The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-01-27

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Liela Ponquet, a handsome French
girl, now nearly Is years old, a trapeze
performer and acrobat, will, if she con-
| tinues in the business, have a story to
tell which outrivals the widest imag-
inings of the press agent Cast away
| on an almost desert island in the mid
s'le of the Pacific Ocean, thrown on
her own resources, the young woman
Ia female Robinson Crusoe-lived for
| fifteen months before she was picked
up by the British trading schooner
| Cyprus and brought safe to Noumea,
| New Caledonia, where she was turned
over to the French officials and sent
| back to her home in Marseilles.
| At Marseilles she was reunited with
| the father and mother who for nearly
| two years had believed her dead, and
who she believed had persisted when
/ the little French barkentine Lilly sank
| on the noon of December 49, 1908.
They had parted when the little YES
sci, after a brave fight with the ty-
phoon, lurched and sank They had
seen her lifted on a wave, with a life
preserver clasped about her, and they
had fought with the sailors in the boat
for chance to save their daughter.
She had caught one glimpse of them
as she was buried under a huge roller,
and the boat was lifted above her, and
then they parted.
Nearly four days later the boat had
reached one of the Belep Islands, off
New Caledonia. and after a day or two
OF rest and preparation had crossed to
the larger island and reached safety.
ALL BUT ONE OF FAMILY IN
CIRCUS.
The Ponquet family-father, mother,
mai trainers, and Ponquet, the father,
had for many years been the leader of
a little circus, sometimes with a dozen
or more men in his employ, sometimes
with only the members of his family
to assist him in giving performances.
His oldest son, a promising acrobat,
had been killed at a fair in France
by falling from az high wire, and the
other boy, weak and sickly, never
would do for an athlete, SO he was
sent to school, and then into the priest
hood, and he was the pride of his
mothers heart.
But Liela. from her earliest child
hood, took to the ropes, and the rings,
and the bars as if by second nature,
and before she was II years old her
feats of daring and strength and agil-
ity won her applause and caused her
father to believe her the most wonder
full acrobat in all the world. She was
healthy, beautiful-beautiful,
as more than one young man thought
who saw her at the little country fairs
IN Breton.
But the Ponquets were poor. They
made but little money at the fairs, and
they talked often of America or Aus
traIia, so at the end of one season they
decided to cast their fortunes in new
world. There was a sad leavetaklng
with the son who soon was to become
a priest, and they sailed away to Aus
tralia.
That year Liela was 10 years old.
Her beauty, her grace, and daring at
tracted attention to the grimy, sordid
little travelling circus, and prosperity
came to the family. Ponquet began TO
think that his fortune was made. He
had dreams of being the proprietor of
81 great circus, with hundreds of men
and women, with great gilded wagons
Brisbane-everywher it |
was the same, and the gold rolled in.
They went to New Zealand, and, |
travelling along the coast from Pal |
merston through Christchurch. Tina |
ru. Nelson. over to Wellington, on the |
North Island, they added to the mena- |
gerie.
Early in December they were ready. |
They loaded the tents. and the animals. |
and all aboard the Lilly and started /
for Melbourne. The typhOon struck on |
December Is in the morning, and for /
over three days the little vessel, under
bare poles. fed before it. The men,
exhausted and worn from working the |
pumps. fell fainting. Three times they |
tried to turn and ride in the face of
the storm, but could not. They were
driven northward. always northward-t
lost. hopeless and dying
And during it all Liela helped the
men, and when they fell from exhaus-
ton she worked at the pumps, strong,
vigorous. tireless. her athletic training
standing her in good stead. On the
18th hope was abandoned. The storm
vas abating a little. but the vessel
vas fioundering heavily and had lost
IS buoyancy. At 10 o'clock sea after
,ea pounded upon the decks, and still
he vessel staggered on.
The tired vessel. worn out by the
battle with the sea, gave up about
noon. The steering gear broke. The
little barkentine turned broadsfde, wal
owed a few moments. and sank
The Ponquet fortunes were swept
away. and the family separated in an
instant The father and mother reach
ID the boat. but Liela. with seven 9TH
ars, was swept overheard.
ALONE ON ISLAND IN PACIFIC.
Then began the strange career of the
yirl. She remembers struggling in the
waters: then she lost consciousness