DEFYING DEATH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3571, 19 December 1882, Page 4

DEFYING DEATH.

The Philadelphia Times gives the following detailed description of the dangerous and daring act of Signor Leonati, who 13 daily running the risk of breaking his neck in making a- series of ascensions and descensions on an elevated spiral roadway ■with an ordinary Columbia bicycle. The following is the Times' description of the novel and dangerous performance ; —" The track is just twelve inches in diameter, ■without a railing or safeguard of any kind. It rises ten inches in thirty-six, and describes a circle of only twelve feet in diameter. The distance he lias to travel from the ground to the top of the canvas is some 250 feet. This act is certainly the most wonderful and dangerous performance ever accomplished, and Leonati was the lirat to attempt it, and the only one ever able to accomplish it. Only a few days ago a daring gymnast attempted to imitate it in the city of Eoston, and before he had reached onequavtcr of the way up the spiral he fell and broke bia neck, despite the arrangements he had made to save himself by means of a guard rope, a thing Leonati does not use. IFo rides upon a spider bicycle, with a 40-inch wheel and a 15----inch trail wheel. In going around the constant curve of the spiral the wheels are spread apart six inches, so that he has only three inches on either side to ride upon. That is, if either wheel should go one side or the other but threo inches it ■would leave the track and the daring rider would bo dashed to the ground beneath and could only bo saved from serious injury or death by a miracle, and it is safe to assume that the day of miracles has passed. Anyone, then, who has seen a person ride upon a, frail, unsteady, wriggling bicycle can appreciate, perhaps, the hazardous nature of the performance, even if it were done on'an elevated straight track, ■with but three inches of room on either side of the wheels ; but when it comes to a track that is not only a small circle, but ascends at a ratio of 10 to 36 inches, it passes tho comprehension of possibility. Still more

marvellous than the ascent is tho descent, First of all in the start. All bicycle riders know tho difficulty of mounting a bicycle and retaining equilibrium without first having given it an impetus ; that it is next to impossible to mount a bicycle while it is standing still and start off. Well, this is just what Lconati has to do. At the top of the spiral the track is level about the length of the machine and widened about a foot. Arriving at the top, he lifts his machine around. The wheel stands facing —nothing —empty air, with nothing below it but the ground, some 60ft below. When he mounts his bicycle ho starts it from a dead standstill, and instantly turns the wheel to the left. There is no chance to remedy a mistake or to start over again. The start has to be accuracy itself, or it is the last of Signor Leonati, and once started the same supreme control of nerve and muscle must bo maintained throughout the perilous journey. It i?, indeed, the most sensational performance before the public. It has been the reigning sensation in Renz's circus at Berlin lor the-past year."