 Preface to The Miracle Mongers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Eastman The Miracle Mongers by Harry Houdini A complete expose of the modus operandi of fire eaters, heat resistors, poison eaters, venomous reptile defiers, sword swallowers, human ostriches, strong men, etc. Affectionately dedicated to my life's helpmate, who starved and starred with me during the years we spent among Miracle Mongers, my wife, preface. All wonder, said Samuel Johnson, is the effect of novelty on ignorance. Yet we are so created that without something to wonder at, we should find life scarcely worth living. That fact does not make ignorance bliss, or make it folly to be wise. For the wisest man never gets beyond the reach of novelty, nor can ever make it his boast that there is nothing he is ignorant of. On the contrary, the wiser he becomes, the more clearly he sees how much there is of which he remains in ignorance. The more he knows, the more he will find to wonder at. My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the everyday commonplaces of my business. But I have never been without some seeming marvel to pique my curiosity and challenge my investigation. In this book I have set down some of the stories of strange folk and unusual performers that I have gathered in many years of such research. Much has been written about the feats of Miracle Mongers, and not little in the way of explaining them. Chaucer was by no means the first to turn shrewd eyes upon wonder-workers, and show the clay feet of these popular idols. And since his time innumerable marvels held to be supernatural have been exposed for the tricks they were. Yet today, if a mystifier lack the ingenuity to invent new and startling stunt, he can safely fall back upon a trick that has been the favorite of presages the world over in all ages. He can imitate the Hindu faker, who, having thrown a rope high into the air, has a boy climb it until he is lost to view. He can even have the feet photographed. The camera will click, nothing will appear on the developed film, and this the performer will glibly explain proves that the whole company of onlookers was hypnotized. And he can be certain of a very profitable following to defend and advertise him. So I do not feel that I need to apologize for adding another volume to the shelves of works dealing with the marvels of the miracle-mongers. My business has given me an intimate knowledge of stage illusions, together with many years of experience among show-people of all types. My familiarity with the former, and what I have learned of the psychology of the latter, has placed me at a certain advantage in uncovering the natural explanation of feats that to the ignorant have seemed supernatural. And even if my readers are too well informed to be interested in my descriptions of the methods of the various performers who have seemed to me worthy of attention in these pages, I hope they will find some amusement in following the fortunes and misfortunes of all manner of strange folk who once bewildered the wise men of their day. If I have accomplished that much, I shall feel amply repaid for my labor. End of preface. Chapter 1 of the Miracle-Mongers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Peter Eastman. The Miracle-Mongers and Exposé by Harry Houdini. Chapter 1. Fireworship. Fire-eating and heat-resistance. In the Middle Ages, among the Navajo Indians, Firewalkers of Japan, the fiery ordeal of Fiji. Fire has always been, and seemingly will always remain, the most terrible of the elements. To the early tribes it must also have been the most mysterious, for while earth and air and water were always in evidence, fire came and went in a manner which must have been quite unaccountable to them. Thus it naturally followed that the custom of deifying all things which the primitive mind was unable to grasp led in direct line to the fire-worship of later days. That fire could be produced through friction finally came into the knowledge of man, but the early methods entailed much labour. Consequently, our ease-loving forebears cast about for a method to keep the home fires burning, and hit upon the plan of appointing a person in each community who should at all times carry a burning brand. This arrangement had many faults, however, and after a while it was superseded by the expedient of a fire kept continually burning in a building erected for the purpose. The Greeks worshipped at an altar of this kind, which they called the altar of Hestia, and which the Romans called the altar of Vesta. The sacred fire itself was known as Vesta, and its burning was considered a proof of the presence of the goddess. The Persians had such a building in each town and village, and the Egyptians such a fire in every temple, while the Mexicans, Naches, Peruvians, and Mayans kept their national fires burning upon great pyramids. Eventually the keeping of such fires became a sacred right, and the eternal lamps kept burning in synagogues and in Byzantine and Catholic churches may be a survival of these customs. There is a theory that all architecture, public and private, sacred and profane, began with the erection of sheds to protect the sacred fire. This naturally led men to build for their own protection as well, and thus the family hearth had its genesis. Another theory holds that the keepers of the sacred fires were the first public servants, and that from this small beginning sprang the intricate public service of the present. The worship of the fire itself had been a legacy from the earliest tribes, but it remained for the Rosicrucians and the fire philosophers of the sixteenth century under the lead of Paracelsus to establish a concrete religious belief on that basis, finding in the scriptures what seemed to them ample proof that fire was the symbol of the actual presence of God. As in all cases where he is said to have visited this earth he came either in a flame of fire or surrounded with glory which they conceived to mean the same thing. For example, when God appeared on Mount Sinai the Lord descended upon it in fire. Moses, repeating this history, said, The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of fire. Again, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses out of the flaming bush, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Fire from the Lord consumed the burnt offering of Aaron, the sacrifice of Gideon, the burnt offering of David, and that at the dedication of King Solomon's temple. And when Elijah made his sacrifice to prove the ball was not God, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and the water that was in the trench. Since sacrifice had from the earliest days been considered as food offered to the gods, it was quite logical to argue that when fire from heaven fell upon the offering God himself was present and consumed his own. Thus the Paracelsists and other fire-believers sought, and as they believed found, high authority for continuing a part of the fire worship of the early tribes. The Theosophists, according to Hargrave Jennings in The Rose Crucians, called the soul a fire taken from the eternal ocean of light, and in common with other fire-philosophers, believed that all knowable things, both of the soul and the body, were evolved out of fire and finally resolvable into it, and that fire was the last and only to be known God. In passing I might call attention to the fact that the devil is supposed to dwell in the same element. Some of the secrets of heat resistance, as practised by the Dime Museum and sideshow performers of our time, secrets grouped under the general title of fire-eating, must have been known in very early times. To quote from Chambers' Book of Days. In ancient history we find several examples of people who possessed the art of touching fire without being burned. Other priestesses of Diana in Costaballa in Cappadocia commanded public veneration by walking over red hot iron. The herpes, a people of Aturria, walked among glowing embers at an annual festival held on Mount Serocte, and thus proved their sacred character, receiving certain privileges, among others exemption for military service from the Roman Senate. One of the most astounding stories of antiquity is related in the Zenda Vesta, to the effect that Zoraster, to confute his collumniators, allowed fluid lead to be poured over his body without receiving any injury. To me the astounding part of the story is not in the feed itself, for that is extremely easy to accomplish. But in the fact that the secret was known at such an early date, which the best authorities place at five hundred to one thousand B.C. it is said that the earliest recorded instance in our era of ordeal by fire was in the fourth century. Simplicius, bishop of Outun, who had been married before his promotion, continued to live with his wife, and in order to demonstrate the platonic purity of their intercourse, placed burning coals upon their flesh without injury, that the clergy of the middle ages, who caused accused persons to walk blindfold among red-hot plowshares or hold heated irons in their hands, were in possession of the secret of the trick, is shown by the fact that after trial by ordeal had been abolished, the secret of their methods was published by Albert Count of Bolstad, usually called Albertus Magnus, but sometimes Albertus Teutonicus, a man distinguished by the range of his inquiries and his efforts for the spread of knowledge. These secrets will be fully explained in the section of this history devoted to the Arkana of the Fire Eaters, Chapter 6. I take the following from the New York Clipper annual of 1885. The famous fire dance of the Navajo Indians, often described as though it involved some sort of genuine necromancy, is explained by a matter-of-fact spectator. It is true, he says, that the naked worshipers cavort round a big bonfire with blazing faggots in their hands and dash the flames over their own and their fellow's bodies, all in a most picturesque and maniacal fashion, but their skins are first so thickly coated with a clay paint that they cannot easily be burned. An illustrated article, entitled, Rights of the Firewalking Fanatics of Japan, by W. C. Jameson Reed in the Chicago Sunday Interocean of September 27, 1903, reveals so splendid an example of the gullibility of the well-informed, when