MIRACLE MONGERSAND THEIR METHODS

A COMPLETE EXPOSE' OF THE MODUSOPERANDI OF FIRE EATERS, HEATRESISTERS, POISON EATERS, VENOMOUSREPTILE DEFIERS, SWORD SWALLOWERS,HUMAN OSTRICHES, STRONG MEN, ETC.

BYHOUDINIAUTHOR OF``THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT HOUDIN,'' ETC.

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATEDTO MY LIFE'S HELPMATE,WHO STARVED AND STARRED WITH MEDURING THE YEARS WE SPENTAMONG ``MIRACLE MONGERS''My Wife

PREFACE

``All wonder,'' said Samuel Johnson, ``isthe effect of novelty on ignorance.'' Yetwe are so created that without something towonder at we should find life scarcely worthliving. That fact does not make ignorancebliss, or make it ``folly to be wise.'' For thewisest man never gets beyond the reach ofnovelty, nor can ever make it his boast thatthere is nothing he is ignorant of; on thecontrary, the wiser he becomes the more clearlyhe sees how much there is of which he remainsin ignorance. The more he knows, the morehe will find to wonder at.

My professional life has been a constantrecord of disillusion, and many things thatseem wonderful to most men are the every-day

commonplaces of my business. But I havenever been without some seeming marvel topique my curiosity and challenge my investigation.In this book I have set down some ofthe stories of strange folk and unusualperformers that I have gathered in many yearsof such research.

Much has been written about the feats ofmiracle-mongers, and not a little in the wayof explaining them. Chaucer was by no meansthe first to turn shrewd eyes upon wonder-workers and show the clay feet of these popularidols. And since his time innumerablemarvels, held to be supernatural, have beenexposed for the tricks they were. Yet to-day,if a mystifier lack the ingenuity to invent anew and startling stunt, he can safely fall backupon a trick that has been the favorite ofpressagents the world over in all ages. He canimitate the Hindoo fakir who, having throwna rope high into the air, has a boy climb it untilhe is lost to view. He can even have the featphotographed. The camera will click; nothingwill appear on the developed film; and this,the performer will glibly explain, ``proves''that the whole company of onlookers washypnotized! And he can be certain of a veryprofitable following to defend and advertisehim.

So I do not feel that I need to apologize foradding another volume to the shelves of worksdealing with the marvels of the miracle-mongers. My business has given me an intimateknowledge of stage illusions, togetherwith many years of experience among showpeople of all types. My familiarity with theformer, and what I have learned of thepsychology of the latter, has placed me at acertain advantage in uncovering the naturalexplanation of feats that to the ignorant haveseemed supernatural. And even if my readersare too well informed to be interested in mydescriptions of the methods of the various

performers who have seemed to me worthy ofattention in these pages, I hope they will findsome amusement in following the fortunes andmisfortunes of all manner of strange folk whoonce bewildered the wise men of their day. IfI have accomplished that much, I shall feelamply repaid for my labor. HOUDINI.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. Fire worship.--Fire eating and heat resistance.--TheMiddle Ages.--Among the Navajo Indians.--Fire-walkers of Japan.--The Fiery Ordeal of Fiji

II. Watton's Ship-swabber from the Indies.-Richardson,1667.--De Heiterkeit, 1713.--Robert Powell,1718-1780.--Dufour, 1783.--Quackensalber, 1794

III. The nineteenth century.--A ``WonderfulPhenomenon.''--``The Incombustible Spaniard, SenorLionetto,'' 1803.--Josephine Girardelli, 1814.--JohnBrooks, 1817.--W. C. Houghton, 1832.--J. A. B.Chylinski, 1841.--Chamouni, the Russian Salamander,1869.--Professor Rel Maeub, 1876. Rivelli (died 1900)

IV.--The Master--Chabert, 1792-1859

V. Fire-eating magicians. Ching Ling Foo and ChungLing Soo.--Fire-eaters employed by magicians:The Man-Salamander, 1816.-Mr. Carlton,Professor of Chemistry, 1818.--Miss Cassillis, agednine, 1820. The African Wonder, 1843.--LingLook and Yamadeva die in China during Kellar'sworld tour, 1877.--Ling Look's double, 1879.--Electrical effects, The Salambos.--Bueno Core.--DelKano.--Barnello.--Edwin Forrest as a heat-resister--The Elder Sothern as a fire-eater.--The Twilightof the Art

VI. The Arcana of the fire-eaters: The formula of

Albertus Magnus.--Of Hocus Pocus.--Richardson'smethod.--Philopyraphagus Ashburniensis.--Tobreathe forth sparks, smoke and flames.--To spoutnatural gas.--Professor Sementini's discoveries.--To bite off red-hot iron.--To cook in a burning cage.--Chabert's oven.--To eat coals of fire.--To drinkburning oil.--To chew molten lead.--To chewburning brimstone.--To wreathe the face in flames.--To ignite paper with the breath.--To drink boilingliquor and eat flaming wax

VII. The spheroidal condition of liquids.--Why the handmay be dipped in molten metals.--Principles of heatresistance put to practical uses: Aldini, 1829.--Inearly fire-fighting.--Temperatures the body canendure

VIII. Sword-swallowers: Cliquot, Delno Fritz, Deodota, arazor-swallower, an umbrella-swallower, WilliamDempster, John Cumming, Edith Clifford, Victorina

IX. Stone-eaters: A Silesian in Prague, 1006; FrancoisBattalia, ca. 1641; Platerus' beggar boy; FatherPaulian's lithophagus of Avignon, 1760; ``TheOnly One in the World,'' London, 1788; Spaniardsin London, 1790; a secret for two and six; Japanesetraining.--Frog-swallowers: Norton; EnglishJack; Bosco; the snake-eater; Billington'sprescription for hangmen; Captain Veitro.--Waterspouters; Blaise Manfrede, ca. 1650; FloramMarchand, 1650

X. Defiers of poisonous reptiles: Thardo; Mrs. Learn,dealer in rattle-snakes.--Sir Arthur ThurlowCunynghame on antidotes for snake-bite.--Jackthe Viper.--William Oliver, 1735.--The advice ofCornelius Heinrich Agrippa, (1480-1535).--AnAustralian snake story.--Antidotes for variouspoisons

XI. Strongmen of the eighteenth century: Thomas Topham(died, 1749); Joyce, 1703; Van Eskeberg,1718; Barsabas and his sister; The Italian FemaleSampson, 1724; The ``little woman from Geneva,''1751; Belzoni, 1778-1823

XII. Contemporary strong people: Charles Jefferson;Louis Cyr; John Grun Marx; William Le Roy.--The Nail King, The Human Claw-hammer; AlexanderWeyer; Mexican Billy Wells; A foolhardyItalian; Wilson; Herman; Sampson; Sandow;Yucca; La Blanche; Lulu Hurst.--The GeorgiaMagnet, The Electric Girl, etc.; Annie Abbott;Mattie Lee Price.--The Twilight of the Freaks.--The dime museums

CHAPTER ONE

FIRE WORSHIP.--FIRE EATING AND HEATRESISTANCE.--IN THE MIDDLE AGES.--AMONG THE NAVAJO INDIANS.--FIRE-WALKERS OF JAPAN.--THE FIERYORDEAL OF FIJI.

Fire has always been and, seemingly, willalways remain, the most terrible of theelements. To the early tribes it must also havebeen the most mysterious; for, while earth andair and water were always in evidence, firecame and went in a manner which must havebeen quite unaccountable to them. Thus itnaturally followed that the custom of deifyingall things which the primitive mind was unableto grasp, led in direct line to the fire-worship of later days.

That fire could be produced through frictionfinally came into the knowledge of man, butthe early methods entailed much labor.Consequently our ease-loving forebears cast aboutfor a method to ``keep the home fires burning''and hit upon the plan of appointing a personin each community who should at all timescarry a burning brand. This arrangement had

many faults, however, and after a while it wassuperseded by the expedient of a fire keptcontinually burning in a building erected for thepurpose.

The Greeks worshiped at an altar of thiskind which they called the Altar of Hestia andwhich the Romans called the Altar of Vesta.The sacred fire itself was known as Vesta, andits burning was considered a proof of thepresence of the goddess. The Persians hadsuch a building in each town and village; andthe Egyptians, such a fire in every temple;while the Mexicans, Natches, Peruvians andMayas kept their ``national fires'' burningupon great pyramids. Eventually the keepingof such fires became a sacred rite, and the``Eternal Lamps'' kept burning in synagoguesand in Byzantine and Catholic churches maybe a survival of these customs.

There is a theory that all architecture,public and private, sacred and profane, began withthe erection of sheds to protect the sacred fire.This naturally led men to build for their ownprotection as well, and thus the family hearthhad its genesis.

Another theory holds that the keepers of thesacred fires were the first public servants, andthat from this small beginning sprang theintricate public service of the present.

The worship of the fire itself had been alegacy from the earliest tribes; but it remainedfor the Rosicrucians and the fire philosophersof the Sixteenth Century under the lead ofParacelsus to establish a concrete religiousbelief on that basis, finding in the Scriptureswhat seemed to them ample proof that firewas the symbol of the actual presence of God,as in all cases where He is said to have visitedthis earth. He came either in a flame of fire,or surrounded with glory, which they conceivedto mean the same thing.

For example: when God appeared on MountSinai (Exod. xix, 18) ``The Lord descendedupon it in fire.'' Moses, repeating this history,said: ``The Lord spake unto you out of themidst of fire'' (Deut. iv, 12). Again, whenthe angel of the Lord appeared to Moses outof the flaming bush, ``the bush burned withfire and the bush was not consumed'' (Exod.iii, 3). Fire from the Lord consumed theburnt offering of Aaron (Lev. ix, 24), thesacrifice of Gideon (Judg. vi, 21), the burntoffering of David (1 Chron. xxxi, 26), andthat at the dedication of King Solomon'stemple (Chron. vii, 1). And when Elijah madehis sacrifice to prove that Baal was not God,``the fire of the Lord fell and consumed theburnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,and the dust and the water that was in thetrench.'' (1 Kings, xviii, 38.)

Since sacrifice had from the earliest daysbeen considered as food offered to the gods,it was quite logical to argue that when firefrom Heaven fell upon the offering, God himselfwas present and consumed His own. Thusthe Paracelsists and other fire believers sought,and as they believed found, high authority forcontinuing a part of the fire worship of theearly tribes.

The Theosophists, according to HargraveJennings in ``The Rosicrucians,'' called thesoul a fire taken from the eternal ocean oflight, and in common with other Fire-Philosophersbelieved that all knowable things, bothof the soul and the body, were evolved out offire and finally resolvable into it; and that firewas the last and only-to-be-known God.

In passing I might call attention to the factthat the Devil is supposed to dwell in the sameelement.

Some of the secrets of heat resistance as

practiced by the dime-museum and sideshowperformers of our time, secrets grouped underthe general title of ``Fire-eating,'' must havebeen known in very early times. To quotefrom Chambers' ``Book of Days'': ``In ancienthistory we find several examples of people whopossessed the art of touching fire without beingburned. The Priestesses of Diana, atCastabala, in Cappadocia, commanded publicveneration by walking over red-hot iron. TheHerpi, a people of Etruria, walked amongglowing embers at an annual festival held onMount Soracte, and thus proved their sacredcharacter, receiving certain privileges, amongothers, exemption from military service, fromthe Roman Senate. One of the most astoundingstories of antiquity is related in the `Zenda-Vesta,' to the effect that Zoroaster, to confutehis calumniators, allowed fluid lead to bepoured over his body, without receiving anyinjury.''

To me the ``astounding'' part of this storyis not in the feat itself, for that is extremelyeasy to accomplish, but in the fact that thesecret was known at such an early date, whichthe best authorities place at 500 to 1000 B.C.

It is said that the earliest recorded instance,in our era, of ordeal by fire was in the fourthcentury. Simplicius, Bishop of Autun, whohad been married before his promotion,continued to live with his wife, and in order todemonstrate the Platonic purity of their intercourseplaced burning coals upon their fleshwithout injury.

That the clergy of the Middle Ages, whocaused accused persons to walk blindfoldamong red-hot plowshares, or hold heatedirons in their hands, were in possession of thesecret of the trick, is shown by the fact thatafter trial by ordeal had been abolished thesecret of their methods was published byAlbert, Count of Bollstadt, usually called

Albertus Magnus but sometimes AlbertusTeutonicus, a man distinguished by the range ofhis inquiries and his efforts for the spread ofknowledge.

These secrets will be fully explained in thesection of this history devoted to the Arcanaof the Fire-Eaters (Chapter Six).

I take the following from the New YorkClipper-Annual of 1885:

The famous fire dance of the NavajoIndians, often described as though itinvolved some sort of genuine necromancy,is explained by a matter-of-fact spectator.It is true, he says, that the nakedworshipers cavort round a big bonfire, withblazing faggots in their hands, and dashthe flames over their own and their fellows'bodies, all in a most picturesque andmaniacal fashion; but their skins are firstso thickly coated with a clay paint thatthey cannot easily be burned.

An illustrated article entitled Rites of theFirewalking Fanatics of Japan, by W. C.Jameson Reid, in the Chicago Sunday Inter-Ocean of September 27th, 1903, reveals sosplendid an example of the gullibility of thewell-informed when the most ordinary trickis cleverly presented and surrounded with theatmosphere of the occult, that I am impelledto place before my readers a few illuminatingexcerpts from Mr. Reid's narrative. This manwould, in all probability, scorn to spend a dimeto witness the performance of a fire-eater ina circus sideshow; but after traveling halfround the world he pays a dollar and spendsan hour's time watching the fanatical incantationsof the solemn little Japanese priests forthe sake of seeing the ``Hi-Wattarai''--whichis merely the stunt of walking over hot coals

--and he then writes it down as the ``eighthwonder of the world,'' while if he had takenthe trouble to give the matter even the mostsuperficial investigation, he could havediscovered that the secret of the trick had beenmade public centuries before.

Mr. Reid is authority for the statement thatthe Shintoist priests' fire-walking rites have``long been one of the puzzling mysteries ofthe scientific world,'' and adds ``If you everare in Tokio, and can find a few minutes tospare, by all means do not neglect witnessingat least one performance of `Hi-Wattarai'(fire walking, and that is really what takesplace), for, if you are of that incredulousnature which laughs with scorn at so-calledEastern mysticism, you will come away, as hasmany a visitor before you, with an impressionsufficient to last through an ordinary lifetime.''Further on he says ``If you do not come awayconvinced that you have been witness of aspectacle which makes you disbelieve the evidenceof your own eyes and your most matter-of-fact judgment, then you are a man ofstone.'' All of which proves nothing morethan that Mr. Reid was inclined to makepositive statements about subjects in which heknew little or nothing.

He tells us further that formerly this ritewas performed only in the spring and fall,when, beside the gratuities of the foreigners,the native worshipers brought ``gifts of wine,large trays of fish, fruit, rice cakes, loaves,vegetables, and candies.'' Evidently thecombination of box-office receipts with donationparties proved extremely tempting to thethrifty priests, for they now give what mightbe termed a ``continuous performance.''

Those who have read the foregoing pageswill apply a liberal sprinkling of salt to thesolemn assurance of Mr. Reid, advanced onthe authority of Jinrikisha boys, that ``for

days beforehand the priests connected withthe temple devote themselves to fasting andprayer to prepare for the ordeal. . . . Theperformance itself usually takes place in thelate afternoon during twilight in the templecourt, the preceding three hours being spentby the priests in final outbursts of prayerbefore the unveiled altar in the inner sanctuaryof the little matted temple, and during theseinvocations no visitors are allowed to enter thesacred precincts.''

Mr. Reid's description of the fire walkingitself may not be out of place; it will showthat the Japs had nothing new to offer asidefrom the ritualistic ceremonials with whichthey camouflaged the hocus-pocus of theperformance, which is merely a survival of theordeal by fire of earlier religions.

``Shortly before 5 o'clock the priests filedfrom before the altar into some interiorapartments, where they were to change theirbeautiful robes for the coarser dress worn duringthe fire walking. In the meantime coolies hadbeen set to work in the courtyard to ignite thegreat bed of charcoal, which had already beenlaid. The dimensions of this bed were abouttwelve feet by four, and, perhaps, a foot deep.On the top was a quantity of straw and kindlingwood, which was lighted, and soon burstinto a roaring blaze. The charcoal becamemore and more thoroughly ignited until thewhole mass glowed in the uncertain gloom, likesome gigantic and demoniacal eye of a modernPrometheus. As soon as the mass of charcoalwas thoroughly ignited from top to bottom, asmall gong in the temple gave notice that thewonderful spectacle of `Hi-Wattarai' wasabout to begin.

``Soon two of the priests came out, saidprayers of almost interminable length at a tinyshrine in the corner of the enclosure, andturned their attention to the fire. Taking long

poles and fans from the coolies, they pokedand encouraged the blaze till it could plainlybe seen that the coal was ignited throughout.The whole bed was a glowing mass, and theheat which rose from it was so intense thatwe found it uncomfortable to sit fifteen feetaway from it without screening our faces withfans. Then they began to pound it down moresolidly along the middle; as far as possibleinequalities in its surface were beaten down,and the coals which protruded were brushedaside.''

There follows a long and detailed descriptionof further ceremonies, the receiving ofgifts, etc., which need not be repeated here.Now for the trick itself.

``One of the priests held a pile of whitepowder on a small wooden stand. This wassaid to be salt--which in Japan is credited withgreat cleansing properties--but as far as couldbe ascertained by superficial examination itwas a mixture of alum and salt. He stood atone end of the fire-bed and poised the woodentray over his head, and then sprinkled a handfulof it on the ground before the glowing bedof coals. At the same time another priest whostood by him chanted a weird recitative ofinvocation and struck sparks from flint and steelwhich he held in his hands. This same processwas repeated by both the priests at the otherend, at the two sides, and at the corners.

``Ten minutes, more or less, was spent invarious movements and incantations about thebed of coals. At the end of that time two smallpieces of wet matting were brought out andplaced at either end and a quantity of thewhite mixture was placed upon them. At asignal from the head priest, who acted asmaster of ceremonies during the curioussucceeding function, the ascetics who were toperform the first exhibition of fire-walkinggathered at one end of the bed of coals, which by

this time was a fierce and glowing furnace.

``Having raised both his hands and prostratedhimself to render thanks to the god whohad taken out the `soul' of the fire, the priestabout to undergo the ordeal stood upon thewet matting, wiped his feet lightly in the whitemixture, and while we held our breaths, andour eyes almost leaped from their sockets inawe-struck astonishment, he walked over theglowing mass as unconcernedly as if treadingon a carpet in a drawing-room, his feet comingin contact with the white hot coals at everystep. He did not hurry or take long steps,but sauntered along with almost incrediblesang-froid, and before he reached the oppositeside he turned around and sauntered ascarelessly back to the mat from which he hadstarted.''

The story goes on to tell how the performancewas repeated by the other priests, andthen by many of the native audience; but noneof the Europeans tried it, although invited todo so. Mr. Reid's closing statement is that``no solution of the mystery can be gleaned,even from high scientific authorities who havewitnessed and closely studied the physicalfeatures of these remarkable Shinto fire-walkingrites.'' Many who are confronted with somethingthat they cannot explain take refuge inthe claim that it puzzles the scientists too. Asa matter of fact, at the time Mr. Reid wrote,such scientists as had given the subject seriousstudy were pretty well posted on the methodsinvolved.

An article under the title The Fiery Ordealof Fiji, by Maurice Delcasse, appeared in theWide World Magazine for May, 1898. FromMr. Delcasse's account it appears that theFijian ordeal is practically the same as thatof the Japanese, as described by Mr. Reid,except that there is very little ceremonysurrounding it. The people of Fiji until a

comparatively recent date were cannibals; buttheir islands are now British possessions, mostof the natives are Christians, and most of theirancient customs have become obsolete, fromwhich I deduce that the fire-walking ritesdescribed in this article must have beenperformed by natives who had retained their oldreligious beliefs.

The ordeal takes place on the Island ofBenga, which is near Suva, the capital of Fiji,and which, Mr. Delcasse says, ``was thesupposed residence of some of the old gods of Fiji,and was, therefore, considered a sacred land.''Instead of walking on the live coals, as theJapanese priests do, the Fijians walk on stonesthat have been brought to a white heat in agreat fire of logs.

The familiar claim is made that theperformance puzzles scientists, and that nosatisfactory solution has yet been discovered. Weare about to see that for two or three hundredyears the same claims have been made by along line of more or less clever publicperformers in Europe and America.

CHAPTER TWO

WATTON'S SHIP-SWABBER ``FROM THEINDIES.''--RICHARDSON, 1667--DEHEITERKEIT, 1713.--ROBERT POWELL, 1718-1780.--DUFOUR, 1783.--QUACKENSALBER, 1794.

The earliest mention I have found of a publicfire-eater in England is in the correspondenceof Sir Henry Watton, under date ofJune 3rd, 1633. He speaks of an Englishman``like some swabber of a ship, come from theIndies, where he has learned to eat fire asfamiliarly as ever I saw any eat cakes, evenwhole glowing brands, which he will crush with

his teeth and swallow.'' This was shown inLondon for two pence.

The first to attract the attention of theupper classes, however, was one Richardson, whoappeared in France in the year 1667 and enjoyeda vogue sufficient to justify the recordof his promise in the Journal des Savants.Later on he came to London, and John Evelyn,in his diary, mentions him under date ofOctober 8th, 1672, as follows:

I took leave of my Lady Sunderland,who was going to Paris to my Lord, nowAmbassador there. She made me staydinner at Leicester House, and afterwardssent for Richardson, the famous fire-eater.He devoured brimstone on glowing coalsbefore us, chewing and swallowing them;he melted a beere-glass and eate it quite up;then taking a live coale on his tongue heput on it a raw oyster; the coal was blownon with bellows till it flamed and sparkledin his mouthe, and so remained until theoyster gaped and was quite boil'd.

Then he melted pitch and wax withsulphur, which he drank down as it flamed:I saw it flaming in his mouthe a good while;he also took up a thick piece of iron, suchas laundresses use to put in their smoothing-boxes, when it was fiery hot, held itbetween his teeth, then in his hand, andthrew it about like a stone; but this Iobserv'd he cared not to hold very long.Then he stoode on a small pot, and, bendinghis body, tooke a glowing iron withhis mouthe from betweene his feete, withouttouching the pot or ground with hishands, with divers other prodigious feats.

The secret methods employed by Richardsonwere disclosed by his servant, and this

publicity seems to have brought his career to asudden close; at least I have found no recordof his subsequent movements.

About 1713 a fire-eater named De Heiterkeit,a native of Annivi, in Savoy, flourishedfor a time in London. He performed five timesa day at the Duke of Marlborough's Head, inFleet Street, the prices being half-a-crown,eighteen pence and one shilling.

According to London Tit-Bits, ``De Heiterkeithad the honor of exhibiting before LouisXIV., the Emperor of Austria, the King ofSicily and the Doge of Venice, and his namehaving reached the Inquisition, that holy officeproposed experimenting on him to find outwhether he was fireproof externally as well asinternally. He was preserved from thisunwelcome ordeal, however, by the interferenceof the Duchess Royal, Regent of Savoy.''

His programme did not differ materiallyfrom that of his predecessor, Richardson, whohad antedated him by nearly fifty years.

By far the most famous of the early fire-eaters was Robert Powell, whose public careerextended over a period of nearly sixty years,and who was patronized by the English peerage.It was mainly through the instrumentalityof Sir Hans Sloane that, in 1751, the RoyalSociety presented Powell a purse of gold anda large silver medal.

Lounger's Commonplace Book says ofPowell: ``Such is his passion for this terribleelement, that if he were to come hungry intoyour kitchen, while a sirloin was roasting, hewould eat up the fire and leave the beef. Itis somewhat surprising that the friends of REALMERIT have not yet promoted him, living as wedo in an age favorable to men of genius.Obliged to wander from place to place, insteadof indulging himself in private with his

favorite dish, he is under the uncomfortablenecessity of eating in public, and helpinghimself from the kitchen fire of some paltry ale-house in the country.''

