The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 13, 1902, Page 13

15 ALL. SUNDAY C THE AR N S 0 be ds is to draw a crowd. And the greater the daring, the greater the crowd. It may be at first simply a curious crowd, then perhaps a protesting one, but it will sooner or later subside into an acquiescent, wondering mase, content to let the daring do what it cannot cr will not accomplish itself. This is true of all phases of life and ef- fort, but in none more so than in the lives of those whose daring cool-headedness furnishes thrilling amusement for the public that applauds, but predicts withal, ‘““He'll get killed some day doing that; see if he doesn’t.” Sometimes its predictions come true. One of the latest feats with the object of providing a thrill in the blood and a gasp in the breath for onlookers, not to mention a comfortable penny for the per- former, is the almost instantaneous act of ‘“looping the loop'™ on a bicycle. This is a thing that requires daring also, and that of the rough and ready sort, for the man performing it for the first time does not do so after months of preliminaries and practice, he simply makes up his mind as to the amount of nerve he pos- sesses, #ets on the bicycle and before he knows it is well' away on his hair-breadth ride. The track that holds him is not wider than a narrow fence rail and it swoops downward at an incline of fifty- eight feet in 140. Small wonder that Hardy Downing, the San Jose youngster now performing the feat at the Chutes, should look white and limp to the closest of the spectators as he jumps lightly dewn from the catch box and runs to his dress- ing-room. In just six seconds, or perhaps a little less after the rider starts on his flight down the inclined track, which is long enough to give the wheel the terrific mo- mentum with which it shoots around the inside of the great wooden wheel or “loop,” it is all over until the next time. In the middle of the loop the wheel has but a breath when the rider is looking head downward into space, like a fly on a ceiling. That is the thrilling glimpse for the onlookers and it is no less so for the rider. It has, too, a great element of danger, notwithstanding the weight at- tached to the bicycle passing through a narrow slot in the track to keep the ma- chine steady and true. Downing says he always feels nervous more or less, but when on the wheel and away he has no time for sensation. His breath fairly leaves him when coming down the track, but when once into the loop the wheel turns the complete backward somersault so quickly in the large hollow ring that there is no time for alarm or any other feeling. It is a breathless blank at the rate of six- {y-five miles an hour. This rider first tried the feit at San Jose about threce months gt he says, he *“thought he was good at steering a bieycle,” and he tried it. Whil s there Is not such great danger in this rerformance as appears to the person eage - for exciting happenings, a feature whi 1 it shares In common with other dare-devil essayings, it Is far from being a trip that The great- bility of the happened on Jose. It oc- ¢ loop fortu- ped with a three-quarter can be Insured as saf: est danger is in the | bicycle breaking. This Downing's second trip at curred on the bottom of t nately, and the rider esce sprained wrist. Five and seconds Is the record time in which he has so far made the trip, with a standing start and finish, Judging from the number of amuse- ments and foolhardy feats in which fast motion plays a prominent part it seems to hold an irresistible fascination for man The jockey with his horse that flies under the wire in a flash that brings the grand stand to its feet feels this fascination to an extent that impels him to urge to still greater dash and speed. The man who shoots the chutes on a bicycle feels this With the man who loops the loop does him- the danger Is always by his side, as he goes careering and careening through the air. His eye must be keen and his hand of the steadiest, else he may never live to leap from the steed of iron and steel as it cuts the water amid the shouts of the crowd. Another bicycle feat that is a thrilling and dangerous one is the plunging down a long decline at a speed 50 great as to make the rider and his ma- chine but an indistinguishable flash of color. There are men of a temperament to enjoy the extra hazard of these things and who are ready to perform them, to the great profit of the proprietors of the places exhibiting them. These feats have all the fascination of tobogganing felt by the ordinary adven- turer, with multiplied sensation and dan- ger. To feed this appetite of the pub! mind and eye for all that is neck-risking even the horse has been called upon to be an actor, for next to the high diver who leaps from a hundred-foot pole or from the giddy height of the Brooklyn bridge comes the horse who at the commarr of h master leaps from a1 ele- vated platform into the wat- ers below. Here again the fascina- tion and breathlessness of fast motion comes in. The high diver looks danger in the face as the people all gaze up- ward with one accord and he drops like a shot. It is not often B ety Hardy Downing Looping the Loop at that he meets with accident, but once in while a false position, a sudden pro- fon below, and he may be put out of ness forever. 