BARON PANTZER, ACROBAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1211, 21 August 1911, Page 3

BARON PANTZER, ACROBAT.

HOW A TITLE WAS LOST AND WON. (Br Sylvius.) The German baron is everywhere. You will find him tilling his own land—or, perhaps, someone else's—on tho banks of the Spree; ho is much in evidence in the finest army in tho world; he is to bo discovered living remotely in the Tenderloin district of New York, or planting coconuts -in Samoa. No matter where ho may be, lie seldom loses track of tho fact tliat he is a baron, and that instinctive pride in his lineage gives turn a dignity which must be respected by all sivo extreme Socialists and tho pigmies of Senegauibia. But of all places one would search -for n German baron, if one were needed in an emergency, tho last would be the pantomime stage, yet there is one now performing nightly at the Opera Houso in "Jack and the Beanstalk," tho alternate name of which is "The Baron and the Beans," owing to tho big salary he receives. Baron Willie Pantzer is all acrobat do luxe, so to speaK. One finds it somewhat difficult to breathe during tile astounding performance of the baron and his "men." Each act catches the breath and holds it until the next marvel happens, and at the point where it would appear, that the performance had culminated, tho apparently impossible is accomplished with, an ease and grace which are-absolutely bewildering. It was in 1815 that a group of hotheaded Berliners became wroth over the German Government not exactly coincidin" with their view?, and the affair drew to a point ina street riot, in which the revolutonaries were promptly downed with an I uppcr-cui; from the Mailed Fist. Uii: fortunately for himself, Baron Pantzer (Willie's grandfather) lent himself to this little body of malcontents, and had to skip to America, where ho became swallowed' up in that melting-pot of tho nations. He was deprived of his title, and his estates were forfeited to the Crown. Things did •not prosper as they might have done with ex-Baron Pantzer, urn. his son (Willie's father) became a wanderer on the face of the earth, and leading a fih >s y kind of life, took to tlio show business as a means of keeping the family stow a-bubble, and in this manner Willie Pantzer. at four years of age, made up his mind to pursue an acrobatic career. "He was the mite of a man whom his father used to toss 'in tho air and make a Catherise-wheel of with his feot. Then came the Vranco-ftermon War, and the call to arms of all loyal Germans. Willie's father listened to the tap o£ the drum, and joined the .colours. ' There was good i-tuff in tho' man, and for an expectionalJy daring feat of arms—riding .at a full gallop through a French cordon with important dispatches—ho was posted to the of Honour, received the German "Y.C.," and a bullet through his lungs. On his recovery he was given a commission,■ which, ho retained to the end of the war. Ho then returned to the besom of his family and the quiet calm of the life, acrobatic, and'.mado no attempt to get his father's title restored. It has remained for : tire grandson to do that; Successful in- his business, that' member of the Pantzer family now in Wellington decided that ho would endeavour to win back the title, and after a big figiht he was given back tho title, but the Courts would not budge an inch in the.matter of restoring the estates.

Willie Pantzer, as he prefers to be called; is only '.1 yeais of age, yet has been in the acrobatic business for 28 years. IT? is a quiet, unrstentatious, thoughtful young man, with the chest and arms of" a Tlorcu!,?s, and the waist of a woman, and has. groups of muscles which the ordinary -man knows nothing of—they arc developed by sprcial exercises for special wdrk. The present' eom'binati<m has be,?.n six years in existence,'and the youngest hoy—the one who bounces—is only an eighteen months' recruit. Willie-Pantzer has -been engaged'by J. C. Williamsotl.>-Ltd,, to return to v Australasia for the-pantc-mimli'of- Cnristmite, 1913; "The next'year after that, I 're-, tire," said Mr. I'antzer. "I mako a lot of money in my business, and at; present iim practically independent, so in. 19H I will settle' down—probablj" in thci South bf England—close to everything,-worth while."