Show j Adagio Dancer Gambles j Her Neck on Timing as Much Much as an Auto Racer Clear Eye Steady Ne Nerves es Necessary to Avoid Serious Ac Accidents Fighters Baseball Men Have Ilave luch 1 Easier Life I 4 2 Y f 1 By JACK r CK KOFOED iNe New York Journal Sports Writer 1 WEST VEST PALM BEACH Pla Fla April 2 The lIghts dIm A spot Is thrown on the dance floor Three husky young men in white tights spring out Their bleeps biceps and calves bulge under the silk A girl sweeps past them for lor her entrance She is small and haired black but a mus mus- cular miniature of her partners 1 They smile md and bow The orchestra breaks into a fast piece The men begin to hurl the young oung lady among them like Ilke a rubber ball This adagio busin business ss requires more timing time tim ing and coordination than any sport in the world You can miss a a golf ball and nothing but your feel eel feelings ings are injured If one o these men misses by so o much as a fraction of an inch the young lady will be an excellent subject for the hospital I am told that a week or so ago one of them did miss The feminine member of the hed to the polished floor loor and was c out un un- conscious The memory of her mishap mishap mis- mis hap apparently dId not bother her in inthe inthe the least I Risks to Ad Adagio lo D Dancing AdagIo dancers may be drawing cards at night clubs arid and in theaters but they are not national heroes like Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey So far as actual hazard goes the young oung lady took more risks than eith either r the Bambino or the Manassa Mauler ever did Each time she sails through the theair theair air with the greatest of ease she may maybe maybe be starting on a journey that will end in a hospital bed with a broken vertebra vcr ver- tebra There is or of course an element of hazard in most athletic games Ball Ballplayers Ballplayers players frequently break fingers and occasionally legs Fighters may suffer suf suf- fer fractured jaws or ribs and other serious cuts But neither group ever ever displayed more contempt for danger than the round bodied little adagio dancer of the Biltmore At the thc Hamas fight I ran into Al Aspen the automobile racer Ah now youre you're talking of a racket that has Death riding in the rumble seat scat every time the boys step on the gas If they stick to the game long enough the odds are whatever you ou want that some crackup or other will make them the any box Baseball MUd Mild In Comparison We talked about various automobile racers who were mutually known to tous tousand us usand and of the fateful car that always cracks up and gets its man Al was supposed to have piloted it In the Indianapolis In In- race but whizzed into a spill and injured his wrist so o that he couldn't take the assignment Another er driver did and died behind the wheel This death car has been rebuilt time and again Now that game is really a tough one It demands strength and nerve and perfect coordination But the little adagio dancer needs exactly the same attributes It If she lacks them it is just too bad for her I have ha been watching major league ball pla players ers down here in Florida for lor something more than a month The training grind isn't much of a grind grindat at all The They work a few hours in the hot sun then come back to the hotel and eat largely of whatever happens to tofit tofit fit their fancy They smoke as they please and while liquor is frowned upon and late hours in night clubs are taboo restrictions are not nearly as numerous as those imposed on a afi fi fighter in training Precision Important Factor actor Most pugilists live rather dismal lives while getting themselves in con con- dillon and theIr sparring partners are even more put upon But ban ball play play- ers erst They haven't anything to complain corn com plain about I would say the little ada adagio io dancer has a much tougher time ot of it 12 months o of the year ear than the big bigl l leaguer aguer has in these five weeks She must keep her silhouette and take stretching exercises and go through continual practice of her routine The eye must be clear and the nerves without with with- out a touch ot of the jitters And the element clement ot of danger that thatis Is a a. part of her daily work is not the sort of diet most of us would relish Her three hUsky male partners have havethe havethe the heavy physical work vork to do and throwing her body around and catching it on the fly demands just justas as much precision and con considerably more strength than the ladys But they are in no particular danger If one of them happens to make a wild throw his feelIngs may be hurt but it is the girls girl's ph physiognomy that will be cracked up Yet to Make Headlines People like Ilke this get polite applause from the a audience and I suppose a good salar salary but nobody ever heard of an adagio dancer who broke into the headlines like Babe Ruth or Jack Dempsey Yet their tricks are just justas as hard to learn as hitting a fellow on on the chin with a left hook or batting a ball out of the park |