DEADLY REALISM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9563, 9 August 1909, Page 3

DEADLY REALISM.

A LIVING-PICIURE MODEL DROWNED AMID APPLAUSE. A terrible fate has overtaken young acrobat named Ontrets, who earned a living by posing for cinema tcgraph pictures. On a recent Monday he was engaged by an operator to fall into the Seine and pretend to drown after a fierce struggle for life. In accordance with his instructions he tumbled in, and on coming to the surface he splashed and threw his arms about in such realistic fashion that the cinematograph operbtor on the bank was moved to shout "Bravo! Keep it up! Splendid!" The spectators on the bank, who took in the situation, also joined in the applause as they watched the man Btrugging in the water. A steamer loaded with passengers came along in the midst of thes* proceedings, and so interested were all on board that the vessel was brought lo while the peopld applauded. * When the scene had been enacted for a few minutes, the man in the water thrsw up his arms in a last fiantic outburst and disappeared. Murmurs of admiration at his remarkable acting were heard on all sides, and the people on the steamer stood with hands raised and apart ready to applaud. The seconds became minutes, and then a horrible suspicion spread among the people. The unhappy man never came to the surface a live, but his dead body was recoved half an hour later. It is supposed that he was attacked by cramp.