the most ordinary trick is cleverly presented and surrounded with the atmosphere of the occult, that I am impelled to place before my readers a few illuminating excerpts from Mr. Reed's narrative. This man would in all probability scorn to spend a dime to witness the performance of a fire-eater in a circus side-show. But after traveling half round the world, he pays a dollar and spends an hour's time watching the fanatical incantations of the solemn little Japanese priests for the sake of seeing the Haiwatarai, which is merely the stunt of walking over hot coals, and he then writes it down as the eighth wonder of the world, while if he had taken the trouble to give the matter even the most superficial investigation, he could have discovered that the secret of the trick had been made public centuries before. Mr. Reed is authority for the statement that the Shintoist priests' firewalking events have long been one of the puzzling mysteries of the scientific world, and adds, if you ever are in Tokyo and can find a few minutes to spare, by all means do not neglect witnessing at least one performance of Haiwatarai, firewalking, and that really is what takes place. For if you are of that incredulous nature which laughs with scorn at so-called Eastern mysticism, you will come away, as has many a visitor before you, with an impression sufficient to last through an ordinary lifetime. Further on, he says, if you do not come away convinced that you have been witness of a spectacle which makes you disbelieve the evidence of your own eyes and your most matter-of-fact judgment, then you are a man of stone, all of which proves nothing more than that Mr. Reed was inclined to make positive statements about subjects in which he knew little or nothing. He tells us further that formerly this rite was performed only in the spring and fall, when beside the gratuities of the foreigners the native worshippers brought gifts of wine, large trays of fish, fruit, rice-cakes, loaves, vegetables, and candies. Evidently, the combination of box office receipts with donation parties proved extremely tempting to the thrifty priests, for they now give what might be termed a continuous performance. Those who have read the foregoing pages will apply a liberal sprinkling of salt to the solemn assurance of Mr. Reed, advanced on the authority of genricisha boys that, four days beforehand, the priests connected with the temple devote themselves to fasting and prayer to prepare for the ordeal. The performance itself usually takes place in the late afternoon drink twilight in the temple court, the preceding three hours being spent by the priests in final outbursts of prayer before the unveiled altar in the inner sanctuary of the little maddened temple, entering these invocations no visitors are allowed to enter the sacred precincts. Mr. Reed's description of the fire-walking itself may not be out of place. It will show that the japs had nothing new to offer aside from the ritualistic ceremonials with which they camouflaged the hocus-pocus of the performance, which is merely a survival of the ordeal by fire of earlier religions. Only before five o'clock the priests filed from before the altar into some interior apartments where they were to change their beautiful robes for the corsair-dress worn during the fire-walking. In the meantime Coolies had been set to work in the courtyard to ignite the great bed of charcoal which had already been laid. The dimensions of this bed were about twelve feet by four and perhaps a foot deep. On the top was a quantity of straw and kindling wood which was lighted and soon burst into a roaring blaze. The charcoal became more and more thoroughly ignited until the whole mass glowed in the uncertain gloom like some gigantic and demoniical eye of a modern Prometheus. As soon as the mass of charcoal was thoroughly ignited from top to bottom, a small gong in the temple gave notice that the wonderful spectacle of High Watari was about to begin. Soon two of the priests came out, said prayers of almost interminable length at a tiny shrine in the corner of the enclosure, and turned their attention to the fire. Taking long poles and fans from the Coolies, they poked and encouraged the blaze till it could plainly be seen that the coal was ignited throughout. The whole bed was a glowing mass, and the heat which rose from it was so intense that we found it uncomfortable to sit fifteen feet away from it without screening our faces with fans. Then they began to pound it down more solidly along the middle. As far as possible, inequalities in its surface were beaten down, and the coals which protruded were brushed aside. There follows a long and detailed description of further ceremonies, the receiving of gifts, etc., which need not be repeated here. Now for the trick itself. One of the priests held a pile of white powder on a small wooden stand. This was said to be salt, which in Japan is credited with great cleansing properties. But as far as could be ascertained by superficial examination, it was a mixture of alum and salt. He stood at one end of the fire bed, and poised the wooden tray over his head, and then sprinkled a handful of it on the ground before the glowing bed of coals. At the same time another priest who stood by him chanted a weird recitative of invocation, and struck sparks from flint and steel which he held in his hands. This same process was repeated by both the priests at the other end, at the two sides, and at the corners. Ten minutes more or less was spent in various movements and incantations about the bed of coals. At the end of that time two small pieces of wet matting were brought out, and placed at either end, and a quantity of the white mixture was placed upon them. At a signal from the head priest who acted as master of ceremonies during the curious succeeding function, the ascetics who were to perform the first exhibition of fire-walking gathered at one end of the bed of coals, which by this time was a fierce and glowing furnace. Having raised both his hands and prostrated himself to render thanks to the God who had taken out the soul of the fire, the priest about to undergo the ordeal stood upon the wet matting, wiped his feet lightly in the white mixture, and while we held our breaths and our eyes almost leapt from their sockets in awestruck astonishment, he walked over the glowing mass as unconcernedly as if treading on a carpet in a drawing room, his feet coming in contact with the white hot coals at every step. He did not hurry or take long steps, but sauntered along with almost incredible song fraud, and before he reached the opposite side he turned around and sauntered as carelessly back to the mat from which he had started. The story goes on to tell how the performance was repeated by the other priests and then by many of the native audience, but none of the Europeans tried it, although invited to do so. Mr. Reed's closing statement is that no solution of the mystery can be gleaned even from high scientific authorities who have witnessed and closely studied the physical features of these remarkable Shinto fire-walking rites. Many who are confronted with something that they cannot explain take refuge in the claim that it puzzles the scientists too. As a matter of fact, at the time Mr. Reed wrote, such scientists as had given the subject serious study were pretty well posted on the methods involved. An article under the title The Fiery Ordeal of Fiji by Maurice Delcasse appeared in the Wide World magazine for May 1898. From Mr. Delcasse's account it appears that the Fiji ordeal is practically the same as that of the Japanese as described by Mr. Reed, except that there is very little ceremony surrounding it. The people of Fiji entail a comparatively recent date or cannibals, but their islands are now British possessions, most of the natives are Christians, and most of their ancient customs have become obsolete, from which I deduce that the fire-walking rites described in the article must have been performed by natives who had retained their old religious beliefs. The ordeal takes place on the island of Benga, which is near Suva, the capital of Fiji, and which Mr. Delcasse says was the supposed residence of some of the old gods of Fiji, and was therefore considered a sacred land. Instead of walking on the live-calls as the Japanese priests do, the Fijians walk on stones that have been brought to a white heat in a great fire of logs. The familiar claim is made that the performance puzzle scientists and that no satisfactory solution has yet been discovered. We are about to see that for two or three hundred years the same claims have been made by a long line of more or less clever public performers in Europe and America. Chapter 2 of The Miracle-Mongers This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Miracle-Mongers The Miracle-Mongers by Harry Houdini Chapter 2 Watan's Ship Swabber from the Indies Richardson 1667 Thayheiderkite 1713 Robert Powell 1718-1780 Dufour 1783 Quackensalber 1794 The earliest mention I have found of a public fire-eater in England is in the correspondence of Sir Henry Watan under date of June 3rd 1633. He speaks of an Englishman like some swabber of a ship come from the Indies where he has learned to eat fire as familiarly as ever I saw any eat cakes even whole glowing brands which he will crush with his teeth and swallow. This was shown in London for two pence. The first to attract the attention of the upper classes however was one Richardson who appeared in France in the year 1667 and enjoyed a vogue sufficient to justify the record of his promise in the Journal de Savants. Later on he came to London and John Evelyn in his diary mentions him under date of October 8th 1672 as follows I took leave of my Lady Sunderland who is going to Paris to my lord now ambassador there She made me stay dinner at Leicester house and afterwards sent for Richardson the famous fire-eater. He devoured brimstone on glowing coals before us chewing and swallowing them He melted a beer glass and eat it quite up Then taking a live coal on his tongue he put on it a raw oyster The coal was blown on with bellows till it flamed and sparkled in his mouth and so remained until the oyster gaped and was quite boiled Then he melted pitch and wax with sulfur which he drank down as it flamed I saw it flaming