His advertisements show that he was beforethe public from 1718 to 1780. One of his lateradvertisements runs as follows:

SUM SOLUS

Please observe that there are twodifferent performances the same evening,which will be performed by the famous

MR. POWELL, FIRE-EATER, FROMLONDON:

who has had the honor to exhibit, withuniversal applause, the most surprisingperformances that were ever attempted bymankind, before His Royal HighnessWilliam, late Duke of Cumberland, atWindsor Lodge, May 7th, 1752; beforeHis Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester,at Gloucester House, January 30th,1769; before His Royal Highness thepresent Duke of Cumberland, at WindsorLodge, September 25th, 1769; before SirHans Sloane and several of the RoyalSociety, March 4th, 1751, who made Mr.Powell a compliment of a purse of gold,and a fine large silver medal, which thecurious may view by applying to him; andbefore most of the Nobility and Quality inthe Kingdom.

He intends to sup on the followingarticles: 1. He eats red-hot coals out ofthe fire as natural as bread. 2. He lickswith his naked tongue red-hot tobaccopipes, flaming with brimstone. 3. Hetakes a large bunch of deal matches, lightsthem altogether; and holds them in his

mouth till the flame is extinguished. 4.He takes a red-hot heater out of the fire,licks it with his naked tongue severaltimes, and carries it around the roombetween his teeth. 5. He fills his mouth withred-hot charcoal, and broils a slice of beefor mutton upon his tongue, and any personmay blow the fire with a pair of bellowsat the same time. 6. He takes aquantity of resin, pitch, bees'-wax, sealing-wax, brimstone, alum, and lead, meltsthem all together over a chafing-dish ofcoals, and eats the same combustibles witha spoon, as if it were a porringer of broth(which he calls his dish of soup), to thegreat and agreeable surprise of thespectators; with various other extraordinaryperformances never attempted by anyother person of this age, and there isscarce a possibility ever will; so that thosewho neglect this opportunity of seeing thewonders performed by this artist, will losethe sight of the most amazing exhibitionever done by man.

The doors to be opened by six and hesups precisely at seven o'clock, withoutany notice given by sound of trumpet.

If gentry do not choose to come at seveno'clock, no performance.

Prices of admission to ladies and gentlemen,one shilling. Back Seats for Childrenand Servants, six pence.

Ladies and children may have a privateperformance any hour of the day, by givingprevious notice.

N. B.--He displaces teeth or stumps soeasily as to scarce be felt. He sells achemical liquid which discharges inflammation,scalds, and burns, in a short time,and is necessary to be kept in all families.

His stay in this place will be but short,not exceeding above two or three nights.

Good fire to keep the gentry warm.

This shows how little advance had been madein the art in a century. Richardson had presentedpractically the same programme a hundredyears before. Perhaps the exposure ofRichardson's method by his servant put anend to fire-eating as a form of amusement fora long time, or until the exposure had beenforgotten by the public. Powell himself,though not proof against exposure, seems tohave been proof against its effects, for he kepton the even tenor of his way for sixty years,and at the end of his life was still exhibiting.

Whatever the reason, the eighteenth centuryfire-eaters, like too many magicians of thepresent day, kept to the stereotypedprogrammes of their predecessors. A very fewdid, however, step out of the beaten track and,by adding new tricks and giving a new dressto old ones, succeeded in securing a followingthat was financially satisfactory.

In this class a Frenchman by the name ofDufour deserves special mention, from the factthat he was the first to introduce comedy intoan act of this nature. He made his bow inParis in 1783, and is said to have created quitea sensation by his unusual performance. Iam indebted to Martin's Naturliche Magie,1792, for a very complete description of thework of this artist.

Dufour made use of a portable building,which was specially adapted to his purposes,and his table was spread as if for a banquet,except that the edibles were such as hisperformance demanded. He employed a trumpeterand a tambour player to furnish music

for his repast--as well as to attract publicattention. In addition to fire-eating, Dufourgave exhibitions of his ability to consumeimmense quantities of solid food, and hedisplayed an appetite for live animals, reptiles,and insects that probably proved highlyentertaining to the not overrefined taste of theaudiences of his day. He even advertised abanquet of which the public was invited topartake at a small fee per plate, but since themenu consisted of the delicacies just described,his audiences declined to join him at table.

His usual bill-of-fare was as follows:

Soup--boiling tar torches, glowing coals andsmall, round, super-heated stones.

The roast, when Dufour was really hungry,consisted of twenty pounds of beef or a wholecalf. His hearth was either the flat of his handor his tongue. The butter in which the roastwas served was melted brimstone or burningwax. When the roast was cooked to suit himhe ate coals and roast together.

As a dessert he would swallow the knivesand forks, glasses, and the earthenware dishes.

He kept his audience in good humor bypresenting all this in a spirit of crude comedyand, to increase the comedy element, heintroduced a number of trained cats. Althoughthe thieving proclivities of cats are well known,Dufour's pets showed no desire to share hisrepast, and he had them trained to obey hiscommands during mealtime. At the close ofthe meal he would become violently angry withone of them, seize the unlucky offender, tearit limb from limb and eat the carcass. Oneof his musicians would then beg him to producethe cat, dead or alive. In order to do thishe would go to a nearby horse-trough anddrink it dry; would eat a number of poundsof soap, or other nauseating substance, clowning

it in a manner to provoke amusement insteadof disgust; and, further to mask thedisagreeable features--and also, no doubt, toconceal the trick--would take the cloth fromthe table and cover his face; whereupon hewould bring forth the swallowed cat, or onethat looked like it, which would howl piteouslyand seem to struggle wildly while beingdisgorged. When freed, the poor cat would rushaway among the spectators.

Dufour gave his best performances in theevening, as he could then show his hocus-pocusto best advantage. At these times he appearedwith a halo of fire about his head.

His last appearance in Paris was mostremarkable. The dinner began with a soup ofasps in simmering oil. On each side was adish of vegetables, one containing thistles andburdocks, and the other fuming acid. Otherside dishes, of turtles, rats, bats and moles,were garnished with live coals. For the fishcourse he ate a dish of snakes in boiling tarand pitch. His roast was a screech owl in asauce of glowing brimstone. The salad provedto be spider webs full of small explosive squibs,a plate of butterfly wings and manna worms,a dish of toads surrounded with flies, crickets,grasshoppers, church beetles, spiders, andcaterpillars. He washed all this down withflaming brandy, and for dessert ate the fourlarge candles standing on the table, both ofthe hanging side lamps with their contents,and finally the large center lamp, oil, wick andall. This leaving the room in darkness,Dufour's face shone out in a mask of living flames.

A dog had come in with a farmer, who wasprobably a confederate, and now began to bark.Since Dufour could not quiet him, he seizedhim, bit off his head and swallowed it, throwingthe body aside. Then ensued a comic scenebetween Dufour and the farmer, the latterdemanding that his dog be brought to life, which

threw the audience into paroxysms of laughter.Then suddenly candles reappeared and seemedto light themselves. Dufour made a series ofhocus-pocus passes over the dog's body; thenthe head suddenly appeared in its proper place,and the dog, with a joyous yelp, ran to hismaster.

Notwithstanding the fact that Dufour musthave been by all odds the best performer of histime, I do not find reference to him in anyother authority. But something of his originalityappeared in the work of a much humblerpractitioner, contemporary or very nearlycontemporary with him.

We have seen that Richardson, Powell,Dufour, and generally the better class of fire-eaters were able to secure select audiences andeven to attract the attention of scientists inEngland and on the Continent. But many oftheir effects had been employed by mountebanksand street fakirs since the earliest daysof the art, and this has continued untilcomparatively recent times.

In Naturliche Magie, in 1794, Vol. VI, page111, I find an account of one Quackensalber,who gave a new twist to the fire-eating industryby making a ``High Pitch'' at the fairs andon street corners and exhibiting feats of fire-resistance, washing his hands and face inmelted tar, pitch and brimstone, in order toattract a crowd. He then strove to sell them acompound--composed of fish glue, alum andbrandy--which he claimed would cure burns intwo or three hours. He demonstrated that thismixture was used by him in his heat resistance:and then, doubtless, some ``capper'' started theball rolling, and Herr Quackensalber (hisname indicates a seller of salves) reaped agood harvest.

I have no doubt but that even to-day a cleverperformer with this ``High Pitch'' could do a

thriving business in that overgrown countryvillage, New York. At any rate there is theso-called, ``King of Bees,'' a gentleman fromPennsylvania, who exhibits himself in a cageof netting filled with bees, and then sells theadmiring throng a specific for bee-stings andthe wounds of angry wasps. Unfortunatelythe only time I ever saw his majesty, some ofhis bee actors must have forgotten their lines,for he was thoroughly stung.

CHAPTER THREE

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.--A ``WONDERFULPHENOMENON.''--``THE INCOMBUSTIBLESPANIARD, SENOR LIONETTO,'' 1803.--JOSEPHINE GIRARDELLI, 1814.--JOHNBROOKS, 1817.--W. C. HOUGHTON, 1832.--J. A. B. CHYLINSKI, 1841.--CHAMOUNI,THE RUSSIAN SALAMANDER, 1869.-- PROFESSORREL MAEUB, 1876.--RIVALLI (died 1900).

In the nineteenth century by far the mostdistinguished heat-resister was Chabert,who deserves and shall have a chapter tohimself. He commenced exhibiting about 1818,but even earlier in the century certain obscurerperformers had anticipated some of his besteffects. Among my clippings, for instance, Ifind the following. I regret that I cannot givethe date, but it is evident from the long formof the letters that it was quite early. This isthe first mention I have found of the hot-oveneffect afterwards made famous by Chabert.

WONDERFUL PHENOMENON

A correspondent in France writes asfollows: ``Paris has, for some days, rungwith relations of the wonderful exploitsof a Spaniard in that city, who is endowedwith qualities by which he resists theaction of very high degrees of heat, as well

as the influence of strong chemicalreagents. Many histories of the trials towhich he has been submitted before aCommission of the Institute and MedicalSchool, have appeared in the public papers;but the public waits with impatiencefor the report to be made in the name ofthe Commission by Professor Pinel.

The subject of these trials is a youngman, a native of Toledo, in Spain, 23years of age, and free of any apparentpeculiarities which can announce anythingremarkable in the organization of hisskin; after examination, one would berather disposed to conclude a peculiarsoftness than that any hardness or thicknessof the cuticle existed, either naturallyor from mechanical causes. Nor was thereany circumstance to indicate that theperson had been previously rubbed with anymatter capable of resisting the operationof the agents with which he was broughtin contact.

This man bathed for the space of fiveminutes, and without any injury to hissensibility or the surface of the skin, hislegs in oil, heated at 97 degrees of Reaumur (250degrees of Fahrenheit) and with the sameoil, at the same degree of heat, he washedhis face and superior extremities. Heheld, for the same space of time, and withas little inconvenience, his legs in asolution of muriate of soda, heated to 102 ofthe same scale, (261 1/2 degrees Fahr.) He stoodon and rubbed the soles of his feet with abar of hot iron heated to a white heat; inthis state he held the iron in his hands andrubbed the surface of his tongue.

He gargled his mouth with concentratedsulphuric and nitric acids, withoutthe smallest injury or discoloration; thenitric acid changed the cuticle to a yellow

color; with the acids in this state herubbed his hands and arms. All theseexperiments were continued long enough toprove their inefficiency to produce anyimpression. It is said, on unquestionableauthority, that he remained a considerabletime in an oven heated to 65 degrees or 70degrees, (178-189 degrees Fahr.) and fromwhich he was with difficulty induced to retire,so comfortable did he feel at that hightemperature.

It may be proper to remark, that thisman seems totally uninfluenced by anymotive to mislead, and, it is said, he hasrefused flattering offers from somereligious sectaries of turning to emolumenthis singular qualities; yet on the whole itseems to be the opinion of most philosophicalmen, that this person must possesssome matter which counteracts the operationof these agents. To suppose that naturehas organized him differently, wouldbe unphilosophic: by habit he might haveblunted his sensibilities against thoseimpressions that create pain under ordinarycircumstances; but how to explain thepower by which he resists the action ofthose agents which are known to have thestrongest affinity for animal matter, is acircumstance difficult to comprehend. Ithas not failed, however, to excite the wonderof the ignorant and the inquiry of thelearned at Paris.''

This ``Wonderful Phenomenon'' may havebeen ``the incombustible Spaniard, SenorLionetto,'' whom the London Mirror mentionsas performing in Paris in 1803 ``where heattracted the particular attention of Dr.Sementeni, Professor of Chemistry, and otherscientific gentlemen of that city. It appearsthat a considerable vapor and smell rose fromparts of his body when the fire and heatedsubstances were applied, and in this he seems

to differ from the person now in this country.''The person here referred to was M. Chabert.

Dr. Sementeni became so interested in thesubject that he made a series of experimentsupon himself, and these were finally crownedwith success. His experiments will receivefurther attention in the chapter ``The Arcanaof the Fire-Eaters.''

A veritable sensation was created inEngland in the year 1814 by Senora JosephineGirardelli, who was heralded as having ``justarrived from the Continent, where she had thehonor of appearing before most of the crownedheads of Europe.'' She was first spoken ofas German, but afterwards proved to be ofItalian birth.

Entering a field of endeavor which hadheretofore been exclusively occupied by the sternersex, this lady displayed a taste for hot mealsthat would seem to recommend her as a matrimonialventure. Like all the earlier exploitersof the devouring element, she was proclaimedas ``The Great Phenomena of Nature''--whythe plural form was used does not appear--and, doubtless, her feminine instincts led herto impart a daintiness to her performancewhich must have appealed to the better classof audience in that day.

The portrait that adorned her first Englishhandbill, which I produce from the PictureMagazine, was engraved by Page and publishedby Smeeton, St. Martins Lane, London.It is said to be a faithful representation ofher stage costume and setting.

Richardson, of Bartholomew Fair fame,who was responsible for the introduction ofmany novelties, first presented Girardelli toan English audience at Portsmouth, where hersuccess was so pronounced that a Londonappearance was arranged for the same year; and

at Mr. Laston's rooms, 23 New Bond Street,her performance attracted the most fashionablemetropolitan audiences for a considerabletime. Following this engagement sheappeared at Richardson's Theater, at BartholomewFair, and afterwards toured Englandin the company of Signor Germondi, whoexhibited a troupe of wonderful trained dogs.One of the canine actors was billed as the``Russian Moscow Fire Dog, an animalunknown in this country, (and never exhibitedbefore) who now delights in that element, havingbeen trained for the last six months at verygreat expense and fatigue.''

Whether Girardelli accumulated sufficientwealth to retire or became discouraged by theexposure of her methods cannot now bedetermined, but after she had occupied a prominentposition in the public eye and the publicprints for a few seasons she dropped out ofsight, and I have been unable to find whereor how she passed the later years of her life.

I am even more at a loss concerning hercontemporary, John Brooks, of whom I have noother record than the following letter, whichappears in the autobiography of the famousauthor-actor-manager, Thomas Dibdin, of theTheaters Royal, Covent Garden, Drury Lane,Haymarket and others. This one communication,however, absolves of any obligation to digup proofs of John Brooks' versatility: headmits it himself.

To Mr. T. Dibdin, Esq. Pripetor of theRoyal Circus.

May 1st, 1817.Sir:

I have taken the Liberty of Riting thosefew lines to ask you the favour if a Greeablefor me to Come to your House, as i

Can do a great many different things iCan Sing a good Song and i Can Eat Boilinghot Lead and Rub my naked armsWith a Red hot Poker and Stand on aRed hot sheet of iron, and do Diferentother things.--Sir i hope you Will Excuseme in Riting I do not Want any thingfor my Performing for i have Got aBusiness that will Sirport me I only want topass a Way 2 or 3 Hours in the Evening.Sir i hope you Will Send me an AnswerWeather Agreeple or not.

I am your Humble Servant, J. B.

Direct to me No. 4 fox and Knot CourtKing Street Smithfield. JOHN BROOKS.

We shall let this versatile John Brooks closethe pre-Chabert record and turn our attentionto the fire-eaters of Chabert's day. Imitationmay be the sincerest flattery, but in most casesthe victim of the imitation, it is safe to say,will gladly dispense with that form of adulation.When Chabert first came to Americaand gave fresh impetus to the fire-eating artby the introduction of new and startlingmaterial, he was beset by many imitators, or--as they probably styled themselves--rivals,who immediately proceeded, so far as in themlay, to out-Chabert Chabert.

One of the most prominent of these was aman named W. C. Houghton, who claimed tohave challenged Chabert at various times. Ina newspaper advertisement in Philadelphia,where he was scheduled to give a benefitperformance on Saturday evening, February 4th,1832, he practically promised to expose themethod of poison eating. Like that of allexposers, however, his vogue was of short

duration, and very little can be found about thissuper-Chabert except his advertisements. Thefollowing will serve as a sample of them:

ARCH STREET THEATREBENEFIT

OF THE AMERICAN FIRE KING

A CARD.--W. C. Houghton, has thehonor to announce to the ladies andgentlemen of Philadelphia, that hisBENEFIT will take place at the ARCHSTREET THEATRE, on Saturday eveningnext, 4th February, when will bepresented a variety of entertainments aidedby the whole strength of the company.

Mr. H. in addition to his formerexperiments will exhibit several fiery feats,pronounced by Mons. Chabert anIMPOSSIBILITY. He will give a COMPLETEexplanation by illustrations of thePRINCIPLES of the EUROPEAN and theAMERICAN CHESS PLAYERS. Hewill also (unless prevented by indisposition)swallow a sufficient quantity of phosphorus,(presented by either chemist ordruggist of this city) to destroy THE LIFEOF ANY INDIVIDUAL. Should he not feeldisposed to take the poison, he willsatisfactorily explain to the audience themanner it may be taken without injury.

In our next chapter we shall see how it wentwith others who challenged Chabert.

A Polish athlete, J. A. B. Chylinski by name,toured Great Britain and Ireland in 1841, andpresented a more than usually diversifiedentertainment. Being gifted by nature withexceptional bodily strength, and trained ingymnastics, he was enabled to present a mixed

programme, combining his athletics with featsof strength, fire-eating, poison-swallowing, andfire-resistance.

In The Book of Wonderful Characters,published in 1869 by John Camden Hotten, London,I find an account of Chamouni, the RussianSalamander: ``He was insensible, for agiven time, to the effects of heat. He wasremarkable for the simplicity and singlenessof his character, as well as for that idiosyncrasyin his constitution, which enabled himfor so many years, not merely to brave theeffects of fire, but to take a delight in anelement where other men find destruction. Hewas above all artifice, and would often entreathis visitors to melt their own lead, or boil theirown mercury, that they might be perfectlysatisfied of the gratification he derived fromdrinking these preparations. He would alsopresent his tongue in the most obliging mannerto all who wished, to pour melted lead uponit and stamp an impression of their seals.''

A fire-proof billed as Professor Rel Maeub,was on the programme at the opening of theNew National Theater, in Philadelphia, Pa.,in the spring of 1876. If I am not mistakenthe date was April 25th. He called himself``The Great Inferno Fire-King,'' and hisnovelty consisted in having a strip of wetcarpeting running parallel to the hot iron plateson which he walked barefoot, and stepping onit occasionally and back onto the hot iron, whena loud hissing and a cloud of steam bore ampleproof of the high temperature of the metal.

One of the more recent fireproofs wasEugene Rivalli, whose act included, besides theusual effects, a cage of fire in which he stoodcompletely surrounded by flames. Rivalli,whose right name was John Watkins, died in1900, in England. He had appeared in GreatBritain and Ireland as well as on the Continentduring the later years of the 19th century.

The cage of fire has been used by a numberof Rivalli's followers also, and the reader willfind a full explanation of the methodsemployed for it in the chapter devoted to theArcana of the Fire-eaters, to which we shallcome when we have recorded the work of themaster Chabert, the history of some of theheat-resisters featured on magicians'programmes, particularly in our own day, and theinterest taken in this art by performers whosechief distinction was won in other fields, asnotably Edwin Forrest and the elder Sothern.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE MASTER--CHABERT, 1792-1859.

Ivan Ivanitz Chabert, the onlyReally Incombustible Phenomenon, as hewas billed abroad, or J. Xavier Chabert, A.M.,M.D., etc., as he was afterwards known in thiscountry, was probably the most notable, andcertainly the most interesting, character inthe history of fire-eating, fire-resistance, andpoison eating. He was the last prominent figurein the long line of this type of artists to appealto the better classes and to attract the attentionof scientists, who for a considerable periodtreated his achievements more or less seriously.Henry Evanion gave me a valuable collectionof Chabert clippings, hand-bills, etc., andrelated many interesting incidents in connectionwith this man of wonders.

It seems quite impossible for me to writeof any historical character in Magic or itsallied arts without recalling my dear old friendEvanion, who introduced me to a throng offascinating characters, with each of whom heseemed almost as familiar as if they had beendaily companions.

Subsequently I discovered an old engravingof Chabert, published in London in 1829, andlater still another which bore the change ofname, as well as the titles enumerated above.The latter was published in New York, September,1836, and bore the inscription: ``Oneof the most celebrated Chemists, Philosophers,and Physicians of the present day.'' Thesediscoveries, together with a clue from Evanion,led to further investigations, which resulted inthe interesting discovery that this one-timeBartholomew Fair entertainer spent the lastyears of his life in New York City. He residedhere for twenty-seven years and liesburied in the beautiful Cypress Hills Cemetery,quite forgotten by the man on the street.

Nearby is the grave of good old Signor Blitz,and not far away is the plot that holds all thatis mortal of my beloved parents. When Ifinally break away from earthly chains andrestraints, I hope to be placed beside them.

During my search for data regarding ChabertI looked in the telephone book for a possibledescendant. By accident I picked up theSuburban instead of the Metropolitan edition,and there I found a Victor E. Chabert livingat Allenhurst, N. J. I immediately got intocommunication with him and found that hewas a grandson of the Fire King, but he couldgive me no more information than I alreadypossessed, which I now spread before myreaders.

M. Chabert was a son of Joseph and ThereseJulienne Chabert. He was born on May 10th,1792, at Avignon, France.

Chabert was a soldier in the Napoleonicwars, was exiled to Siberia and escaped toEngland. His grandson has a bronze Napoleonmedal which was presented to Chabert, presumablyfor valor on the field of battle. Napoleonwas exiled in 1815 and again three years

later. Chabert first attracted public notice inParis, at which time his demonstrations ofheat-resistance were sufficiently astonishing tomerit the attention of no less a body than theNational Institute.

To the more familiar feats of his predecessorshe added startling novelties in the art ofheat-resistance, the most spectacular beingthat of entering a large iron cabinet, whichresembled a common baker's oven, heated tothe usual temperature of such ovens. He carriedin his hand a leg of mutton and remaineduntil the meat was thoroughly cooked. Anotherthriller involved standing in a flamingtar-barrel until it was entirely consumedaround him.

