Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-20

dressing room. Later, the band leader told me
that the next time put a long slide for life in
my act ought to let him know in advance and
he would have the drummer cooperate with q
stirring roll on his snare drum.
The doctor picked splinters out of me for an
hour or so, and every once in a while during
the rest of the season would find one or Two
he had overlooked. I must have been too eager
to get started on my slide, for I had a bump
on my forehead black and blue and very
prominent.
Many people believe that after hard fall it
Is dreadful struggle to climb back on the
rigging. I know that where the fall has been
due to trick that has miscarried the performer
practices it as soon as he can, to find out how
the mistake happened. And after fall the
acrobat goes back to work as soon as he is able.
because muscles soften quickly without regular
practice. If the performer is fearful of the
trick, then he works to regain confidence.
think that Hilary Long, the head balancer,
gets about as many falls any in the
business. He slides down wire while balanced
his head. To carry his weight and give
the needed resistance the wire is guyed down
very tightly. He has to watch every part of his
whole rigging constantly for overstrain. And
he has to examine the slope of the ground, SO
as to determine how gravitation will act, and
its texture to see whether it will hold the
stakes.
He is a calm little chap hard to ruf1e. He
climbs his rope ladder up to his pedestal and
looks down the slide wire while the announcer
is telling the audience that he is about to slide
down that slender wire balanced on his head.
He takes his position on his head and away he
goes. Part way down, perhaps, he loses his
balance and cannot recover it. He catches the
wire with his hands, turns over, slides to the
ground hanging by his arms goes patiently up
the rope ladder again and gets ready to do it
all over Down again he comes after an
assistant has adjusted some part of the APP
on the ground beneath his wire, takes bow and
departs. He hears the applause but his mind
Is busy with the reasons why he did not succeed
the first time. He does not give single sign
that only the quickness of his eye, his hands,
his body. has kept him from a broken neck.
If you should ask him about it he would prob
ably tell you, as he told me- that of course, he
grabs the wire if he can-that nobody wants
broken neck
7 HE big show dressing room accommodates
most of the performers, clowns and animal
trainers. 1t is divided into two parts. for the
men and the women, and in the center are
ranged the wardrobe tables and trunks con-
tanning the tournament clothes. Outside in
private tents and sometimes in the wagons are
the dressing rooms of the stars and feature per-
formers Inside the big dressing room the
trunks are arranged in rows with an aisle be-
tween. They are all numbered and are in the
same place every day. Each member of the
circus is allowed small folding chair and
each has his own buckets for washing and
bathing. Outside on the guy lines of the tent
clotheslnes may be strung. Nearly all the
larger towns have one-day service for laundry
and cleaning. and that is arranged by the
porters in the sleeping cars.
One day when the high perches were working
10 ho ND wont Mt thn f0S 0P
their finish. The number that followed was
riding number, and of course, 1t was ready.
was in the next number to that one, and hur-
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