in his mouth a good while He also took up a thick piece of iron such as laundresses used to put in their smoothing boxes when it was fiery hot held it between his teeth then in his hand and threw it about like a stone but this I observed he cared not to hold very long Then he stood on a small pot and bending his body took a glowing iron with his mouth from between his feet without touching the pot or ground with his hands with diverse other prodigious feats the secret methods employed by Richardson were disclosed by his servant and this publicity seems to have brought his career to a sudden close at least I have found no record of his subsequent movements About 1713 a fire-eater named De Hiterkite a native of Annivian Savoy flourished for a time in London He performed five times a day at the Duke of Morroborough's Head in Fleet Street the prices being half a crown, 18 pence, and one shelling According to London tit-bits De Hiterkite had the honour of exhibiting before Louis the 14th the Emperor of Austria the King of Sicily and the Doge of Venice and his name having reached the inquisition that Holy Office proposed experimenting on him to find out whether he was fireproof externally as well as internally he was preserved from this unwelcome ordeal however by the interference of the Duchess royal Regent of Savoy his program did not differ materially from that of his predecessor Richardson who had anti-dated him by nearly 50 years by far the most famous of the early fire-eaters was Robert Powell whose public career extended over a period of nearly 60 years and who was patronized by the English peerage it was mainly through the instrumentality of Sir Hans Sloane that in 1751 the royal society presented Powell a purse of gold and a large silver medal Launger's commonplace book says of Powell such is his passion for this terrible element that if he were to come hungry into your kitchen while a sirloin was roasting he would eat up the fire and leave the beef it is somewhat surprising that the friends of real merit have not yet promoted him living as we do in an age favorable to men of genius obliged to wander from place to place instead of indulging himself in private with his favorite dish he is under the uncomfortable necessity of eating in public and helping himself from the kitchen fire of some paltry ale house in the country his advertisements show that he was before the public from 1718 to 1780 one of his later advertisements runs as follows soon so loose please observe that there are two different performances the same evening which will be performed by the famous Mr. Powell fire eater from London who has had the honor to exhibit with universal applause the most surprising performances that were ever attempted by mankind before his royal highness William late Duke of Cumberland at Windsor Lodge May 7th 1752 before his royal highness the Duke of Gloucester at Gloucester house January 30th 1769 before his royal highness the present Duke of Cumberland at Windsor Lodge September 25th 1769 before Sir Hans Lone and several of the royal society March 4th 1751 who made Mr. Powell a compliment of a purse of gold and a fine large silver medal which the curious may view by applying to him and before most of the nobility and quality in the kingdom he intends to sup on the following articles one he eats red hot coals out of the fire as natural as bread two he licks with his naked tongue red hot tobacco pipes flaming with brimstone three he takes a large bunch of deal matches lights them all together and holds them in his mouth till the flame is extinguished four he takes a red hot heater out of the fire licks it with his naked tongue several times and carries it around the room between his teeth five he fills his mouth with red hot charcoal and broils a slice of beef or mutton upon his tongue and any person may blow the fire with a pair of bellows at the same time six he takes a quantity of resin pitch beeswax sealing wax brimstone alum and lead melts them all together over a chafing dish of coals and eats the same combustibles with a spoon as if it were a poringer of broth which he calls his dish of soup to the great and agreeable surprise of the spectators with various other extraordinary performances never attempted by any other person of this age and there is scarce a possibility ever will so that those who neglect this opportunity of seeing the wonders performed by this artist will lose the sight of the most amazing exhibition ever done by man the doors to be opened by six and he subs precisely at seven o'clock without any notice given by sound of trumpet if gentry do not choose to come at seven o'clock no performance prices of admission to ladies and gentlemen one shilling back seats for children and servants six pence ladies and children may have a private performance any hour of the day by giving previous notice nb he displaces teeth or stumps so easily as to scarcely be felt he sells a chemical liquid which discharges inflammation scalds and burns in a short time and is necessary to be kept in all families his day 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 made in the art in a century Richardson had presented practically the same program a hundred years before perhaps the exposure of Richardson's method by his servant put an end to fire eating as a form of amusement for a long time or until the exposure had been forgotten by the public Powell himself though not proof against exposure seems to have been proof against its effects for he kept on the even tenor of his way for sixty years and at the end of his life was still exhibiting whatever the reason the eighteenth century fire eaters like too many magicians of the present day kept to the stereotyped programs of their predecessors a very few did however step out of the beaten track and by adding new tricks and giving a new dress to the old ones succeeded in securing a following that was financially satisfactory in this class a Frenchman by the name of Dufour deserves special mention from the fact that he was the first to introduce comedy into an act of this nature he made his bow in Paris in seventeen eighty three and is said to have created quite a sensation by his unusual performance I am indebted to Martin's not only camogie seventeen ninety two for a very complete description of the work 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 his performance demanded he employed a trumpeter and a tambour player to furnish music for his repast as well as to attract public attention in addition to fire eating Dufour gave exhibitions of his ability to consume immense quantities of solid food and he displayed an appetite for live animals reptiles and insects that probably proved highly entertaining to the not over refined taste of the audiences of his day he even advertised a banquet of which the public was invited to partake at a small fee per plate but since the menu 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 and small round superheated stones the roast when Dufour was really hungry consisted of twenty pounds of beef or a whole calf his hearth was either the flat of his hand or his tongue the butter in which the roast was served was melted brimstone or burning wax when the roast was cooked to suit him he ate coals and roast together as a dessert he would swallow the knives and forks glasses and the earthenware dishes he kept his audience in good humor by presenting all this in a spirit of crude comedy and to increase the comedy element he introduced a number of trained cats although the thieving proclivities of cats are well known Dufour's pets showed no desire to share his repast and he had them trained to obey his commands during mealtime at the close of the meal he would become violently angry with one of them sees the unlucky offender carrot limb from limb and eat the carcass one of his musicians would then beg him to produce the cat dead or alive in order to do this he would go to a nearby horse trough and drink it dry would eat a number of pounds of soap or other nauseating substance clowning it in a manner to provoke amusement instead of disgust and further to mask the disagreeable features and also no doubt to conceal the trick would take the cloth from the table and cover his face whereupon he would bring forth the swallowed cat or one that looked like it which would howl piteously and seem to struggle wildly while being disgorged when freed the poor cat would rush away among the spectators Dufour gave his best performances in the evening as he could then show his hocus pocus to best advantage at these times he appeared with a halo of fire about his head his last appearance in paris was most remarkable the dinner began with a soup of asps in simmering oil on each side was a dish of vegetables one containing thistles and verdicts and the other fuming acid other side dishes of turtles rats bats and moles were garnished with live coals for the fish course he ate a dish of snakes in boiling tar and pitch his roast was a screech owl in a sauce of glowing brimstone the salad proved to be spider webs full of small explosive squibs a plate of butterfly wings and mono worms a dish of toads surrounded with flies crickets grasshoppers church beetles spiders and caterpillars he washed all this down with flaming brandy and for dessert ate the four large candles standing on the table both of the hanging side lamps with their contents and finally the large center lamp oil wick and all this leaving the room in darkness Dufour's face shown out in a mask of living flames a dog had come in with the farmer who was probably a confederate and now began to bark since Dufour could not quiet him he seized him bit off his head and swallowed it throwing the body inside then ensued a comic scene between Dufour and the farmer the latter demanding that his dog be brought to life which threw the audience into paroxysms of laughter then suddenly candles reappeared and seemed to light themselves Dufour made a series of hocus pocus passes over the dog's body then the head suddenly appeared in its proper place and the dog with a joyous yelp ran to his master notwithstanding the fact that Dufour must have been by all odds the best performer of his time I do not find reference to him in any other authority but something of his originality appeared in the work of a