In 1828, Chabert gave a series of performancesat the Argyle Rooms in London, andcreated a veritable sensation. A correspondentin the London Mirror has this to say ofChabert's work at that time: ``Of M. Chabert'swonderful power of withstanding the operationof the fiery element, it is in the recollectionof the writer of witnessing, some few yearsback, this same individual (in connection withthe no-less fire-proof Signora Girardelli)exhibiting `extraordinary proofs of hissupernatural power of resisting the most intenseheat of every kind.' Since which an IMPROVEMENTof a more formidable nature has to ourastonished fancy been just demonstrated. Inthe newspapers of the past week it is reportedthat he, in the first instance, refreshed himselfwith a hearty meal of phosphorus, whichwas, at his own request, supplied to him veryliberally by several of his visitors, who werepreviously unacquainted with him. He washeddown (they say) this infernal fare withsolutions of arsenic and oxalic acid; thus throwinginto the background the long-established fameof Mithridates. He next swallowed with greatgout, several spoonfuls of boiling oil; and, asa dessert to this delicate repast, helped himself

with his naked hands to a considerablequantity of molten lead. The experiment,however, of entering into a hot oven, together witha quantity of meat, sufficient, when cooked, toregale those of his friends who were speciallyinvited to witness his performance, was thechef-d'oeuvre of the day. Having orderedthree fagots of wood, which is the quantitygenerally used by bakers, to be thrown intothe oven, and they being set on fire, twelvemore fagots of the same size were subsequentlyadded to them, which being all consumed bythree o'clock, M. Chabert entered the oven witha dish of raw meat, and when it was sufficientlydone he handed it out, took in another, andremained therein until the second quantity wasalso well cooked; he then came out of the oven,and sat down, continues the report, to partake,with a respectable assembly of friends, ofthose viands he had so closely attended duringthe culinary process. Publicly, on a subsequentday, and in an oven 6 feet by 7, and ata heat of about 220, he remained till a steakwas properly done, and again returned to hisfiery den and continued for a period of thirtyminutes, in complete triumph over the powerof an element so much dreaded by humankind,and so destructive to animal nature. It hasbeen properly observed, that there arepreparations which so indurate the cuticle, as torender it insensible to the heat of either boilingoil or melted lead; and the fatal qualitiesof certain poisons may be destroyed, if themedium through which they are imbibed, aswe suppose to be the case here, is a strongalkali. Many experiments, as to the extent towhich the human frame could bear heat, withoutthe destruction of the vital powers, havebeen tried from time to time; but so far asrecollection serves, Monsieur Chabert's fire-resisting qualities are greater than thoseprofessed by individuals who, before him, haveundergone this species of ordeal.''

It was announced some time ago, in one of

the French journals, that experiments hadbeen tried with a female, whose fire-standingqualities had excited great astonishment. She,it appears, was placed in a heated oven, intowhich live dogs, cats, and rabbits wereconveyed. The poor animals died in a state ofconvulsion almost immediately, while the Fire-queen bore the heat without complaining. Inthat instance, however, the heat of the ovenwas not so great as that which M. Chabert encountered.

Much of the power to resist greater degreesof heat than can other men may be a naturalgift, much the result of chemical applications,and much from having the parts indurated bylong practice; probably all three are combinedin this phenomenon, with some portion ofartifice.

In Timbs' Curiosities of London, publishedin 1867, I find the following:

At the Argyle Rooms, London, in 1829,Mons. Chabert, the Fire-King, exhibitedhis powers of resisting poisons, andwithstanding extreme heat. He swallowedforty grains of phosphorus, sipped oil at333 degrees with impunity, and rubbed a red-hotfire-shovel over his tongue, hair, and face,unharmed.

On September 23d, on a challenge ofL50, Chabert repeated these feats and wonthe wager; he next swallowed a piece ofburning torch; and then, dressed in coarsewoolen, entered an oven heated to 380 degrees,sang a song, and cooked two dishes of beefsteaks.

Still, the performances were suspected,and in fact, proved to be a chemical juggle.

Another challenge in the same year is

recorded under the heading, ``Sights ofLondon,'' as follows:

We were tempted on Wednesday to theArgyle Rooms by the challenge of a personof the uncommon name of J. Smithto M. Chabert, our old friend the FireKing, whom this individual dared toinvite to a trial of powers in swallowingpoison and being baked! The audacityof such a step quite amazed us; andexpecting to see in the competitor atleast a Vulcan, the God of all Smiths,was hastened to the scene of strife.Alas, our disappointment was complete!Smith had not even the courage of ablacksmith for standing fire, and yieldeda stake of L50, as was stated, withouta contest, to M. Chabert, on the lattercoming out of his oven with his own twosteaks perfectly cooked. On this occasionChabert took 20 grains of phosphorus,swallowed oil heated to nearly 100 degrees aboveboiling water, took molten lead out of aladle with his fingers and cooled it on histongue; and, besides performing otherremarkable feats, remained five minutes inthe oven at a temperature of between 300and 400 degrees by the thermometer. There wasabout 150 persons present, many of themmedical men; and being convinced thatthese things were fairly done, withouttrickery, much astonishment was expressed.

The following detailed account of the latterchallenge appeared in the Chronicle, London,September, 1829.

THE FIRE KING AND HISCHALLENGER.--An advertisement appearedlately in one of the papers, in which aMr. J. Smith after insinuating that M.Chabert practised some juggle when he

appeared to enter an oven heated to fivehundred degrees, and to swallow twentygrains of phosphorus, challenged him toperform the exploits which he professedto be performing daily. In consequenceM. Chabert publicly accepted Mr. J.Smith's challenge for L50, requesting himto provide the poison himself. A day wasfixed upon which the challenge was to bedetermined, and at two o'clock on thatday, a number of gentlemen assembled inthe Argyle-rooms, where the exhibitionwas to take place. At a little before threethe fire-king made his appearance near hisoven, and as some impatience had beenexhibited, owing to the non-arrival of Mr.J. Smith, he offered to amuse the companywith a few trifling experiments. He madea shovel red-hot and rubbed it over histongue, a trick for which no credit, he said,was due, as the moisture of the tongue wassufficient to prevent any injury arisingfrom it. He next rubbed it over his hairand face, declaring that anybody mightperform the same feat by first washingthemselves in a mixture of spirits ofsulphur and alum, which, by cauterising theepidermis, hardened the skin to resist thefire.

He put his hand into some melted lead,took a small portion of it out, placed it inhis mouth, and then gave it in a solid stateto some of the company. This performance,according to his account, was alsovery easy; for he seized only a very smallparticle, which, by a tight compressionbetween the forefinger and the thumb,became cool before it reached the mouth. Atthis time Mr. Smith made his appearance,and M. Chabert forthwith prepared himselffor mightier undertakings. A cruseof oil was brought forward and pouredinto a saucepan, which was previouslyturned upside down, to show that there

was no water in it. The alleged reasonfor this step was, that the vulgarconjurors, who profess to drink boiling oil,place the oil in water, and drink it whenthe water boils, at which time the oil isnot warmer than an ordinary cup of tea.He intended to drink the oil when anyperson might see it bubbling in thesaucepan, and when the thermometer wouldprove that it was heated to three hundredand sixty degrees. The saucepan wasaccordingly placed on the fire, and as it wasacquiring the requisite heat, the fire-kingchallenged any man living to drink aspoonful of the oil at the same temperatureas that at which he was going to drinkit. In a few minutes afterwards, hesipped off a spoonful with greatestapparent ease, although the spoon, fromcontact with the boiling fluid, had become toohot for ordinary fingers to handle.

``And now, Monsieur Smith,'' said thefire-king, ``now for your challenge. Haveyou prepared yourself with phosphorus,or will you take some of mine, which islaid on that table?'' Mr. Smith, walkedup to the table, and pulling a vial bottleout of his pocket, offered it to the poison-swallower.

Fire-king--``I ask you, on your honoras a gentleman, is this genuine unmixedpoison?''

Mr. Smith--``It is, upon my honor.''

Fire-king--``Is there any medicalgentleman here who will examine it?''

A person in the room requested thatDr. Gordon Smith, one of the medicalprofessors in the London University,would examine the vial, and decidewhether it contained genuine phosphorus.

The professor went to the table, onwhich the formidable collection of poisons--such as red and white arsenic,hydrocyanic acid, morphine and phosphorus--was placed, and, examining the vial,declared, that, to the best of his judgment,it was genuine phosphorus.

M. Chabert asked Mr. Smith, how manygrains he wished to commence his firstdraught with. Mr. Smith--``Twentygrains will do as a commencement.''

A medical gentleman then came forwardand cut off two parcels of phosphorus,containing twenty grains each. He wasplacing them in the water, when the fire-king requested that his phosphorus mightbe cut into small pieces, as he did not wishthe pieces to stop on their way to hisstomach. The poisons were now prepared.A wine-glass contained the portionset aside for the fire-king--a tumbler theportion reserved for Mr. Smith.

The Fire-king--``I suppose, gentlemen,I must begin, and to convince you thatI do not juggle, I will first take off mycoat, and then I will trouble you, doctor(speaking to Dr. Gordon Smith), to tie myhands together behind me. After he hadbeen bandaged in this manner, he plantedhimself on one knee in the middle of theroom, and requested some gentleman toplace the phosphorus on his tongue andpour the water down his throat. This wasaccordingly done, and the water andphosphorus were swallowed together. He thenopened his mouth and requested the companyto look whether any portion of thephosphorus remained in his mouth. Severalgentlemen examined his mouth, anddeclared that there was no phosphorusperceptible either upon or under his

tongue. He was then by his own desireunbandaged. The fire-king forthwithturned to Mr. Smith and offered him theother glass of phosphorus. Mr. Smithstarted back in infinite alarm--`Not forworlds, Sir, not for worlds; I beg todecline it.'

The Fire-king--``Then wherefore didyou send me a challenge? You pledgedyour honor to drink it, if I did; I havedone it; and if you are a gentleman, youmust drink it too.''

Mr. Smith--``No, no, I must be excused:I am quite satisfied without it.''

Here several voices exclaimed that thebet was lost. Some said there must be aconfederacy between the challenger andthe challenged, and others asked whetherany money had been deposited? The fire-king called a Mr. White forward, whodeposed that he held the stakes, which hadbeen regularly placed in his hands, by bothparties, before twelve o'clock that morning.

The fire-king here turned round withgreat exultation to the company, and pullinga bottle out of his pocket, exclaimed,``I did never see this gentleman before thismorning, and I did not know but that hemight be bold enough to venture to takethis quantity of poison. I was determinednot to let him lose his life by his foolishwager, and therefore I did bring anantidote in my pocket, which would haveprevented him from suffering any harm.''Mr. Smith said his object was answered byseeing twenty grains of genuine phosphorusswallowed. He had conceived itimpossible, as three grains were quitesufficient to destroy life. The fire-king thenwithdrew into another room for theprofessed purpose of putting on his usual

dress for entering the oven, but in allprobability for the purpose of getting thephosphorus out of his stomach.

After an absence of twenty minutes, hereturned, dressed in a coarse woolen coat,to enter the heated oven. Before heentered it, a medical gentleman ascertainedthat his pulse was vibrating ninety-eighttimes a minute. He remained in the ovenfive minutes, during which time he sungLe Vaillant Troubadour, and superintendedthe cooking of two dishes of beefsteaks. At the end of that time he cameout, perspiring profusely, and with a pulsemaking one hundred and sixty-eightvibrations in a minute. The thermometer,when brought out of the oven, stood atthree hundred and eighty degrees; withinthe oven he said it was above six hundred.

Although he was suspected of trickery bymany, was often challenged, and had an armyof rivals and imitators, all available recordsshow that Chabert was beyond a doubt thegreatest fire and poison resister that everappeared in London.

Seeking new laurels, he came to America in1832, and although he was successful in NewYork, his subsequent tour of the States wasfinancially disastrous. He evidently savedenough from the wreck, however, to start inbusiness, and the declining years of his eventfullife were passed in the comparative obscurityof a little drug store in Grand Street.

As his biographer I regret to be obliged tochronicle the fact that he made and sold analleged specific for the White Plague, thusenabling his detractors to couple with his namethe word Quack. The following article, whichappeared in the New York Herald of September1st, 1859, three days after Chabert's death,

gives further details of his activities in thiscountry:

We published among the obituarynotices in yesterday's Herald the death ofDr. Julian Xavier Chabert, the ``FireKing,'' aged 67 years, of pulmonaryconsumption. Dr. C. was a native of France,and came to this country in 1832, and wasfirst introduced to the public at the lectureroom of the old Clinton Hall, in NassauStreet, where he gave exhibitions by enteringa hot oven of his own construction,and while there gave evidence of hissalamander qualities by cooking beefsteaks, to the surprise and astonishmentof his audiences.

It was a question to many whether theDoctor's oven was red-hot or not, as henever allowed any person to approach himduring the exhibition or take part in theproceedings. He made a tour of theUnited States in giving these exhibitions,which resulted in financial bankruptcy.At the breaking out of the cholera in 1832he turned Doctor, and appended M.D., tohis name, and suddenly his newspaperadvertisements claimed for him the title ofthe celebrated Fire King, the curer ofconsumption, the maker of ChineseLotion, etc.

While the Doctor was at the height ofhis popularity, some wag perpetrated thefollowing joke in a newspaper paragraph:``During some experiments he was makingin chemistry last week, an explosiontook place which entirely bewildered hisfaculties and left him in a conditionbordering on the grave. He was blown intoa thousand atoms. It took place onWednesday of last week and some accountsstate that it grew out of an experiment

with phosphoric ether, others that it wasby a too liberal indulgence in Prussic acid,an article which, from its resemblance tothe peach, he was remarkably fond of havingabout him.''

The Doctor was extensively accused ofquackery, and on one occasion when theHerald touched on the same subject, itbrought him to our office and he exhibiteddiplomas, certificates and medical honorswithout number.

The Doctor was remarkable for hisprolific display of jewelry and medals ofhonor, and by his extensive display ofbeard. He found a rival in this city inthe person of another French ``chemist,''who gave the Doctor considerable oppositionand consequently much trouble.

The Doctor was famous, also, for hisfour-horse turnouts in Broadway,alternating, when he saw proper, to a changeto the ``tandem'' style. He married anIrish lady whom he at first supposed tobe immensely rich, but after the nuptialsit was discovered that she merely had alife interest in a large estate in commonwith several others.

The Doctor, it appears, was formerly asoldier in the French Army, and quiterecently he received from thence a medalof the order of St. Helena, an account ofwhich appeared in the Herald. Prior tohis death he was engaged in writing hisbiography (in French) and had it nearlyready for publication.

Here follows a supposedly humorous speechin broken English, quoted from the LondonLancet, in which the Doctor is satirized.Continuing, the articles says:

``The Doctor was what was termed a`fast liver,' and at the time of his deathhe kept a drug store in Grand Street, andhad very little of this world's goods. Heleaves three children to mourn his loss,one of them an educated physician, residingin Hoboken, N. J.

Dr. C. has `gone to that bourne whenceno traveller returns,' and we ferventlytrust and hope that the disembodiedspirits of the tens of thousands whom hehas treated in this sphere will treat himwith the same science with which hetreated them while in this wicked world.''

CHAPTER FIVE

FIRE-EATING MAGICIANS: CHING LING FOOAND CHUNG LING SOO.--FIRE-EATERSEMPLOYED BY MAGICIANS: THE MAN-SALAMANDER, 1816; MR. CARLTON,PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, 1818; MISSCASSILLIS, AGED NINE, 1820; THE AFRICANWONDER, 1843; LING LOOK AND YAMADEVADIE IN CHINA DURING KELLAR'SWORLD TOUR, 1872; LING LOOK'S DOUBLE,1879.--ELECTRICAL EFFECTS, THESALAMBOS.--BUENO CORE.--DEL KANO.--BARNELLO.--EDWIN FORREST AS AHEAT-REGISTER.--THE ELDER SOTHERNAS A FIRE-EATER.--THE TWILIGHT OFTHE ART.

Many of our most noted magicians haveconsidered it not beneath their dignityto introduce fire-eating into their programmes,either in their own work or by the employmentof a ``Fire Artist.'' Although seldom presentingit in his recent performances, Ching LingFoo is a fire-eater of the highest type, refining

the effect with the same subtle artistry thatmarks all the work of this super-magician.

Of Foo's thousand imitators the onlypositively successful one was William E. Robinson,whose tragic death while in the performance ofthe bullet-catching trick is the latest addition tothe long list of casualties chargeable to thatill-omened juggle. He carried the imitationeven as far as the name, calling himself ChungLing Soo. Robinson was very successful inthe classic trick of apparently eating largequantities of cotton and blowing smoke andsparks from the mouth. His teeth were finallyquite destroyed by the continued performanceof this trick, the method of which may befound in Chapter Six.

The employment of fire-eaters by magiciansbegan a century ago; for in 1816 the magicianSieur Boaz, K. C., featured a performer whowas billed as the ``Man-Salamander.'' Thefact that Boaz gave him a place on hisprogramme is proof that this man was clever, butthe effects there listed show nothing original.

In 1818 a Mr. Carlton, Professor of Chemistry,toured England in company with Rae,the Bartholomew Fair magician. As will beseen by the handbill reproduced here, Carltonpromised to explain the ``Deceptive Part'' ofthe performance, ``when there is a sufficientcompany.''

In 1820 a Mr. Cassillis toured England witha juvenile company, one of the features ofwhich was Miss Cassillis, aged nine years,whose act was a complete reproduction of theprogramme of Boaz, concluding her performancewith the ``Chinese Fire Trick.''

A Negro, Carlo Alberto, appeared in a benefitperformance given by Herr Julian, whostyled himself the ``Wizard of the South,'' inLondon, on November 28th, 1843. Alberto was

billed as the ``Great African Wonder, the FireKing'' and it was promised that he would ``gothrough part of his wonderful performance asgiven by him in the principal theaters inAmerica, in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,etc.''

A later number on the same bill reads: ``TheAfrican Wonder, Carlo Alberto, will sing severalnew and popular Negro melodies.'' Collectorsof minstrel data please take notice!

In more recent times there have been a numberof Negro fire-eaters, but none seems tohave risen to noticeable prominence.

Ling Look, one of the best of contemporaryfire performers, was with Dean Harry Kellarwhen the latter made his famous trip aroundthe world in 1877. Look combined fire-eatingand sword-swallowing in a rather startlingmanner. His best effect was the swallowingof a red-hot sword.[1] Another thriller consistedin fastening a long sword to the stock of amusket; when he had swallowed about half thelength of the blade, he discharged the gun andthe recoil drove the sword suddenly down histhroat to the very hilt. Although Look alwaysappeared in a Chinese make-up, Dean Kellartold me that he thought his right name wasDave Gueter, and that he was born in BudaPesth.

[1] I never saw Ling Look's work, but I know that some ofthe sword swallowers have made use of a sheath which wasswallowed before the performance, and the swords were simplypushed into it. A sheath of this kind lined with asbestosmight easily have served as a protection against the red-hotblade.

Yamadeva, a brother of Ling Look, was alsowith the Kellar Company, doing cabinetmanifestations and rope escapes. Both brothers

died in China during this engagement, and astrange incident occurred in connection withtheir deaths. Just before they were to sailfrom Shanghai on the P. & O. steamer Khivafor Hong Kong, Yamadeva and Kellar visitedthe bowling alley of The Hermitage, a pleasureresort on the Bubbling Well Road. They werewatching a husky sea captain, who was usinga huge ball and making a ``double spare'' atevery roll, when Yamadeva suddenly remarked,``I can handle one as heavy as that bigloafer can.'' Suiting the action to the word,he seized one of the largest balls and droveit down the alley with all his might; but hehad misjudged his own strength, and he paidfor the foolhardy act with his life, for he hadno sooner delivered the ball than he graspedhis side and moaned with pain. He had hardlysufficient strength to get back to the ship,where he went immediately to bed and diedshortly afterward. An examination showedthat he had ruptured an artery.

Kellar and Ling Look had much difficultyin persuading the captain to take the body toHong Kong, but he finally consented. On theway down the Yang Tse Kiang River, Lookwas greatly depressed; but all at once hebecame strangely excited, and said that hisbrother was not dead, for he had just heardthe peculiar whistle with which they had alwayscalled each other. The whistle was severaltimes repeated, and was heard by all onboard. Finally the captain, convinced thatsomething was wrong, had the lid removedfrom the coffin, but the body of Yamadeva gaveno indication of life, and all save Ling Lookdecided that they must have been mistaken.

Poor Ling Look, however, sobbingly said toKellar, ``I shall never leave Hong Kong alive.My brother has called me to join him.'' Thisprediction was fulfilled, for shortly after theirarrival in Hong Kong he underwent an operationfor a liver trouble, and died under the

knife. The brothers were buried in HappyValley, Hong Kong, in the year 1877.

All this was related to me at the Marlborough-Blenheim, Atlantic City, in June, 1908,by Kellar himself, and portions of it wererepeated in 1917 when Dean Kellar sat by meat the Society of American Magicians' dinner.

In 1879 there appeared in England aperformer who claimed to be the original LingLook. He wore his make-up both on and offthe stage, and copied, so far as he could, Ling'sstyle of work. His fame reached this countryand the New York Clipper published, in itsLetter Columns, an article stating that LingLook was not dead, but was alive and workingin England. His imitator had the nerve tostick to his story even when confronted byKellar, but when the latter assured him thathe had personally attended the burial of Ling,in Hong Kong, he broke down and confessedthat he was a younger brother of the originalLing Look.

Kellar later informed me that the resemblancewas so strong that had he not seen theoriginal Ling Look consigned to the earth, hehimself would have been duped into believingthat this was the man who had been with himin Hong Kong.

The Salambos were among the first to useelectrical effects in a fire act, combining thesewith the natural gas and ``human volcano''stunts of their predecessors, so that they wereable to present an extremely spectacularperformance without having recourse to suchunpleasant features as had marred the effect ofearlier fire acts. Bueno Core, too, deserveshonorable mention for the cleanness and snapof his act; and Del Kano should also be namedamong the cleverer performers.

One of the best known of the modern fire-

eaters was Barnello, who was a good businessman as well, and kept steadily employed ata better salary than the rank and file of hiscontemporaries. He did a thriving businessin the sale of the various concoctions used inhis art, and published and sold a most completebook of formulas and general instructionsfor those interested in the craft. He had,indeed, many irons in the fire, and he keptthem all hot.

It will perhaps surprise the presentgeneration to learn that the well-known circus manJacob Showles was once a fire-eater, and thatDel Fugo, well-known in his day as a dancerin the music halls, began as a fire-resister, anddid his dance on hot iron plates. But thereader has two keener surprises in store forhim before I close the long history of the heat-resisters. The first concerns our great Americantragedian Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) who,according to James Rees (Colley Cibber), onceessayed a fire-resisting act. Forrest wasalways fond of athletics and at one time madean engagement with the manager of a circusto appear as a tumbler and rider. The engagementwas not fulfilled, however, as his friendSol Smith induced him to break it and returnto the legitimate stage. Smith afterwardsadmitted to Cibber that if Forrest had remainedwith the circus he would have become one ofthe most daring riders and vaulters that everappeared in the ring.

His adventure in fire-resistance was on theoccasion of the benefit to ``Charley Young,'' onwhich eventful night, as the last of his acrobaticfeats, he made a flying leap through abarrel of red fire, singeing his hair andeyebrows terribly. This particular leap throughfire was the big sensation of those days, andForrest evidently had a hankering to show hisfriends that he could accomplish it--and hedid.

The second concerns an equally popularactor, a comedian this time, the elder Sothern(1826-1881). On March 20, 1878, a writer inthe Chicago Inter-Ocean communicated to thatpaper the following curiously descriptive article:

Is Mr. Sothern a medium?

This is the question that fifteen puzzledinvestigators are asking themselves thismorning, after witnessing a number ofastounding manifestations at a privateseance given by Mr. Sothern last night.

It lacked a few minutes of 12 when anumber of Mr. Sothern's friends, who hadbeen given to understand that somethingremarkable was to be performed, assembledin the former's room at the ShermanHouse and took seats around a marble-toptable, which was placed in the center ofthe apartment. On the table were a numberof glasses, two very large bottles, andfive lemons. A sprightly young gentlemanattempted to crack a joke about spiritsbeing confined in bottles, but the companyfrowned him down, and for once Mr.Sothern had a sober audience to beginwith.

There was a good deal of curiosityregarding the object of the gathering, butno one was able to explain. Each gentlemantestified to the fact Mr. Sothern'sagent had waited upon him, and solicitedhis presence at a little exhibition to begiven by the actor, NOT of a comical nature.

Mr. Sothern himself soon afterappeared, and, after shaking hands with theparty, thus addressed them:

``Gentlemen, I have invited you herethis evening to witness a few manifestations,

demonstrations, tests, or whateveryou choose to call them, which I haveaccidentally discovered that I am able toperform.

``I am a fire-eater, as it were. (Applause).

``I used to DREAD the fire, having beenscorched once when an innocent child. (Alaugh.)

Mr. Sothern (severely)--``I HOPE therewill be no levity here, and I wish to saynow that demonstrations of any kind areliable to upset me, while demonstrationsof a particular kind may upset the audience.''

