The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1907-10-16
TUMBLING. BY RULES.
Every Move of an Acrobat Is
Carefully Calculated.
CHANCE FALLS DANGEROUS.


Will Not Be a Factor In Saving Him
From Getting Hurt.
"If 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 tumblers
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 a 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 bowling gracefully to the star
tied spectators.
"Oh, I've read of such things time
and time again, but, take my word, they
are nil fakes pure and simple My ex-
perieuce has been that If tumbler
loses his balance accidentally he is just
rs 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. l speak, as l 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 1t al
ready, embodying as 1t does the fact
that tumbling Is science and that
every move, however careless or Slip
shod 1t 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.
THE act may incite roars of laugh
ter, but wonder would the laughter
be so great did the spectators know
how that mlrth provoking stunt had
been worked over from point to point
and studied and practlced. 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 n Sunday
jump from Topeka, think 1t was, to
some little one tent town down the
inc, 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.
1T was raining hard that night and
black as n 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 a stand
still, and there we stood for at least
ten minutes, with all sorts OF rafting
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 peep. Sure enough, there was
a big blaze up forward-a railroad
station, every one thought 1t was, but
1t turned out to be two of our forward
cars.
Mind 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 off the last
step, thinking to hit the ground, he
hit nothing at all. The bloomin' car
was on a trestle.
well. lady elephant tumbler was
right behind Luke. and 1t was race
FOR the bottom. I was next, but as
saw the others disappear 1 reached
up and caught the hand rail just as my
feet dnngled in the air It was a mat
ter OF but second to pull up again.
but before had my feet fair on the
step could hear from below sort OF
dull splash snd screams of gurglIng
terror.
I'VE got lanterns and ran down the
side OF the trestle, thinking to find two
dead persons. but instead we dlscov-
cred In about 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 1t. But
they only looked mad. OF course they
fell Ike any ordinary baby would have
fallen.
"As for me, one night in the Coliseum
in Kansas City the heel of my shoes
caught in the end of the platform on
which / was doing turn, and dived
off the platform on my shoulder.
zpraining 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
entiflcally. you bet. Then 1 went to
bed
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 off. so that the audience
would not get out of their laughing
mood. We were crying under our
paint too."-New York Post.
Friendship.
A..