much humbler practitioner contemporary or very nearly contemporary with him we have seen that Richardson Powell Dufour and generally the better class of fire eaters were able to secure select audiences and even to attract the attention of scientists in England and on the continent but many of their effects had been employed by mount a banks and street fakers since the earliest days of the art and this has continued until comparatively recent times in Notterly-Kmagi in 1794 volume 6 page 111 I find an account of one quack and solver who gave a new twist to the fire eating industry by making a high pitch at the fairs and on street corners and exhibiting feats of fire resistance washing his hands and face in melted tar pitch and brimstone in order to attract the crowd he then strove to sell them a compound composed of fish glue alum and brandy which he claimed would cure burns in two or three hours he demonstrated that this mixture was used by him in his heat resistance and then doubtless some cappers started the ball rolling and hair quack and solver his name indicates a seller of salves reaped a good harvest I have no doubt but that even today a clever performer with this high pitch could do a thriving business in that overgrown country village New York at any rate there is the so-called king of bees a gentleman from pennsylvania who exhibits himself in a cage of netting filled with bees and then sells the admiring throng a specific for bee stings and the wounds of angry wasps unfortunately the only time I ever saw his majesty some of his bee actors must have forgotten their lines for he was thoroughly stung end of chapter two chapter three of the miracle mongers this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit libra vox dot o r g the miracle mongers an expo say by harry houdini chapter three the 19th century containing a wonderful phenomenon the incombustible spanyard senor leoneto 1803 josephine gigardelli 1814 john brooks 1817 wc howton 1832 j a b chelinsky 1841 chamuni the russian salamander 1869 professor rel mayo 1876 rivali died 1900 in the 19th century by far the most distinguished heat resistor was chabert who deserves and shall have a chapter to himself he commenced exhibiting about 1818 but even earlier in the century certain obscure performers had anticipated some of his best effects among my clippings for instance i find the following i regret that i cannot give the date but it is evident from the long form of the letters that it was quite early this is the first mention i have found of the hot oven effect afterwards made famous by chabert wonderful phenomenon a correspondent in france writes as follows quote paris has for some days rung with relations of the wonderful exploits of a spanyard in that city who is endowed with qualities by which he resists the action of very high degrees of heat as well as the influence of strong chemical reagents many histories of the trials to which he has been submitted before a commission of the institute and medical school have appeared in the public papers but the public waits within patience for the report to be made in the name of the commission by professor penel the subject of these trials is a young man a native of toledo in spain 23 years of age and free of any apparent peculiarities which can announce anything remarkable in the organization of his skin after examination one would be rather disposed to conclude a peculiar softness than that any hardness or thickness of the cuticle existed either naturally or from mechanical causes nor was there any circumstance to indicate that the person had been previously rubbed with any matter capable of resisting the operation of the agents with which he was brought in contact this man bathed for the space of five minutes and without any injury to his sensibility or the surface of the skin his legs in oil heated at 97 degrees of rammer 250 degrees of fahrenheit and with the same oil at the same degree of heat he washed his face in superior extremities he held for the same space of time and with as little inconvenience his leg in a solution of myriad of soda heated to 102 of the same scale 261 and a half degrees fahrenheit he stood on and rubbed the soles of his feet with a bar of hot iron heated to a white heat in this state he held the iron in his hands and rubbed the surface of his tongue he gargled his mouth with concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids without the smallest injury or discoloration the nitric acid changed the cuticle to a yellow color with the acids in this state he rubbed his hands and arms all these experiments were continued long enough to prove their inefficiency to produce any impression it is said on unquestionable authority that he remained a considerable time in an oven heated to 65 degrees or 70 degrees 178 to 189 degrees fahrenheit and from which he was with difficulty induced to retire so comfortable did he feel at that high temperature it may be proper to remark that this man seems totally uninfluenced by any motive to mislead and it is said he has refused flattering offers from some religious sectaries of turning to emolument his singular qualities yet on the whole it seems to be the opinion of most philosophical men that this person must possess some matter which counteracts the operation of these agents to suppose that nature has organized him differently would be unphilosophic by habit he might have blunted his sensibilities against those impressions that create pain under ordinary circumstances but how to explain the power by which he resists the action of those agents which are known to have the strongest affinity for animal matter is a circumstance difficult to comprehend it has not failed however to excite the wonder of the ignorant and the inquiry of the learned at Paris end of quote this wonderful phenomenon may have been the incombustible Spaniard senor Leoneto whom the London mirror mentions as performing in Paris in 1803 quote where he attracted the particular attention of dr. cementini professor of chemistry and other scientific gentlemen of that city it appears that a considerable vapor and smell rose from parts of his body when the fire and heated substances were applied and in this he seems to differ from the person now in this country close quote the person here referred to was mishur shabar dr. cementini became so interested in the subject that he made a series of experiments upon himself and these were finally crowned with success his experiments will receive further attention in the chapter the arcana of the fire eaters a veritable sensation was created in England in the year 1814 by senora Josephine Girardelli who was heralded as quote just arrived from the continent where she had the honor of appearing before most of the crowned heads of Europe she was first spoken of as German but afterwards proved to be of Italian birth entering a field of endeavor which had heretofore been exclusively occupied by the sterner sex this lady displayed a taste for hot meals that would seem to recommend her as a matrimonial venture like all the earlier exploiters of the devouring element she was proclaimed as the great phenomena of nature why the plural form was used does not appear and doubtless her feminine instincts led her to impart a daintiness to her performance which must have appealed to the better class of the audience in that day the portrait that adorned her first English handbill which I produced from the picture magazine was engraved by page and published by smetan st martins lane london it is said to be a faithful representation of her stage costume and setting richardson of bartholomew fair fame who was responsible for the introduction of many novelties first presented girardelli to an English audience at portsmouth where her success was so pronounced that a london appearance was arranged for the same year and that mr. layston's rooms 23 new bond street her performance attracted the most fashionable metropolitan audiences for a considerable time following this engagement she appeared at richardson's theater at bartholomew fair and afterwards toured england in the company of senior german day who exhibited a troop of wonderful trained dogs one of the canine actors was billed as the quote russian moscow fire dog an animal unknown in this country and never exhibited before who now delights in that element have you been trained for the last six months at very great expense and fatigue close quote whether girardelli accumulated sufficient wealth to retire or became discouraged by the exposure of her methods cannot now be determined but after she had occupied a prominent position in the public eye and the public prince for a few seasons she dropped out of sight and i have been unable to find where or how she passed the later years of her life i am even more at a loss concerning her contemporary john brooks of whom i have no other record than the following letter which appears in the autobiography of the famous author actor manager thomas dibbden of the theater's royal covent garden drury lane hay market and others this one communication however absolves of any obligation to dig up proofs of john brooks versatility he admits it himself to mr t dibbden esquire proprietor of the royal circus mayfirst 1817 sir i have taken the liberty of writing these few lines to ask you the favor if a griable for me to come to your house as i can do a great many things i can sing a good song and i can eat boiling hot lead and rub my naked arms with a red hot poker and stand on a red hot sheet of iron and do different other things sir i hope you will excuse me in writing i do not want anything for my performing for i have got a business that will sir port me i only want to pass away two or three hours in the evening sir i hope you will send me an answer whether a griple or not i am your humble servant jb direct to me number four fox and not court king street smithfield john brooks we shall let this versatile john brooks close the pre shabara record and turn our attention to the fire eaters of shabara's day imitation may be the sincerest flattery but in most cases the victim of the imitation it is safe to say will gladly dispense with that form of adulation when shabara first came to America and gave fresh impetus to the fire eating art by the introduction of new