Silence and decorum being restored,Mr. Sothern thus continued:

``Thirteen weeks ago, while walking upGreenwich Street, in New York, I steppedinto a store to buy a cigar. To show youthere is no trick about it, here are cigarsout of the same box from which I selectedthe one I that day lighted.'' (Here Mr.Sothern passed around a box of tolerablecigars.)

``Well, I stepped to the little hanginggas-jet to light it, and, having done so,stood contemplatively holding the gas-jetand the cigar in either hand, thinkingwhat a saving it would be to smoke a pipe,when, in my absent-mindedness, I droppedthe cigar and put the gas-jet into mymouth. Strange as it may appear, I feltno pain, and stood there holding the thingin my mouth and puffing till the man incharge yelled out to me that I was swallowinghis gas. Then I looked up, and,sure enough, there I was pulling away atthe slender flame that came from the glasstube.

``I dropped it instantly, and felt of mymouth, but noticed no inconvenience orunpleasant sensation whatever.

`` `What do you mean by it?' said theproprietor.

``As I didn't know what I meant by itI couldn't answer, so I picked up my cigarand went home. Once there I tried theexperiment again, and in doing so I foundthat not only my mouth, but my hands andface, indeed, all of my body, was proofagainst fire. I called on a physician, andhe examined me, and reported nothingwrong with my flesh, which appeared to bein normal condition. I said nothing aboutit publicly, but the fact greatly surprisedme, and I have invited you here to-nightto witness a few experiments.''

Saying this, Mr. Sothern, who had lit acigar while pausing in his speech, turnedthe fire end into his mouth and sat down,smoking unconcernedly.

``I suppose you wish to give us the fire-test,'' remarked one of the company.

Mr. Sothern nodded.

There was probably never a gatheringmore dumbfounded than that present inthe room. A few questions were asked,and then five gentlemen were appointed toexamine Mr. Sothern's hands, etc., beforehe began his experiments. Havingthoroughly washed the parts that he proposedto subject to the flames, Mr. Sothernbegan by burning his arm, and passing itthrough the gas-jet very slowly, twicestopping the motion and holding it still inthe flames. He then picked up a pokerwith a sort of hook on the end, and proceededto fish a small coil of wire from the

grate. The wire came out fairly whitewith the heat. Mr. Sothern took the coilin his hands and cooly proceeded to wrapit round his left leg to the knee. Havingdone so, he stood on the table in the centerof the circle and requested the committeeto examine the wrappings and theleg and report if both were there. Thecommittee did so and reported in theaffirmative.

While this was going on, there was asmile, almost seraphic in its beauty, onMr. Sothern's face.

After this an enormous hot iron, in theshape of a horseshoe, was placed on Mr.Sothern's body, where it cooled, withoutleaving a sign of a burn.

As a final test, a tailor's goose was puton the coals, and, after being thoroughlyheated, was placed on Mr. Sothern's chair.The latter lighted a fresh cigar, and thencoolly took a seat on the goose without theleast seeming inconvenience. During thelast experiment Mr. Sothern sang in anexcellent tone and voice, ``I'm Sitting onthe Stile, Mary.''

The question now is, were the fifteenauditors of Mr. Sothern fooled anddeceived, or was this a genuine manifestationof extraordinary power? Sothern issuch an inveterate joker that he may haveput the thing upon the boys for his ownamusement; but if so, it was one of thenicest tricks ever witnessed by yours truly, ONE OF THE COMMITTEE.

P. S.--What is equally marvellous tome is that the fire didn't burn his clotheswhere it touched them, any more than hisflesh. P. C.

(There is nothing new in this. Mr.Sothern has long been known as one of themost expert jugglers in the profession.Some years ago he gained the soubriquetof the ``Fire King!'' He frequentlyamuses his friends by eating fire, thoughhe long ago ceased to give publicexhibitions. Probably the success of theexperiments last night were largely owing to thelemons present. There is a good deal oftrickery in those same lemons.--EditorInter-Ocean.)

which suggests that the editor of the Inter-Ocean was either pretty well acquainted withthe comedian's addiction to spoofing, or elseless susceptible to superstition than certainscientists of our generation.

The great day of the Fire-eater--or, shouldI say, the day of the great Fire-eater--haspassed. No longer does fashion flock to hisdoors, nor science study his wonders, and hemust now seek a following in the gapingloiterers of the circus side-show, the pumpkin-and-prize-pig country fair, or the tawdrybooth at Coney Island. The credulous, wonder-loving scientist, however, still abides withus and, while his serious-minded brothers arewringing from Nature her jealously guardedsecrets, the knowledge of which benefits allmankind, he gravely follows that perennialWill-of-the-wisp, spiritism, and lays theflattering unction to his soul that he is investigating``psychic phenomena,'' when in reality heis merely gazing with unseeing eyes on theflimsy juggling of pseudo-mediums.

CHAPTER SIX

THE ARCANA OF THE FIRE-EATERS: THEFORMULA OF ALBERTUS MAGNUS.--

OF HOCUS POCUS.--RICHARDSON'SMETHOD.--PHILOPYRAPHAGUSASHBURNIENSIS.--TO BREATHE FORTHSPARKS, SMOKE, AND FLAMES.--TOSPOUT NATURAL GAS.--PROFESSORSEMENTINI'S DISCOVERIES.--TO BITE OFFRED-HOT IRON.--TO COOK IN A BURNINGCAGE.--CHABERT'S OVEN. TOEAT COALS OF FIRE.--TO DRINK BURNINGOIL.--TO CHEW MOLTEN LEAD.--TO CHEW BURNING BRIMSTONE.--TOWREATHE THE FACE IN FLAMES.--TOIGNITE PAPER WITH THE BREATH.--TODRINK BOILING LIQUOR AND EATFLAMING WAX.

The yellow thread of exposure seems to beinextricably woven into all fabrics whosestrength is secrecy, and experience proves thatit is much easier to become fireproof than tobecome exposure proof. It is still an openquestion, however, as to what extent exposurereally injures a performer. Exposure of thesecrets of the fire-eaters, for instance, datesback almost to the beginning of the art itself.The priests were exposed, Richardson wasexposed, Powell was exposed and so on down theline; but the business continued to prosper, thereally clever performers drew quite fashionableaudiences for a long time, and it was probablythe demand for a higher form of entertainment,resulting from a refinement of thepublic taste, rather than the result of the manyexposures, that finally relegated the Fire-eaters to the haunts of the proletariat.

How the early priests came into possession ofthese secrets does not appear, and if there wereever any records of this kind the Church wouldhardly allow them to become public. Thatthey used practically the same system whichhas been adopted by all their followers isamply proved by the fact that after trial byordeal had been abolished Albertus Magnus, inhis work De Mirabilibus Mundi, at the end of

his book De Secretis Mulierum, Amstelod,1702, made public the underlying principles ofheat-resistance; namely, the use of certaincompounds which render the exposed partsto a more or less extent impervious to heat.Many different formulas have been discoveredwhich accomplish the purpose, but the principleremains unchanged. The formula setdown by Albertus Magnus was probably thefirst ever made public: the following translationof it is from the London Mirror:

Take juice of marshmallow, and whiteof egg, flea-bane seeds, and lime; powderthem and mix juice of radish with thewhite of egg; mix all thoroughly and withthis composition annoint your body orhand and allow it to dry and afterwardsannoint it again, and after this you mayboldly take up hot iron without hurt.

``Such a paste,'' says the correspondent tothe Mirror, ``would indeed be very visible.''

Another early formula is given in the 1763edition of Hocus Pocus. Examination of thedifferent editions of this book in my librarydiscloses the fact that there are no fire formulasin the second edition, 1635, which is theearliest I have (first editions are very rare andthere is only one record of a sale of that editionat auction). From the fact that this formulawas published during the time that Powell wasappearing in England I gather that thatcircumstance may account for its addition to thebook. It does not appear in the German orDutch editions.

The following is an exact copy:

HOW TO WALK ON A HOT IRONBAR WITHOUT ANY DANGEROF SCALDING OR BURNING.

Take half an ounce of samphire, dissolveit in two ounces of aquaevitae, add toit one ounce of quicksilver, one ounce ofliquid storax, which is the droppings ofMyrrh and hinders the camphire fromfiring; take also two ounces of hematitus,a red stone to be had at the druggist's, andwhen you buy it let them beat it to powderin their great mortar, for it is so very hardthat it cannot be done in a small one; putthis to the afore-mentioned composition,and when you intend to walk on the baryou must annoint your feet well therewith,and you may walk over without danger:by this you may wash your hands in boilinglead.

This was the secret modus operandi madeuse of by Richardson, the first notably successfulfire artist to appear in Europe, and it wasdisclosed by his servant.[2]

[2] Such disloyalty in trusted servants is one of the mostdisheartening things that can happen to a public performer.But it must not be thought that I say this out of personalexperience: for in the many years that I have been beforethe public my secret methods have been steadily shieldedby the strict integrity of my assistants, most of whom havebeen with me for years. Only one man ever betrayed myconfidence, and that only in a minor matter. But then, sofar as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledgedhis assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarialoath.

Hone's Table Book, London, 1827, page 315,gives Richardson's method as follows:

It consisted only in rubbing the handsand thoroughly washing the mouth, lips,

tongue, teeth and other parts which wereto touch the fire, with pure spirits ofsulphur. This burns and cauterizes theepidermis or upper skin, till it becomes ashard and thick as leather, and each timethe experiment is tried it becomes stilleasier. But if, after it has been very oftenrepeated the upper skin should grow socallous and hard as to become troublesome,washing the parts affected with verywarm water, or hot wine, will bring awayall the shrivelled or parched epidermis.The flesh, however, will continue tenderand unfit for such business till it has beenfrequently rubbed over with the samespirit.

This preparation may be rendered muchstronger and more efficacious by mixingequal quantities of spirit of sulphur, salammoniac, essence of rosemary and juiceof onions. The bad effects whichfrequently swallowing red-hot coals, meltedsealing wax, rosin, brimstone and othercalcined and inflammable matter, mighthave had upon his stomach were preventedby drinking plentifully of warmwater and oil, as soon as he left thecompany, till he had vomited it all up again.

This anecdote was communicated to theauthor of the Journal des Savants by Mr.Panthot, Doctor of Physics and Member of theCollege at Lyons. It appeared at the timePowell was showing his fire-eating stunts inLondon, and the correspondent naively added:

Whether Mr. Powell will take it kindlyof me thus to have published his secret Icannot tell; but as he now begins to dropinto years, has no children that I know ofand may die suddenly, or without makinga will, I think it a great pity so genteel an

occupation should become one of the artesperditae, as possibly it may, if proper careis not taken, and therefore hope, after thisinformation, some true-hearted ENGLISHMANwill take it up again, for the honor ofhis country, when he reads in the newspapers,``Yesterday, died, much lamented,the famous Mr. Powell. He was the best,if not the only, fire-eater in the world, andit is greatly to be feared that his art isdead with him.''

After a couple of columns more in a similarstrain, the correspondent signs himselfPhilopyraphagus Ashburniensis.In his History of Inventions, Vol. III, page272, 1817 edition, Beckmann thus describes theprocess:

The deception of breathing out flames,which at present excites, in a particularmanner, the astonishment of the ignorant,is very ancient. When the slaves in Sicily,about a century and a half before our era,made a formidable insurrection, andavenged themselves in a cruel manner, forthe severities which they had suffered,there was amongst them a Syrian namedEunus--a man of great craft and courage;who having passed through many scenesof life, had become acquainted with avariety of arts. He pretended to haveimmediate communication with the gods;was the oracle and leader of his fellow-slaves; and, as is usual on such occasionsconfirmed his divine mission by miracles.When heated by enthusiasm and desirousof inspiring his followers with courage, hebreathed flames or sparks among themfrom his mouth while he was addressingthem. We are told by historians that forthis purpose he pierced a nut shell at bothends, and, having filled it with some burningsubstance, put it into his mouth and

breathed through it. This deception, atpresent, is performed much better. Thejuggler rolls together some flax or hemp,so as to form a ball about the size of awalnut; sets it on fire; and suffers it to burnuntil it is nearly consumed; he then rollsround it, while burning, some more flax;and by these means the fire may beretained in it for a long time. When hewishes to exhibit he slips the ballunperceived into his mouth, and breathesthrough it; which again revives the fire,so that a number of weak sparks proceedfrom it; and the performer sustains nohurt, provided he inspire the air notthrough the mouth, but the nostrils. Bythis art the Rabbi Bar-Cocheba, in thereign of the Emperor Hadrian, made thecredulous Jews believe that he was thehoped-for Messiah; and two centuriesafter, the Emperor Constantius wasthrown into great terror when Valentinianinformed him that he had seen oneof the body-guards breathing out fire andflames in the evening.

Since Beckmann wrote, the method ofproducing smoke and sparks from the mouth hasbeen still further improved. The fire can nowbe produced in various ways. One way is bythe use of a piece of thick cotton string whichhas been soaked in a solution of nitre and thenthoroughly dried. This string, when oncelighted, burns very slowly and a piece one inchlong is sufficient for the purpose. Some performersprefer a small piece of punk, as it requiresno preparation. Still others use tindermade by burning linen rags, as our forefathersused to do. This will not flame, but merelysmoulders until the breath blows it into a glow.The tinder is made by charring linen rags, thatis, burning them to a crisp, but stopping thecombustion before they are reduced to ashes.

Flames from the lips may be produced byholding in the mouth a sponge saturated withthe purest gasoline. When the breath isexhaled sharply it can be lighted from a torchor a candle. Closing the lips firmly willextinguish the flame. A wad of oakum will givebetter results than the sponge.

Natural gas is produced as simply. A T-shapedgas pipe has three or four gas tips onthe cross-piece. The long end is placed in themouth, which already holds concealed asponge, or preferably a ball of oakum, saturatedwith pure gasoline. Blowing throughthe pipe will force the gas through the tips,where it can be ignited with a match. It willburn as long as the breath lasts.

In a London periodical, The Terrific Record,appears a reprint from the Mercure de France,giving an account of experiments in Napleswhich led to the discovery of the means bywhich jugglers have appeared to be incombustible.They first gradually habituate the skin,the mouth, throat and stomach to great degreesof heat, then they rub the skin with hard soap.The tongue is also covered with hard soap andover that a layer of powdered sugar. By thismeans an investigating professor was enabledto reproduce the wonders which had puzzledmany scientists.

The investigating professor in all probability,was Professor Sementini, who experimentedwith Lionetto. I find an account ofSementini's discoveries in an old newspaperclipping, the name and date of which haveunfortunately been lost:

Sementini's efforts, after performingseveral experiments upon himself, werefinally crowned with success. He foundthat by friction with sulphuric aciddeluted with water, the skin might be made

insensible to the action of the heat of red-hot iron; a solution of alum, evaporatedtill it became spongy, appeared to be moreeffectual in these frictions. After havingrubbed the parts which were thus renderedin some degree insensible, with hardsoap, he discovered, on the application ofhot iron, that their insensibility wasincreased. He then determined on againrubbing the parts with soap, and afterthat found that the hot iron not onlyoccasioned no pain but that it actually didnot burn the hair.

Being thus far satisfied, the Professorapplied hard soap to his tongue until itbecame insensible to the heat of the iron;and having placed an ointment composedof soap mixed with a solution of alumupon it, burning oil did not burn it; whilethe oil remained on the tongue a slighthissing was heard, similar to that of hotiron when thrust into water; the oil sooncooled and might then be swallowed withoutdanger.

Several scientific men have sincerepeated the experiments of ProfessorSementini, but we would not recommendany except professionals to try the experiments.

Liquid storax is now used to anoint thetongue when red-hot irons are to be placedin the mouth. It is claimed that with thisalone a red-hot poker can be licked until itis cold.

Another formula is given by Griffin, asfollows: 1 bar ivory soap, cut fine, 1pound of brown sugar, 2 ounces liquidstorax (not the gum). Dissolve in hotwater and add a wine-glassful of carbolicacid. This is rubbed on all parts liableto come in contact with the hot articles.After anointing the mouth with this solution

rinse with strong vinegar.

No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth. Apiece of hoop iron may be prepared by bendingit back and forth at a point about one inchfrom the end, until the fragment is nearlybroken off, or by cutting nearly through itwith a cold chisel. When the iron has beenheated red-hot, the prepared end is takenbetween the teeth, a couple of bends willcomplete the break. The piece which drops fromthe teeth into a dish of water will make a puffof steam and a hissing sound, which willdemonstrate that it is still very hot.

The mystery of the burning cage, in whichthe Fire King remains while a steak is thoroughlycooked, is explained by Barnello as follows:

Have a large iron cage constructedabout 4 x 6 feet, the bottom made of heavysheet iron. The cage should stand on ironlegs or horses. Wrap each of the bars ofthe cage with cotton batting saturatedwith oil. Now take a raw beefsteak inyour hand and enter the cage, which is nowset on fire. Remain in the cage until thefire has burned out, then issue from thecage with the steak burned to a crisp.

Explanation: On entering the cage theperformer places the steak on a large ironhook which is fastened in one of the uppercorners. The dress worn is of asbestoscloth with a hood that completely coversthe head and neck. There is a small holeover the mouth through which he breathes.

As soon as the fire starts the smoke andflames completely hide the performerfrom the spectators, and he immediatelylies down on the bottom of the cage, placing

the mouth over one of the small airholes in the floor of the same.

Heat always goes up and will soon cookthe steak.

I deduce from the above that the performerarises and recovers the steak when the fireslackens but while there is still sufficient flameand smoke to mask his action.

It is obvious that the above explanationcovers the baker's oven mystery as well. Inthe case of the oven, however, the inmate isconcealed from start to finish, and this giveshim much greater latitude for his actions. M.Chabert made the oven the big feature of hisprogramme and succeeded in puzzling many ofthe best informed scientists of his day.

Eating coals of fire has always been one ofthe sensational feats of the Fire Kings, as itis quite generally known that charcoal burnswith an extremely intense heat. This ferventlunch, however, like many of the feasts of theFire Kings, is produced by trick methods.Mixed with the charcoal in the brazier are afew coals of soft white pine, which when burntlook exactly like charcoal. These will not burnthe mouth as charcoal will. They should bepicked up with a fork which will penetrate thepine coals, but not the charcoal, the latterbeing brittle.

Another method of eating burning coalsemploys small balls of burned cotton in a dish ofburning alcohol. When lifted on the forkthese have the appearance of charcoal, but areharmless if the mouth be immediately closed,so that the flame is extinguished.

In all feats of fire-eating it should be notedthat the head is thrown well back, so that theflame may pass out of the open mouth instead

of up into the roof, as it would if the head wereheld naturally.

To drink burning oil set fire to a smallquantity of kerosene in a ladle. Into this dip aniron spoon and bring it up to all appearance,filled with burning oil, though in reality thespoon is merely wet with the oil. It is carriedblazing to the mouth, where it is tipped, as if topour the oil into the mouth, just as a puff ofbreath blows out all the flame. The process iscontinued until all the oil in the ladle has beenconsumed; then the ladle is turned bottom up,in order to show that all the oil has been drunk.A method of drinking what seems to bemolten lead is given in the Chambers' Book ofDays, 1863, Vol. II, page 278:

The performer taking an iron spoon,holds it up to the spectators, to show thatit is empty; then, dipping it into a potcontaining melted lead, he again shows itto the spectators full of the molten metal;then, after putting the spoon in his mouth,he once more shows it to be empty; andafter compressing his lips, with a lookexpressive of pain, he, in a few moments,ejects from his mouth a piece of leadimpressed with the exact form of his teeth.Ask a spectator what he saw, and he willsay that the performer took a spoonful ofmolten lead, placed it in his mouth, andsoon afterwards showed it in a solid state,bearing the exact form and impression ofhis teeth. If deception be insinuated, thespectator will say. ``No! Having theevidence of my senses, I cannot bedeceived; if it had been a matter of opinionI might, but seeing, you know, is believing.''Now the piece of lead, cast from aplaster mould of the performer's teeth,has probably officiated in a thousandprevious performances, and is placed in themouth between the gum and the cheek,

just before the trick commences. Thespoon is made with a hollow handlecontaining quicksilver, which, by a simplemotion, can be let run into the bowl, orback again into the handle at will.

The spoon is first shown with the quicksilverconcealed in the handle, the bowl isthen dipped just within the rim of the potcontaining the molten lead, but not intothe lead itself, and, at the same instant thequicksilver is allowed to run into the bowl.The spoon is then shown with the quicksilver(which the audience takes to be themelted lead) in the bowl, and when placedin the mouth, the quicksilver is againallowed to run into the handle.

The performer, in fact, takes a spoonfulof nothing, and soon after exhibits thelead bearing the impression of the teeth.

Molten lead, for fire-eating purposes, ismade as follows:

Bismuth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 oz. Lead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 oz. Block tin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 oz.

Melt these together. When the metal hascooled, a piece the size of a silver quarter canbe melted and taken into the mouth and heldthere until it hardens. This alloy will melt inboiling water. Robert-Houdin calls it Arcet'smetal, but I cannot find the name elsewhere.

The eating of burning brimstone is anentirely fake performance. A number of smallpieces of brimstone are shown, and thenwrapped in cotton which has been saturatedwith a half-and-half mixture of kerosene andgasoline, the surplus oil having been squeezedout so there shall be NO DRIP. When these arelighted they may be held in the palm of anyhand which has been anointed with one of the

fire mixtures described in this chapter. Thenthrow back the head, place the burning ball inthe mouth, and a freshly extinguished candlecan be lighted from the flame. Close the lipsfirmly, which will extinguish the flame, thenchew and pretend to swallow the brimstone,which can afterwards be removed under coverof a handkerchief.

Observe that the brimstone has not beenburned at all, and that the cotton protects theteeth. To add to the effect, a small piece ofbrimstone may be dropped into the furnace, avery small piece will suffice to convince all thatit is the genuine article that is being eaten.

To cause the face to appear in a mass offlame make use of the following: mix togetherthoroughly petroleum, lard, mutton tallow andquick lime. Distill this over a charcoal fire,and the liquid which results can be burned onthe face without harm.[3]

[3] Barnello's Red Demon.

To set paper on fire by blowing upon it,small pieces of wet phosphorus are taken intothe mouth, and a sheet of tissue paper is heldabout a foot from the lips. While the paperis being blown upon the phosphorus is ejectedon it, although this passes unnoticed by thespectators, and as soon as the continued blowinghas dried the phosphorus it will ignite thepaper.

Drinking boiling liquor is accomplished byusing a cup with a false bottom, under whichthe liquor is retained.

A solution of spermaceti in sulphuric ethertinged with alkanet root, which solidifies at50 degrees F., and melts and boils with the heat ofthe hand, is described in Beckmann's History

of Inventions, Vol. II., page 121.

Dennison's No. 2 sealing wax may be meltedin the flame of a candle and, while still blazing,dropped upon the tongue without causing aburn, as the moisture of the tongue instantlycools it. Care must be used, however, thatnone touches the hands or lips. It can bechewed, and apparently swallowed, but removedin the handkerchief while wiping thelips.

The above is the method practiced by all theFire-Eaters, and absolutely no preparation isnecessary except that the tongue must be wellmoistened with saliva.

Barnello once said, ``A person wishing tobecome a Fire-Eater must make up his or hermind to suffer a little at first from burns, asthere is no one who works at the business butthat gets burns either from carelessness orfrom accident.''

This is verified by the following, which Iclip from the London Globe of August 11th,1880:

Accident to a Fire-Eater. A correspondenttelegraphs: A terrible scene waswitnessed in the market place, LeightonBuzzard, yesterday. A travelling Negrofire eater was performing on a stand,licking red-hot iron, bending heated pokerswith his naked foot, burning tow in hismouth, and the like. At last he filled hismouth with benzolene, saying that hewould burn it as he allowed it to escape.He had no sooner applied a lighted matchto his lips than the whole mouthful of spirittook fire and before it was consumed theman was burned in a frightful manner,the blazing spirit running all over hisface, neck and chest as he dashed from his

stand and raced about like a madmanamong the assembled crowd, tearing hisclothing from him and howling in mostintense agony. A portion of the spirit wasswallowed and the inside of his mouth wasalso terribly burnt. He was taken into achemist's shop and oils were administeredand applied, but afterwards in agonizingfrenzy he escaped in a state almost ofnudity from a lodging house and was capturedby the police and taken to the work-house infirmary, where he remains in adreadful condition.

