ON THE TIGHT ROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 266, 10 November 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

ON THE TIGHT ROPE.

Blondin Tells of Mia Experiences.

SOME OF HIS DARING FEATS

An Athlete Who at Slxty-fivo Excels all

Others In His Profession.

'If zey would pay me I would cross Niagara again, bub for ze gloire, j'en eu ai assez !'

Of course only one man in the world could have made that remark, And although it is a distinction to have done whut no other man of woman born, in all the ages has ever done, Jean Francois Blondin seems to have in a measure survived himself. When in his intrepid prime he walked the narrow path of hemp above the mad swirling waters so dizzily fur beneath him, both the American and Canadian shores ware black with beholders who watched him with bated breath. Now when he returns to America after decadea and exhibits the'even more startling nerve of tripping blithely on the tight rope with 65 year? on his back, a sparse gathering of Coney island visitors look with languid interest at the doughty funambulist before the Sea Beach Pavilion.

Sad to reap such aftermath of glory! Mo wonder that his mellowing years care not for 'ze gloire,' but look with something of prosy solicitude at the more commercial gain which his doughty legs and nerves may win. There is much of the same dissonance between the Blondin of to-day up aloft on his aerial pathway and the Blondin who treads the earth. There, clad in tights and softened by the enchanting touches of distance, there is something of the quasi-heroic about his physique despite his protuberant abdomen. Straight as a Crow Indian, motionless as the statue of Memnon, ho stands until the braying band on the portico of the Pavilion breaks into a tumultuous strain. Then grasping his long balancing pole he steps forth hardily and with an elastic abandon on the rope. The cords stand out on his legs and arms, his hair has a sort.of windswept look and his straight-ahead gaze is as firm and confident as the unblanching look of Fate. , - „ But on earth !—alas, he is stripped of all that. As he came forth from the weatherstained tenfc at the foot- of the mast, after he had completed his performance, he was a middle-sized, stocky, elderly man, vulgar —after the typo of a ward politician-~pale blue eyes with small pupils, set lightly in his head, his nose a bit awry, and under the bristles of his imperfectly dyed moustache the gleam of teeth which art had-pot made beautiful. No. Blondon is not heroic when be treads the earth, though the breast of his black frock coat was plated with dozens of medals of honour. Still in the bourgeois commonplaconoss of the rope-walker there is something that is attractive. His wonderful preservation, the agility which invests his six end n half decades, with the robust vigour of a youth, tell of his moderate, carefully regulated life En the morning ho takes a breakfast of eo-gs and wine or something equally light, and then touobes nothing until after he has walked in the evening, when he takes a heavy dinner and lingers at the beard with friends over eoaie cordial, quiet, restful coa-

tent. His Italian manager, Palavicino, half-a-dozen newspaper men, his son Henry, a modest, unassuming young man of 27, and a lady of baby-blue and maroon velvet ' confection,' and dismal coronets worn as earrings, were his associates. The lady is the present wife of Levy the cornetist. The band played 'En Revenant de la Revue,' and a repertorial sphere of good nature and cordiality visibly contracted under it, while Blondin's faint blue eyes twinkled. He applauds vehemently at the end, his hands glistering with large jewelled rings. He meets in a straightforward, unassuming way a small battery of questions levelled at him. •Do you feel any weakening of your powers V 'None. There is nothing that I nave ever done which I cannot do equally well to-day,'answered Bondin, in French. 'I am nightly heavier, but I feel as active as I have ever felt.'

• Do you ever use stimulant ?' ' No. Nothing more than a glass of some liqueur after my dinner. The music of the band is some slight assistance, of course, in walking on a rope, juntas it is toanyother sort of walk. Bub I have never employed stimulants of any kind, and my diet is very moderate and simple.' ' Have you never felt any trepidation on the ropa? ' No. Of course there is a certain tension of nerves, but I am as cool as 1 could wish. 1 have never had any accident or been hurt, Once or twice I lost my chair. I did this at Niagara. Occasionally some of the gear or guy ropes give way, but I have never been injured. The rope is always subjected to a good teat first. This one is capable of standing a pressure of forty tons, so I am not likely to break it down. My son superintends all of these details now, and I can feel the most perfect confidence in the safety of everything.' ' Well, there must be some feat more difficult than others, is there not ?' ' Balancing with the chain is the most difficult so far as equilibrium goes. But the bicycle work ia tho most dangerous, as recovery in case of a slip would be so'difficult, if not impossible.' •' How do you toll-when the chair is just balanced right in tho middle?' ' I am nob co particular about that so long as my centre gravity is right. I tell that by my shoulders and my balancing pole. There is a sen^e of being balanced which assures me it is as it should be.'

