Show REPORTERS CONFIDENTIAL CHAT I WITH PRETTY GRACEFUL ACROBAT I It will only be he a matter of or Ji a few years rears before there will b be no more acro nero acrobatic i batic baUc acts of much merit seen either in inthe inthe the circus or on the stage said Miss liss I Amelia Trapnell of ot the famous Trapnell troupe e of gymnasts and tumblers now no appearing at the Orpheum When hen asked the reason for tor such an expression she continued in her pleasing English ac DC accents accents cents cent To become a proficient performer it Is absolutely necessary that one begin training when very el young oung in fact the training must start almost at birth and now there Is a law in most civilized countries that makes It a L crime to sub subject subject subject children to the severe exercises and training necessary to perfect them for acrobatic careers When did ditl you OU begin training And Miss Trapnell replied My 1 grandparents and my m parents were werl circus performers l and my m two brothers and two sisters who are arc with me In this business were trained by b our parents as t soon oon as a we were ert old enough to understand anything In fact I cannot remember when I 1 began to practice practice practice tice to become a n circus and acrobatic per performer performer performer former My Iy memories are arc all associated with wit my father mother broth brothers brothers brothers ers and sisters in the circus business and ami while the feats thaI tha tIme we perform appear to tobe tobe tobe be easily performed I want to say that our work represents years ears and years ears of hard earnest tireless tirel s practice Even now If it we are not performing for a week we must continuously practice and train I My 1 brother Arthur who does the I Butterfly turn as we call It or as ns It is I commonly common termed the Arab turn was wasten wasten wasten ten years ears in working on that one feature before he ever eer attempted to do It In pub public tic Ill You know it has been said that none Ione but Arabians could ever er attain any de degree degree degree gree of proficiency in that particular line of work but my brother you will observe seems to have hae mastered it The difficulty culty cult about turning Butterflies is to turn and jump sideways starting on one foot bent one way wa and making a revolution revolution tion and lighting on the other foot bent the other way Va Many performers who have attempted this have been perma permanently put out of business because of hay hav having ha haIng hayIng ing their ribs dislocated It 11 must mut be done just so or the lower ribs protrude over oer each other and become fixed and in most instances this proves fatal The particular act performed by b my m two sisters and me where one stands on the heads beads of the other two and nil all three do 10 what Is termed the splits is also an exceedingly difficult act Ve We are the only three women who have ever suc sue successfully done that and we were thirteen years e rs in practising it before we could suc sue successfully do it So you OU see that which is seen from the front of the house and Is apparently an aneas easy task is not always S so easy as it would seem But then we probably do ao donot donot not deserve desere so much credit for our oui tum turn tumbling tumbling bling and the somersaults we perform be because b because cause we are real brothers and sisters and our true name Is Trapnell Md nd we wc were born In Somerset House Somerset shire Somerset England and It probably probably ably ab comes natural to us to turn somer somersaults somersaults With this Miss Trapnell gracefully grace full I withdrew to her dressing with a amerry amerry merry merr little laugh indicating that she had sprung a good joke which she probably probably ably abl had handed to other reporters often oftentimes oftentimes times tunes before |