REMEMBER! Always have a large blanket athand to smother flames in burning clothing--also a bucket of water and a quantity of sand.A siphon of carbonic water is an excellent fireextinguisher.

The gas of gasoline is heavier than air, soa container should never be held ABOVE a flame.Keep kerosene and gasoline containers wellcorked and at a distance from fire.

Never inhale breath while performing withfire. FLAME DRAWN INTO THE LUNGS IS FATAL TOLIFE.

So much for the entertaining side of the art.There are, however, some further scientificprinciples so interesting that I reserve themfor another chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE SPHEROIDAL CONDITION OF LIQUIDS.--WHY THE HAND MAY BE DIPPED INMOLTEN METALS.--PRINCIPLES OFHEAT-RESISTANCE PUT TO PRACTICALUSES: ALDINI, 1829.--IN EARLY FIRE-FIGHTING. TEMPERATURES THE BODY

CAN ENDURE.

The spheroidal condition of liquids wasdiscovered by Leidenfrost, but M. Boutignywas the first to give this singular subject carefulinvestigation. From time out of mind the testof letting a drop of water fall on the face ofa hot flat-iron has been employed to discoverwhether it may safely be used. Everybodyknows that if it is not too hot the water willspread over the surface and evaporate; but ifit is too hot, the water will glance off withoutwetting the iron, and if this drop be allowedto fall on the hand it will be found that it isstill cool. The fact is that the water nevertouches the hot iron at all, provided the heatis sufficiently intense, but assumes a slightlyelliptical shape and is supported by a cushionof vapor. If, instead of a flat-iron, we use aconcave metal disk about the size and shapeof a watch crystal, some very interesting resultsmay be obtained. If the temperature ofthe disk is at, or slightly above, the boilingpoint, water dropped on it from a medicinedropper will boil; but if the disk is heated to340 degrees F., the drop practically retains itsroundness--becoming only slightly oblate--and doesnot boil. In fact the temperature never risesabove 206 degrees F., since the vapor is so rapidlyevaporated from the surface of the drop thatit forms the cushion just mentioned. By acareful manipulation of the dropper, the diskmay be filled with water which, notwithstandingthe intense heat, never reaches the boilingpoint. On the other hand, if boiling water bedropped on the superheated disk its temperaturewill immediately be REDUCED to six degreesbelow the boiling point; thus the hotmetal really cools the water.

By taking advantage of the fact that differentliquids assume a spheroidal form atwidely different temperatures, one may obtainsome startling results. For example, liquidsulphurous acid is so volatile as to have a

temperature of only 13 degrees F. when in that state,or 19 degrees below the freezing point of water, sothat if a little water be dropped into the acid,it will immediately freeze and the pellet ofice may be dropped into the hand from thestill red-hot disk. Even mercury can be frozenin this way by a combination of chemicals.

Through the action of this principle it ispossible to dip the hand for a short time intomelted lead, or even into melted copper, themoisture of the skin supplying a vapor whichprevents direct contact with the molten metal;no more than an endurable degree of heatreaches the hand while the moisture lasts,although the temperature of the fusing copperis 1996 degrees. The natural moisture of the handis usually sufficient for this result, but it isbetter to wipe the hand with a damp towel.

In David A. Wells' Things not GenerallyKnown, New York, 1857, I find a translationof an article by M. Boutigny in The ComptesRendus, in which he notes that ``the portionof the hands which are not immersed in thefused metal, but are exposed to the action ofthe heat radiated from its surface, experiencea painful sensation of heat.'' He adds thatwhen the hand was dampened with ether``there was no sensation of heat, but, on thecontrary, an agreeable feeling of coolness.''

Beckmann, in his History of Inventions,Vol. II., page 122, says:

In the month of September, 1765, whenI visited the copper works at Awested,one of the workmen, for a little drinkmoney, took some of the melted copper inhis hand, and after showing it to us, threwit against the wall. He then squeezed thefingers of his horny hand close together,put it for a few minutes under his armpit,to make it sweat, as he said; and, taking

it again out, drew it over a ladle filled withmelted copper, some of which he skimmedoff, and moved his hand backwards andforwards, very quickly, by way of ostentation.

While I was viewing this performance,I remarked a smell like that of singedhorn or leather, though his hand was notburnt.

The workmen at the Swedish melting-house showed the same thing to sometravellers in the seventeenth century; forRegnard saw it in 1681, at the copper-works in Lapland.

My friend Quincy Kilby, of Brookline,Mass., saw the same stunt performed by workmenat the Meridan Brittania Company'splant. They told him that if the hand hadbeen wet it would have been badly scalded.

Thus far our interest in heat-resistance hasuncovered secrets of no very great practicalvalue, however entertaining the uses to whichwe have seen them put. But not all theinvestigation of these principles has been dictatedby considerations of curiosity and entertainment.As long ago as 1829, for instance,an English newspaper printed the following:

Proof against Fire--On Tuesday weekan experiment was made in presence ofa Committee of the Academy of Sciencesat Paris, by M. Aldini, for the purpose ofshowing that he can secure the bodyagainst the action of flames so as to enablefiremen to carry on their operations withsafety. His experiment is stated to havegiven satisfaction. The pompiers wereclothed in asbestos, over which was a networkof iron. Some of them, it was stated,who wore double gloves of amianthus, held

a red-hot bar during four minutes.

Sir David Brewster, in his Letters onNatural Magic, page 305, gives a more detailedaccount of Aldini, from which the naturaldeduction is that the Chevalier was a showmanwith an intellect fully up to the demands ofhis art. Sir David says:

In our own times the art of defendingthe hands and face, and indeed the wholebody, from the action of heated iron andintense fire, has been applied to the noblerpurpose of saving human life, and rescuingproperty from the flames. The revivaland the improvement of this art we oweto the benevolence and the ingenuity ofthe Chevalier Aldini of Milan, who hastravelled through all Europe to presentthis valuable gift to his species. Sir H.Davy had long ago shown that a safetylamp for illuminating mines, containinginflammable air, might be constructed ofwire-gauze, alone, which prevented theflame within, however large or intense,from setting fire to the inflammable airwithout. This valuable property, whichhas been long in practical use, he ascribedto the conducting and radiating power ofthe wire-gauze, which carried off the heatof the flame, and deprived it of its power.The Chevalier Aldini conceived the idea ofapplying the same material, in combinationwith other badly conducting substances,as a protection against fire. Theincombustible pieces of dress which heuses for the body, arms, and legs, areformed out of strong cloth, which has beensteeped in a solution of alum, while thosefor the head, hands, and feet, are madeof cloth of asbestos or amianthus. Thehead dress is a large cap which envelopsthe whole head down to the neck, having

suitable perforations for the eyes, nose,and mouth. The stockings and cap aresingle, but the gloves are made of doubleamianthus cloth, to enable the fireman totake into his hand burning or red-hotbodies. The piece of ancient asbestoscloth preserved in the Vatican was formed,we believe, by mixing the asbestos withother fibrous substances; but M. Aldinihas executed a piece of nearly the samesize, 9 feet 5 inches long, and 5 feet3 inches wide, which is much strongerthan the ancient piece, and possessessuperior qualities, in consequence ofhaving been woven without the introductionof any foreign substance. In thismanufacture the fibers are preventedfrom breaking by action of steam, thecloth is made loose in its fabric, and thethreads are about the fiftieth of an inchin diameter.

The metallic dress which is superaddedto these means of defence consists of fiveprincipal pieces, viz., a casque or cap, witha mask large enough to leave a properspace between it and the asbestos cap; acuirass with its brassets; a piece of armourfor the trunk and thighs; a pair of bootsof double wire-gauze; and an oval shield5 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide, made bystretching the wire-gauze over a slenderframe of iron. All these pieces are madeof iron wire-gauze, having the intervalbetween its threads the twenty-fifth part ofan inch.

In order to prove the efficacy of thisapparatus, and inspire the firemen withconfidence in its protection, he showedthem that a finger first enveloped inasbestos, and then in a double case of wire-gauze, might be held a long time in theflame of a spirit-lamp or candle before theheat became inconvenient. A fireman having

his hand within a double asbestosglove, and its palm protected by a piece ofasbestos cloth, seized with impunity alarge piece of red hot iron, carried itdeliberately to the distance of 150 feet,inflamed straw with it, and brought it backagain to the furnace. On other occasionsthe fireman handled blazing wood andburning substances, and walked duringfive minutes upon an iron grating placedover flaming fagots.

In order to show how the head, eyes, andlungs are protected, the fireman put onthe asbestos and wire-gauze cap, and thecuirass, and held the shield before hisbreast. A fire of shavings was then lighted,and kept burning in a large raised chafing-dish; the fireman plunged his head into themiddle of the flames with his face to thefuel, and in that position went severaltimes round the chafing-dish for a periodlonger than a minute. In a subsequenttrial, at Paris, a fireman placed his headin the middle of a large brazier filled withflaming hay and wood, and resisted theaction of the fire during five or sixminutes and even ten minutes.

In the experiments which were made atParis in the presence of a committee ofthe Academy of Sciences, two parallelrows of straw and brushwood supportedby iron wires, were formed at thedistance of 3 feet from each other, andextended 30 feet in length. When thiscombustible mass was set on fire, it wasnecessary to stand at a distance of 8or 10 yards to avoid the heat. The flamesfrom both the rows seemed to fill up thewhole space between them, and rose tothe height of 9 or 10 feet. At this momentsix firemen, clothed in the incombustibledresses, and marching at a slowpace behind each other, repeatedly passed

through the whole length between the tworows of flame, which were constantly fedwith additional combustibles. One of thefiremen carried on his back a child eightyears old, in a wicker-basket covered withmetallic gauze, and the child had no otherdress than a cap made of amianthine cloth.

In February, 1829, a still more strikingexperiment was made in the yard of thebarracks of St. Gervais. Two towers wereerected two stories high, and weresurrounded with heaps of inflamed materialsconsisting of fagots and straw. The firemenbraved the danger with impunity. Inopposition to the advice of M. Aldini, oneof them, with the basket and child, rushedinto a narrow place, where the flames wereraging 8 yards high. The violence ofthe fire was so great that he could not beseen, while a thick black smoke spreadaround, throwing out a heat which wasunsupportable by spectators. The firemanremained so long invisible that seriousdoubts were entertained of his safety. Heat length, however, issued from the fierygulf uninjured, and proud of having succeededin braving so great a danger.

It is a remarkable result of theseexperiments, that the firemen are able tobreathe without difficulty in the middle ofthe flames. This effect is owing not onlyto the heat being intercepted by the wire-gauze as it passes to the lungs, in consequenceof which its temperature becomessupportable, but also to the singular powerwhich the body possesses of resisting greatheats, and of breathing air of high temperatures.

A series of curious experiments weremade on this subject by M. Tillet, inFrance, and by Dr. Fordyce and SirCharles Blagden, in England. Sir JosephBanks, Dr. Solander, and Sir Charles

Blagden entered a room in which the airhad a temperature of 198 degrees Fahr., andremained ten minutes; but as the thermometersunk very rapidly, they resolved toenter the room singly. Dr. Solander wentin alone and found the heat 210 degrees, and SirJoseph entered when the heat was 211 degrees.Though exposed to such an elevatedtemperature, their bodies preserved theirnatural degree of heat. Whenever theybreathed upon a thermometer it sunkseveral degrees; every expiration, particularlyif strongly made, gave a pleasantimpression of coolness to their nostrils,and their cold breath cooled their fingerswhenever it reached them. On touchinghis side, Sir Charles Blagden found it coldlike a corpse, and yet the heat of his bodyunder his tongue was 98 degrees. Hence theyconcluded that the human body possesses thepower of destroying a certain degree ofheat when communicated with a certaindegree of quickness. This power, however,varies greatly in different media.The same person who experienced noinconvenience from air heated to 211 degrees, couldjust bear rectified spirits of wine at 130 degrees,cooling oil at 129 degrees, cooling water at 123 degrees,and cooling quicksilver at 118 degrees. A familiarinstance of this occurred in the heatedroom. All the pieces of metal there, eventheir watch-chains, felt so hot that theycould scarcely bear to touch them for amoment, while the air from which themetal had derived all its heat was onlyunpleasant. M. Duhamel and Tilletobserved, at Rochefoucault in France, thatthe girls who were accustomed to attendovens in a bakehouse, were capable ofenduring for ten minutes a temperature of270 degrees.

The same gentleman who performed theexperiments above described ventured toexpose themselves to still higher

temperatures. Sir Charles Blagden went into aroom where the heat was 1 degree or 2 degrees above260 degrees, and remained eight minutes in thissituation, frequently walking about to allthe different parts of the room, but standingstill most of the time in the coolest spot,where the heat was above 240 degrees. The air,though very hot, gave no pain, and SirCharles and all the other gentlemen wereof opinion that they could support a muchgreater heat. During seven minutes SirC. Blagden's breathing continued perfectlygood, but after that time he felt anoppression in his lungs, with a sense ofanxiety, which induced him to leave theroom. His pulse was then 144, double itsordinary quickness. In order to provethat there was no mistake respecting thedegree of heat indicated by the thermometer,and that the air which they breathedwas capable of producing all the well-known effects of such a heat on inanimatematter, they placed some eggs and a beef-steak upon a tin frame near the thermometer,but more distant from the furnacethan from the wall of the room. In thespace of twenty minutes the eggs wereroasted quite hard, and in forty-sevenminutes the steak was not only dressed,but almost dry. Another beef-steak,similarly placed, was rather overdone inthirty-three minutes. In the evening,when the heat was still more elevated, athird beef-steak was laid in the sameplace, and as they had noticed that theeffect of the hot air was greatly increasedby putting it in motion, they blew uponthe steak with a pair of bellows, and thushastened the dressing of it to such a degree,that the greatest portion of it wasfound to be pretty well done in thirteenminutes.

Our distinguished countryman, Sir F.Chantrey, has very recently exposed himself

to a temperature still higher than anywhich we have mentioned. The furnacewhich he employs for drying his mouldsis about 14 feet long, 12 feet high, and12 feet broad. When it is raised to itshighest temperature, with the doors closed,the thermometer stands at 350 degrees, and theiron floor is red hot. The workmen oftenenter it at a temperature of 340 degrees, walkingover the iron floor with wooden clogs,which are of course charred on the surface.On one occasion Sir F. Chantrey,accompanied by five or six of his friends,entered the furnace, and, after remainingtwo minutes, they brought out a thermometerwhich stood at 320 degrees. Some of theparty experienced sharp pains in the tipsof their ears, and in the septum of thenose, while others felt a pain in their eyes.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SWORD-SWALLOWERS: CLIQUOT, DELNOFRITZ, DEODATA, A RAZOR-SWALLOWER,AN UMBRELLA-SWALLOWER, WILLIAMDEMPSTER, JOHN CUMMING, EDITHCLIFFORD, VICTORINA.

It has sometimes been noted in the foregoingpages, that fire-eaters, finding it difficultto invent new effects in their own sphere,have strayed into other fields of endeavor inorder to amplify their programmes. Thus wefind them resorting to the allied arts of poison-eating, sword-swallowing and the stunts of theso-called Human Ostrich.

In this connection I consider it not out ofplace for me to include a description of a numberof those who have, either through unusualgifts of nature or through clever artifice,seemingly submitted to tests which we have beentaught to believe were far and away beyond

the outposts of human endurance. By theintroduction of these thrills each notablenewcomer has endeavored to go his predecessorsone better, and the issue of challenges to allcomers to match these startling effects hasbeen by no means infrequent, but I fail todiscover a single acceptance of such a challenge.

To accomplish the sword-swallowing feat,it is only necessary to overcome the nauseathat results from the metal's touching themucous membrane of the pharynx, for thereis an unobstructed passage, large enough toaccommodate several of the thin blades used,from the mouth to the bottom of the stomach.This passage is not straight, but the passingof the sword straightens it. Some throats aremore sensitive than others, but practice willsoon accustom any throat to the passage ofthe blade. When a sword with a sharp pointis used the performer secretly slips a rubbercap over the point to guard against accident.

It is said that the medical fraternity firstlearned of the possibility of overcoming thesensitiveness of the pharynx by investigatingthe methods of the sword-swallowers.

Cliquot, who was one of the most prominentsword-swallowers of his time, finally ``reformed''and is now a music hall agent in England.The Strand Magazine (1896) has thisto say of Cliquot and his art:

The Chevalier Cliquot (these fellowsMUST have titles) in the act of swallowingthe major part of a cavalry sword 22inches long.

Cliquot, whose name suggests theswallowing of something much more gratefuland comforting than steel swords, is aFrench Canadian by birth, and has beenthe admitted chief in his profession for

more than 18 years. He ran away fromhis home in Quebec at an early age, andjoined a travelling circus bound for SouthAmerica. On seeing an arrant old humbugswallow a small machete, in BuenosAyres, the boy took a fancy to theperformance, and approached the old humbugaforesaid with the view of beingtaught the business. Not having anymoney, however, wherewith to pay thenecessary premium, the overtures of thewould-be apprentice were repulsed; whereuponhe set about experimenting with hisown aesophagus with a piece of silver wire.

To say the preliminary training for thissort of thing is painful, is to state thefact most moderately; and even when sternpurpose has triumphed over the laws ofanatomy, terrible danger still remains.

On one occasion having swallowed asword, and then bent his body in differentdirections, as an adventurous sensation,Cliquot found that the weapon also hadbent to a sharp angle; and quick asthought, realizing his own position as wellas that of the sword, he whipped it out,tearing his throat in a dreadful manner.Plainly, had the upper part of the weaponbecome detached, the sword swallower'scareer must infallibly have come to anuntimely end. Again, in New York, whenswallowing 14 nine-inch bayonet swordsat once, Cliquot had the misfortune tohave a too sceptical audience, one of whom,a medical man who ought to have knownbetter, rushed forward and impulsivelydragged out the whole bunch, inflictingsuch injuries upon this peculiar entertaineras to endanger his life, and incapacitatehim for months.

In one of his acts Cliquot swallows areal bayonet sword, weighted with a cross-

bar, and two 18-lb. dumb bells. In orderto vary this performance, the sword-swallowerallows only a part of the weapon topass into his body, the remainder being``kicked'' down by the recoil of a rifle,which is fixed to a spike in the centre ofthe bar, and fired by the performer'ssister.

The last act in this extraordinaryperformance is the swallowing of a goldwatch. As a rule, Cliquot borrows one,but as no timepiece was forthcoming atthe private exhibition where I saw him, heproceeded to lower his own big chronometerinto his aesophagus by a slendergold chain. Many of the most eminentphysicians and surgeons in this countryimmediately rushed forward with variousinstruments, and the privileged few tookturns in listening for the ticking of thewatch inside the performer's body.``Poor, outraged nature is biding hertime,'' remarked one physician, ``butmark me, she will have a terrible revengesooner or later!''

Eaters of glass, tacks, pebbles, and likeobjects, actually swallow these seeminglyimpossible things, and disgorge them after theperformance is over. That the disgorging is notalways successful is evidenced by the hospitalrecords of many surgical operations on performersof this class, when quantities of solidmatter are found lodged in the stomach.

Delno Fritz was not only an excellent sword-swallower, but a good showman as well. Thelast time I saw him he was working the ``halls''in England. I hope he saved his money, forhe was a clean man with a clean reputation,and, I can truly say, he was a master in hismanner of indulging his appetite for the coldsteel.

Deodota, an Italian Magician, was also asword-swallower of more than average ability.He succumbed to the lure of commercialismfinally, and is now in the jewelry business inthe ``down-town district'' of New York City.

Sword-swallowing may be harmlesslyimitated by the use of a fake sword with atelescopic blade, which slides into the handle.Vosin, the Paris manufacturer of magicalapparatus, made swords of this type, but theywere generally used in theatrical enchantment

scenes, and it is very doubtful if they wereever used by professional swallowers.

It is quite probable that the swords now mostgenerally used by the profession, which arecut from one piece of metal-handle and all--were introduced to show that they were freefrom any telescoping device. Swords of thistype are quite thin, less than one-eighth of aninch thick, and four or five of them can beswallowed at once. Slowly withdrawing themone at a time, and throwing them on the stagein different directions, makes an effectivedisplay.

A small, but strong, electric light bulbattached to the end of a cane, is a very effectivepiece of apparatus for sword swallowers, as,on a darkened stage, the passage of the lightdown the throat and into the stomach can beplainly seen by the audience. The medicalprofession now make use of this idea.

By apparently swallowing sharp razors, adime-museum performer, whose name I do notrecall, gave a variation to the sword-swallowingstunt. This was in the later days, andthe act was partly fake and partly genuine.That is to say, the swallowing was fair enough,but the sharp razors, after being tested bycutting hairs, etc., were exchanged for dull

duplicates, in a manner that, in better hands,might have been effective. This chap belongedto the great army of unconscious exposers, andthe ``switch'' was quite apparent to all savethe most careless observers.

His apparatus consisted of a fancy rack onwhich three sharp razors were displayed, anda large bandanna handkerchief, in which therewere several pockets of the size to hold a razor,the three dull razors being loaded in this. Aftertesting the edge of the sharp razors, he pretendedto wipe them, one by one, with the handkerchief,and under cover of this he made the``switch'' for the dull ones, which he proceededto swallow in the orthodox fashion. His workwas crude, and the crowd was inclined to pokefun at him.

I have seen one of these performers on thestreet, in London, swallow a borrowedumbrella, after carefully wiping the ferrule, andthen return it to its owner only slightly dampenedfrom its unusual journey. A borrowedwatch was swallowed by the same performer,and while one end of the chain hung from thelips, the incredulous onlookers were invited toplace their ears against his chest and listento the ticking of the watch, which had passedas far into the aesophagus as the chain wouldallow.

The following anecdote from the CarlisleJournal, shows that playing with sword-swallowingis about as dangerous as playing withfire.

DISTRESSING OCCURRENCE

On Monday evening last, a man namedWilliam Dempster, a juggler of inferiordexterity while exhibiting his tricks in apublic house in Botchergate, kept by a personnamed Purdy, actually accomplishedthe sad reality of one of those feats, with the

semblance only of which he intended toamuse his audience. Having introducedinto his throat a common table knife whichhe was intending to swallow, he accidentallyslipped his hold, and the knife passedinto his stomach. An alarm was immediatelygiven, and surgical aid procured,but the knife had passed beyond the reachof instruments, and now remains in hisstomach. He has since been attended bymost of the medical gentlemen of thiscity; and we understand that no veryalarming symptoms have yet appeared,and that it is possible he may exist aconsiderable time, even in this awkward state.His sufferings at first were very severe,but he is now, when not in motion,comparatively easy. The knife is 9 1/2 incheslong, 1 inch broad in the blade, roundpointed, and a handle of bone, and maygenerally be distinctly felt by applyingthe finger to the unfortunate man's belly;but occasionally, however, from change ofits situation it is not perceptible. A briefnotice of the analogous case of JohnCumming, an American sailor, may not beunacceptable to our readers. About the year1799 he, in imitation of some jugglerswhose exhibition he had then witnessed, inan hour of intoxication, swallowed fourclasp knives such as sailors commonly use;all of which passed from him in a few dayswithout much inconvenience. Six yearsafterward, he swallowed FOURTEEN knivesof different sizes; by these, however, hewas much disordered, but recovered; andagain, in a paroxysm of intoxication, heactually swallowed SEVENTEEN, of theeffects of which he died in March, 1809.On dissection, fourteen knife blades werefound remaining in his stomach, and theback spring of one penetrating throughthe bowel, seemed the immediate cause ofhis death.

Several women have adopted the professionof sword-swallowing, and some have won muchmore than a passing fame. Notable amongthese is Mlle. Edith Clifford, who is, perhaps,the most generously endowed. Possessed ofmore than ordinary personal charms, a refinedtaste for dressing both herself and her stage,and an unswerving devotion to her art, shehas perfected an act that has found favor evenin the Royal Courts of Europe.