and startling material he was beset by many imitators or as they probably styled themselves rivals who immediately proceeded so far as in them lay to out shabar shabar one of the most prominent of these was a man named wc howton who claimed to have challenged shabar at various times in a newspaper advertisement in philadelphia where he was scheduled to give a benefit performance on saturday evening february 14th 1832 he practically promised to expose the method of poison eating like that of all exposers however his vogue was of short duration and very little can be found about this super shabar except his advertisements the following will serve as an example of them arch street theater benefit of the american fire king a card wc howton has the honor to announce to the ladies and gentlemen of philadelphia that his benefit will take place at the arch street theater on saturday evening next fourth february when will be presented a variety of entertainments aided by the whole strength of the company mr. h in addition to his former experiments will exhibit several fiery feats pronounced by monsieur shabar and impossibility he will give a complete explanation of the principles of the european and the american chess players he will also unless prevented by in disposition swallow a sufficient quantity of phosphorus presented by either chemist or druggist of this city to destroy the life of any individual should he not feel disposed to take the poison he will satisfactorily explain to the audience the manner it may be taken without injury in our next chapter we shall see how it went with others who challenge shabar a polish athlete jab chalinsky by name toured great britain and ireland in 1841 and presented a more than usually diversified entertainment being gifted by nature with exceptional bodily strength and trained in gymnastics he was enabled to present a mixed program combining his athletics with feats of strength fire eating poison swallowing and fire resistance in the book of wonderful characters published in 1869 by john camden hoten london i find an account of shaman e the russian salamander quote he was insensible for a given time to the effects of heat he was remarkable for the simplicity and singleness of his character as well as for that idiosyncrasy in his constitution which enabled him for so many years not merely to brave the effects of fire but to take a delight in an element where other men find destruction he was above all artifice and would often entreat his visitors to melt their own lead or boil their own mercury that they might be perfectly satisfied of the gratification he derived from drinking these preparations he would also present his tongue in the most obliging manner to all who wished to pour melted lead upon it and stamp an impression of their seals close quote a fireproof build as professor rel mayewe was on the program at the opening of the new national theater in philadelphia pennsylvania in the spring of 1876 if i am not mistaken the date was april 25th he called himself the great inferno fire king and his novelty consisted in having a strip of wet carpeting running parallel to the hot iron plates on which he walked barefoot and stepping on it occasionally and back onto the hot iron when allowed hissing and a cloud of steam bore ample proof of the high temperature of the metal one of the more recent fireproofs was Eugene Revali whose act included besides the usual effects a cage of fire in which he stood completely surrounded by flames Revali whose right name was john Watkins died in 1900 in england he had appeared in great britain and ireland as well as on the continent during the later years of the 19th century the cage of fire has been used by a number of Revali's followers also and the reader will find a full explanation of the methods employed for it in the chapter devoted to the arcana of the fire eaters to which we shall come when we have recorded the work of the master sha bear the history of some of the heat resistors featured on magicians programs particularly in our own day and the interest taken in this art by performers whose chief distinction was one in other fields as notably edwin forest and the elder southern end of chapter three of the miracle mongers read by denis sears and medesto california for libravox fall 2008 chapter four of the miracle mongers this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org reading by lars rolander the miracle mongers by harry houdini chapter four the master sha bear 1792 to 1859 iván iván it's sha bear the only really incompatible phenomenon as he was built abroad or j xavier sha bear am md etc as he was afterwards known in this country was probably the most notable and certainly the most interesting character in the history of fire eating fire resistance and poison eating he was the last prominent figure in the long line of this type of artists to appeal to the better classes and to attract the attention of scientists who for a considerable period treated his achievements more or less seriously Henry evan yong gave me a valuable collection of sha bear clippings handbills etc and related many interesting incidents in connection with this man of wonders it seems quite impossible for me to write of any historical character in magic or its allied arts without recalling my dear old friend evan yong who introduced me to a throng of fascinating characters with each of whom he seemed almost as familiar as if they had been daily companions subsequently i discovered an old engraving of sha bear published in london in 1829 and later still another which bore the change of name as well as the titles enumerated about the latter was published in new york september 1836 and bore the inscription one of the most celebrated chemists philosophers and physicians of the present day these discoveries together with a clue from evan yong led to further investigations which resulted in the interesting discovery that this one-time batholomew fair entertainer spent the last years of his life in new york city he resided here for 27 years and lies buried in the beautiful cypress hills cemetery quite forgotten by the man on the street nearby is the grave of good old senior blitz and not far away is the plot that holds all that is mortal of my beloved parents when i finally break away from earthly change and restraints i hope to be placed beside them during my search for data regarding sha bear i looked in the telephone book for a possible descendant by accident i picked up the suburban instead of the metropolitan edition and there i found a victor e sha bear living at allenhurst new jersey i immediately got into communication with him and found that he was a grandson of the fire king but he could give me no more information than i already possessed which i know spread before my readers mr sha bear was the son of joseph and threes julien sha bear he was born on may 10 1792 at avignon france sha bear was a soldier in the napoleonic wars was exiled to syberia and escaped to england his grandson has an bronze napoleon medal which was presented to sha bear presumably for valor on the field of battle napoleon was exiled in 1815 and again three years later sha bear first attracted public notice in paris at which time his demonstrations of heat resistance were sufficiently astonishing to merit the attention of no less a body than the national institute to the more familiar feats of his predecessors he added startling novelties in the art of heat resistance the most spectacular being that of entertaining a large iron cabinet which resembled a common baker's oven heated to the usual temperature of such ovens he carried in his hand a leg of mutton and remained until the meat was thoroughly cooked another thriller involved standing in a flaming tar barrel until it was entirely consumed around him in 1828 sha bear gave a series of performances at the argyle rooms in london and created a veritable sensation a correspondent in the london mirror has this to say of sha bear's work at that time of monsieur sha bear's wonderful power ofwithstanding the operation of the fiery element it is in the recollection of the writer of witnessing some few years back this same individual in connection with the no less fireproof senora shirardelli exhibiting extraordinary proofs of his supernatural power of resisting the most intense heat of every kind since which an improvement of a more formidable nature has to our astonished fancy been just demonstrated in the newspapers of the past week it is reported that he in the first instance refreshed himself with a hearty meal of phosphorus which was at his own request supplied to him very liberally by several of his visitors who were previously unacquainted with him he washed down they say this infernal fare with solutions of arsenic and oxalic acid thus throwing into the background the long-established fame of mitridates he next swallowed with great good several spoonfuls of boiling oil and as a dessert to this delicate riposte helped himself with his naked hands to considerable quantities of molten lead the experiment however of entering into a hot oven together with a quantity of meat sufficient when cooked to regale those of his friends who were specially invited to witness his performance was the chef d'oeuvre of the day having ordered three fagots of wood which is the quantity generally used by bakers to be thrown into the oven and they being set on fire 12 more fagots of the same size were subsequently added to them which being all consumed by three o'clock Monsieur Chabert entered the oven with a dish of raw meat and when it was sufficiently done he handed it out took in another and remained there in until the second quantity was also well cooked he then came out of the oven and sat down continues the report to partake with a respectable assembly of friends of those beyonds he had so closely attended during the culinary process publicly on a subsequent day and in an oven six feet by seven and at a heat of about 220 he remained till a steak was properly done and again returned to his fiery den and continued for a period of 30 minutes in complete triumph over the power of an element so much treated by humankind and so destructive to animal nature it has been properly observed that there are preparations which so endure the cuticle as to