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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
HOUDINI
AUTHOR OF
``THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT HOUDIN,'' 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 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
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,
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