Mlle. Clifford was born in London in 1884and began swallowing the blades when only15 years of age. During the foreign tour ofthe Barnum & Bailey show she joined thatOrganization in Vienna, 1901, and remainedwith it for five years, and now, after eighteenyears of service, she stands well up among thestars. She has swallowed a 26-inch blade, butthe physicians advise her not to indulge herappetite for such luxuries often, as it is quitedangerous. Blades of 18 or 20 inches give herno trouble whatever.

In the spring of 1919 I visited the RinglingBros., and the Barnum & Bailey Show especiallyto witness Mlle. Clifford's act. In additionto swallowing the customary swordsand sabers she introduced such novelties as aspecially constructed razor, with a blade fiveor six times the usual length, a pair of scissorsof unusual size, a saw which is 2 1/2 inches wideat the broadest point, with ugly looking teeth,although somewhat rounded at the points, andseveral other items quite unknown to the bill-of-fare of ordinary mortals. A set of ten thinblades slip easily down her throat and areremoved one at a time.

The sensation of her act is reached when thepoint of a bayonet, 23 1/2 inches long, fastenedto the breech of a cannon, is placed in hermouth and the piece discharged; the recoildriving the bayonet suddenly down her throat.

The gun is loaded with a 10 gauge cannonshell.

Mlle. Clifford's handsomely arranged stageoccupied the place of honor in the section devotedto freaks and specialties.

Cliquot told me that Delno Fritz was hispupil, and Mlle. Clifford claims to be a pupilof Fritz.

Deserving of honorable mention also is anative of Berlin, who bills herself as Victorina.This lady is able to swallow a dozen sharp-bladed swords at once. Of Victorina, the BostonHerald of December 28th, 1902, said:

By long practice she has accustomedherself to swallow swords, daggers, bayonets,walking sticks, rods, and other dangerousarticles.

Her throat and food passages havebecome so expansive that she can swallowthree long swords almost up to the hilts,and can accommodate a dozen shorterblades.

This woman is enabled to bend a bladeafter swallowing it. By moving her headback and forth she may even twist instrumentsin her throat. To bend the bodyafter one has swallowed a sword is adangerous feat, even for a professionalswallower. There is a possibility of severingsome of the ligaments of the throat or elselarge arteries or veins. Victorina hasalready had several narrow escapes.

On one occasion, while sword-swallowingbefore a Boston audience, a swordpierced a vein in her throat. The bladewas half-way down, but instead of immediatelydrawing it forth, she thrust it

farther. She was laid up in a hospitalfor three months after this performance.

In Chicago she had a still narrowerescape. One day while performing at amuseum on Clark Street, Victorina passeda long thin dagger down her throat. Inwithdrawing it, the blade snapped in two,leaving the pointed portion some distancein the passage. The woman nearly faintedwhen she realized what had occurred, but,by a masterful effort, controlled herfeelings. Dropping the hilt of the dagger onthe floor, she leaned forward, and placingher finger and thumb down her throat,just succeeded in catching the end of theblade. Had it gone down an eighth of aninch farther her death would have beencertain.

CHAPTER NINE

STONE-EATERS: A SILESIAN IN PRAGUE, 1006;FRANCOIS BATTALIA, ca. 1641; PLATERUS'BEGGAR BOY; FATHER PAULIAN'S LITHOPHAGUSOF AVIGNON, 1760; ``THE ONLYONE IN THE WORLD,'' LONDON, 1788;SPANIARDS IN LONDON, 1790; A SECRETFOR TWO AND SIX; JAPANESE TRAINING.--FROG-SWALLOWERS: NORTON; ENGLISHJACK; BOSCO, THE SNAKE-EATER;BILLINGTON'S PRESCRIPTION FORHANGMEN; CAPTAIN VEITRO.--WATER-SPOUTERS: BLAISE MANFREDE, ca. 1650;FLORAM MARCHAND, 1650.

That the genesis of stone-eating dates backhundreds of years farther than is generallysupposed, is shown by a statement in Wanley'sWonders of the Little World, London, 1906,Vol. II, page 58, which reads as follows:

Anno 1006, there was at Prague acertain Silesian, who, for a small reward inmoney, did (in the presence of many persons)swallow down white stones to thenumber of thirty-six; they weighed verynear three pounds; the least of them wasof the size of a pigeon's egg, so that Icould scarce hold them all in my hand atfour times: this rash adventure he diversyears made for gain, and was sensible ofno injury to his health thereby.

The next man of this type of whom I findrecord lived over six hundred years later.This was an Italian named Francois Battalia.The print shown here is from the Book ofWonderful Characters, and is a reproductionfrom an etching made by Hollar in 1641.

Doctor Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling,tells a preposterous story of Battalia's beingborn with two pebbles in one hand and one inthe other; that he refused both the breast andthe pap offered him, but ate the pebbles andcontinued to subsist on stones for theremainder of his life. Doctor Bulwer thusdescribes his manner of feeding:

His manner is to put three or fourstones into a spoon, and so putting theminto his mouth together, he swallows themall down, one after another; then (firstspitting) he drinks a glass of beer afterthem. He devours about half a peck ofthese stones every day, and when he clinksupon his stomach, or shakes his body, youmay hear the stones rattle as if they werein a sack, all of which in twenty-fourhours are resolved. Once in three weekshe voids a great quantity of sand, afterwhich he has a fresh appetite for thesestones, as we have for our victuals, and by

these, with a cup of beer, and a pipe oftobacco, he has his whole subsistence.

From a modern point of view the Doctor``looks easy.''

The Book of Wonderful Characters continues:

Platerus speaks of a beggar boy, whofor four farthings would suddenly swallowmany stones which he met with bychance in any place, though they were bigas walnuts, so filling his belly that by thecollision of them while they were pressed,the sound was distinctly heard. FatherPaulian says that a true lithophagus, orstone-eater, was brought to Avignon in thebeginning of May, 1760. He not onlyswallowed flints an inch and a half long,a full inch broad, and half an inch thick,but such stones as he could reduce to powder,such as marble, pebbles, etc., he madeup into paste, which to him was a mostagreeable and wholesome food. FatherPaulian examined this man with all theattention he possibly could, and found hisgullet very large, his teeth exceedinglystrong, his saliva very corrosive, and hisstomach lower than ordinary.

This stone eater was found on GoodFriday, in 1757, in a northern inhabitedisland, by some of the crew of a Dutchship. He was made by his keeper to eatraw flesh with his stones; but he nevercould be got to swallow bread. He woulddrink water, wine, and brandy, which lastliquor gave him infinite pleasure. He sleptat least twelve hours a day, sitting on theground with one knee over the other, andhis chin resting on his right knee. Hesmoked almost all the time he was notasleep or not eating. Some physicians at

Paris got him blooded; the blood had littleor no serum, and in two hours time it becameas fragile as coral.

He was unable to pronounce more thana few words, such as Oui, Non, Caillou,Bon. ``He has been taught,'' adds thepious father, evidently pleased with thedocility of his interesting pupil, ``to makethe sign of the cross, and was baptized somemonths ago in the church of St. Come, atParis. THE RESPECT HE SHOWS TO ECCLESIASTICSAND HIS READY DISPOSITION TO PLEASETHEM, afforded me the opportunity ofsatisfying myself as to all theseparticulars; and I AM FULLY CONVINCED THAT HEIS NO CHEAT.''

Here is the advertisement of a stone-eaterwho appeared in England in 1788.

An Extraordinary Stone-Eater The Original STONE-EATER The Only One in the World,

Has arrived, and means to perform this,and every day (Sunday excepted) at Mr.Hatch's, trunk maker, 404 Strand,opposite Adelphi.

STONE-EATING and STONE-SWALLOWING And after the stones are swallowed may be heard to clink in the belly, the same as in a pocket.

The present is allowed to be the age ofWonders and Improvements in the Arts.The idea of Man's flying in the Air,twenty years ago, before the discovery ofthe use of the balloon, would have been

laughed at by the most credulous! Nordoes the History of Nature afford soextraordinary a relation as that of the man'seating and subsisting on pebbles, flints,tobacco pipes and mineral excrescences;but so it is and the Ladies and Gentlemenof this Metropolis and its vicinity havenow an opportunity of witnessing thisextraordinary Fact by seeing the MostWonderful Phenomenon of the Age, whoGrinds and Swallows stones, etc., with asmuch ease as a Person would crack a nut,and masticate the kernel.

This Extraordinary Stone-eaterappears not to suffer the least Inconveniencefrom so ponderous, and to all other personsin the World, so indigestible a Meal,which he repeats from twelve at noon toseven.

Any Lady or Gentleman may bringBlack Flints or Pebbles with them.N. B.--His Merit is fully demonstratedby Dr. Monroe, who in his MedicalCommentary, 1772, and several other Gentlemenof the Faculty. Likewise Dr. JohnHunter and Sir Joseph Banks can witnessthe Surprising Performance of this mostExtraordinary STONE-EATER.

Admittance, Two shillings and Six pence.

A Private Performance for five guineason short notice.

A Spanish stone-eater exhibited at theRichmond Theater, on August 2nd, 1790, andanother at a later date, at the Great Room, lateGlobe Tavern, corner of Craven Street,Strand.

All of these phenomenal gentry claimed tosubsist entirely on stones, but their modern

followers hardly dare make such claims, sothat the art has fallen into disrepute.

A number of years ago, in London,I watched several performances of one of thesechaps who swallowed half a hatful of stones,nearly the size of hen's eggs, and then jumpedup and down, to make them rattle in his stomach.I could discover no fake in the performance,and I finally gave him two and six forhis secret, which was simple enough. Hemerely took a dose of powerful physic to clearhimself of the stones, and was then ready forthe next performance.

During my engagement in 1895 with WelshBros. Circus I became quite well acquaintedwith an aged Jap of the San Kitchy Akimototroupe and from him I learned the method ofswallowing quite large objects and bringingthem up again at will. For practice very smallpotatoes are used at first, to guard againstaccident; and after one has mastered the artof bringing these up, the size is increasedgradually till objects as large as the throat willreceive can be swallowed and returned.

I recall a very amusing incident in connectionwith this old chap.

In one number of the programme he satdown on the ring bank and balanced a bamboopole, at the top of which little Massay wentthrough the regular routine of posturings.After years spent in this work, my aged friendbecame so used to his job that he did itautomatically, and scarcely gave a thought to theboy at the top. One warm day, however, hecarried his indifference a trifle too far, anddropped into a quiet nap, from which he wokeonly to find that the pole was falling and hadalready gone too far to be recovered, but theagility of the boy saved him from injury. Asmy knowledge of Japanese is limited to themore polite forms, I cannot repeat the remarks

of the lad.

Until a comparatively recent date, incredibleas it may seem, frog-swallowers were farfrom uncommon on the bills of the Continentaltheaters. The most prominent, Norton, aFrenchman, was billed as a leading feature inthe high-class houses of Europe. I saw himwork at the Apollo Theater, Nuremberg, whereI was to follow him in; and during my engagementat the Circus Busch, Berlin, we were onthe same programme, which gave me anopportunity to watch him closely.

One of his features was to drink thirty orforty large glasses of beer in slow succession.The filled glasses were displayed on shelves atthe back of the stage, and had handles so thathe could bring forward two or three in eachhand. When he had finished these he wouldreturn for others and, while gathering anotherhandful, would bring up the beer and eject itinto a receptacle arranged between the shelves,just below the line of vision of the audience.

Norton could swallow a number of half-grown frogs and bring them up alive. Iremember his anxiety on one occasion whenreturning to his dressing-room; it seems he hadlost a frog--at least he could not account forthe entire flock--and he looked very muchscared, probably at the uncertainty as towhether or not he had to digest a live frog.

The Muenchen October Fest, is the annualfair at that city, and a most wonderful show itis. I have been there twice; once as the bigfeature with Circus Carre, in 1901, and againin 1913, with the Circus Corty Althoff. TheContinental Circuses are not, like those of thiscountry, under canvas, but show in woodenbuildings. At these October Fests I saw a numberof frog-swallowers, and to me they werevery repulsive indeed. In fact, Norton wasthe only one I ever saw who presented his act

in a dignified manner.

Willie Hammerstein once had Nortonbooked to appear at the Victoria Theater, NewYork, but the Society for the Prevention ofCruelty to Animals would not allow him toopen; so he returned to Europe withoutexhibiting his art (?) in America.

In my earlier days in the smaller theaters ofAmerica, before the advent of the B. F. Keithand E. F. Albee theaters, I occasionally ranacross a sailor calling himself English Jack,who could swallow live frogs and bring themup again with apparent ease.

I also witnessed the disgusting pit act ofthat degenerate, Bosco, who ate living snakes,and whose act gave rise to the well-knownbarkers' cry HE EATS 'EM ALIVE! If the readerwishes further description of this creature'swork, he must find it in my book, The Unmaskingof Robert Houdin, for I cannot bring myselfto repeat the nauseating details here.

During an engagement in Bolton, Eng., Imet Billington, the official hangman, who wasconvinced that I could not escape from therestraint he used to secure those he was aboutto execute.

Much to his astonishment, I succeeded inreleasing myself, but he said the time consumedwas more than sufficient to spring thetrap and launch the doomed soul into eternity.Billington told me that he had hardened himselfto the demands of his office by killing ratswith his teeth.

During my engagement at the Winter Garten,Berlin, Captain Veitro, a performer that I hadknown for years in America, where he workedin side shows and museums, came to Berlinand made quite a stir by eating poisons. Heappeared only a few times, however, as his act

did not appeal to the public, presumably forthe reason that he had his stomach pumped outat each performance, to prove that itcontained the poison. This may have beeninstructive, but it possessed little appeal asentertainment, and I rarely heard of the venturesomecaptain after that.

Years ago I saw a colored poison-eater atWorth's Museum, New York City, who toldme that he escaped the noxious effects of thedrugs by eating quantities of oatmeal mush.

Another colored performer took an ordinarybottle, and, after breaking it, would bite offchunks, crunch them with his teeth, and finallyswallow them. I have every reason to believethat his performance was genuine.

The beer-drinking of Norton was a morerefined version of the so-called water-spouting ofprevious generations, in which the returningwas done openly, a performance that could notfail to disgust a modern audience. To be sure,in the days of the Dime Museum, a Negro whoreturned the water worked those houses; buthis performance met with little approval, andit is years since I have heard of such anexhibition.

The first water-spouter of whom I find arecord was Blaise Manfrede or de Manfre,who toured Europe about the middle of theseventeenth century. An interesting accountof this man may be found in my book TheUnmasking of Robert Houdin.

A pupil of Manfrede's, by the name ofFloram Marchand, who seems to have beenfully the equal of his master, appeared inEngland in 1650. The following description ofMarchand's performance is from The Book ofWonderful Characters, edition of 1869, page126:

In the summer of 1650, a Frenchmannamed Floram Marchand was broughtover from Tours to London, who professedto be able to ``turn water intowine,'' and at his vomit render not onlythe tincture, but the strength and smell ofseveral wines, and several waters. Helearnt the rudiments of this art fromBloise, an Italian, who not long beforewas questioned by Cardinal Mazarin, whothreatened him with all the miseries thata tedious imprisonment could bring uponhim, unless he would discover to him bywhat art he did it. Bloise, startled at thesentence, and fearing the event, made afull confession on these terms, that theCardinal would communicate it to no oneelse.

From this Bloise, Marchand receivedall his instruction; and finding his teacherthe more sought after in France, he cameby the advice of two English friends toEngland, where the trick was new. Here--the cause of it being utterly unknown--he seems for a time to have gulled andastonished the public to no small extent, andto his great profit.

Before long, however, the whole mysterywas cleared up by his two friends,who had probably not received the shareof the profits to which they thoughtthemselves entitled. Their somewhatcircumstantial account runs as follows.

To prepare his body for so hardy a task,before he makes his appearance on thestage, he takes a pill about the quantity ofa hazel nut, confected with the gall of anheifer, and wheat flour baked. Afterwhich he drinks privately in his chamberfour or five pints of luke-warm water, totake all the foulness and slime from his

stomach, and to avoid that loathsomespectacle which otherwise would make thickthe water, and offend the eye of theobserver.

In the first place, he presents you with apail of luke-warm water, and sixteenglasses in a basket, but you are tounderstand that every morning he boils twoounces of Brazil thin-sliced in three pintsof running water, so long till the wholestrength and color of the Brazil isexhausted: of this he drinks half a pint inhis private chamber before he comes onthe stage: you are also to understand thathe neither eats nor drinks in the morningon those days when he comes on the stage,the cleansing pill and water only excepted;but in the evening will make avery good supper, and eat as much as twoor three other men who have not theirstomachs so thoroughly purged.

Before he presents himself to thespectators, he washes all his glasses in the bestwhite-wine vinegar he can procure. Comingon the stage, he always washes his firstglass, and rinses it two or three times, totake away the strength of the vinegar, thatit may in no wise discolour the complexionof what is represented to be wine.

At his first entrance, he drinks four andtwenty glasses of luke-warm water, thefirst vomit he makes the water seems to bea full deep claret: you are to observe thathis gall-pill in the morning, and so manyglasses of luke-warm water afterwards,will force him into a sudden capacity tovomit, which vomit upon so much warmwater, is for the most part so violent onhim, that he cannot forbear if he would.

You are again to understand that allthat comes from him is red of itself, or has

a tincture of it from the first Brazil water;but by degrees, the more water he drinks,as on every new trial he drinks as manyglasses of water as his stomach will contain,the water that comes from him willgrow paler and paler. Having then madehis essay on claret, and proved it to be ofthe same complexion, he again drinksfour or five glasses of luke-warm water,and brings forth claret and beer at onceinto two several glasses: now you are toobserve that the glass which appears to beclaret is rinsed as before, but the beerglass not rinsed at all, but is still moistwith the white-wine vinegar, and the firststrength of the Brazil water being lost,it makes the water which he vomits up tobe of a more pale colour, and much likeour English beer.

He then brings his rouse again, anddrinks up fifteen or sixteen glasses ofluke-warm water, which the pail willplentifully afford him: he will not bringyou up the pale Burgundian wine, which,though more faint of complexion than theclaret, he will tell you is the purest winein Christendom. The strength of the Brazilwater, which he took immediately beforehis appearance on the stage, growsfainter and fainter. This glass, like thefirst glass in which he brings forth hisclaret, is washed, the better to representthe colour of the wine therein.

The next he drinks comes forth sackfrom him, or according to that complexion.Here he does not wash his glassat all; for the strength of the vinegarmust alter what is left of the complexionof the Brazil water, which he took in themorning before he appeared on the stage.

You are always to remember, that in theinterim, he will commonly drink up four

or five glasses of the luke-warm water,the better to provoke his stomach to adisgorgement, if the first rouse will notserve turn. He will now (for on everydisgorge he will bring you forth a newcolour), he will now present you with whitewine. Here also he will not wash hisglass, which (according to the vinegar inwhich it was washed) will give it a colourlike it. You are to understand, that whenhe gives you the colour of so many wines,he never washes the glass, but at his firstevacuation, the strength of the vinegar beingno wise compatible with the colour ofthe Brazil water.

Having performed this task, he willthen give you a show of rose-water; andthis indeed, he does so cunningly, that itis not the show of rose-water, but rose-water itself. If you observe him, you willfind that either behind the pail where hisluke-warm water is, or behind the basketin which his glasses are, he will have onpurpose a glass of rose-water preparedfor him. After he has taken it, he willmake the spectators believe that he dranknothing but the luke-warm water out ofthe pail; but he saves the rose-water in theglass, and holding his hand in an indirectway, the people believe, observing thewater dropping from his fingers, that it isnothing but the water out of the pail.After this he will drink four or five glassesmore out of the pail, and then comes upthe rose-water, to the admiration of thebeholders. You are to understand, thatthe heat of his body working with hisrose-water gives a full and fragrant smellto all the water that comes from him as ifit were the same.

The spectators, confused at the noveltyof the sight, and looking and smelling onthe water, immediately he takes the

opportunity to convey into his hand anotherglass; and this is a glass of Angelicawater, which stood prepared for him behindthe pail or basket, which havingdrunk off, and it being furthered withfour or five glasses of luke-warm water,out comes the evacuation, and brings withit a perfect smell of the Angelica, as it wasin the rose-water above specified.

To conclude all, and to show you whata man of might he is, he has an instrumentmade of tin, which he puts between hislips and teeth; this instrument has threeseveral pipes, out of which, his armsa-kimbo, a putting forth himself, he willthrow forth water from him in threepipes, the distance of four or five yards.This is all clear water, which he does withso much port and such a flowing grace,as if it were his master-piece.

He has been invited by divers gentlemenand personages of honour to make thelike evacuation in milk, as he made asemblance in wine. You are to understandthat when he goes into another room, anddrinks two or three pints of milk. On hisreturn, which is always speedy, he goesfirst to his pail, and afterwards to hisvomit. The milk which comes from himlooks curdled, and shows like curdled milkand drink. If there be no milk ready tobe had, he will excuse himself to hisspectators, and make a large promise of whathe will perform the next day, at whichtime being sure to have milk enough toserve his turn, he will perform his promise.

His milk he always drinks in a withdrawingroom, that it may not be discovered,for that would be too apparent,nor has he any other shift to evade thediscerning eye of the observers.

It is also to be considered that he nevercomes on the stage (as he does sometimesthree or four times in a day) but he firstdrinks the Brazil water, without which hecan do nothing at all, for all that comesfrom him has a tincture of the red, andit only varies and alters according to theabundance of water which he takes, andthe strength of the white-wine vinegar, inwhich all the glasses are washed.

CHAPTER TEN

DEFIERS OF POISONOUS REPTILES: THARDO;MRS. LEARN, DEALER IN RATTLESNAKES.--SIR ARTHUR THURLOW CUNYNGHAMEON ANTIDOTES FOR SNAKE-BITE.--JACKTHE VIPER.--WILLIAM OLIVER, 1735.--THE ADVICE OF CORNELIUS HEINRICHAGRIPPA, (1486-1535).--AN AUSTRALIANSNAKE STORY.--ANTIDOTES FORVARIOUS POISONS.

About twenty-two years ago, during one ofmy many engagements at Kohl andMiddleton's, Chicago, there appeared at the samehouse a marvelous ``rattle-snake poisondefier'' named Thardo. I watched her act withdeep interest for a number of weeks, nevermissing a single performance. For the simplereason that I worked within twelve feet fromher, my statement that there was absolutelyno fake attached to her startling performancecan be taken in all seriousness, as the detailsare still fresh in my mind.

Thardo was a woman of exceptional beauty,both of form and feature, a fluent speaker anda fearless enthusiast in her devotion to herart. She would allow herself to be repeatedlybitten by rattle-snakes and received no harmexcepting the ordinary pain of the wound.After years of investigation I have come to the

belief that this immunity was the result of anabsolutely empty stomach, into which a largequantity of milk was taken shortly after thewound was inflicted, the theory being that thevirus acts directly on the contents of thestomach, changing it to a deadly poison.

It was Thardo's custom to give weeklydemonstrations of this power, to which themedical profession were invited, and on theseoccasions she was invariably greeted with apacked house. When the moment of the supremetest came, an awed silence obtained;for the thrill of seeing the serpent flash up andstrike possessed a positive fascination for heraudiences. Her bare arms and shoulders presenteda tempting target for the death-dealingreptile whose anger she had aroused. As soonas he had buried his fangs in her expectantflesh, she would coolly tear him from the woundand allow one of the physicians present toextract a portion of the venom and immediatelyinject it into a rabbit, with the result that thepoor creature would almost instantly go intoconvulsions and would soon die in great agony.

Another rattle-snake defier is a resident ofSan Antonio, Texas. Her name is Learn, andshe once told me that she was the preceptor ofThardo. This lady deals in live rattle-snakesand their by-products--rattle-snake skin,which is used for fancy bags and purses;rattle-snake oil, which is highly esteemed insome quarters as a specific for rheumatism;and the venom, which has a pharmaceuticalvalue.

She employs a number of men as snaketrappers. Their usual technique is to pin therattler to the ground by means of a forkedstick thrust dexterously over his neck, afterwhich he is conveyed into a bag made for thepurpose. Probably the cleverest of her trappersis a Mexican who has a faculty of catchingthese dangerous creatures with his bare hands.