render it insensible to the heat of either boiling oil or melted lead and the fatal qualities of certain poisons may be destroyed if the medium through which they are imbibed as we supposed to be the case here is a strong alkali many experiments as to the extent to which the human frame could bear heat without the destruction of the vital powers have been tried from time to time but so far as recollection reserves monsieur Chabert's fire resisting qualities are greater than those professed by individuals who before him have undergone this species of ordeal it was announced some time ago in one of the french journals that experiments had been tried with a female whose fire standing qualities had excited great astonishment she it appears was placed in a heated oven into which live dogs cats and rabbits were conveyed the poor animals died in a state of convulsion almost immediately while the fire queen bore the heat without complaining in that instance however the heat of the oven was not so great as that which monsieur Chabert encountered much of the power to resist greater degrees of heat than can other men may be a natural gift much the result of chemical applications and much from having the parts in durated by long practice probably all three are combined in this phenomenon with some portion of artifice in Timbs curiosities of London published in 1867 I find the following at the Argyle rooms London in 1829 monsieur Chabert the fire king exhibited his powers of resisting poisons and withstanding extreme heat his swallowed 40 grains of phosphorus sipped oil at 333 degrees with impunity and rubbed a red hot fire shower over his tongue hair and face unharmed on September 23rd on a challenge of 50 pounds Chabert repeated these feats and won the wager he next swallowed a piece of burning torch and then dressed in coarse woolen entered an oven heated to 380 degrees sang a song and cooked two dishes of beef steaks still the performances were suspected and in fact proved to be a chemical jackall another challenge in the same year is recorded under the heading sites of London as follows we were tempted on Wednesday to the Argyle rooms by the challenge of the person of the uncommon name of j smith to monsieur Chabert our old friend the fire king whom this individual dared to invite to a trial of powers in swallowing poison and being baked the audacity of such a step quite amazed us and expecting to see in the competitor at least a Vulcan the god of wal smiths was hastened to the scene of strife alas our disappointment was complete smith had not even the courage of a black smith for standing fire and yielded a steak of 50 pounds as was stated without a contest to monsieur Chabert on the latter coming out of his oven with his own two steaks perfectly cooked on this occasion Chabert took 20 grains of phosphorus swallowed oil heated to nearly 100 degrees above boiling water took molten lead out of a ladle with his fingers and cooled it on his time and besides performing other remarkable feats remained five minutes in the oven at a temperature of between 300 and 400 degrees by the thermometer there was about 150 persons present many of them medical men and being convinced that these things were fairly done without trickery much astonishment was expressed the following detailed account of the latter challenge appeared in the chronicle london september 1829 the fire king and his challenger an advertisement appeared lately in one of the papers in which in which mr j smith after insinuating that monsieur Chabert practiced some juggle when he appeared to enter another heated to 500 degrees and to swallow 20 grains of phosphorus challenged him to perform the exploits which he professed to be performing daily in consequence monsieur Chabert publicly accepted mr j smith's challenge for 50 pounds requesting him to provide the poison himself a day was fixed upon which the challenge was to be determined and at two o'clock on that day a number of gentlemen assembled in the argyle rooms where the exhibition was to take place at a little before three the fire king made his appearance near his oven and as some impatience had been exhibited owing to the non arrival of mr j smith he offered to amuse the company with a few trifling experiments he made a shower red hot and rubbed it over his tongue trick for which no credit he said was due as the moisture the tongue was sufficient to prevent any injury arising from it he next rubbed it over his hair and face declaring that anybody might perform the same feat by first washing themselves in a mixture of spirits of sulfur and alum which by caught rising the epidermis hardened the skin to resist the fire he put his hands into some melted lead took a small portion of it out placed it in his mouth and then gave it in a solid state to some of the company this performance according to his account was also very easy for he seized only a very small particle which by a tight compression between the forefinger and the thumb became cool before it reached the mouth at this time mr smith made his appearance and mr shabare forthwith prepared himself for mightier undertakings a cruise of oil was brought forward and poured into a saucepan which was previously turned upside down to show that there was no water in it the alleged reason for this step was that the vulgar conjures who professed to drink boiling oil placed the oil in water and drink it when the water boils at which time the oil is not warmer than an ordinary cup of tea he intended to drink the oil when any person might see it bubbling in the saucepan and when the thermometer would prove that it was heated to 360 degrees the saucepan was accordingly placed on the fire and as it was requiring the requisite heat the fire king challenged any man living to drink a spoonful of the oil at the same temperature as that at which he was going to drink it in a few minutes afterwards he sipped off a spoonful with greatest apparent ease although the spoon from contact with the boiling fluid had become too hot for ordinary fingers to handle and now mr smith said the fire king now for your challenge have you prepared yourself with phosphorus or will you take some of mine which is laid on that table mr smith walked up to the table and pulling a vial bottle out of his pocket offered it to the poisons follower fire king i ask you on your honor as a gentleman it's this genuine unmixed poison mr smith it is upon my honor fire king is there any medical gentleman here who will examine it a person in the room requested that dr gordon smith one of the medical professors in the london university would examine the vial and decide whether it contained genuine phosphorus the professor went to the table on which the formidable collection of poisons such as red and white arsenic hydroceanic acid morphine and phosphorus was placed and examining the vial declared that to the best of his judgment it was genuine phosphorus mr shabir asked mr smith how many grains he wished to commence his first draft with mr smith 20 grains will do as a commencement a medical gentleman then came forward and cut off two parcels of phosphorus containing 20 grains each he was placing them in the water when the fire king requested that his phosphorus might be cut into small pieces as he did not wish the pieces to stop on their way to his stomach the poisons were now prepared a wine glass contained the portion set aside for the fire king a tumbler the portion reserved for mr smith the fire king i suppose gentlemen i must begin and to convince you that i do not juggle i will first take off my coat and then i will trouble you doctor speaking to dr gordon smith to tie my hands together behind me after he had been bandaged in this manner he planted himself on one knee in the middle of the room and requested some gentleman to place the phosphorus on his tongue and pour the water down his throat this was accordingly done and the water and phosphorus was swallowed together he then opened his mouth and requested the company to look whether any portion of the phosphorus remained in his mouth several gentlemen examined his mouth and declared that there was no phosphorus perceptible either upon or under his tongue he was then by his own desire unbandaged the fire king forthwith turned to mr smith and offered him the other glass of phosphorus mr smith started back in infinite alarm not for worlds sir not for worlds i beg to decline it the fire king then wherefore did you send me a challenge you pledged your honor to drink it if i did i have done it and if you are a gentleman you must drink it too mr smith no no i must be excused i'm quite satisfied without it here several voices exclaimed that the bet was lost some said there must be a confederacy between the challenger and the challenge and others asked whether any money had been deposited the fire king called a mr white forward who deposed that he held the stakes which had been regularly placed in his hands by both parties before twelve o'clock that morning the fire king here turned round with great exaltation to the company and pulling a bottle out of his pocket exclaimed i did never see this gentleman before this morning and i did not know but that he might be bold enough to venture to take this quantity of poison i was determined not to let him lose his life by his foolish wager and therefore i did bring an antidote in my pocket which would have prevented him from suffering any harm mr smith said his object was answered by seeing 20 grains of genuine phosphorus swallowed he had conceived it impossible as three grains were quite sufficient to destroy life the fire king then withdrew into another room for the professed purpose of putting on his usual dress for entering the oven bathed in all probability for the purpose of getting the phosphorus out of his stomach after an absence of 20 minutes he returned dressed in a coarse woolen coat to enter the heated oven before he entered it a medical gentleman ascertained that his pulse was vibrating 98 times a minute he remained in the oven five minutes during which time he sang levallion troubadour and superintendent the cooking of two dishes of beef steaks at the end of that time he came out perspiring profusely and with the pulse making 168 vibrations in a minute the thermometer when brought out of the oven stood at 