THE FIRE KING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2453, 31 March 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FIRE KING.

]By Henry Newport] "Get onto this bill, Shorty," remarked the city editor, who was an artist in English when wielding the pencil, but whosespoken language was fearfully and wonderfully mutilated. He took a folded handbill from between tho leaves of an assignment book, and opened it for my better inspection. " I want you to jump around there, find out how he does these things, and make an expose of the whole business—or, hold on; the whole business will be too much ; just confine yourself to half a dozen of the tricks. Tell the people exactly how they are performed and in such a clear manner that anyone who reads the article may perform them. Do it in about a column, and get your matter in by twelve o'clock." Then he fell to sucking at tho stem of his briarwood pipe with a concentration of attention never encountered outside of a newspaper office, and I understood that I and the handbill were dismissed. The handbill was an aggregation of big type and bigger words, informing the public that " Professor Pherguson, the l'liire King and Prince of Pre-:tidigitateurs," would for the period of one week only perform his marvellous medley of magic —eat red-hot coals, bathe in molten lead, melt bars of steel in the flame of a common candle, and in divers and sundry ways prove that he was in league with the boss of the brimstone world. The Professor was a little man, generous and expansive in the matter of shirt front, red as to hair, and blest with a surprising amplitude of coat sleeves and tail. "Ladies and gentlemen," he began, coming to the front of the stage and turning back his cuffs with an innocent air and that generally cleanfingered dexterity which characterises the manual motions of sleight-of-hand men ; " ladies and gentlenen, begging your pardon in advance for the liberty I am taking I wish to state that in the hall of this opera house, there is a faucet connected with the pipes which supply this city with water. If some young gentleman in the audience will be so kind as to fill this tin utensil in my hand"—he lifted a tin quart bucket from the table and tapped it with his forefinger — " with water from the faucet, I shall proceed to burn it—-not boil it, understand me, but burn the water with a flame which you may all see." After a little natural persistence and some urging from the Professor a couple of young gentlemen, aged about thirteen summers, conveyed the tin bucket out into tbe hall, whence they presently returned with a quart of water, which the professor demonstrated to be pure water by drinking a few swallows of it. A suggestion from the rear of the hall that the growler might contain beer was properly ignored, and tho remainder of the clear fluid was poured from the bucket into a glas fruit dish. " Salamandissimus, salamandos!" remarked the Professor, solemnly, while 110 waved his hands over the surface of tho water. " I command thee onco, I command thee twice, I command theo three times, in the name of brimstone, fire ! " A rose-coloured flame appeared on the water, and gradually spread until it embraced the whole area of the surfaeo and rose pyramid-wiso to a height of about twelve inches. During the subsequent proceedings the water continued to burn. Then ensued the cracking of a number of familiar chestnuts, such as tho cooking of an omelet in a borrowed silk hat, the mysterious production from nowhere of an outfit of tinware and a guinea pig, ct id omne (joins. A bar of load was melted in a crucible over a small furnace, and, according to the promise on the biPs, tho Professor proceedod to wash his hands in tho molten lead. Ho did tho work thoroughly, plunging his hands to tho elbow

into the crucible, now and then scooping up the liquid lead in his palm and dropping it upon the board floor of the stage, where it instantly hardened in thin flakes. The blade of an ordinary steel table knife melted like wax in the flame of a tallow candle under the influence of this touch, and then, dipping the pen into the dish of burning water, the Professor went through the motions of writing upon a folded newspaper handed to him by one of the audience. When the hall was darkened, the words "Pherguson, the Pliire King, right hand of His Majesty Diablos!" stood out in green flames from the surface of the paper. So far, so good. The tricks were performed ; but the city editor's instructions to find out how they were performed and to write an expose of the fire king's secrets unhappily were not carried out. While the audience was conveying itself through the doorway into the street, I elbowed my way behind the scenes and corraled the Professor, who was engaged m packing his paraphernalia. When you want a man to do you a favour, it is by no means best to approach him with an obsequious air ; if you do, he will probably tumble to your racket, so to speak, and give you the cold shake. ■ I kept my hat 011 and paralysed the Professor with a steely glare and just a shade of hauteur. " Representing the Press," I said, brusquely, producing a pasteboard. " Are not the. chemicals used in your—ah—ah—tricks, are they not dangerous—of an inflammable nature—apt to explode, and all that ?" While I was talking, I made some notes in a manuscript book giving the professor the idea that the jottings were to the effect that his entertainments were of a character 1 hazardous to the audience. " Good gracious, sir ! no!" he gasped ; "by all means do not publish such an insinuation ; it would ruin me. All my agents are innocent when rightly used." I smiled cynically—" Yes, of course, you say so." "But I can prove it. Potassium, phosphorus, brimstone, quicksilver. Are they explosive 1" The trail was getting warm. " Well, of course, that depends. The potassium for instance, how do you use it 1 " "l drop a small quantity of it upon the surface of the water in the glass dish. Upon contact with the water it immediately flares up and burns with a rose-coloured flame. Simplest thing in the world. With the brimstone I merely touch a piece of steel made red-hot in the flame of a candle, and tho steel melts like tallow, No danger there. A stick of phosphorus is affixed to my pen when I write upon the newspaper, and of course in the darkness the writing stands out. To wash my hands in molten lead it is only necessary to bathe them previously in an ointment made of one ounce of quicksilver, two ounces of bole ammoniaco, half an ounce of camphor, and two ounces of aquavitie, beaten together with a pestle in a brass mortar. I keep this mixture by me constantly, and have never yet had the slightest accident." The still, small'voice of the callboy's clock said "eleven" just as the Professor was finishing lii.s meaty sentence, and I rushed around to the office with scant time to write up and hand in my copy by 12 o'clock. I had not exposed the Professor's whole business, but I had got at the marrow of four of his best tricks.