The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-05-10
WHEELING. WEST VA, FRIDAY MORNING, MAY TO- 1857

shoulder spin about his back, around
his neck, down his arms, and still spin:
tops thrown spinning up to the height
of twenty feet, fall upon the esharp edge
of sword blade, and spin back and
forth upon that slender bridge, with as
little danger of falling or stopping as
the MohRmmedan saint passing into
Paradise over a similar footway. Once
or twice the top failed TO obey the hand
of the master, whereupOn the latter
abased himself before the people, and
rose from his knees to do still more
wonderful things. ,..s-..fs .--lll.
The Butterfly trick" was a piece of
sktllful legerdemain, with a touch OF
poetry in it.. A magician who answers
to the cheerful name of ZumidangaWa
Matzungoro, standing behind a table
performs this trick by cutting from pa
per the image of a butterfly, and caus-
ing 1t to futter about his head in the
breeze created by fan. A boquet OF
flowers, held In one of the performers
hands, attracts the butterfly; presently
other butterflies appear and soon
swarm hoveEs about the nosegay. This
beautiful.
Two women then appeared. One was
juggler; the other u musician. The
latter seated herself, with a japanese
gultar-a queer instrument, compound
ed of either and bRnjo-and in COM
pany with a dreadful drummer, who
beats a wooden beetle and struck some
clashing brass, and another guitarist,
who was very dolefnl, kept up a run
ming accompaniment to the juggle go-
ing on at the neighbOripg table. The
a japanned box of inCalculable guam
tity of silk ribbon, which, when igni-
ted, exploded like piece of fireworks
and changed into a huge Japanese um-
brella, gorge0usly colored.
Later in the evening came three of
the most surprising feats of the pro-
grammeThrst evolutions on an upright
bamboo pole by GAN Rights" secondly,
performances on a suspended bamboo,
by MatZungoro; thirdly, the "Enchant-
ed Ladder"
The bamboo pole upon which little
Jap displayed his powers was twenty
feet long, and supported only by the
shoulder OF his father, The boy clam
bered to the top of the pole, seated him
self on space oftwO inches, swung off
by one foot, clung by a hand, tied him
self into knots and came united Instant
~, cried his wAr-cry, u and then varied
It with q bit of slang picked up in Cali
fornia-thus: "All right, you bet!"-
whereat all the Japs below yelled "OW!"
as they did at intervals through the
evening, at critical moments in the
play. -. TT.
The suspended bamboo feat was a
Matzungoric performance whichJwas
excelled only by the ladder trick. This
was clear defiance of all natural laws,
and 1t was watched with breathless in
terest.! The chief, lying upon his back,
supported with his feet huge ladder,
to which a smaller ladder was attached
at right angle up these ladders
scrambled the little ''All Right" paus-
Ing occasionally to utter his cry or
scream "OWV' Getting 10 the top, he
stood erect and said "OWI" and ailthe
Japs below said "Ow!" Coming
down, the little fellow laid himself out
on the crOSs-ladder and said SOW ~
then he travelled cautiously 10 the tip,
hung by one foot, famed himself, and
exclaimed "All Iightw This seemed
to be an impossible strick, but 1t was
performed without blunder. AT the
end of the ladder-climbing and pOstur-
ing, the agile little lad sprang up cord
TO the roof of the Academy, put u pull
ley upon light rope wich spRnne ithe
building, and ran down to the first row
of boxes with immense velocity. He
was caught by two men, upon the
shoulder of one of whom he perched,
and went out of sight in a blaze OF
glory. "All right-0w ~ l-,a..
The perfect grace Of these performers
is noteworthy. All they do is to de-
stroy our faith in the laws of nature by
the calm performance of feats apparent
ly impossible. The performer who en-
cages the attention of the spectator at
the moment is always grave, except the
irrepressible young gentleman before
noted, who cannot helm showing that
he is jolly. The remainder Of the
find relief in the ejaculatory
'Owi"-a monosyllabiC refrain which
through the streets around |
the Academy last night, as the laughing |
dispersed, repeating it in cho-
rus. The Japanese clearly give US a |
new "sensationU