The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-07-03
7UnBL|NG By RULES. E: !.
Every Move Of an Acrobat Is
Carefully Calculated.
CHANCE FALLS DANGEROUS.

CHANCE FALLS DANGEROUS.
4 Tumb!er Loses His Balance Aeei-
dentalIy and Goes Down His Skill
Will Not Be Factor. In Saving Him
From Getting Hurt;
"I11 there is one thing more than an
other that pains me-" said leading ac-
| robat, 'it's these stories you read some
times or hear told Of circus tumRlers
| and clowns who in falling accidental
ly have exercised their skill to escape
| unhurt
you read Of an acrobat falling out
Of window, but. with rare presence
Of mind, giving sort Of wriggle just
as the sidewalk draws near, landing on
the back Of his neck in precisely the
right way and then bouncing to his
feet and bowing gracefully to the star
tied spectators.
"Oh, I've read Of such things time
and time again, but take my word, they
are all fakes pure and simple. Ny el
perience has been that if q tumbler
loses his balance accidentally he Is just
as badly of and will fall just as far
and just as hard as the man or woman
who does not even know how to turn
somersault I speak, as say, from
bitter experience, and no doubt any
other circus or vaudeville tumbler
would emphasize this should you
bother to ask him.
'The explanation is simple enough,
If perhaps you have not grasped it al
ready, embodying as it does the fact
that tumblins is q science and that
every move, however careless or slip
shod it may appear to the spectator, Is
calculated move and that any tumble
or fall proceeds in certain definite
moves from start to finish as exact and
perfect as problem in arithmetic.
'1The act may incite roars Of laugh
ter, but I wonder would the laughter
be so great did the spectators know
how that mirth provoking stunt had
been worked over from point to point
and studied and practiced- Well,
suppose it's like any other business
where the glamour is all on the outside.
Speaking Of tumbling in real life,
you should have been with the Fore
paugh show one summer evening some
years back. We were doing Sunday
jump from Topeka, think it was, to
some little one tent town down the
line, and the members Of the troupe
were packed in long caboose on the
rear Of freight train which was
made up partly Of our property cars.
TT was raining hard that night and
black as tent rigger's heart The ca
boose was so sitting hot that two or
three members Of our troupe would go
up in the caboose tower every now
and then, open the lookout window
and drink in the air.
FINALLY the train came to stand
still, and there we stood for at least
ten minutes, with all sorts Of rattling
and humping going on ahead At last
after about fifteen minutes one Of the
girls up In the tower called down
that there was fire ahead. We all
crawled up, one after the other, and
took a peep. Sure enough, there was
big blaze up forward-a railroad
station, every one thought it was; but
It turned out to be two of our forward
cars.
'tMind you, the night was so black
that you could not see three feet ahead
Of your nose. The whole crowd made
rush for the caboose door. Luke
Stark was the first, and Luke was the
finest aerial tumbler in the country.
he had the chance Of his life right
there, for as he stepped of the last
step, thinking to hit the ground, he
hit nothing at all. The bloomin' car
was on trestle.
'Well, lady elephant tumbler was
right behind Luke, and it was a race
for the bottom. was next but as
saw the others disappear I reached
up and caught the hand rail just as my
feet dangled In the air. It was a mat
ter of but a second to pull up again,
but before I had my feet fair on the
step I could hear from below sort Of
dull splash and screams Of gurgling
terror.
eve got lanterns and ran down the
side Of the trestle, thinking to find two
dead persons, but instead we; discov-
cred In about a foot Of water and six
feet Of mud the two tumblers and,
Wedged In SO tight they could not
move. We dug them out Of the mud,
hauled them back to the caboose, and
after they had changed their clothes
we asked them how they came to
make such nice falls out Of it: But
they only looked mad OF course they
fell like any ordinary baby would have
fallen.
GAS for me, one night in the Coliseum
In Kansas City the heel Of my shoes
caught in the end Of the platform on
which I was doing a turn, and dived
of the platform on my shoulder,
spraining it frightfully. The audience
laughed fit to kill, and Of course to
make good I climbed up on the plat
form and fell again, but that time sci
entifcally. you bet Then I went to
led.
by the way, Luke Stark, who fell
of that trestle, was killed in jumping
over elephants one night, and we
picked him up and made burlesque Of
carrying him of, so that the audience
would not get out Of their laughing
mood. We were crying under our
paint too."-New York Post