3 Another man who takes his life literal- ly in his hand and who verifies more often than others the prediction of the public as to losing his life in performing his nervy feat is the aeronaut. Just as the tural end of a theater is to be burned, his is to be dashed to pieces or rowned, The parachute often proves an nee of the total depravity of inani- objec Still, the spell of it that and inates the beholder as the oon soars and stands still, a speck on the silent must fascinate the ynaut also, for the most of them go up ae in balloons till the last time comes. Of all motion that of a balloon is the one de- seribed as imperceptible to the man hardy enough to travel by means of it There is scarcely one scene of nature’s wonders: but has been profaned by the man of daring who would make it the vehicle or theater to advertise his own recklessness. Many times nature has given her forces leave to revenge them- selves upon the desecrator. Notably has this been the case at Niagara, where the falls have taken the lives of many who had a strong desire for notoriety. The first of these was Sam Patch, who in 1829 leaped from a tower ninety feet high at the foot of Biddles' Stairway, on Goat <land, in the presence of thousands wait- ing to be horrified. He made the leap safely, and was rescucd from the watel e name of Blondin will be forever as- ted with Niagara, as that of the times successfu tight- ignorina Maria Spelterina is the ly woman who has the credit of cross- ing the Niagara gorge on a two and a quarter-inch rope stretched over the rap- ids below the suspension bridge. This ghe dld in 1876, Moreover, she had bas- kets on her feet and her ankles and wrists were manacled. Many have tried to swim the famous rapids, but few have lived to tell of it. aps the most famous swimmer who lost his life in attempting this feat of ring was Captain Thomas Webb, who was drowned there in 1883. Not content with plain swimming, others have tried to leap the falls in a barrel, among them two women, Martha E. Wagenfuhrer, the first woman to try the feat alone, and Mrs. Taylor, both of whom accomplished the thrilling act safely in 1%L There is obably no act of foolhardiness with a ater flavor or proportion of hazard than this. C. D. Graham, a Philadelphia cooper, Who probably had some inside pointers on how to manage a barrel under adverse circumstances, made several suc- ceseful trips over Niagara in one, Among the men and women who do the most throat-choking things from the spectators’ point of view are those who have absolute fearlessness and a longing to perform in the air—the acrobats or aerial athletes. Many of them from their earliest years have leaped and turned in the air and done difficult feats on the tra- peze and horizontal bars. The acrobat must be born, for the particular kind of courage needed is not found in the ordi- nary man. One of the most famous feats, an act for three, includes a swing, a leap and a catch, which seems simple enough until one learss the length and drop of that swing, and how the leap- ers turn in the air, and what momentum their bodies have as they { ;o.,t.ww shoot toward the man hanging for the catch from the last bar. To hold a trapeze An a drop of ten or twelve feet would seem fairly easy to any trained athlete or acrobat., To hold it in a drop of eighteen feet, as some of the most daring ones do, is quite another thing. A thrilling feat and one accompanied with gréat danger is the pedestal act. In this as sometimes given in eircus perform- ances a man springs from a pedestal on a platform at the tent-top. He swings through a half-circle thirty-six feet across and flies through the air for the balance of fifty-two feet, turning two somersaults as he goes, to where another acrobat hangs head downward from a bar to re- ceive him—not on any visible means of support, but simply to catch him by his outstretched hands. This Is a profession that requires the stanchest sort of nerve, and even acrobats accustomed to working at great heights feel a nervous clutch in their throats when they begin practicing for a new season. Yet they have fewer accidents than most of those in the ranks of the daring ones. It sometimes happeris through nervousness perhaps that a tra- peze performeér in perfect practice may suddenly begin to hesitate or blun- der in a certain trick that he has done without a slip for years. Let this occur several times and the acrobat begins to be afraid of the act, or of himself. To il- lustrate this feeling a noted trapeze per- former says: “Almost all the accidents happen when a performer forces himself against something inside him that says stop.” Acrobats, even the man who leaps over four elephants and thinks nothing of it, often suffer without serious injury falls that would kill ordinary men. The secret of this is that they know how to fall. De- spite its hazards, all acrobats consider their life a healthful one. Closely related to the acrobat is the steeple climber, who works under a con- stant and great nervous strain. His body is always afraid, however calm he thinks himself. There are few people in ‘the world so alone as he, swinging on_the steeple top, In a thunder storm the lightning has been known to make tho steeple climber its plaything, and shock him almost into insensibility. The haul- ing line is all that binds him to the world, and if he has not a steady and careful helper, catastrophe seems often ahead of him. But of the heads of the world, the head of the steeple climber must be the clearest. This was illustrated in the re- cent illumination of the city when two young men performed a difficult feat in climbing to the outstretched arm of the statue on the dome of the City Hall and placed a cluster of electric lights on the top of the torch, 33 feet above the pav ment, There are only fourteen ‘“human flies” 4n the United States who can do “steeple jack” work at the greatest heights and they are all constantly em- ployed. The w that