MAN WITH A FORK IN HIS STOMACH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 225, 23 May 1872, Page 8

MAN WITH A FORK IN HIS STOMACH.

The Florentine correspondent of the •' Morning Post " says : " A most ey-^ traordinary occurrence has been for tbaP last six or seven days, and continues at this present moment to be, the general topic of conversation. Not long ago we had at one of our theatres a compan) of Chinese jugglers. One of them (Ling-Lark) was celebrated for his trick of swallowing a long sword, and then pulling it out again. At one of these representations there happened to be a young Florentine of the name of Cipriani, who, on leaving the theatre with a few friends, manifested his opinion that the trick played by the Chinese was as easy as the drinking of a tumblerful of water. ©ipriani and his friends went as usual to the restaurant to have supper, and after having eaten and drunk for an hour, the conversation fell again on the Chinese Ling-Lark. Cipriani this time was not satisfied with manifesting his opinion. He would prove it to his friend?. He actually took up one of forks with which he had been eating, put it in his mouth, down in his throat, when, alas ! the fork slipped from his hand. Here his friends got terribly frightened, attempted *to pull it out again, but all in vain. The young man was immediately carried to the hospital of Santa Maria, and there he still lies, an object of general curiosity. The crowd which daily has been gathering before the hospital of people who demand admittance into the corridor to have a sight of this extraordinary youth, who for the lasb five days has eating and drinking wifh a fork in the middle .of' his stomach, has been so great" that police officers have been stationed at the different doors to prevent the people from breaking into the hospital. Such an extraordinary case has naturally excited great interest in the medical class. A consultatiM^. took place three days ago, at which the principal doctor and surgeonsfof Florence and all the medical students were present. One proposed one thing, the other another ; but nothing has been decided, for the simple reason that the precise position of the fork has not been found out.

"/The question of turning Paris into a sublimer Baden-Baden originated," say 8 an English paper, "we believe, by the virtuous " Figaro " as one method for reviving the prosperity and former glories of the city is to be decided immediately, if we are to put our trust in the journals which affect to treat it seriously. An American is said to have offered three millions of francs per annum for the lease of the Palais d'lndustrie, a capital situation and a suitable building for a Kureaal. Decorated with the names of the most illustrious of the earth's worthies, and once the centra of che choicest works of men, it would be a comforting exhibition in the form of a great gambling hell, besides furnishing a striking example of the recuperative powers of the lively Parisians ; for undoubtedly it would attract the stranger and detain him. Nor can anyone deny that it is a most ingenious idea to constitute Paris at a single blow the heiress to the treasures of Baden-Baden and Homburgh. Those doomed haunts of pleasure are soon to cease to replenish the exchequer of the German. Then why be squeamish ? Why, it is argued, renounce the opportunity of taking what men are so eager to give ? Paris wants money. The municipality cannot but think the proposal of the American magnificent, and even he would be outbidden. The mediatised Princes of Homburg and Baden, M. Blanc and . M. . Dupressior, are not likely to let so splendid a territory as Paris escape them without a struggle, and whether it be for the palace or any other spot in or near the Elysian Fields, they may be reckoned upon to bid high for. the restitution of their" inestimable privileges, ao cruelly nipped by the German.