A YANKEE SENSATIONAL IDEA

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3216, 3 June 1871, Page 3

A YANKEE SENSATIONAL IDEA

-o — . "We take the following from the Chicago " Tribune" : — '* The performance at the Opera House last evening was marked by an appalling calamity, which created an unutterable sensation of horror, and will darken the minds of all who witnessed it with the ineffaceable and shuddering memories of one of the bloodiest tragedies that have ever been enacted on any stage. To record the sickening details ofthe scene is almost as painful as to have been a spectator of it, and it is with a feeling that we are inflicting a shock upon the entire community that we proceed to give a bare statement of the facts : — At the close of the second act of the ' Green Huntsman,' the customary preparations were made for the trapeze performances of the two young girls, Zoe and Ida de Lave, and the usual nervous tin ill of expectation went through the audience as the two youthful acrobats made their bow and proceeded to take their places. By those who sat nearest to the stage, it was remarked that the elder of the two girls betrayed a nervousness of manner which boded ill for her success in the daring feats sho was about to undertake. It is weU known that she had on more than one occasion missed her grasp, and come near losing the frail hold upon life which her dangerous avocation entails. And the knowledge that it was always undor oompulsion and much against her inclination that she ever ascended to the cross-bar, had excited a profound pity for the poor creature whenever she appeared. On this occasion her countenance was paler than ' usual, and she evinced a decided tremulousnes of manner as she proceeded mechanically to ascend the rope to her dizzy elevation. Some undefined feeling of this kind was certrinly communicated to the audience, for as the performance went on the applause grew less frequent, as if the spectators were too ; painfully absorbed in the spectacle to lend the performer the usual encouragement. Everything, however, seemed to i go on with tho same success as on prei vious evenings ; and the two daring little . acrobats now prepared for the crowning ■ lbat, which has already beon described in [ our columns. The elder girl was hang- > ing bead down from the trapeze, whicli is ■ suspended on the front of the stage, and ■ extended her hands to receive the other, - who was about to make her terrible lly- ; ing leap from the third tier of tbe audi-

torium. For an instant there was a deep and breathlesss pause in the audience, in which one might have heard a pin drop. A moment more and the girl was flying like a bird through the air. Then came a horrid shriek, followed by a dull heavy crash of something upon the stage— a horror of shattered limbs and blood ; then a wild uproar from the audience. Men jumped frantically over the 6eats and ran as if to hide the horrid thing from their sight. The ghastly figures of the two victims lay there quivering in the last agony, and the actor actresses, and ballet girls, who had rushed from tho dressing room, stood round, transfixed with horror, as if they were gazing on some Medusa's head which had turned them into stone. Many of them were sized with hysterics, and one or two were carried away in a fainting fit. The wildest excitement prevailed in every part of tbe house. As soon ns it could, to some extent, be allayed it was ascertained how the dreadful calamity had befallen. It was too easy alas ! to explain. The younger girl had missed her aim, owing, perhaps, in some measure to the nervousness of her sister, and she came down with a fearful shriek and crash upon the floor of the stage, dashing her brains out and breaking her limbs. The elder one loosing her presence of mind, relinquished her hold upon the cross-bar, came down head first among the foot lights. She seemed also to havo been killed in an instant. There was a strong quiveting in her limbs, for a brief moment, and tben all was over. The feelings of the man who has brought up these poor girls to this awful calling may be better imagined that described. The bodies were covered with sheets and carried away from the sight of the spectators. [The calamity here described did not take place, The account was published by the " Tribune" as a delicious foretaste of anticipated horror."]