to the.public ey death invitin beast tamer performs feats m little short of so in a measure they for in the lion tamer’s b ess there danger often, and not infre den He, too, must be the v business. The one quality make him a’ great tamer is ently acei- 1 for the which can a genuiae fondness for his animals. Another thing is to keep the lion In the position of the under dog, by kindness if possible; if not, by some other,means. This attained, the force of habit has much to do with keep- ing the animal within bounds and making him obey the signal or the whip. Above all the man who puts his head into the open jaws of a lon must have nerve of the strongest brand. The story of a well known tamer who got into a ticklish place while making the animals perform illustrates this, He had just driven seven lions into the narrow space where two circular passages from the cages open on the bridge that led to the show ring. He was waiting for the at- tendants to open the iron door when one of the largest lions sprang at him and set his tecth in the man's right arm. The other lions all turned on him, but fortunately but two could reach him for the crush of bodies. The weight of the lions kept the iron doors from open- ing and prevented the rescuers from en- tering. For a few moments it seemed as if the tamer was doomed, and the panic of the spectators increased with every second. The tamer's steady nerve was all that saved him. As the great beast opened his jaws to selze a more vital spot, he drove his whip-handle far down the lion's red throat and then with a cudgel passed 1 to him beat the brute back. The other followed, which freed the iron door. 1t was quickly opened and the lions leap- cd toward the ring as if nothing had happened. The tamer had grit enough to get through the act, and then staggered into the arms of the doctors. But still the average lion tamer has an idea that some day one of his pets may kill him, and once he turns his back at the wrong time his idea may blossom into a reality. Among others who at least come under the head of reckless, there is the max who permits himself to be shot from the mouth of a cannon, and also the one who stands in front of a cannon and catches the- ball that speeds from the gun. There is the man who climbs flag poles ahove sky-scrapers and gives them a coat of paint. Among the men who live strenuous lives But not so much in the glare of notoriety there are things done every day that are.more than thrill- ing. The bridge builder, the diver, the locomotive engineer, the ship’s pilot, and hosts of others can tell of happenings that would blanch the cheek of many a professional sensation provider. And the wonder of it is, that of each class the greater number would exchange their dunger-filled lives for no other. SECRET OF SUCCESS Some women have the happy faculty of knowing precisely what to do in every emergency to add to the happiness - of those around them. They are not as rare as some may imagine; they are to be fcund in every walk of life. The fact that they are so little known and so seldom appreciated is due to thé fact that a IS they are not conscious of doing anything more than their duty, dic tated by the promptings of a heart tull of the milk of human kind- n The syoman of this dis- position makes no effort to a watch out for the happiness of others, but it fs just as natural for her to do these little things which make life pleas- ant as it is for the ordinary woman to sit and wait for others to do things for her The secret of this woman's success in being such a comfort is that she is thoroughly unselfish. Self always comes last with her. She never thinks of the personal effort she must make to achieve some things if it is necessary that such things should be done for another's com- fort. She never thinks that she receives no reward for her acts, but keeps on steadily doing for others. She is content to stay behind the scenes when some soclal affair is going on in order to see that nothing happens to mar the good time, She works diligently to prepare some one elge for a vacation trip and does not sigh that she is not to be a partici- pant in the pleasure. She is the woman who at a picnic sees that every one else is supplied with lunch and is content with a bite or two for her- self. She Is the woman who knows how to put up Jjust such lunches as the picnickers are sure to like, and she’ does all this as if there were no question of any one else doing it. She is the woman who is only too willing to supply the table with all the dainties which individ- ual members of the famfly desire, count- ing not the effort it must cost her to bring this about. In fact, she is the woman who does whatever is to bé done, and the beauty of it all is her supreme unconsciousness that she is doing anything. She is not very often to be found among the young wemen and almost never among women ‘who are longing for a carecr, for the lat- ter have time to think only of their own self-advancement and the former find themselves too interesting to pay very much attention to others, but she is found among the middle-aged women who have a family whose wants are always very much in evidence and she is the bless- ing of the household. —_—————— “I understand,” said little Bobby, looking up from his lesson and. keeping a fore- finger temporarily between the pages of his history, ‘that there is only one man before whom the Czar of Russia must take off his hat.”” “Why, yes—that's s0. Your book tells all about it, eh? Who is it, did you say?” His hairdress- er,” said Bobby, getting busy, § # Blood DARING ACTS OF PROFESSIONAL s SENSATION PROVIDERS THE WORLD OVER.