FIG. 1.
We can obtain experimentally some idea of the dexterity shown by a juggler by trying for ourselves the simplest of his tricks. Whoever is capable of throwing two balls into the air at once, and catching them in succession while standing steadily in the same spot, and without being obliged to step to the right or left, or undergoing contortions, is endowed with an undoubted aptitude for juggling. On the other hand, whoever can stand upright upon a rickety chair without any feeling of fear, or cross a country brook, not upon a tight-rope or wire (which would be too much to ask for a début), but upon a plank of two hands’ width, and do this without a quick palpitation of the heart, has an aptitude for tight-rope walking.
FIG. 2.
To perform with a couple of balls, however, is quite simple, and many children succeed in it after a few days’ practice. They proceed as follows: Having a ball in each hand, they throw the one in the right vertically into the air, pass into the right the one that is in the left and throw this up too, receive the first ball in the left hand, and pass it into the right, throw it up again, and so on; so that the two balls are almost constantly in the air, save during the time it takes to receive the ball with one hand and pass it into the other. If, instead of using both hands, the child employs but one, receiving and throwing one ball while the other is in the air, the difficulty is greater, and the young man who can perform this operation twenty times without dropping one of the balls can treat the artist of the circus as a confrère. To perform with three balls it is necessary to have been taught by a professor. Moreover, it should be remarked that the art of juggling has sufficient advantages as regards the development of the touch, the quick calculation of distances, the nimbleness of the fingers, and the accuracy of the eye and of motion, to cause it to be added to those gymnastic exercises which children are taught at school. It is to this art that the celebrated prestidigitateur Robert-Houdin attributed the dexterity and accuracy that he displayed in his tricks. In his memoirs, he relates that, while taking some lessons from an old juggler, he applied himself so closely to the exercises that at the end of a month he could learn nothing further from his instructor. “I succeeded,” says he, “in performing with four balls, but that did not satisfy my ambition. I wished, if it were possible, to surpass that faculty of reading by appreciation, which I had so much admired in pianists; so I placed a book in front of me, and, while the four balls were flying in the air, accustomed myself to read without hesitation. It could not be believed how much delicacy and certainty of execution this exercise communicated to my fingers, and what quickness of perception it gave my eye. After in this way rendering my hands supple and obedient, I no longer hesitated to directly practice prestidigitation.”
In order to keep their hand in, professional jugglers have to exercise daily, since a few days of voluntary or forced rest would necessitate double work in order to give the hands their former suppleness and dexterity. As is well known, the same is the case with the agility of the danseuse, with whom one day of rest often means more than eight days of double work.