The story goes that this chap has been bittenso many times that the virus no longer has anyeffect on him. Even that most poisonous of allreptiles, the Gila monster, has no terrors forhim. He swims along the shore where venomousreptiles most abound, and fearlesslyattacks any and all that promise any income tohis employer.

In a very rare book by General Sir ArthurThurlow Cunynghame, entitled, My Commandin South Africa, 1880, I find the following:

The subject of snake bites is one of nosmall interest in this country.

Liquid ammonia is, par excellence, thebest antidote. It must be administeredimmediately after the bite, both internally,diluted with water, and externally,in its concentrated form.

The ``Eau de luce'' and other nostrumssold for this purpose have ammonia fortheir main ingredient. But it generallyhappens in the case of a snake bite that theremedy is not at hand, and hours mayelapse before it can be obtained. In thiscase the following treatment will workwell. Tie a ligature tightly ABOVE the bite,scarify the wound deeply with a knife, andallow it to bleed freely. After havingdrawn an ounce of blood, remove the ligatureand ignite three times successivelyabout two drams of gunpowder right onthe wound.

If gunpowder be not at hand, anordinary fusee will answer the purpose: or,in default of this, the glowing end of apiece of wood from the fire. Having donethis, proceed to administer as muchbrandy as the patient will take. Intoxicatehim as rapidly as possible, and, once

intoxicated, he is safe. If, however,through delay in treatment, the poison hasonce got into circulation no amount ofbrandy will either intoxicate him or savehis life.

An odd character, rejoicing in the nick-nameof Jack the Viper, is mentioned on page 763 ofHone's Table Book, 1829. In part the writersays:

Jack has traveled, seen the world, andprofited by his travels; for he has learnedto be contented.

He is not entirely idle, nor wholly industrious.If he can get a crust sufficient forthe day, he leaves the evil of it should visithim. The first time I saw him was in thehigh noon of a scorching day, at an inn inLaytonstone. He came in while a suddenstorm descended, and a rainbow ofexquisite majesty vaulted the earth. Sittingdown at a table, he beckoned the hostessfor his beer, and conversed freely with hisacquaintance. By his arch replies I foundthat I was in company with an original--a man that might stretch forth his arms inthe wilderness without fear, and like Paul,grasp an adder without harm. He playfullyentwined his fingers with their coilsand curled crests, and played with theirforked tongues. He had unbuttoned hiswaistcoat, and as cleverly as a fish-woman handles her eels, let out severalsnakes and adders, warmed by his breast,and spread them on the table. He took offhis hat, and others of different sizes andlengths twisted before me; some of them,when he unbosomed his shirt, returned tothe genial temperature of his skin; andsome curled around the legs of the table,and others rose in a defensive attitude.

He irritated and humored them, to expresseither pleasure or pain at his will.Some were purchased by individuals, andJack pocketed his gains, observing, ``Afrog, or a mouse, occasionally, is enoughfor a snake's satisfaction.''

The Naturalist's Cabinet says, that ``Inpresence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany,while the philosophers were making elaboratedissertations on the danger of thepoison of vipers, taken inwardly, a vipercatcher, who happened to be present,requested that a quantity of it might be putinto a vessel; and then, with the utmostconfidence, and to the astonishment of thewhole company, he drank it off. Everyoneexpected the man instantly to drop downdead; but they soon perceived their mistake,and found that, taken inwardly, thepoison was as harmless as water.''

William Oliver, a viper catcher at Bath,was the first who discovered that, by theapplication of olive oil, the bite of theviper is effectually cured. On the first ofJune, 1735, he suffered himself to be bittenby an old black viper; and after enduringthe agonizing symptoms of approachingdeath, by using olive oil he perfectlyrecovered.

Vipers' flesh was formerly esteemed forits medicinal virtues, and its salt wasthought to exceed every other animalproduct in giving vigor to a languidconstitution.

According to Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa(called Agrippa of Nettesheim), a Germanphilosopher, and student of alchemy and magic,who was born in 1486, and died in 1535, ``if youwould handle adders and snakes without harm,wash your hands in the juice of radishes, and

you may do so without harm.''

Even though it may seem a digression, Iyield to the temptation to include here anextraordinary ``snake story'' taken from An ActorAbroad, which Edmund Leathes published in1880:

I will here relate the story of a saddeath--I might feel inclined to call itsuicide--which occurred in Melbourneshortly before my arrival in the colonies.About a year previous to the time of whichI am now writing, a gentleman of birthand education, a Cambridge B. A., a barristerby profession and a literary man bychoice, with his wife and three childrenemigrated to Victoria. He arrived inMelbourne with one hundred and fiftypounds in his pocket, and hope unlimitedin his heart.

Poor man! He, like many another man,quickly discovered that muscles inAustralia are more marketable than brains.His little store of money began to meltunder the necessities of his wife andfamily. To make matters worse he was visitedby a severe illness. He was confined to hisbed for some weeks, and during hisconvalescence his wife presented him withanother of those ``blessings to the poorman,'' a son.

It was Christmas time, his health wasthoroughly restored, he naturallypossessed a vigorous constitution; but hisheart was begining to fail him, and hisfunds were sinking lower and lower.

At last one day, returning from a longand solitary walk, he sat down with penand paper and made a calculation bywhich he found he had sufficient money

left to pay the insurance upon his life forone year, which, in the case of his deathoccurring within that time, would bring tohis widow the sum of three thousandpounds. He went to the insurance office,and made his application--was examinedby the doctor--the policy was made out,his life was insured. From that day hegrew moody and morose, despair hadconquered hope.

At this time a snake-charmer came toMelbourne, who advertised a wonderfulcure for snake-bites. This charmer took oneof the halls in the town, and there displayedhis live stock, which consisted of a greatnumber of the most deadly and venomoussnakes which were to be found in Indiaand Australia.

This man had certainly some mostwonderful antidote to the poison of a snake'sfangs. In his exhibitions he would allowa cobra to bite a dog or a rabbit, and, in ashort time after he had applied his nostrumthe animal would thoroughly revive;he advertised his desire to perform uponhumanity, but, of course, he could find noone would be fool enough to risk his lifeso unnecessarily.

The advertisement caught the eye of theunfortunate emigrant, who at onceproceeded to the hall where the snakecharmer was holding his exhibition. Heoffered himself to be experimented upon;the fanatic snake-charmer was delighted,and an appointment was made for thesame evening as soon as the ``show''should be over.

The evening came; the unfortunate mankept his appointment, and, in the presenceof several witnesses, who tried to dissuadehim from the trial, bared his arm and

placed it in the cage of an enraged cobraand was quickly bitten. The nostrum wasapplied apparently in the same manner asit had been to the lower animals which hadthat evening been experimented upon,but whether it was that the poor fellowwilfully did something to prevent its takingeffect--or whatever the reason--hesoon became insensible, and in a couple ofhours he was taken home to his wife andfamily--a corpse. The next morning thesnake-charmer had flown, and left hissnakes behind him.

The insurance company at first refusedpayment of the policy, asserting that thedeath was suicide; the case was tried andthe company lost it, and the widowreceived the three thousand pounds. Thesnake-charmer was sought in vain; he hadthe good fortune and good sense to be seenno more in the Australian colonies.

As several methods of combating the effectsof poisons have been mentioned in the foregoingpages, I feel in duty bound to carrythe subject a little farther and present a listof antidotes. I shall not attempt to educatemy readers in the art of medicine, but simplyto give a list of such ordinary materials as areto be found in practically every household,materials cited as antidotes for the morecommon poisons. I have taken them from thebest authorities obtainable and they are offeredin the way of first aid, to keep the patientalive till the doctor arrives; and if they shoulddo no good, they can hardly do harm.

The first great rule to be adopted is SEND FORTHE DOCTOR AT ONCE and give him all possibleinformation about the case without delay. Useevery possible means to keep the patient at anormal temperature. When artificial respirationis necessary, always get hold of the tongue

and pull it well forward in order to keep thethroat clear, then turn the patient over on hisface and press the abdomen to force out theair, then turn him over on the back so that thelungs may fill again, repeating this again andagain till the doctor arrives. The beststimulants are strong tea or coffee; but when theseare not sufficient, a tablespoon of brandy,whisky, or wine may be added.

Vegetable and mineral poisons, with few exceptions,act as efficiently in the blood as in thestomach. Animal poisons act only throughthe blood, and are inert when introduced intothe stomach. Therefore there is absolutely nodanger in sucking the virus from a snake bite,except that the virus should not be allowed totouch any spot where the skin is broken.

The following list of antidotes is taken largelyfrom Appleton's Medical Dictionary, and Sollmann'sA Manual of Pharmacology, Philadelphia,1917, pages 56 and 57, and has beenverified by comparison with various otherauthorities at the library of the MedicalSociety of the County of New York:

Arsenic Induce vomiting with a dessert-spoonful of ground mustard in tepid water. Also put the finger in the throat to induce retching. When the stomach has been emptied, give the patient all the milk he can take.Aconite Induce vomiting as above. Also give active purgative. Stimulate with strong tea or coffee. Keep the patient roused.Alcohol Same as for aconite.Belladonna Same as for aconite.Bitter-sweet Same as for aconite.Blue vitriol Induce vomiting as in arsenic. Then give milk, or white of egg, or mucilage.Cantharides Induce vomiting. Give soothing drinks.

NO OIL. Rub abdomen with camphor,

or camphorated oil.Chloral Same as for aconite.Camphor Same as for aconite.Conium (Hemlock) Same as for aconite.Carbolic Acid White of egg in water, or olive oil, followed by a large quantity of milk.Calomel Give white of egg, followed by milk, or flour gruel.Corrosive Sublimate Same as for calomel.Croton Oil Induce vomiting. Also give strong purgative AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Stimulate with strong tea or coffee.Colocynth Same as for croton oil.Ergot Same as for aconite.Food cooked in a copper vessel Same as for blue vitriol.Fish poison Same as for croton oil.Gases Plenty of fresh air. Inhale ammonia (not too strong). Artificial respiration if necessary. Stimulate with strong tea or coffee.Green coloring matter Same as for arsenic.Hellebore Same as for aconite.Hyoscyamus Same as for aconite.Iodine Give starch.Lobelia Same as for aconite.Lead Same as for calomel.Matches Induce vomiting. Give magnesia and mucilage. NO OIL.Mercury Same as for calomel.Morphine Spasms may be quieted by inhaling ether.Nitric Acid Induce vomiting. Give Carbonate of Magnesia, or lime-water.Nitrate of Silver Give common salt in water, or carbonate of soda in solution, followed by milk, or white of egg.Nux Vomica Same as for aconite.Oxalic Acid Same as for nitric acid.Opium Same as for morphine.Prussic Acid Not much can be done, as fatal dose kills in from three to five minutes. Dilute ammonia given instantly might save life.Paris Green Same as for arsenic.Phosphorus Same as for matches.

Rough on Rats Same as for arsenic.Strychnin Same as for morphine.Sulphuric Acid Strong soap-suds.Toadstool Same as for morphine.Turpentine Same as for morphine.Tin Same as for nitrate of silver.Verdigris Same as for arsenic.Vermilion Same as for calomel.White vitriol Same as for nitrate of silver.Zinc Same as for nitrate of silver.For Snake-bite The best general treatment for snake-bite is to tie a ligature tightly ABOVE the wound, then suck out as much of the virus as possible. Give the patient large quantities of whisky or brandy, to induce intoxication. Incise the wound with a red-hot nail, or knitting needle. Keep the patient intoxicated till the doctor arrives.For Burns All burns are more painful when exposed to the air. For lesser burns a cloth saturated with a strong solution of bicarbonate of soda (common cooking soda) laid on the burn is probably best. This is soothing and keeps out the air.For burning clothes Do not allow the victim to run about, for that increases the flames. Throw her-- these accidents usually occur to women --on the floor and smother the flames with a blanket, rug, or large garment. Then, if the burns are severe, place her in a bath at a temperature of 100 degrees or over, keeping her there till the doctor arrives. Give stimulants. Do not touch the burns more than is absolutely unavoidable.For Burns of Acids Dash cold water on the burns, then cover with lime-water and sweet oil, or linseed oil.For Burns of Caustic Alkalies Apply vinegar.Glass, coarse or Give the patient large quantities of bread powdered crumbs, and then induce vomiting.Ivy poison Wash at once with soap and water; using scrubbing brush. Then lay on cloths

saturated with strong solution bicarbonate of soda. Give cooling drinks. Keep the patient quiet and on a low diet.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

STRONG MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY:THOMAS TOPHAM (died, 1749);JOYCE, 1703; VAN ECKENBERG, 1718;BARSABAS AND HIS SISTER; THE ITALIANFEMALE SAMPSON, 1724; THE ``LITTLEWOMAN FROM GENEVA,'' 1751; BELZONI,1778-1823.

Bodily strength has won the admiration--I might almost say, the worship--ofmankind from the days of Hercules and histen mythical labors, to the days of Sandowwith his scores of actual achievements. Eachgeneration has produced its quota of strongmen,but almost all of them have resorted tosome sort of artifice or subterfuge in order toappear superhumanly strong. That is to say,they added brain to their brawn, and it is adifficult question whether their efforts deserveto be called trickery or good showmanship.

Many of the tricks of the profession werelaid bare by Dr. Desaguliers over a hundredand fifty years ago and have been generallydiscarded by athletes, only to be taken up andvastly improved by women of the type of TheGeorgia Magnet, who gave the world of sciencea decided start about a generation ago. I shallhave more to say of her a little further on.

The jiu jitsu of the Japanese is, in part, adevelopment of the same principles, but hereagain much new material has been added, sothat it deserves to be considered a new art.

The following, from Dr. Desaguliers'Experimental Philosophy, London, 1763, Vol. 1,

page 289, contrasts feats of actual strengthwith the tricks of the old-time performers:

Thomas Topham, born in London, andnow about thirty-one years of age, five feetten inches high, with muscles very hardand prominent, was brought up a carpenter,which trade he practiced till withinthese six or seven years that he has shewedfeats of strength; but he is entirelyignorant of any art to make his strengthappear more surprising; Nay, sometimeshe does things which become more difficultby his disadvantageous situation;attempting and often doing, what he hearsother strong men have done, without makinguse of the same advantages.

About six years ago he pulled againsta horse, sitting on the ground with his feetagainst two stumps driven into theground, but without the advantagerepresented by the first figure, Plate 19; forthe horse pulling against him drew upwardsat a considerable angle, such as isrepresented in the second figure in thatplate, when hN is the line of traction,which makes the angle of traction to beNhL: and in this case his strength wasno farther employed than to keep his legsand thighs straight, so as to make themact like the long arm of a bended lever,represented by Lh, on whose end h thetrunk of his body rested as a weight,against which the horse drew, applyinghis power at right angles to the end l ofthe short arm of said lever, the center ofthe motion being a L at the bottom of thestumps l, o (for to draw obliquely by a ropefastened at h is the same as to draw by anarm of a lever at l L, because l L is a linedrawn perpendicularly from the center ofmotion to the line of direction hN) andthe horse not being strong enough to raise

the man's weight with such disadvantage,he thought he was in the right posture fordrawing against a horse; but when in thesame posture he attempted to draw againsttwo horses, he was pulled out of his placeby being lifted up, and had one of hisknees struck against the stumps, whichshattered it so, that even to this day, thepatella or knee-pan is so loose, that theligaments of it seem either to be brokenor quite relaxed, which has taken awaymost of the strength of that leg.

But if he had sat upon such a frame as isrepresented in the first figure, (Plate 19)he might (considering his strength) havekept his situation against the pulling offour strong horses without the leastinconvenience.

The feats which I saw him perform, afew days ago, were the following:

1. By the strength of his fingers (onlyrubbed in coal-ashes to keep them fromslipping) he rolled up a very strong andlarge pewter-dish.

2. He broke seven or eight short andstrong pieces of tobacco-pipe with theforce of his middle finger, having laid themon the first and third finger.

3. Having thrust under his garter thebowl of a strong tobacco-pipe, his legs beingbent, he broke it to pieces by the tendonsof his hams, without altering thebending of his leg.

4. He broke such another bowl betweenhis first and second finger, by pressing hisfingers together side-ways.

5. He lifted a table six feet long, whichhad half a hundred weight hanging to the

end of it, with his teeth, and held it in ahorizontal position for a considerabletime. IT IS TRUE THE FEET OF THE TABLE RESTEDAGAINST HIS KNEES; BUT AS THE LENGTH OF THETABLE WAS MUCH GREATER THAN ITS HEIGHT,THAT PERFORMANCE REQUIRED A GREATSTRENGTH TO BE EXERTED BY THE MUSCLES OFHIS LOINS, THOSE OF HIS NECK, THE MASSETERAND TEMPORAL (MUSCLES OF THE JAWS)BESIDES A GOOD SET OF TEETH.

6. He took an iron kitchen-poker, abouta yard long, and three inches in circumference,and holding it in his right hand,he struck upon his bare left arm, betweenthe elbow and the wrist till he bent thepoker nearly to a right angle.

7. He took such another poker, andholding the ends in his hands, and themiddle against the back of his neck, hebrought both ends of it together beforehim; and, what was yet more difficult, hepulled it almost straight again: becausethe muscles which separate the armshorizontally from each other, are not so strongas those that bring them together.

8. He broke a rope of about two inches incircumference which was in part woundabout a cylinder of four inches diameter,having fastened the other end of it tostraps that went over his shoulders; buthe exerted more force to do this than anyother of his feats, from his awkwardnessin going about it: as the rope yielded andstretched as he stood upon the cylinder,so that when the extensors of his legs andthighs had done their office in bringing thelegs and thighs straight, he was forced toraise his heels from their bearings, anduse other muscles that are weaker. Butif the rope had been so fixed, that the partto be broken had been short, it would havebeen broken with four times less difficulty.

9. I have seen him lift a rolling stoneof about 800 lib. with his hand only,standing in a frame above it, and takinghold of a chain that was fastened to it.By this I reckon that he may be almostas strong again as those who are generallyreckoned as the strongest men, they generallylifting no more than 400 lib. in thatmanner. The weakest men who are inhealth and not too fat, lift about 125 lib.having about half the strength of thestrongest. (N.B. This sort of comparisonis chiefly in relation to the muscles ofthe loins; because in doing this one muststoop forward a little. We must also addthe weight of the body to the weight lifted.So that if the weakest man's body weighs150 lib. that added to 125 lib. makes thewhole weight lifted by him 275 lib. Thenif the stronger man's body weighs also 150lib. the whole weight lifted by him will be550 lib. that is, 400 lib. and the 150 lib.which his body weighs. Topham weighsabout 200 lib. which added to the 800 lib.that he lifts, makes 1000 lib. But he oughtto lift 900 lib. besides the weight of hisbody, to be as strong again as a man of150 lib.-weight who can lift 400 lib.

Now as all men are not proportionablystrong in every part, but some are strongerin the arms, some in the legs, and othersin the back, according to the work andexercise which they use, we can't judgeof a man's strength by lifting only; buta method may be found to compare togetherthe strength of different men inthe same parts, and that too withoutstraining the persons who try the experiment.

Here follows a long description of a machinefor the above purpose.

Topham was not endowed with a strengthof mind equal to the strength of his body. Hewas married to a wanton who rendered existenceso insupportable that he committedsuicide before he was forty years of age, onAugust 10th, 1749.[4]

[4] Interesting accounts of Topham's career may be foundin Wonders of Bodily Strength, New York, 1873, a translationfrom the French of Depping, by Charles Russell; Sir DavidBrewster's, Letters on Natural Magic; London, 1838; Wanley'sWonders of the Little World, London, 1806; Wilson'sWonderful Characters, London, 1821, (but not in the reprintof 1869).

About the year 1703 there appeared inLondon a native of Kent, by the name of Joyce,who won the name of a second Samson by aseries of feats of strength that to the peopleof that day seemed little short of superhuman.Dr. Desaguliers, in his Experimental Philosophy,gives the following account of Joyce andhis methods.

About thirty years ago one Joyce,[5] aKentish man, famous for his greatstrength (tho' not quite so strong as theKing of Poland, by the accounts we haveof that Prince) shewed several feats inLondon and the country, which so muchsurprised the spectators, that he was bymost people called the second Sampson.[6]But tho' the postures which he had learnedto put his body into, and found out bypractice without any mechanical theory,were such as would make a man of commonstrength do such feats as would appearsurprising to everybody that did notknow the advantages of those positions ofthe body; yet nobody then attempted todraw against horses, or raise greatweights, or to do anything in imitation

of him; because, as he was very strong inthe arms, and grasped those that try'd hisstrength that way so hard, that they wereobliged immediately to desire him to desist,his other feats (wherein his mannerof acting was chiefly owing to themechanical advantages gained by the positionof his body) were entirely attributedto his extraordinary strength.

[5] Or William Joy.[6] This is the spelling used by Joyce, Eckenberg and others,for the Samson of the Bible.

But when he had gone out of England,or had ceased to shew his performances,for eight or ten years; men of ordinarystrength found out the way of makingsuch advantage of the same postures asJoyce had put himself into, as to pass formen of more than common strength, bydrawing against horses, breaking ropes,lifting vast weights, &c. (tho' they cou'din none of the postures really perform somuch as Joyce; yet they did enough toamaze and amuse, and get a great deal ofmoney) so that every two or three yearswe have a new SECOND SAMPSON.

Some fifteen years subsequent to Joyce'sadvent, another so-called Samson, this time aGerman named John Charles Van Eckenberg,toured Europe with a remarkable performancealong the same lines as Joyce's. Dr. Desagulierssaw this man and has this to say of him:

After having seen him once, I guessedat his manner of imposing on the multitude;and being resolved to be fully satisfiedin the matter, I took four very curiouspersons with me to see him again, viz. the

Lord Marquis of Tullibardine, Dr.Alexander Stuart, Dr. Pringle, and amechanical workman, who used to assist mein my courses of experiments. We placedourselves in such a manner round theoperator, as to be able to observe nicelyall that he did, and found it so practicablethat we performed several of his feats thatevening by ourselves, and afterwards I didmost of the rest as soon as I had a framemade to fit in to draw, and another tostand in and lift great weights, togetherwith a proper girdle and hooks.

Dr. Desaguliers illustrates Van Eckenberg'smethods in a very exhaustive set of notes andplates, which are too technical and voluminousto repeat here, but I will quote sufficientlyfrom them to make the modus operandi clear.The figures will be found on plate 19.

Figs. 1 and 2 have already been explained.

In breaking the rope one thing is to beobserv'd, which will much facilitate theperformance; and that is to place the ironeye L, (Fig. 3) thro' which the rope goes,in such a situation, that a plane goingthro' its ring shall be parallel to the twoparts of the rope; because then the ropewill in a manner be jamm'd in it, and notslipping thro' it, the whole force of theman's action will be exerted on that partof the rope which is in the eye, which willmake it break more easily than if moreparts of the rope were acted upon. Sothe eye, tho' made round and smooth, maybe said in some measure to CUT THE ROPE.And it is after this manner that one maybreak a whip cord, nay, a small jack-linewith one's hand without hurting it; onlyby bringing one part of the rope to cutthe other; that is, placing it so round one's

left hand, that by a sudden jerk, the wholeforce exerted shall act on one point of therope.

B is a feather bed upon which the performerfalls. bhu

The posture of Fig. 4 Plate 19 (wherethe strong man having an anvil on hisbreast or belly, suffers another man tostrike with a sledge hammer and forgea piece of iron, or cut a bar cold withchizzels) tho' it seems surprising to somepeople, has nothing in it to be reallywondered at; for sustaining the anvil isthe whole matter, and the heavier the anvilis, the less the blows are felt: And if theanvil was but two or three times heavierthan the hammer, the strong man wouldbe killed by a few blows; for the morematter the anvil has, the more INERTIA andthe less liable it is to be struck out of itsplace; because when it has by the blowreceiv'd the whole MOMENTUM of the hammer,its velocity will be so much less thanthat of the hammer as it has more matterthan the hammer. Neither are we toattribute to the anvil a velocity less than thehammer in a reciprocal proportion oftheir masses or quantities of matter; forthat would happen only if the anvil wasto hang freely in the air (for example)by a rope, and it was struck horizontallyby the hammer. Thus is the velocity givenby the hammer distributed to all parts ofa great stone, when it is laid on a man'sbreast to be broken; but when the blow isgiven, the man feels less of the weight ofthe stone than he did before, because inthe reaction of the stone, all the parts ofit round about the hammer rise towardsthe blow; and if the tenacity of the partsof the stone, is not stronger than the forcewith which it moves towards the hammer,

the stone must break; which it does whenthe blow is strong, and struck upon thecentre of gravity of the stone.

