Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-10-02


W apparently Of their
own free wlls leads ono TO believe that
Fl is really widespread sentiment,
IN what other grounds for instance
can one explain the extreme non
chalance with which the circus per
former follows his profession: lie Ell
dangers life and limb continually-in
billboard "thrilers" which grow every
yc8r more ncrye-racking The loop the
loop is already thing Of the past by
far too famn for the up-to-datc circus
nn1 il is no longer sufficient to have
mon place their lives In the balance,
hit young women must needs be i'm
pressed also. Take Miss Isabel Butler,
for instance who day in and day out
Topped the gap in an automobile. turn
ing upside down IN midair.
Modern psychologists declare that
violent contrasts and great nervous
shocks are crAyed 10y a large proportion
OF the people. 1t Is TO satisfy this
craving that the circus managers search
tho wide world over for men and wom-
IN OF daring 10 introduce the thrill
IN o1t III tit iJlPSl HIS DCth d
Norwegian, who travels the country
exhibiting In IA leap for life on slender
skccs." From platform more than
100 feet above the ground, he coasts on
narrow wooden runners. eight feet in
length, down q long slippery runway
tilted at an agile OF ~ degrees, to with
IN hardly a yard Of the level Of the
arena, and then shoots out one hundred
feet through space, describing in his
flight an arc 30 feet high at the center.
The high diver who plunges from an
elevation of % or 90 feet into tank
Of winter as shallow and as narrow, 1t
would seem, as can be built and still
allow one chance for life to remain, is
Of course Il constant attraction. Few
Of those who follow this mild pastime
live TO make use OF an accident III quite
the same way as did one Edward l..
Pape. After receiving an injury to the
fifth vertebra which raised a lump on
the back Of his neck, he toured the big
cities with two cOnfederates to serve
as witnesses and mulcted street rail
way companies for large amounts in
damages by falling off their cars and
stimulating the actions Of a man whose
spine had Just been injured.
SfeepIejncIx and Iron Worker.
If their managers are to be believed,
men and women that perform these
feats receive proportionately high sal
aries, and nre thus In n measure repaid.
But the steeplejacll and the structural;
ironwOrker labor in really useful fields
for day wages which, to the ordinary
prosaic mortal at least, seem not at all
commensurate with the risks they run.
Only a year or two ago a nOnchalant
steepiejack climbed up and down the
face OF the FlatirOn building III New
York City with no other aid than that
of his hands and feet-for two dollars.
No less needless of their lives are
the ironworkers, who in the every day
course of work, run around on narrow
iron Orders 100 feet and more above
the level of the street, throwing red
hot rlvets from one to another, and
driving them home with giant swings
of sledges that would cause the ordn-
airy man to lose his balance even on
terra firma Not content with these
risks they often ride through midair
on the long iron beams that the der
rick raises from the ground and lowers
again into position ten, twenty, stories
above. High in the air without visible
means of support. they engage in mimic
fights for the benefit of the open-mouth-
CT bystanders They have even been
known to stand on their heads on the
very highest upright Of a skyscraper
The Placid Well Shooter.
The business of well-shooting de-
serves mention. Here the perils center
not so much about the men that do the
actual work as about those who carry
nitro glycerin TO the wells. With a few
dozen cans of this extremely high ex-
plosive on his mule wagon. the driver
sits placldly beside a catastrophe COM
parable only to the crack o doom.
Driving through mountainous country,
he is in constant danger of being blown
to atoms; for the slightest jar is like
" to cause an explosion.
few years ago, one Of these mule
teers approaching the town of Newton,
Pa. along 4 straight road, halted his
team and alighted. intending to be gone
only a moment. Left without guiding
hand, however. the mules became fright
ened, and started toward the town at
wild pace.
Some one saw them coming, and rec
ognizing the danger, turned back to-
ward the village, shouting to the inhab-
itants to flee for their lives. In the
very center of the town the road
swerved in 4 curve, and it was impos-
sible that the mules could make the
turn without upsetting the wagon. The
inhabitants, expecting every minute the
destruction Of their homes, fed in hope
less confusion toward the woods. for
getting that at the curve in the road,
right in the path of the disaster, stood
q schoolhOuse filed with children too
young to make their escape. The
schoolmaster, who had been appraised Of
the danger, saw that it would be i'm
possible to remove them in time. and
seized the only alternative. Grasping
his umbrella, he rushed down the road
toward the advancing team, tapping it
in their faces. 1t was one chance in a
hundred-and it proved to be that one