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MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

MIRACLE MONGERS

AND THEIR METHODS

A COMPLETE EXPOSE' OF THE MODUS

OPERANDI OF FIRE EATERS, HEAT

RESISTERS, POISON EATERS, VENOMOUS

REPTILE DEFIERS, SWORD SWALLOWERS,

HUMAN OSTRICHES, STRONG MEN, ETC.

BY Harry Houdini

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MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

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 every-day

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 a 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 to-day,

if a mystifier lack the ingenuity to invent a

new and startling stunt, he can safely fall back

upon a trick that has been the favorite of

pressagents the world over in all ages. He can

imitate the Hindoo fakir 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 feat

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

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MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

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.

HOUDINI.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. Fire worship.--Fire eating and heat resistance.--The

Middle 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 ``Wonderful

Phenomenon.''--``The Incombustible Spaniard, Senor

Lionetto,'' 1803.--Josephine Girardelli, 1814.--John

Brooks, 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 Chung

Ling Soo.--Fire-eaters employed by magicians:

The Man-Salamander, 1816.-Mr. Carlton,

Professor of Chemistry, 1818.--Miss Cassillis, aged

nine, 1820. The African Wonder, 1843.--Ling

Look and Yamadeva die in China during Kellar's

world tour, 1877.--Ling Look's double, 1879.--

Electrical effects, The Salambos.--Bueno Core.--Del

Kano.--Barnello.--Edwin Forrest as a heat-resister

--The Elder Sothern as a fire-eater.--The Twilight

of the Art

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

Albertus Magnus.--Of Hocus Pocus.--Richardson's

method.--Philopyraphagus Ashburniensis.--To

breathe forth sparks, smoke and flames.--To spout

natural gas.--Professor Sementini's discoveries.--

To bite off red-hot iron.--To cook in a burning cage.

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MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

--Chabert's oven.--To eat coals of fire.--To drink

burning oil.--To chew molten lead.--To chew

burning brimstone.--To wreathe the face in flames.

--To ignite paper with the breath.--To drink boiling

liquor and eat flaming wax

VII. The spheroidal condition of liquids.--Why the hand

may be dipped in molten metals.--Principles of heat

resistance put to practical uses: Aldini, 1829.--In

early fire-fighting.--Temperatures the body can

endure

VIII. Sword-swallowers: Cliquot, Delno Fritz, Deodota, a

razor-swallower, an umbrella-swallower, William

Dempster, John Cumming, Edith Clifford, Victorina

IX. Stone-eaters: A Silesian in Prague, 1006; Francois

Battalia, ca. 1641; Platerus' beggar boy; Father

Paulian's lithophagus of Avignon, 1760; ``The

Only One in the World,'' London, 1788; Spaniards

in London, 1790; a secret for two and six; Japanese

training.--Frog-swallowers: Norton; English

Jack; Bosco; the snake-eater; Billington's

prescription for hangmen; Captain Veitro.--Water

spouters; Blaise Manfrede, ca. 1650; Floram

Marchand, 1650

X. Defiers of poisonous reptiles: Thardo; Mrs. Learn,

dealer in rattle-snakes.--Sir Arthur Thurlow

Cunynghame on antidotes for snake-bite.--Jack

the Viper.--William Oliver, 1735.--The advice of

Cornelius Heinrich Agrippa, (1480-1535).--An

Australian snake story.--Antidotes for various

poisons

XI. Strongmen of the eighteenth century: Thomas Topham

(died, 1749); Joyce, 1703; Van Eskeberg,

1718; Barsabas and his sister; The Italian Female

Sampson, 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; Alexander

Weyer; Mexican Billy Wells; A foolhardy

Italian; Wilson; Herman; Sampson; Sandow;

Yucca; La Blanche; Lulu Hurst.--The Georgia

Magnet, The Electric Girl, etc.; Annie Abbott;

Mattie Lee Price.--The Twilight of the Freaks.--

The dime museums

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MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

CHAPTER ONE

FIRE WORSHIP.--FIRE EATING AND HEAT

RESISTANCE.--IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

--AMONG THE NAVAJO INDIANS.--

FIRE-WALKERS 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 labor.

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 worshiped 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, Natches, Peruvians and

Mayas kept their ``national fires'' burning

upon great pyramids. Eventually the keeping

of such fires became a sacred rite, 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

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Harry Houdini - Miracle Mongers And Their Methods.pdf

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