Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-10

maybe she'd have drudged her days away
as the wife of farmer bent double by a
mortgage or two. Now for a half hours
turn twice day she gets little over
thirty dollars q week, her share of the
hundred and quarter that the troupe gets
for its act. One of the men is her husband,
SO that makes the family income something
over sixty dollars a week. But Winnie S
thirty is sufficient to keep her comfortable,
and it's good many times much money
as she would have been able to handle
every seventh day had she chosen to live
her life near the place of her birth
Pay of the Acrobat.
Thirty per IS about as low as the aero
batic or gymnastic salary falls. Of-hand
l should say that the average is somewhere
about forty or fifty. It's the gospel truth
that there are women who are making as
much as three and four hundred dollars
week for their acts. Charmion has made
as high as six hundred, and a great part of
the time she has not had to divide with
any one. since she has several acts in
which she appears alone. She can COM
mand startlingly high figure at all times.
for she is among the best trapeze perform
ers ever developed. Mile Tunor Is an
other. and two hundred and fifty week is
poor pay for her. When she and her hus-
band are working together the family in
come. after the persons associated with
them have received their share of the con-
tract price, is usually about five hundred
dollars.
These high salaries are the exception
however when you come to analyZe the
situation. Eight hundred a week for the
Conlella gravitation and death defylhg
act boasts circus. Sounds fine--but there
are twelve people engaged in the act, and
the weekly pay for each. saying that It's
share and share alike, is just sixty-six ana
two-thirds dollars. Whenever you hear Of
a big price being paid for some vaudeville
or circus stunt IN the air. on the bars, or
on the mat, ask how many noses make up
the troupe before you begin envying the
stunt artists their money-making powers.
A Pretty Penny for an Outfit.
THE apparatus used in this branch of
the show business is costly and many a
poor devil of a fellow has to start bust
ness in debt in order to secure the neces-
sary traps by which to make an honest
living. This debt frequently hangs over his
head much longer than 1t should, for the
profession is known for its openhanded-
ness a big salaried man woman thinking
nothing of handing out several ten-dollar
bills of a Saturday night to accommodating
stage hands.
Just a good double trapeze-a matter of
a bar ropes and a few hooks-cost fifty
dollars. A set of three horizontal bars
cannot be purchased for less than s15o. A
net is generally 81 a square foot, and the
hundred square feet. Nets are made out
of Italian hemp and are woven by hand.
Take the horizontal bars. A single bar,
with a steel core calls for twelve dollars
Heads for the bars are four dollars a set.
Every splice of wire means quarter spent,
and for three bars the splices number six
teen. Then there is the supporting nickel
plated framework-its mighty dear-the
pad or carpet, ropes and pulleys etc.
Zone reason of the heavy cost of all the
stuff is that every bar, every trapeze, every
postern bed, has to be made especially to
suit the user. A bar must be of a size to
fit a mans hands, whether they be large,
medium or small. For tall man the
trapeze ropes must be longer than for
short one; that is obvious. Ones weight
must also be taken into conSidera ton by
successful. must study his customer from
head to foot before setting out to make
even the seemingly simple sort of APP
para tus-Indian clubs, for example.
"a not inconsiderable sum of money must
also be laid out for a wardrobe. An ordi-
nary suit costs $40. and a sufficient number
of suits must be carried TO provide for a
daily change.
CAS- much as $500 is frequently spent on
wardrobe as starter, and, of course, there
is continual outlay thereafter, no other
kind OF body covering apparently wearing
out as rapidly as these show suits.
Most of the apparatus and the suits are
made by men engaged in no other line of
business. The American makers are ac-
knowledged to be the best, and foreign
show people. when here, almost invariably
stock up before sailing for home. The
most famous maker of jugglers' goods lives
in Cincinnati. and the white juggler who
does not use some of this mans wares can
be ranked among the mighty few An
frishman down In Springfield. Mass, is
growing well-to-do turning out suits a sure
At TO each and every customer being guar
anteed by the mail order system of meas
urements.
Why Experiments Are Necessary
"A further everlasting source of expense
to everybody In the business is the expert
mental work. For his own protection,
every man has to be trying to work out
new acts all the time. To do this requires
experimental apparatus and such stuff
comes high l know of fellow who spent
$500 trying to work ont an idea for a spring
hoard, part rubber. that would make new
record In leaping possible: and many time
I've blown in cool hundred on an idea
that often didn't come to anything. But a
fellow has to do It, and cheerfully, too, III
he hopes to become premier In the business,