The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22

playing like mad, with the donkey standing
stock still, the clown on top still posing
and grinning and the other clown watch
ing the whirling of the pink legs, When
the giant swing to an end the clown lam.
basted the donkey with the bologna and
the group cavorted around the arena
burlesquing the music ride Of the high
school horses.
Did you notice how anxious that clown
looked?s asked Tody Hamilton. Hes
afraid his wife will fall into the net some
day and the net is no sure safeguard against
q broken neck"
The clown down on the sawdust and the
pink enchantress Of the upper air furnish
what Tody Hamilton calls a romance that's
already made and established. The big
circus has them in the making, too. Court
ship goes on on horseback, in the Roman
chariots, or h slack wire, and In the
ground and lofty tumbling.
Nice, respectable oourtships with chap
erons," explained Tody. 1T is this way.
"A father and mother with son and daugh-
ter form the nucleus of a troupe. a trapeze
family for instance. There may be not
| enough of them for a big circus, so they
take In a relative IL there is n handy, If
not a stranger, who becomes one of the
family, so far as training, ~rehearsing and
performing are concerned.
The chances are that he marries
the daughter after they have been on the
road for several seasons. 1t IL an aerial
oourtship. Isn't it just natural to sup
| pose that a young pair otlovers think more
OF each other when one or both are risking
their necks?
IF they are normal they do, and there
| is nobody more normal or natural than a
circus performer. Now in the course of
time the heads Of the troupe get a little
difficult and most snowy parts of their
teams stun They drop down to the
lower rare rs near the net and let the young
sters go aloft for the giant swings Inc long
flights.
Now after that preliminary I'll tell you
a true story Of an aerial romance. Re-
member, not a word OF this for publication.
%The girl in this story was Milene on the
posters, but up in the air she was just Milly.
iva forgotten how we played up the boy
on the programme, but he was Bill among
his friends.
Bill and Milly had been promoted by
the girls father. who was head man in the
troupe, to what you might call the death
cheating part of the family's performance
the long swing simultaneously from the
same perch on two trapezes, somersaults
side by side in midair, then catching two
more trapeEes, flying free and swinging
on them up to a perch on the. other side;
They had lone it all right in rehearsals,
hut rehearsals are nothing to regular per-
formanoes 80 far as the nerves are concerned.
But this story has to do with. their first
cheating Of death before the public. They
were on the first perch.
Mily,' said Billy, your folks are getting
old. The old man seemed pretty stiff getting
up into the rigging tonight. Can't we
take their places2 You know what / mean,
Milly. You and I ought to go through life
on the same trapeze and have some little
acrobats Of our own. We may break our
necks in q minute. 80 what do you sayT
Just then, before the girl could open
that dreadful instant Of dead silence was
their cue, and they plunged together,
turned in the air as evenly as two wheels
on the same axle n landed, with the
band playing and the crowd roaring, on
the opposite De -ch.
Yes, ] NY said Milly'