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Just to explain to non-Russian readers :)
the singular and the most famous Russian source for
Gutter-Perchers/"gutta-percha" is the Russian melodramatic novel by
Dmitry Grigorovich (1822 - 1899) "The Guttapercha Boy" ("Guttaperchevyi
mal'chik")(1883) about a young circus acrobat.
It is (or was) a mandatory reading for Russian children.
This novel which inaugurated the long tradition/subculture of
innumerable pre-revolutionary "circus novels" (Alexander Kuprin, Mark
Aldanov among the most vivid ones; continued by Andrey Sinyavsky in our
times).
Victor Fet