xpression known as the circus. My
happiest memories in this field are from the streets of Paris before
the war, the incomparably lovely fetes. Only the sun knows where these
dear artists may be now.

But I am wanting to tell of the little equestrienne, whose work has
for the past five years been a source of genuine delight to me,
charming little May Wirth, of Australian origin, with her lovely dark
eyes, and captivating English accent. If you have a genuine sympathy
for this sort of expression, it is but natural that you want to get
inside the ring, and smell the turf with them, and so it was the
representative of this gifted little woman who brought us together. It
is, in the first place, a pity that there is so little written of the
history of these people, so little material from which to gather the
development of the idea of acrobatics in general, or of any one phase
in particular. It would be impossible to learn who was the first
aerial trapezist, for instance, or where high wire performing was
brought from, just when the trick of adjusting the body to these
difficult and strenuous rhythms was originated. They cannot tell you
themselves. Only if there happens to be more than two generations in
existence can you trace the development of this form of athletic
entertainment. It may have begun with the Egyptians, it may have begun
with the first gypsies.

These people do not write their history, they simply make it among
themselves, and it is handed down through the generations. When I
asked May Wirth for information, she said she knew of none on the
subject, save that she herself sprang from five generations of
acrobats and equestrians, and that it is terrifically hard labour from
beginning to end, equestrianism in particular, since it requires a
knowledge of several if not all the other physical arts combined, such
as high wire walking, handspring and somersault, trapeze work, bars,
ballet dancing, etc.; that she herself had begun as a child, and had
run the entire gamut of these requirements, coming out the finished
product, so to speak, in all but ballet dancing, which she disliked,
and wept always when the time came for her lesson in this department.

When one sees the incomparable brilliancy of this little woman of the
horse, watching her marvellous ground work, which is in itself an
example of virtuosity, one realizes what accomplishment alone can do,
for she is not yet twenty-five, and the art is already in