Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-07-09
WONDERFUL FEATs BY JUGGLERs.

Iba Batuta, the Moor, says he saw at
Hangehau, in China, the account given
by Edward Melton, an English gentleman
who wrote his ''Zee-en-Land Reizen" in
low Dutch of the performances of a Chi
nese troupe Of jugglers which he witnessed
at Batavia, in December, 1876. What
gives this account an extraordinary cir
cumstantiallty is that Melons book, pro-
fusely adorned with plates, has a remark
able one, in which the Cinnamon aforesaid
are depicted in performing the ''perche,' -
well known in London streets; the famous
basket murder trick, known for ages In
India, and recently performed in Europe,
and the wonderful trick that Melton, after
giving vivid account of the basket mu1-
der trick, proceeds to describe thus:
But now 1 am going to relate a thing
which surpasses all belief, and which l
should scarcely venture to assert here, had
it not been Witnessed by thousands before
my own eyes. One of the same gang took
a ball Of cord, and grasping one end of the
cord in his hand, slung the other up into
the air with such force that it's extremity
was beyond reach of our sight. He then
Immediately climbed up the cord with ia
describable sWiftness, and we could no
longer see him. / stood full of astonish-
ment, not conceiving what was to come of
this; when 10! a leg came tumbling down
out Of the air.
One of the conjuring company Instantly
snatched it up, and threw it into the bas-
ket 1 noticed above. A moment later a
hand came down, and Immediately on that
another leg; and in short all the members
of the body came thus successfully tum-
| bling from the air, and were cast together
| into the basket. The last fragment of all
that we saw tumble down was the head,
! and no sooner had that touched the ground
than he who had snatched up all the limbs
and put them into the basket turned them
all out again topsyturvy. Then straight
way we saw with these eyes all these limbs
creep together again, and in short form a
whole man, who at once could stand and
just as before, without showing the least
damage. Never in my life was [ so aston
ished as when beheld this wonderful per-
Torrance, and 1 doubted now no longer
that these misguided men did it by the aid
Of the devil.
| In the plate illustrating this extraordin-
airy pass, the juggler is shown, firstly,
throwing up the ball Of rope; secondly,
climbing up a rope, the superior end of
which disappears in the clouds; and thirdly.
in the act Of coming down by installments,
which his confederate is picking up and
putting int basket. There can, there
fore, be no possible doubt as to the exact
meaning of the Anglo Dutch voyager.
| 1t is curious to find a similar story in
the s'Memoirs of the Emperor Jehangire."
Seven jugglers from Bengal exhibited be-
fore his majesty. ssAfter performing the
feat of cutting a man to pieces, scatter
ing the limbs all over the floor, covering
them with a sheet, and then bringing him
out safe and sound, they produced chain
fifty cubits in length, and in my presence
threw one end of it toward the sky, where
it remained as if fastened to something in
the air. A dog was then brought forward,
and being placed at the lower end of the
chain, Immediately ran up, and reaching
the other end, Immediately disappeared in
the air. In the same manner a hog, a
panther, a lion and tiger were successful
ly sent up the chain, and all equally disap-
peared at the upper end of it. At last they
took down the chain and pulling it into a
bag, no one ever discovering in what way
the different animals were made to vanish
in the mysterious manner above describ-
ed,
The varieties of the vanishing trick i'm
press the reader with the truthfulness of
the several narratives. Although one de-
scribes leather thong, another a rope,
and the third chain, all agree that the
line was hooked on to the sky. Modern
visitors to juggling seances are we'll aware
from the experience of Peppers ghost,
that almost any illusion can be produced
on a stage OF in an inclosed space by skill
fully arranging mirrors; but all the &C
counts cited agree in this Chinese feat be-
ing performed in the open air. Edward
Melton draws large, open square in the
market place, surrounded by shops and
filed with crowd of people, who are
standing all around the jugglers-a liberty
by no means permitted by modern profess
SOrS.