DANCING MARATHON

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1931, Page 10

DANCING MARATHON

EXCITEMENT AT COLOGNE

PROMOTERS DECAMP

(.Received 14th October, 1.30 p.m.) I COLOGNE, 13th October. A girl going uiad, a. second girl on the verge of insanity, and the promoter ddcamping were among the excitements of a thirty days' dancing marathon, begun on 19th September. Twenty-two couples participated, but only two continued niter 531 hours. Tho competitors ate while dancing, and wore permitted fifteen minutes' rest an hour to enable masseurs to- reinfuso life into numbed limbs, and nurses to revive semi-conscious women. Most of the- couples dropped out on 29th September, when, the French promoter went to Paris, declaring that ho was going to collect the prize-money. A girl suddenly went mad, jumped the barrier, and ran amok in the crowd until overpowered. There were amazing *scenes when it was announced that the marathon was ended. Unpaid nurses, masseurs, cooks, and attendants menacingly surrounded the paybox. The cashier pocketed the takings and bolted, while two Frenchmen who took over the arrangements after the departure of the promoter were arrested on the Franco-German frontier while attempting to escape to France with the proceeds.