e that its
supporting wires come up almost horizontal; and even on the ground it
has made me dizzy to see them lean forward for the bar which falls short
of the pedestal, so that they can barely catch it with the left-hand
fingers, while the right hand clings to the pedestal brace. They need
the send of that initial spring to give them speed, but--

Well, there was a very powerful and active man in Columbus, Ohio, a kind
of local athlete, who agreed, on a wager, to swing off from the pedestal
as Danny and Zorella did. And one day a small company gathered at the
practice hour to see him do it. He said it was easy enough. His friends
chaffed him and vowed he "couldn't do it in a hundred years." The big
man climbed up the swinging ladder to the starting-place, and stood
there looking down. When you stand on the pedestal the ground seems a
long way below you, and there is little comfort in the net. The big man
said nothing, but began to get pale. He had the trapeze-bar all right
with one hand; the thing was to let go with the other.

For ten minutes the big man stood there. He said he wasn't in a hurry.
His friends continued to joke him. One man urged him to come down. The
professionals told him he'd better not try it if he was afraid--at which
the others laughed, and that settled it, for the big man _was_ afraid;
but he was stubborn, too, and, rising on his toes, he threw his right
arm forward and started. He caught the bar safely with his right hand,
swept down like a great pendulum, and at the lowest point of the swing
was ripped away from the bar with the jerk of his two hundred pounds,
and went skating along the length of the net on his face until he was a
sorry-looking big man with the scratch of the meshes. Not one athlete in
twenty, they say, without special training, could hold that bar after
such a drop.

Zorella cited a case in point where a first-class acrobat was offered a
much larger salary by a rival circus to become the partner of an expert
on the high bars. "This man was crazy to accept," said Zorella, "and
everything was practically settled. The two did their act together on
the low bars in great shape. Then they tried it on the high bars, and
the new man stuck right at the go-off. Queerest thing you ever saw. He
had to start on the end bar with a giant swing,--that gives 'em their
send, you know,--then do a backward single to the middle bar, then a
shoot on to the last bar, and from there drop with some