The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-05
Seeking Amusement in Gotham


mercenary job? Was he real judge
rewarded only by whisky and tobacco?
| In spite of all that, "A Night in Be-
| hernia" was a good enough entertain
ment; for among those summoned from
/ the audience were several of the clev-
crest monologuists in vaudeville; and
Zest was given to the show by the
nonsensical assumption of revelry.
| / regret exceedingly that they came
near me. Distance had lent enchant-
ment. They were a sylphide two in a
! troupe of otherwise brawny men, who
tossed and tumbled them In feats of
strength and agility. 1t was impossi-
BILE to scrutinize their faces while they
we're active i'm a circus ring a hundred
feet away; but it could be seen that
/ their bodies and limbs were girlishly
delicate and symmetrical: and the
small proportion of skirts 10 their en-
| tire costumes were fluffy coquetry to
their stunts of idealized manliness.
/ When their act was over, they ran
across the arena to the exit, close uu-
der the box in which I sat l should
have known enough TO look the other
way, so as not to risk the spelling of
my fancy by seeing fact.
/ The program had told me they were
! sisters. and they surely were like twins
| in small size and jaunty shape; but
their faces were. oh. so different. One
painted visage was that of woman Of
forty and upwards. That she was the
mother of the other was not to be
| doubted. And the other was as GER
| tainiy no girl, but boy in a blonde
wig of abundant long hair His fea-
lures might have been a girls. and his
| form could have passed for a still
childish maidens; hut-you have seen
actors carelessly drop their character
| iZatiOn before passing quite out of a
scene, and lapse an instant too soon
| into their own selves. That is what
| this sister did. He ceased to be a
graceful girl. and became a striding
! boy; and, for a conclusive give-away,
he hitched UP the irksome lower edge
of his corsage, as though it were the
waistband of his trousers.
! Later in the evening, misguided by
my experience with those sisters who
were mother and son, 1 shut my eyes
as the ''Leamy ladies" came along.
They were four of a kind as to size
and shape. and had done some aston
ishing things on trapezes away up
high. l was determined to retain in
memory the sight of their grace and
symmetry unimpaired. If they We're
three or four generations of "Leamy
ladies" / didn't wish to find il out.
! LOOK QUICK, SdlQ my companion,
they are all young and pretty enough
| for show girls on a stage, or ladies in
a drawing room. So they were.
Women have become numerous in
acrObatic performances. This show
was Barnum & Bailey's for 1908, with
/ three rings and two platforms, SO that
sometimes five troupes were doing
things at once; and l noted that six
out of ten wire-walkers gave girlish
grace to that monetonous exercise;
! that three parties of tumblers, bal
ancers and fip-fappers included a
girls; that two flying trapeze compa-
MES were half feminine; and that once
the three rings were occupied by five
women doing such things on bareback
horses as, thirty years ago, If achieved
/ by a single man in a One-ring tent
show, satisfied the demand for a mar
vel. And in those days all the riding
by women We're on widely padded
horses. Now this circus. besides its
men on barebacks. has FIVE women who
scorn pads and perform their eques-
trian gymnastics like little men.
Yes; the circus of 1908 has come to
the village of New York. and no new
play offers itself in opposition. That
affords the excuse to borrow some
neighbor's children and submit to A
sdmeness of show that would bring a
pain before the end of the evening. but
that its neWness to the tots gives them
pleasure. Barnum and Bailey have
crossed the Styx to the land of the un-
| movable, where the circus business
may not perplex their souls with prob
! lens of novelty: but the managers of
the circus trust. which has concentrat-
ed the shows of Barnum. Bailey. Fore
paugh, the Sells and the Ringlings,
would give a hundred thousand dollars
for thriller equal to looping the loop,
but different and original. For three
seasons. and now again, the best device
of spectacular excitement is a variant