380 degrees within the oven he said it was above 600 although he was suspected of trickery by many was often challenged and had an army of rivals and imitators all available records show that shabbé was beyond a doubt the greatest fire and poison resistor that ever appeared in London seeking new laurels he came to America in 1832 and although he was successful in New York his subsequent tour of the states was financially disastrous he evidently saved enough from the wreck however to start in business and the declining years of his eventful life were passed in the comparative obscurity of a little drugstore in grand street as his biographer i regret to be obliged to chronicle the fact that he made and sold an alley specific for the white plague thus enabling his detractors to couple with his name the word quack the following article which appeared in the new york herald of september first 1859 three days after shabbé's death gives further details of his activities in this country we published among the arbitrary notices in yesterday's herald the death of dr julian savier shabbé the fire king aged 67 years of pulmonary consumption dr c was a native of france and came to this country in 1832 and was first introduced to the public at the lecture room of the old clinton hall in nasa street where he gave exhibitions by entering a hot oven of his own construction and while there gave evidence of his salamander qualities by cooking beef steaks to the surprise and astonishment of his audiences it was a question to many whether the doctor's oven was red hot or not as he never allowed any person to approach him during the exhibition or to take part in the proceedings he made a tour of the united states in giving these exhibitions which resulted in financial bankruptcy at the breaking out of the cholera in 1832 he turned doctor and appended md to his name and suddenly his newspaper advertisements claimed for him the title of the celebrated fire king the cure of consumption the maker of chinese lotion etc while the doctor was at the height of his popularity some wag perpetrated the following joke in a newspaper paragraph during some experiments he was making in chemistry last week an explosion to place which entirely bewildered his faculties and left him in a condition bordering on the grave he was blown into a thousand atoms he took place on wednesday of last week and some account state that it grew out of an experiment with phosphoric ether others that it was by two liberal indulgence in prusik acid an article which from its resemblance to the peach he was remarkably fond of having about him the doctor was extensively accused of quackery and on one occasion when the herald touched on the same subject it brought him to our office and he exhibited diplomas certificates and medical honors without number the doctor was remarkable for his profilic display of jewelry and medals of honor and by his extensive display of baird he found a rival in this city in the person of another french chemist who gave the doctor considerable opposition and consequently much trouble the doctor was famous also for his four horse turnouts in broadway alternating when he saw proper to a change to the tandem style he married an irish lady whom he at first supposed to be immensely rich but after the nuptials it was discovered that she merely had a life interest in a large estate in common with several others the doctor it appears was formally a soldier in the french army and quite recently he received from thence a medal of the order of saint helena an account of which appeared in the herald prior to his death he was engaged in writing his biography in french and had it nearly ready for publication here follows a supposedly humorous speech in broken english quoted from the lon landslith in which the doctor is satirized continuing the article says the doctor was what was termed a fast liver and at the time of his death he kept a drug store in grand street and had very little of this world's goods he leaves three children to mourn his loss one of them an educated physician residing in hoboken new york city doctor c has gone to that born when snow travelers returns and we fervently trust and hope that the disembodied spirits of the tens of thousands whom he has treated in this swear will treat him with the same science with which he treated them while in this wicked world end of chapter four of the miracle mongers read by los rolander chapter five of the miracle mongers this is a librivox recording or librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by los rolander the miracle mongers by harry houdini chapter five fire eating magicians chingling fu and changling su fire eaters employed by magicians the man salamander 1816 mr. Carlton professor of chemistry 1818 miss casilis age 9 1820 the african wander 1843 ling look and jamadeva die in china during keller's world tour 1872 ling looks double 1879 electrical effects the salambos bueno core delcano arnello had been forest as a heat resistor the elder southern as a fire eater the twilight of the art many of our most noted magicians have considered it not beneath their own work or by the employment of a fire artist although seldom presenting it in his recent performances chingling fu is a fire eater of the highest type refining the effect with the same subtle artistry that marks all the works of this super magician of fu's thousands imitators the only positively successful one was william e robinson whose tragic death while in the performance of the bullet catching trick it's the latest addition to the long list of casualties chargeable to that ill omen juggle he carried the imitation even as far as the name calling himself changling su robinson was very successful in the classic trick of apparently eating large quantities of cotton and blowing smoke and sparks from the mouth his teeth were finally quite destroyed by the continued performance of this trick the method of which may be found in chapter six the employment of fire eaters by magicians began a century ago for in 1816 the magician sir boas kc featured a performer who was billed as the man salamander the fact that boas gave him a place on his program is proof that this man was clever but the effects they're listed showed nothing original in 1818 a mr. Carlton professor of chemistry toured england in company with ray the batholomew fair magician as will be seen by the handbill reproduced here Carlton promised to explain the deceptive part of the performance when there is a sufficient company in 1820 a mr. kassilis toured england with a juvenile company one of the features of which was miss kassilis aged nine years whose act was a complete reproduction of the program of boas concluding her performance with a chinese fire trick a negro carlo alberto appeared in a benefit performance given by her julian who styled himself as the wizard of the south in london on november 28 1843 alberto was billed as the great african wonder the fire king and it was promised that he would go through part of his wonderful performance as given by him in the principal theaters in america in boston new york philadelphia etc a later number on the same bill reads the african wonder carlo alberto will sing several new and popular negro melodies collectors of minstrel data please take notice in more recent times there have been a number of negro fireeachers but none seems to have risen to noticeable prominence ling look one of the best of contemporary fire performers was with dean harry keller when the latter made his famous trip around the world in 1877 look combined fire eating and sword swallowing in a rather startling manner his best effect was the swallowing of a red hot sword another thriller consisted in fastening a long sword to the stock of a musket when he had swallowed about half the length of the blade he discharged the gun and the recoil drove the sword suddenly down his throat to the very hilt although look also appeared in a chinese makeup dean keller told me that he thought his right name was stave gutter and that he was born in buddhapesh dhamadeva a brother of ling look was also with a keller company doing cabinet manifestations and rope escapes both brothers died in china during this engagement and a strange incident occurred in connection with their deaths just before they were to sail from shanghai on the p and o steamer kiva for hong kong jhamadeva and keller visited the bowling alley of the hermitage a pleasure resort on the bubbling well road they were watching a husky sea captain who was using a huge ball and making a double spare at every roll when yamadeva suddenly remarked i can handle one as heavy as that big loa per can suiting the action to the word he seized one of the largest balls and drew it down the alley with all his might but he had misjudged his own strength and he paid for the foolhardy act with his life for he had no sooner delivered the ball than he grasped his side and moaned with pain he had hardly sufficient strength to get back to the ship where he went immediately to bed and died shortly afterward an examination showed that he had ruptured an artery keller and ling look had much difficulty in persuading the captain to take the body to hong kong but he finally consented on the way down the jiang si qiang river look was greatly depressed but all at once he became strangely excited and said that his brother was not dead for he had just heard the peculiar whistle with which they had always called each other the whistle was several times repeated and was heard by all on board finally the captain convinced that something was wrong had the lid removed from the coffin but the body of yamadeva gave no indication of life and all save ling look decided that they must have been mistaken poor ling look however sobbingly said to keller i shall never leave hong kong alive my brother has called me to join him this prediction was fulfilled for shortly after their arrival in hong kong he underwent an operation for a liver trouble and died under the knife the brothers were buried in happy valley hong kong in the year 1877 all this was related to me at the malbruk blenheim atlantic city in june 1908 by keller himself and portions of it were repeated in 1917 when dean keller sat by me at the society of american magicians dinner in 1879 the