Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1864-08-25
A sjupular Exhibition In London.

LII
hropoglossos," is thus described by the Times.
The room in st. Jamess Hall. long enlivened
! y Christy's Minstrels is now devoted to
ingular exhibition, bearing for its title the
odd word, Anthropoglossos. Entering the
DOM the spectator finds his attention attract
ed by large waxen head, bearing no slight
resemblance to the late M. Julien, with some
thing like a silver funnel stuck into Its mouth.
This head does not stand on pedestal, but is
sustained by gilded chains suspended from the
ceiling. AT the first glance it might be taken
inspection the spectator will perceive below
the bust a small glass Ct se con tanning some
sort of mechanical app aratus. To an aperture
In this case the exhibitor applies key, and
after W hiding up process has been duly &C
compnshed, pair of little bellows are seen to
work, and the sound of a human voice, sing
ing the music and words of a song, quite as dis.
tinctly as any flesh and blood vocalists, issues
from the mouth of the head. Six songs, termi-
mating with God save the Queen" consh-
tute the entire entertainment. Two other
heads, likewise with tunnels in their mouths,
may be observed at the back Of the room, but
these are not yet brought into active operation.
When their musical education is complete we
may possibly be favored with duets and trios.
"11 we remember right it was Alexander the
Great who played the Tyre with such wonder
tul skill as to elicit from his father the remark
that the performance was too good for the
future king. In the same manner, notwith.
standing the assurance that the loss Of " Polly
Perkins " and the fascination OF the "dark girl
dres sed in blue" are celebrated sby means Of
the incest and most exquisitely constructed
mec han1sm," we cannot help remarking that
the articulation is almost too uneXceptionable
for machine. There is nothing wooden or
metallic, or squeaky or hitchy, in the whole
performance, but the lyric illusions go off as
glbly as though some artist of the Music Halls
Were singing them through one Of those pipes
that form communication between the princi-
pairs parlor and the clerks room I'm mer-
chants counting. house. Hence we fear wick
ed Pyrrhonists will arise who will doubt the
connection between the windlng-up Of the
machine and the utterance of the melodies.
Of course they will be altogether wrong, but
the presence of a voice decidedly human
would have intellectually increased the facil-
lty of refuting them.
However, the skeptic and the believer will
both agree that he exhibition is extremely in
genious. The head is not large enough to con.
tain any human performer, nor does 1t comma
nicate in any visible manner with any remote
source OF sound. There 1t hangs in chains, in
4 state OF defiant insulation, and If you will
not believe that its voice proceeds from the
little bellows, 1T Oh allenges you to point out an
other origin.
ITO most persons of the present generation
the " Anthropoglossos' will, we think, be an
absolute novelty, but the old among will,
perhaps, recollect that at q time when the
name of Madame Tussaud was unknown in
London there was, on the southern side of
Fleet street, a collection of wax figures, osten-
Silly belonging to one Mrs. Salmon. In one of
the rooms of the ediflce that contained this
collection was the called "1nvisible
Girl small suspended box, from which is
sued voice that answered questions and sang
songs. Whether the old 80 Invisible Grip was
similar in principle to the "Anthropoglossos''
we cannotsay."