A SENSATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3044, 20 November 1872, Page 4

A SENSATION.

There is a heathen Chinee in New York of whose sensational feats, as they will probably be repeated in admiring Europe, we may retail the description. He opened his exhibition with the “Supper of Hades,” in which he placed in his mouth with a fork the blazing cinders of sundry combined chemicals which, being on the point of exhaustion, lost their heat and collapsed at a puff of the breath upon entering. He appeared to swallow them, and then drank a glass of red liquid. After this smoke and sparks issued from his mouth. He then, in illustration of the “Magic Bouquet,” chewed cotton-wool, and pulled from his mouth many yards of paper ribbon. Holding these in a bunch, he drew from them artificial flowers, which he threw among the audience. Finally he pulled from the bunch a brown gutta-percha or indiarubber tube, seven feet long, and shaped like a candle. At the end of this a small taper was inserted as the tube arose, whiuh kindled fireworks, and the caudle then retired in a blaze of sputtering glory. This was styled the “ Pyrotechnic Column.” The next feat was that of swallowing an egg. It was veritably accomplished, as might be seen by the working of the muscles in the man’s throat as the egg subsided. A lighted candle was subsequently pilaced in the mouth to show that the egg did not lurk there. It, however, was put partially swallowed. A little muscular action of the throat, accompanied for effect by a pressure of the stomach, brought it again to view. It was taken in the hand and broken, that the flowing yolk might prove its nature. Ling Look’s next and last performance was the insertion down his throat of a sword nearly three feet long. It was narrow, straight, rounded at the point, and smooth at the corners. It was gradually and circumspectly pushed down into the stomach, and then withdrawn and wiped. When again inserted, a cannon-ball, with a hole in it, was placed upon the projecting point of the handle, which drove it to the same depth as before. On a third insertion, a small musket, with a hole in the stock, was placed on the handle, and fired by means of a string attached to the trigger. It may be remarked, that during the latter operation, the sword descended to but little more than half its length.