At the Circus Francisco in Paris I met a young apprentice, a fine young German lad. We had sympathized with each other, and, boy-like, had made a sort of pact that as soon as we got out of bondage we would form a team. “Who knows,” I had said, “some day we may have a ‘family’ of our own.” His term of apprenticeship ended with mine; I had his address, so we met in London. He was a good contortionist, having gone through the same rigorous training that I had, and we had little trouble in getting an engagement together. At one time we had four engagements at the same time in London. We had to go from music hall to music hall in cabs, and often we did not have time to change clothes. We were making twenty pounds a week apiece, which is pretty good money for boys barely seventeen. I sent most of my money home to my mother. The circus had failed and she was living in Paris. My father had died in the meantime. You may wonder perhaps how a boy of my tender years was able to take care of himself. But if my years were tender, my back and muscles were hard. Life, too, was hard. I had been raised in a stern school, and it made for independence.
After a year of freedom I became ill. One day I collapsed during my contortion act. I went to a hospital and the doctor told me that I could not work for years. I could hardly believe it, but he said that I had worked so hard that I had strained myself. To make this unhappy chapter of my life short, I was in and out of a hospital for three years.
When I came out I felt weak, but the first thing I did was to try some of my old contortion tricks. But there was a great wrench in my back and a sharp pain shot all through my body. The cold sweat broke out all over me. I tried again, and with the same result. Then I realized what had happened. I had become stiff, and my days as contortionist were over. I was barely twenty years old, and yet I had lived a whole lifetime of work and denial. What was I to do?
“LAUGHTER LOOSENS THE FETTERS OF THE BRAIN.”
II
I BECOME A CLOWN
I FOUND that I could still do some acrobatic tricks like simple flip-flaps. You can never possibly realize the feeling of consolation that came to me when I landed on my feet after the first experimental turn, for, with that landing, I realized that I still had a means of earning a livelihood. It was like a man who suddenly found an arm useful that had been considered helpless. I had been a good balancer in my contortion days, and this was also an asset. So I joined a troupe known as “Jackley’s Wonders,” which started for a tour of Northern Africa with Brachini’s circus.