel at terrifying speed down
sixty-foot ladder placed at a steep in
cline. The feat was first performed in
America. The rider was killed one |
night by an attack of vertigo This
feat was mere child's play, however,
compared with the modern perform |
ances.
The next step in this evolution was
the loop the loop" This feat is COM
paratively familiar. The bicyclist |
starts from platform sixty feet above
the ground and rushes down an
oblique track for 100 feet, which then
rises to form perfect spiral loop, bar |
ring accidents. Many of these feats |
titro .Nf tI,o, /,
ing ones. as matter of fact, are less
dangerous to the performer than 9TH
ers, which appear comparatively SIM
pie.
The ''loop the loop" however, is
even more dangerous than it looks,
which is saying much. 1t is only by
miracle of skill and good luck tha
the rider keeps his balance. Should
the wheel swerve to the right or left
the fraction of an inch, the exertion
required to make this loop is awful.
The feat has been performed with a
slight groove in the incline to guide
the wheel, but even with this precau-
ton the risk is great.
Soon Wearied of 1t
The public soon tired of the trick,
and demanded some novelty. Next in
turn came the rotating circle, popular
ly known as the devils Wheel" The
WHEEL III lHlS CdSe Is leeH Ieel
in diameter, and in it the cyclist spins
about much like a squirrel in a re-
volving cage.
The cyclist in performing this trick
must pedal at a terrific rate in a direc-
ton opposite to that of the wheel, re-
naming at the bottom until the wheel
has gained sufficient velocity, when he
stops driving, puts on the brake and
is carried by the wheel backward and
upward until his head points Gown
ward, when he rushes down and pedals
round and round. Here again the
chance of slip or a miscalculation