The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-15
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Last week I put in busy week at the fair and this week will no doubt miss the excitement. That is one of the drawbacks to a week of amusement, the following one seems tame. but I daresay it won't be long before I will forget it and buckle down to everyday routine work.
 But while it was on, the fun was fast and furious. Something was happening all the time. I enjoyed all the open-air acts, and particularly the acrobatic feats, as I have always been an ardent be- liever in athletics.
 In talking with some of the teams, 1t brought back vividly to me days l used to put in at 8 gymnasium in Paris. where the performers at the hippodrome and summer and winter circuses kept in training It looks might easy when you see troupe giving a finished perform ance but few realize the weary hours of training that went before it was possible to stage it.
 After a team Is Quilt up," to use 8 term current among professionals, and after it has been put on, there Is still hard work to keep it up and to improve it. For this reason it is absolutely nec- essary for those in the acrobatic work to keep in trim by daily practice, and so they, during long engagements, select some athletic club in which to work out
 
 The private school in which I was a pupil when I first went to Paris used the gymnasium patronized by the pro- fessionals and being only an American boy. they made me their mascot. The tumblers taught me to tumble, the tra- pezists to do trapeze stunts, and the nor izontal bar workers to the various trichs' They gave me my first love for ath- letics.
 At the fair I have been particularly interested in the Bellcaire brothers, the sensational acrobats. You can't always trust a programme to give real names. They are not brothers. Mir. Bellcaire, the leader. was born in Budapest, and his partner was born in Moscow Both or them are famous in their speciality ana deseryedly so, for their act is one ot the best of it's kind in the world. Friday afternoon after the Belicaire brothers had finished their act, MT. Bellcaire learning that "Dolly Dal- rymple" was in box in the grand stand. said that he would like to go over and pay his respects to her as she had been good enough to say some l mighty nice things about him in a write-up tirat she gave him when ne was here a year or two ago. So it gave me great pleasure to pilot him to her box. where she received him most graciously.
 {! was struck with his reply to her commitment. for when she said, "Your act is greatly improved since l last saw it." after thanking her for notic- ing it, he added, We dare not stand still My wife is continually complain ling that am making 1t more diffi- cult each season. but tell her I must do it if wish to stand at the head of l I is only thinking of the extra strain | and work 1t puts on me, but the public | is fickle, and we must tickle them as best we can
 ! q played in hard luck with this present act, I built it up for the hip- podrome, but the concern which fur nished the steel and set up the frame for the loop -the-loop feature was slow l in delivering it, and I could not get ready in time for the opening, and lost out Of course 1t is the dream of every team to get an engagement with the thippodrome, for it means not only a l chance to stay in New York for months l but good pay. They SCOUT the earth for attractions and money is no consid- eration. They want the best, and they | get 1t.
 l "Few realize the accuracy and nicety with which the loop the loop Is built The track is built to sixty-fourth de- gree of an inch in its trueness as 1t is timed to the second. For the act to go off without g. hitch everything must be properly timed. If I miss to catch my partner it means another try, and 'l that means that both of us must use up la great amount of extra nerve and muscular force. It may be a small lthing. but the way the machine is set
 here makes me have my left side to the grandstand and therefore more diff
 fcult for me to go through with my
 part as I am much stronger on my
 fright side than I am on my left" T Friday afternoon I happened to be
 behind the scenes as tho Bellcaire
 brothers were waiting for their turn
 and they were practicing. expressed
 my surprise and was told that the
 weather, and particularly the night
 air. had come very nearly putting } them out of commission. They have to
 work in tights and get heated and ] the wind dries them off so fast that it makes them stiff, and so 1t becomes
 necessary for them to Timber up for
 their performance.
 II
 N The act they do is tremendously trying one. It looks difficult from the grandstand Even from that distance
 one can see the fearful strain and the ) tautness of their muscles but one can , not detect how they pant for breath
 after some of the tricks. If you could
 be close enough to see the heavy mar underneath as he lifts the lighter one from fha fl0or with I,ic hordo ha cb