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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1961.
LITTLE STAR IN
IN THE SKY
The Triskas Solve_Baby-Sitting Problem By Adding Tv
Two-Year-Old Karel To Act
PERCHED on the shoulders of his acrobatic aunt, Karel Triska, 21⁄2, raises both of his hands in the typical salute of the high-wire artist. Pupa Triska balances eyete.
ALTHOUGH little Karel is a full-fledged member of the act, he is still too amal! to climb up a ladder alone, so papa hoists him to the wire in his arm
"ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENT of his dad's ability to manoeuvre their balancing pole
with his feet, fledgling acrobat stands on Mataj Triska's shoulders high in air.
SAN ACROBAT is never tos, young to learn safety rules, so Matal louches lililes
Karel to check whether repes ary anchored securely before cumping to high-
~
ON A SLENDER wire 120 feet in the
air little Karel Triska, 21⁄2 years' old, has the time of his life. While other lots his age and older are playing in, sand boxes and riding kiddle carts, this intrepid young dare-devil is performing stunts that would make the average. man shiver even to think about.
Fear of height is not inherent but is learned, according to many noted psy chologists. Their deductions are seem- ingly proved by the Indifference shown by Karel as he stands on auntie Karla' Triska's shoulders at dizzy heights.' Auntic, meanwhile, is resting on the shoulders of papa Mataj, who is gliding back and forth with them in a high-. wire act that thrills audiences at the Trenton, N. J., State Foir and other! fairs
Most men beginning a career stort af the bottom and work their way up. Karel started at the top when his pard ents decided that as long as he was old enough to walk he was old enough to join the family act. For that's the way it's been with the Triskas for hundreds} of years.
It seems that the Triska family-tree for many generations in Czechoslovakia has provided nothing but high-wire performers. According to family legend,{ two or three centuries ago someone re- marked to a Triska: “May all your chil- dren be acrobats," and it has stuck to' this day.
Little Karel began his limbering up exercises when he was als months old. Before long he was working out with. his parents, his two uncles, Joseph and Augustine, and Joseph's wife, Karla.»
The boy's grandfather, now 65, still
is'a hight-wire cyclist in Czechoslovakia, from which the troupe fled when the Soviets began to occupy Use country.
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CARRYING SK Trinka tradition, brothers Joseph (Joft), Matuj ^. low in their footstepii în det, niso, are Karel on shoulders