gain he would eat a meal while on
his wire; cook and eat an omelet, using a table and ordinary cooking
utensils, all of which he kept balanced. In France Blondin was almost
the patron saint of the rope-walkers; and at the present day the
performers imitate his feats, but never with the same grace and
perfection.

In 1882 an acrobat bearing the natural name of Arsens Blondin traversed
one river after another in France on a wire stretched at high
altitudes. With the aid of a balancing-rod he walked the rope
blindfolded; with baskets on his feet; sometimes he wheeled persons
over in a wheelbarrow. He was a man of about thirty, short, but
wonderfully muscled and extremely supple.

It is said that a negro equilibrist named Malcom several times
traversed the Meuse at Sedan on a wire at about a height of 100 feet.
Once while attempting this feat, with his hands and feet shackled with
iron chains, allowing little movement, the support on one side fell,
after the cable had parted, and landed on the spectators, killing a
young girl and wounding many others. Malcom was precipitated into the
river, but with wonderful presence of mind and remarkable strength he
broke his bands and swam to the shore, none the worse for his high
fall; he immediately helped in attention to his wounded spectators. A
close inspection of all the exhibitionists of this class will show that
they are of superior physique and calm courage. They only acquire their
ability after long gymnastic exercise, as well as actual practice on
the rope. Most of these persons used means of balancing themselves,
generally a long and heavy pole; but some used nothing but their
outstretched arms. In 1895, at the Royal Aquarium in London, there was
an individual who slowly mounted a long wire reaching to the top of
this huge structure, and, after having made the ascent, without the aid
of any means of balancing but his arms, slid the whole length of the
wire, landing with enormous velocity into an outstretched net.

The equilibrists mentioned thus far have invariably used a tightly
stretched rope or wire; but there are a number of persons who perform
feats, of course not of such magnitude, on a slack wire, in which they
have to defy not only the force of gravity, but the to-and-fro motion
of the cable as well. It is particularly with the Oriental performers
that we see this exhibition. Some use open parasols, which, with their
Chinese or Japanese costumes, render the perfor