Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-07-23
A NEW SENSATION.
Ski-Sailing the Latest Thriller With
the Barnum & Bailey Show.

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When the French .sfieche-humaine"
| BY Barnum & Bailey several years ago
it created q sensation. La this act, q
yeritable "huRasn arrow rode bicycle
down steep incline, gathered
sufficient momentum to sail forty feet
through the air and, after landing on a
second incline, sped safely to the
ground.
This season Barnum & Bailey have
imported thriller" that has some of
the characteristics of the 'deche-
humane, but instead of riding wheel,
the intrepid performer makes his
perilous decent and sensational fight
mounted upon S.foot skees. AS one
writer, in New York paper remarked
after the opening performance of the
big show at Madison Square Garden,
1t needed on stretch of imagination to
realize the tremendously added danger
|Of the act because it was evident to
everyone in the great crowd that the
safety-in fact, the very life-of the
performer, depended upon his own
skill and nerve"
This newest circus thriller is an
adaptation of the startlingly sensational
and always dangerous Scandinavian
winter sport of kisailing or kijump-
ing. Both Norway aud Sweden have
number of clubs whose membership
is made up of men almost reckless dar-
ing who have won records in this
facinating and yet perilous pastime.
The annual meet of the Baerums Ski
Club on Mount Holmekollen, ten miles
from Christiania, Norway, attracts
visitors from all parts of Europe, and
has many features that give it a thrill
ing interest to lovers of sport the world
sOver.
Starting from the highest point of the
mountain, the contestants mounted on
their long but narrow skees, slide
over the crust of snow, darting down
the steep declivities with the speed OF
cutter, dashing headlong at the most
awesome chasms, and, just-when injury
or death seem imminent, rising birdlike
in the air and sailing over the yawning
abyss. Some OF these crevasses are
from twenty to 100 feet in width, and
many tragedy many a lost footing
or broken flight that sends the con-
testant headlong into the dark depth of
the chasm temporarily throws a SOM
ITe pail over the mad and exhiIarating
sport.
1t is this alluring and dangerous
pastime that, it is announced, will be
shown in all its exciting sensationalism
when the Barnum & Bailey circus ex-
hibits in this city Thursday Aug, l.
The mountain side is represented by a
great 90foot runway. The mountain
chasm is simulated by gaping open
ing between the runway and cleyerly
constructed landing cushion Capt.
Carl Howelsen, the performer of the
daring feat, holds 20 champion cups
and medals for INSTALLING, takes his
position on a small platform at the
upper end of the runway, SO feet in the
air. AS the signal is given. he darts
down the declivity, strikes an upward
curve, goes sailing through the air, and
lands fairly upon his skees, fully fifty
feet away. The act is described as thrill |
ing in the extreme, and. it is said, no
circus thriller seen in recent years has
been so effective in stirring an audience
TO applause and admiration
Among the other sensational feats
announced for the big show is the dip
of Death" in which an automobile,
driven by handsome American girl,
turns somersanlt in the air, and a
pair of somersanlt-turning bicyclists.
The circus numbers offer many new
things in the way of arenic cleyerness. |
The Novelties, troupe of acrobats, who
give sensational performance with
dogs and ponies, and what
is said to be the only riding seal in the
world, have attracted especial atten-
tion. The Peace" Spectacle, which |
serves to introduce the performance, is |
described as the most gorgeous military |
display ever presented in a circus.