repaired in england a performer who claimed to be the original ling look he wore his makeup both on and off the stage and copied so far as he could ling style of work his fame reached this country and the new york clipper published in its letter columns an article stating that ling look was not dead but was alive and working in england his imitator had the nerve to stick to this story and even when confronted by keller but when the latter assured him that he had personally attended to the burial of ling in hong kong he broke down and confessed that he was a younger brother of the original ling look keller later informed me that the resemblance was so strong that had he not seen the original ling look consigned to the earth he himself would have been duped into believing that this was the man who had been with him in hong kong the salambos were among the first to use electrical effects in a fire act combining these with the natural gas and human volcano dance of their predecessors so that they were able to present an extremely spectacular performance without having recourse to such unpleasant features as had marred the effect of earlier fire acts bueno corto deserves honorable mention for the cleaness and snap of his act and delcano should also be named among the clever performers one of the best known of the modern fireeachers was barnello who was a good businessman as well and kept steadily employed at a better salary than the rank and file of his contemporaries he did a thriving business in the sale of the various concussions used in his art and published and sold a most complete book of formulas and general instructions for those interested in the craft he had indeed many irons in the fire and he kept them all hot it will perhaps surprise the present generation to learn that the well-known circus man jacob shoeless was once a fire eater and that del fugo well known in his day as a dancer in the music halls began as a fire resistor and did his dance on hot iron plates but the reader has two keener surprises in store for him before i close the long history of the heat resistors the first concerns are great american tragedy and even forest 1806 to 1872 who according to james reese cally ciber once a said a fire resisting act forest was always fond of athletics and at one time made an engagement with the manager of a circus to appear as a tumbler and rider the engagement was not fulfilled however as his friend sold smith induced him to break it and return to the ledgy timid stage smith afterwards admitted to ciber that if forest had remained with the circus he would have become one of the most daring riders and bolters that ever appeared in the ring his adventures in fire resistance was on the occasion of the benefit to charlie jung on which eventful night as the last of his acrobatic feats he made a flying leap through a barrel of red fire singeing his hair and eyebrows terribly this particular leap through fire was the big sensation of those days and forest evidently had a hankering to show his friends that he could accomplish it and he did the second concerns an equally popular actor a comedian this time the elder southern 1826 to 1888 on march 20 1878 a writer in the chicago inter ocean communicated to that paper the following curiously descriptive article is mr. southern a medium this is the question that 15 puzzled investigators are asking themselves this morning after witnessing a number of astounding manifestations at a private seance given by mr. southern last night it lacked a few minutes of 12 when a number of mr. southern's friends who had been given to understand that something remarkable was to be performed assemble in the former's room at the Sherman house and took seats around a marble top table which was placed in the center of the apartment on the table were a number of glasses two very large bottles and five lemons a sprightly young gentleman attempted to crack a joke about spirits being confined in bottles but the company frowned him down and for once mr. southern had a sober audience to begin with there was a good deal of curiosity regarding the object of the gathering but no one was able to explain each gentleman testified to the fact mr. southern's agent had waited upon him and solicited his presence at a little exhibition to be given by the actor not of a comical nature mr. southern himself soon after appeared and after shaking hands with the party thus addressed them gentleman i have invited you here this evening to witness a few manifestations demonstrations tests or whatever you choose to call them which i have accidentally discovered that i'm able to perform i am a fire eater as it were applause i used to read the fire having been scorched once when an innocent child a laugh mr. southern severely i hope there will be no levity here and i wish to say now that demonstrations of any kind are liable to upset me while demonstrations of a particular kind may upset the audience silence and decorum being restored mr. southern thus continued 13 weeks ago while walking up greenish street in new york i stepped into a store to buy a cigar to show you there is no trick about it here are cigars out of the same box from which i selected the one i that day lighted here mr. southern passed around a box of tolerable cigars well i stepped to the little hanging gas jet to light it and having done so stood contemplatively holding the gas gate and the cigar in either hand thinking what a saving it would be to smoke a pipe when in my absent mindedness i dropped the cigar and put the gas jet into my mouth strange as it may appear i felt no pain and stood there holding the thing in my mouth and puffing till the man in charge dealt out to me that i was swallowing his gas then i looked up and sure enough there i was pulling away on the slender flame that came from the glass tube i dropped it instantly and felt of my mouth but noticed no inconvenience or unpleasant sensation whatever what do you mean by it said the proprietor as i didn't know what i meant by it i couldn't answer so i picked up my cigar and went home once there i tried the experiment again and in doing so i found that not only my mouth but my hands and face indeed all of my body was proof against fire i called on a physician and he examined me and reported nothing wrong with my flesh which appeared to be in normal condition i said nothing about it publicly but the fact greatly surprised me and i have invited you here tonight to witness a few experiments saying this mr southern who had lit a cigar while pausing in his speech turned the 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 southern nodded there was probably never a gathering more dumbfounded than that present in the room a few questions were asked and then five gentlemen were appointed to examine mr southern's hands etc before he began his experiments having thoroughly washed the parts that he proposed to subject to the flames mr southern began by burning his arm and passing it through the gas jet very slowly twice stopping the motion and holding it still in the flames he then picked up a poker with a sort of hook on the end and proceeded to fish a small coil of wire from the grate the wire came out fairly white with the heat mr southern took the coil in his hands and coolly proceeded to wrap it around his left leg to the knee having done so he stood on the table in the center of the circle and requested the committee to examine the wrapping and the leg and report if both were there the committee did so and reported in the affirmative while this was going on there was a smile almost seraphic in its beauty on mr southern's face after this an enormous hot iron in the shape of a horseshoe was placed on mr southern's body where it cooled without leaving a sign of a burn as a final test a tailor's goose was put on the coals and after being thoroughly heated was placed on mr southern's chair the latter lighted a fresh cigar and then coolly took a seat on the goose without the least seeming inconvenience during the last experiment mr southern sang in an excellent tone and voice i'm sitting on the style marrying the question now is were the 15 auditors of mr southern fooled and deceived or was this a genuine manifestation of extraordinary power southern is such an inveterate joker that he may have put the thing upon the boys for his own amusement but if so it was one of the nicest tricks ever witnessed by yours truly one of the committee ps what is equally marvelous to me is that the fire didn't burn his clothes where he touched them anymore than his flesh pc there is nothing new in this mr southern has long been known as one of the most expert jugglers in the profession some years ago he gained the sobriki of the fire king he frequently amuses his friends by eating fire though he long ago ceased to give public exhibitions probably the success of the experiments last night were largely owing to the lemons present there is a good deal of trickery in those same lemons editor inter ocean which suggests that the editor of the inter ocean was either pretty well acquainted with the comedian's addiction to spoofing or else less susceptible to superstition than certain scientists of our generation the great day of the fire eater or should i say the day of the great fire eater has passed no longer does fashion flock to his doors nor science studies wonders and he must now seek a following in the gaping loiterers of the circus side show the pumpkin and prize pig country fair or the tawdry booth at coney island the credulous wonder loving scientist however still abides with us and while his serious minded brothers a ring from nature her jealously guarded secrets the knowledge of which benefits all mankind he gravely follows that perennial will of the wisp spirits and lays the flattering junction to his soul that he is investigating psychic phenomenon when in reality he's merely gazing with unseeing eyes on the flimsy juggling of pseudo mediums ending note i never saw link looks work but i know that some of the sore swallows have made use of a sheath which was swallowed before the performance and the source was simply pushed into it a sheath of this kind lined with asbestos might easily have served as a protection against the red hot plate end of chapter five fire eating magicians red by lorch rolander