In the 6th Fig. of Plate 19, the manIHL (the chairs IL, being made fast)makes so strong an arch with his backboneand the bones of his legs and thighs,as to be able not only to sustain one man,but three or four, if they had room tostand; or, in their stead, a great stoneto be broken with one blow.

In the 6th and 7th Fig. of the sameplate, a man or two are raised in the directionCM, by the knees of the strong manIHL lying upon his back. A trial willsuffice to show that this is not a difficultfeat for a man of ordinary strength.

Wanley [7] enumerates thirty men of might,each of whom was famous in his time. Notableamong them was Barsabas, who first made areputation in Flanders, where he lifted thecoach of Louis XIV, which had sunk to thenave in the mud, all the oxen and horses yokedto it having exerted their strength in vain.For this service the king granted him apension, and being soon promoted, he at lengthrose to be town-major of Valenciennes.

[7] Wonders of the little World, by Nathaniel Wanley,London, 1806. Vol. I., page 76.

Barsabas entering one day a farrier'sshop in a country village, asked for horseshoes, the farrier showed him some, whichBarsabas snapped in pieces as if they hadbeen rotten wood, telling the farrier atthe same time that they were too brittle,and good for nothing. The farrier wantedto forge some more, but Barsabas took upthe anvil and hid it under his cloak. The

farrier, when the iron was hot, could notconceive what had become of his anvil, buthis astonishment was still increased whenhe saw Barsabas deposit it in its placewith the utmost ease. Imagining that hehad got the devil in his shop, he ran outas fast as he could, and did not ventureto return till his unwelcome visitor haddisappeared.

Barsabas had a sister as strong ashimself, but as he quitted his home veryyoung, and before his sister was born, hehad never seen her. He met with her ina small town of Flanders, where shecarried on a rope manufactury. The modernSampson bought some of her largest ropeswhich he broke like pack-thread, tellingher they were very bad.--``I will givesome better,'' replied she, ``but will youpay a good price for them?''--``Whateveryou choose,'' returned Barsabas, showingher some crown pieces. His sister tookthem, and breaking two or three of themsaid, ``Your crowns are as little worth asmy ropes, give me better money.'' Barsabas,astonished at the strength exhibitedby this female, then questioned herrespecting her country and family, and soonlearned that she belonged to the samestock.

The dauphin being desirous to see Barsabasexhibit some of his feats, the lattersaid, ``My horse has carried me so longthat I will carry him in my turn.'' Hethen placed himself below the animal andraising him up, carried him more thanfifty paces, and then placed him on theground without being the least hurt.

Barsabas' sister was not unique in hercentury. I quote from a magazine called TheParlor Portfolio or Post-Chaise Companion,

published in London in 1724:

To be seen, at Mr. John Syme's, Perukemaker, opposite the Mews, Charing Cross,the surprising and famous Italian FemaleSampson, who has been seen in severalcourts of Europe with great applause.She will absolutely walk, barefoot, on ared-hot bar of iron: a large block ofmarble of between two and three thousandweight she will permit to lie on her forsome time, after which she will throw itoff at about six feet distance, withoutusing her hands, and exhibit several othercurious performances, equally astonishing,which were never before seen in England.She performs exactly at twelveo'clock, and four, and six in the afternoon.Price half-a-crown, servants and childrena shilling.

From the spelling, I judge that the personwho selected this lady's title must have beenmore familiar with the City Directory thanwith the Scriptures.

In Edward J. Wood's Giants and Dwarfs,London, 1868, I find the following:

A newspaper of December 19th, 1751,announces as follows:

At the new theatre in the Haymarket,this day, will be performed a concert ofmusick, in two acts. Boxes 3s., pit 2s.,gallery 1s. Between the acts of the concertwill be given, gratis, several exercisesof rope-dancing and tumbling. There isalso arrived the little woman from Geneva,who, by her extraordinary strength, performsseveral curious things, viz. 1st. Shebeats a red-hot iron that is made crooked

straight with her naked feet. 2ndly. Sheputs her head on one chair, and her feeton another, in an equilibrium, and suffersfive or six men to stand on her body, whichafter some time she flings off. 3rdly. Ananvil is put on her body, on which two menstrike with large hammers. 4thly. Astone of a hundred pounds weight is puton her body, and beat to pieces with ahammer. 5thly. She lies down on theground, and suffers a stone of 1500 poundsweight to be laid on her breasts, in whichposition she speaks to the audience, anddrinks a glass of wine, then throws thestone off her body by mere strength, withoutany assistance. Lastly, she lifts an anvilof 200 pound weight from the groundwith her own hair. To begin exactly at sixo'clock.

At present the stunt with the two chairs andthe six men is being exhibited as a hypnotictest.

Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the famousEgyptian archeologist, who was a man ofgigantic stature, began his public career as astrongman at the Bartholomew Fair, under themanagement of Gyngell, the conjuror, whodubbed him The Young Hercules. Shortlyafterward he appeared at Sadler's WellsTheater, where he created a profound sensation,under the name of The Patagonian Samson.The feature of his act was carrying apyramid of from seven to ten men in a mannernever before attempted. He wore a sort ofharness with footholds for the men, and whenall were in position he moved about the stagewith perfect ease, soliciting ``kind applause''by waving a flag. He afterwards became amagician, and after various other ventures hefinally landed in Egypt, where his discoverieswere of such a nature as to secure for himan enviable position in ``Who's Who in

Archeology.''

CHAPTER TWELVE

CONTEMPORARY STRONG PEOPLE: CHARLESJEFFERSON; LOUIS CYR; JOHN GRUNMARX; WILLIAM LE ROY.--THE NAILKING, THE HUMAN CLAW-HAMMER; ALEXANDERWEYER; MEXICAN BILLY WELLS;A FOOLHARDY ITALIAN; WILSON; HERMAN;SAMPSON; SANDOW; YUCCA; LABLANCHE; LULU HURST.--THE GEORGIAMAGNET, THE ELECTRIC GIRL, ETC.;ANNIE ABBOTT; MATTIE LEE PRICE.--THE TWILIGHT OF THE FREAKS. THEDIME MUSEUMS.

Feats of strength have always interestedme greatly, so that in my travels aroundthe world I have made it a point to come incontact with the most powerful human beingsof my generation. The one among these whodeserves first mention is Charles Jefferson,with whose achievements I became quitefamiliar while we were working in the samemuseum many years ago. I am convinced thathe must have been the strongest man of histime at lifting with the bare hands alone. Hehad two feats that he challenged any mortalto duplicate. One was picking up a heavyblacksmith's anvil by the horn and placing iton a kitchen table; for the other he had a blockof steel, which, as near as I can remember,must have been about 14 inches long, 12 incheswide, and 7 inches thick. This block lay onthe floor, and his challenge was for anyone topick it up with bare hands. I noticed that itrequired unusually long fingers to grasp it,since one could get only the thumb on one side.Though thousands tried, I never saw, or heard,of anyone else who could juggle his anvil orpick up the weight. True, I saw him surreptitiouslyrub his fingers with resin, to assist in

the gripping, but that could have been onlyof slight assistance to the marvelous grip theman possessed.

It is generally conceded that Louis Cyr was,in his best days, the strongest man in theknown world at all-round straight lifting. Cyrdid not give the impression of being an athlete,nor of a man in training, for he appeared tobe over-fat and not particularly muscular; buthe made records in lifting which, to the bestof my knowledge, no other man has been ableto duplicate.

John Grun Marx, a Luxemberger, must havebeen among the strongest men in the world atthe time I knew him. We worked on the samebill several times; but it was at the Olympia,in Paris, that he shone supreme as astrongman--and at the same time as a weak one.For, in spite of his sovereign strength, Marswas no match for a pair of bright eyes; alla pretty woman had to do was to smile andJohn would wilt. And--Paris was Paris.

Marx's strength was prodigious, and hejuggled hundreds, and toyed with thousands,of pounds as a child plays with a rattle. Hemust have weighed in the neighborhood ofthree hundred pounds, and he walked like averitable colossus. In fact, he reminded meof a two-footed baby elephant.

Always good-natured, he made a host offriends both in the profession and out of it.After years of professional work he settleddown as landlord of a public house in England,where, finally, he was prostrated by a mortalillness. Wishing to die in his native city, hereturned to Luxemberg. He did not realizethat he was bereft of his enormous strength,and those about him humored him: the doctorand the nurses would pretend that he hurtthem when he grasped their hands. He diedalmost forgotten except by his brother artists,

but they (myself among them) built a monumentto this good-natured Hercules, whoseonly care was to entertain.

Among the strongmen that I met during mydays with the museums, one whom I foundmost interesting was William Le Roy, knownas The Nail King and The Human Claw-Hammer,whose act appealed to me for its originality.So far as I could learn, it had never beenduplicated.

Le Roy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,October 3rd, 1873. He was about 5 feet 10inches in height, and well set up. Theinordinate strength of his jaws, teeth, and neck,enabled him to push a nail, held between histeeth, through a one-inch board; or to nailtogether, with his teeth, two 3/4-inch boards.He could draw with his teeth a large nail thathad been driven completely through a two-inchplank. Then he would screw an ordinary two-inch screw into a hardwood plank with histeeth, pull it out with his teeth, and then screwit into the plank again and offer $100 to anyman who could pull it out with a large pairof pincers which he proffered for the purpose.When he had performed these stunts invarious positions, he would bend his bodybackward till his head pointed toward the floor, andin that position push a nail through a one-inchboard held perpendicularly in a metal frame.I saw no chance for trickery in Le Roy's act.

Another nail act was that of AlexanderWeyer, who, either by superior strength or bya peculiar knack, could hold a nail betweenthe middle fingers of his right hand with thehead against the palm, and drive it througha one-inch board. But since this act did notget him very far either on the road to fame,or toward the big money--he turned to magicand finally became one of the leadingContinental magicians, boasting that he was oneof the few really expert sleight-of-hand

magicians of the world.

I met Weyer at Liege, Belgium, where wehad an all-night match with playing cards. Headmitted that there were some tricks he didnot know, but he claimed that after once seeingany magician work he could duplicate thetricks. On this occasion, however, he wasunable to make the boast good.

Another clever performer of those days wasMexican Billy Wells, who worked on the Curioplatform. His act was the old stone-breakingstunt, already explained, except that he hadthe stones broken on his head instead of onhis body. He protected his head with a smallblanket, which he passed for examination, andthis protection seemed excusable, consideringthat he had to do at least seven shows a day.A strong man from the audience did the realwork of the act by swinging the heavy sledge-hammer on the stone, as shown in the accompanyingillustration. Usually the stone wouldbe riven by a single blow; but if it was not,Wells would yell, ``Harder! harder! hitharder!'' until the stone was broken.

The last I saw of Billy was during one ofmy engagements at the Palace Theater, NewYork. He was then soliciting orders for somephotograph firm, the halcyon days of his bigmoney having faded to a memory. But he hadbeen a good showman and his was one of thebest liked working acts in the Curio, as thedime-museum profession was called.

Of all the acts of this nature that I haveever seen I think the most foolhardy was thatof an under-sized Italian who lay on his backon the floor and let fall from his hands,extended upward at arm's length heavy weightsupon his chest--the silly fool! I said asmuch to him--and some other things too.His act had little entertainment to showas compared with the pain and danger

involved. I do not know what became of him,but I can guess.

Among the museum attractions of thoseyears was a man named Wilson who had theincredible chest expansion of twenty-oneinches. This man would allow a strong leatherstrap, about the size of a trunk-strap, to bebuckled round his chest; and then, inflatinghis lungs, would break it with very littleapparent exertion. An imitator, named Herman,worked the side shows for a long time with asimilar act, and was fairly successful, althoughhis expansion was only about sixteen inches.The last time I heard of Wilson, he was workingin the shipyards at Newport News, Virginia.

Another ``Samson,'' a German, among othersensational feats, such as breaking coins withhis fingers, used to flex his muscles and breaka dog-chain that had been fastened round thebiceps of his right arm. While he wasperforming at the Aquarium, in London, he issueda challenge. Sandow, then a youth withoutreputation, accepted the challenge, went uponthe stage, defeated him, and, since Samson'sact had been the talk of the town, thus broughthimself into instant notice, the beginning of acareer in which he rose to the top of hisprofession. After several successful years on thestage, Sandow settled down in London, whereI last heard of him as conducting a school ofinstruction in health and strength methods.

In the tradition of the ``Female Sampsons''noted in Chapter Eleven, I recall two strong-women who were notably good; Yucca, wholifted a horse by means of a harness over theshoulders; and La Blanche, who toyed withheavy articles in a most entertaining way. Iremember these ladies particularly becauseboth were remarkably good talkers--and I amreferring to conversational quality, not tovolume.

Lulu Hurst--known variously as TheGeorgia Magnet, The Electric Girl, TheGeorgia Wonder, etc.--created a veritablesensation a generation ago by a series of featswhich seemed to set the law of gravitation atdefiance. Her methods consisted in utilizingthe principles of the lever and fulcrum in amanner so cleverly disguised that it appearedto the audience that some supernatural powermust be at work. Although she was exposedmany times, her success was so marked thatseveral other muscular ladies entered herprovince with acts that were, in severalinstances, superior to the original.

One of the cleverest of these was AnnieAbbott, who, if I remember rightly, also calledherself The Georgia Magnet. She took the actto England and her opening performance atthe Alhambra is recorded as one of the threebig sensations of the London vaudeville stageof those days. The second sensation wascredited to the Bullet-Proof Man. This chapwore a jacket that rifle bullets, fired point-blank, failed to penetrate. The compositionof this jacket was a secret, but after theowner's death the garment was ripped openand found to contain-ground glass! Thethird sensation I must, with all due modesty,(business of bowing) claim for myself.

The Magnet failed to attract after aboutforty-eight hours, for a keen-witted reporterdiscovered her methods and promptly publishedthem. The bullet detainer also lastedonly a short time only. When my openingadded a third sensational surprise, one of theLondon dailies asked, ``Is this going to beanother Georgia Magnet fiasco?''

That they were gunning for me is provedby the fact that the same newspaperinvestigator who exposed the Magnet, came uponthe stage of the Alhambra at my pressperformance--the same stage where the unhappy

Dixie lode-stone had collapsed--and though hebrought along an antique slave iron, whichhe seemed to think would put an end to mypublic career on the spot, I managed to escapein less than three minutes. When I passedback his irons, he grinned at me and said, ``Idon't know how you did it, but you did!'' andhe shook me cordially by the hand.

Some twenty-six years ago I was on the billwith Mattie Lee Price, who, though less wellknown, was in many ways superior to eitherMiss Hurst or Miss Abbott. For a time shewas a sensation of the highest order, for whichthanks were largely due to the management ofher husband, a wonderful lecturer and a thoroughshowman. I think his name was White.He ``sold'' the act as no other man has soldan act before or since.

We worked together at Kohl and Middleton's,Chicago, and the following week at Burton'sMuseum, Milwaukee; but when we madethe next jump I found that White was notalong. They had had a family squabble, theother apex of the triangle being a circusgrafter who ``shibbolethed'' at some of the``brace games,'' which at that time had policeprotection, so far as that could be given. Hehad interfered between the couple, and was,I am sorry to say, quite successful as aninterferer; but he was a diabolical failure whenhe attempted to duplicate White's work aslecturer, and the act, after playing a date or two,sank out of sight and I have heard nothingmore of her professionally. Lately I havelearned that she died in London in 1900 andis buried in Clements Cemetery, Fulham.

This was one of the most positivedemonstrations I have ever seen of the fact thatshowmanship is the largest factor in puttingan act over. Miss Price was a marvelousperformer, but without her husband-lecturer shewas no longer a drawing card, and dropped

to the level of an ordinary entertainer evenlower, for her act was no longer even entertaining.

In Chapter Eleven we read Dr. Desaguliers'analysis of the mechanics of what may becalled strongmanship. Similar investigationshave attended the appearance of more recentperformers.

For instance, reviewing one of Lulu Hurst'sperformances, the New York Times, of July13th, 1884, said:

The ``Phenomenon of the NineteenthCentury,'' which may be seen nightly atWallack's, is not so much the famousGeorgia girl, with her mysterious muscle,as is the audience which gathers to wonderat her performance. It is a phenomenonof stupidity, and it only goes to show howwillingly people will be fooled, and withwhat cheerful asininity they will help ontheir deceivers.

Then follows a description of her performance,which was far from successful, thanksto the efforts of one of the committee, a mandescribed as ``Mr. Thomas Johnson, a powerfully-built engraver connected with the Centurymagazine.'' Mr. Johnson had evidentlycaught her secret, and he got the better ofher in all the tests in which he was allowed totake part.

A disclosure of the methods employed in afew of her ``tests'' will serve to convince thereader of the fact that she possessed nosupernormal power, the same general principlesshown here being used throughout her performance.

These explanations are taken from theFrench periodical La Nature, in which Mr.Nelson W. Perry thus sums up the attitude

of the public in regard to this class ofperformance: ``Electricity is a mysterious agent;therefore everything mysterious is electric.''Of the performance of the Electric Girl thismagazine says:

It is a question of a simple applicationof the elementary principles of the lawsof mechanics, chapter of equilibrium.

We propose to point out here a certainnumber of such artifices and to describea few of the experiments, utilizing for thispurpose the data furnished by Mr. Perry,as well as those resulting from our ownobservations.

One of the experiments consists in havinga man or several men hold a cane ora billiard cue horizontally above the head,as shown in Fig. 1. On pushing with onehand, the girl forces back two or threemen, who, in unstable equilibrium andunder the oblique action of the thrustexerted, are obliged to fall back. Thisfirst experiment is so elementary andinfantile that it is not necessary to dwell uponit. In order to show the relative sizes ofthe persons, the artist has supposed thelittle girl to be standing on a platform inthe first experiment, but in the experimentthat we witnessed this platform wasrendered useless by the fact that the girlwho performed them was of sufficientheight to reach the cue by extending herarms and standing on tiptoes.

Next we have a second and more complexexperiment, less easily explained atfirst sight.

Two men (Fig. 2) take a stick aboutthree feet in length, and are asked to holdit firmly in a vertical position. The girl

places her hand against the lower end ofthe stick, in the position shown, and thetwo men are invited to make the latterslide vertically in the girl's hand, whichthey are unable to do, in spite of theirconscientious and oft-repeated attempts.

Mr. Perry explains this exercise asfollows: The men are requested to placethemselves parallel to each other, and thegirl, who stands opposite them, places thepalm of her hand against the stick andturned toward her. She takes care toplace her hand as far as possible from thehands of the two men, so as to give herselfa certain leverage. She then beginsto slide her hand along the stick, gentlyat first, and then with an increasing pressure,as if she wished to better the contactbetween the stick and her hand. Shethus moves it from the perpendicular andasks the two men to hold it in a verticalposition.

This they do under very disadvantageousconditions, seeing the difference in thelength of the arms of the lever. The stressexerted by the girl is very feeble, because,on the one hand, she has the lever armto herself, and, on the other, the actionupon her lever arm is a simple traction.When she feels that the pressureexerted is great enough, she directs thetwo men to exert a vertical stress strongenough to cause the stick to descend. Theythen imagine that they are exerting aVERTICAL stress, while in reality theirstresses are HORIZONTAL and tend to keepthe stick in a vertical position in order toreact against the pressure exerted at thelower end of the stick.

There is evidently a certain verticalcomponent that tends to cause the stick todescend, but the lateral pressure produces

a sufficient friction between the hand andthe stick to support this vertical forcewithout difficulty. Mr. Perry performedthe experiment by placing himself upona spring balance and assuming the roleof the girl, with two very strong men asadversaries. All the efforts made to causethe stick to slide in the open hand failed,and the excess of weight due to the verticalforce always remained less than twenty-five pounds, despite the very determinedand sincere stresses of the two men, who,unbeknown to themselves, were exertingtheir strength in a HORIZONTAL direction.

In the experiment represented in Fig.3, which recalls to mind the first one (Fig.1), the two men are requested to hold thestick firmly and immovable, but the slightestpressure upon the extremity suffices tomove the arms and body of the subject.Such pressure in the first place is exertedbut slightly, and the stresses are graduallyincreased. Then, all at once, when theforce exerted horizontally is as great aspossible, and the men are exerting theirstrength in the opposite direction in orderto resist it, the girl abruptly ceases thepressure WITHOUT WARNING and exerts it inthe OPPOSITE DIRECTION. Unprepared forthis change, the victims lose their equilibriumand find themselves at the mercyof the girl, and so much the more so inproportion as they are stronger and theirefforts are greater. The experimentsucceeds still better with three than with twomen, or with one man.

The experiment represented in Fig. 4,where it concerns the easy lifting of avery heavy person, the trick is no lesssimple. Out of a hundred persons submittedto the experiment, ninety-nine,knowing that the experimenter wishes tolift them and cause them to fall forward,

grasp the seat or arms of the chair, and,in endeavoring to resist, make the wholeweight of their body bear upon their feet.If they do not do so at the first instant,they do so when they are conscious of theattempts of the girl to raise the seat, andthey help therein unconsciously. Theexperimenter, therefore, needs only to exerta horizontal thrust, without doing anylifting, and such horizontal thrust isfacilitated by taking the knees as points ofsupport for her elbows. As soon as aslight movement is effected, the hardestpart of the work is over, for it is onlynecessary for the girl to cease to exerther stresses in order to have the chair fallback or move laterally in one direction orthe other. At all events, the equilibriumis destroyed, and, before it is establishedagain, it requires but little dexterity tomove the subject about in all directionswithout a great expenditure of energy.The difficulty is not increased on seatingtwo men, or three men, upon each other'sknees (as shown in Fig. 4), since, in thelatter case, the third acts as a true counter-poise to the first, and the whole pretty wellresembles an apparatus of unstable equilibrium,whose centre of gravity is veryhigh and, consequently, so much moreeasily displaced.

All these experiments require somelittle skill and practice, but are attendedwith no difficulty, and, upon the whole, donot merit the enthusiastic articles thathave given the ``electric'' or ``magnetic''girl her European reputation.

Strong people, whether tricksters or genuineathletes, or both, we shall probably havealways with us. But with the gradual refinementof the public taste, the demand for suchexhibitions as fire-eating, sword-swallowing,glass-chewing, and the whole repertoire of the

so-called Human Ostrich, steadily declined,and I recall only one engagement of a performerof this type at a first-class theater inthis country during the present generation,and that date was not played.

There was still a considerable demand forthese people in the dime museums, until theenormous increase in the number of suchhouses created a demand for freaks that wasfar in excess of the supply, and many houseswere obliged to close because no freaks wereobtainable, even at the enormous increase insalaries then in vogue. The small price ofadmission, and the fact that feature curioslike Laloo or the Tocci Twins drew down sevenor eight hundred dollars a week, show thatthese houses catered to a multitude of people;and not a few of the leading managersof to-day's vaudeville, owe their start in lifeto the dime museum.

Among the museums that were veritablegold mines, I might mention Epstein's ofChicago; Brandenberg's of Philadelphia;Moore's of Detroit and Rochester; The Sackettand Wiggins Tour; Kohl and Middleton's;Austin and Stone's of Boston; Robinsonof Buffalo; Ans Huber's, Globe, Harlem,Worth's, and the Gayety of New York.

The dime museum is but a memory now, andin three generations it will, in all probability,be utterly forgotten. A few of the acts hadsufficient intrinsic worth to follow the managersinto vaudeville, but these have no partin this chronicle, which has been written ratherto commemorate some forms of entertainmentover which oblivion threatens to stretch herdarkening wings.