'la carrying a person over on your back, are you indifferent as to who it is, or do you have a person who ia trained or specially qualified 10 be carried ? I don't suppose you find many who covet the trip.' 'Oh, yes. There are plenty who are willing to take it. I would as soon carry one as another if he has nerve. But when 1 feel anybody trembling or showing any trace of vertigo, I advise him not to go. Although their legs are run through straps they could slip out of thorn if they were to get faint, and fall backward. The masts sway somewhat, and a person subject at all to vertigo will show it when he gets up there. I generally carry over my 80n, though hia wife is decidedly opposed to his taking the trip. But it is perfectly safe. I am not as dangerous as a bob-tail car as a means of transit.'

' Is your life insured, Monsieur Blondin ?' 1 No. There is not a company who will take the risk.'

' When you crossed Niagara rtid you find the rush of the water below you a nervetrying thing ?' ' No. For a fortnight before I crossed I used to go and look down and see the waters sweep over : but I found that they had no unpleasant effect on mo. Ib has been a little annoying hero at Coney Island when 6ome friends have taken me up into tho tower and then asked me if I felt the hoight. I would as lief walk a rope at ono height a3 another. The difficulty is in stretching a rope securely at such great height. At the Crystal Palace my rope wfis 145 feet high; and in Russia it was 125 feet. But at St. Petersburg there was something much harder than that to contend with. It was so cold I could hardly hold the pole, and there were snow-iiakes whirling in my face and blinding me all tho way across. The Empress wished me not to attempt the walk, but I did not liko to give up on account of a little difficulty, and I did it.'

' Have you ever changed your method at all ?'

'No. My method is the outcome of experience rather than theory. I began walking when a child. There is such a thing aa genius for rope-walk-ing as there is for everything else. I think I have it,' said Blondin modestly. ' Now, my eon, though he can get over a rope, is not a rope-walker. He is a good all-round athlete, but he has no decided talent for the profession, and would rather go over a tight rope on my back than on his feeb.'

' When you were walking blindfolded at the place you pretended to fall, I noticed that you put your foot straight .along the rope instead of taking it with the hollow of your foot.' ' That wae because I had to determine very carefully my balance, and to be sure where the rope was. This rope is not very good. The guy lines are shorter on one side than the other., and the oscillations are bad.'

When Blondin walked across the first time he was done up in a queer cross between the costume of a togaed Roman and the garb of a wild Indian, and he wore a plume of cock feathers in his helmet. His gait was very like the walk of some barnyard cock. He had the same sort of nervous high step combined with the deliberate grace of the minuet movement. He raised hia leg high, straightened it out ahead of him, the muscles tightening as ho grasped the rope with his foot, Hia other gait was a comical sort of trot. With the first, it took him five minutes to traverse the way, while with the other ho got over in a little over one. He keeps his eye fixed on the rope about thirty feet ahead of him. ' How heavy a pole do you carry?' 'The one I had today is twenty-eight pounds. I have used a thirty-six-pound pole. Over Niagara I carried one of thirtyfour pounds. If lam carrying a heavy man I like a heavy balancingl pole, as you may naturally suppose. My son weighs about 150.'

' Have you ever found a prejudice against rope-walking in any place where you have wished to exhibit ?'

1 1 did in Rome. Antonelli positively refused to give me leave to walk. Ho evidently thought it was flying, or walking, in the face of Providence. But Pio Nono insisted that I should walk. My rope was stretched in the Campo Pretoria, the Government grounds. Cardinal De Meordi was then Secretary of the War Department. There were 42,000 people present, including the Papal Court. All the stores were closed, and it was an immense fete.'

Blondin was born near Calais, but has not been there for years, and has never walked there. When he came to this colony first it was under an engagement to the famous Ravels. ' What is your name on the stage? asked Gabriel Ravels of him. 'My name is Jenn Francois Gravelot. I have no stage name. But my father was such a light-haired, clear-complexioned man that in the army they oalled him Blondin.' • • Blondfn will do first rate, 1 said Ravola. From that time to this Gravelob has been Blondin, The story of hia entering his profession, while savouring slightly of the voraolty of the Arabian Nights, does not *o beyond the limits of pos-c-tbility, and is doubtless truer than inoafe things told of Mahomet. When ho was an urchin of & year;? of age, his Bister was performing pn one of the ropes which they used to stretch from the ground to the top of, a fiirous tent. She was embarrassed in some way, a»d the baby

Blondin toddled np the rope filled with all, the brotherly affection his young soul could carry to her relfef. This was hia first step on the narrow way of hemp which he has since trodden to fame upon. Pretty whether true or not.