The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-09-13
vENTRILOQUISM.
Some Remarkable Examples OF the Strange
and DiYerting Art.

Some Remarkable Examples OF the Strange
and DiYertiAg Art.
Perhaps the most familiar of mysteri-
GUS sounds are those produced by the
yentriloqulst. Familiar, because al
most every country town has been Wis.,
tied by one or other Of these eMhlbito
sterious, because the real source of
sound does not correspond with the ap-
parent. 1t lies within the province of
the anatomist or physiologist to explain
how it is that some men can speak as III
from the stomach instead of the throat,
and without any perceptlble movement
OF the lips. But the person VINO can do
this, the VentrilOqulst, may make HIM
self most beWilderlng deceiYer to those
who listen to him.
Our power Of determining the exact
direction whence a sound comes is less
than we usually imagine. 1t is SAID that
Sayille Carey, who could initiate The
whlstling of the wind, would sometimes
amuse himself by exercising this art in
public cotfee-house. Some of the
guests at once rose to see whether the
windows were quite closed, while others
would button up their coats, as II cold.
| Sir David Brewster notices Ventrllo-
auist of exceptional skill, st. GIlle, who
| one day entered church where some
brother. Suddenly they heard voice as
If from over the heads, bewailing the
condition of the departed in purgatory,
and reproaching them for their want OF
zeal.
Not suspecting the trick, they fell on
| their faces and cnanted the DE ErOJun-
| dis. A committee appointed by Lle
Academic des Sciences TO report on the
phenomena of ventriloquism went with
| St. Gille to the house OF Il lady, to whom
| they announced that they had come to
| Investigate Il case OF aerial SplrltS some-'
where in the neiglbOrho0d. During the
| Interview she heard what she termed
spirit voices above her head, underneath
the floor, and in distant parts OF the
room, and was with difficulty convinced
| that the only spirit present was the Yen-
triloquistic voice Of st. Gille.
Brewster tells of another master of
this art. Louis Brabant, valet de cham
| bre OF Francis !, whose suit was re-
| iected by the parents of beautiful and
well endowed girl with whom he was in
| love. He called on the mother, after the
death Of the father, again TO urge his
/ suit, and while he was present she heard
| the voice of her deceased husband ex-
| pressing remorse for having rejected
/ Louis Brabant, and conjuring her to give
| her immediate consent to the b5trotlal.
4 Frightened and alarmed, she consented.
4 Brabant, deemipg it desirable to be-
have literally in the marriage arrange
ments, but, having not much cash at
| command, resolved to try whether his
i Yentriloquism would be as etticacious
| with a money-lending banker as it had
| been with the widow. Calling on the
old usurer at Lyons, he managed that
the conversation should turn upon the
subject OF demons, specters and purga.
tory. Suddenly was heard the voice OF
the usurePs father, complaining Of the
horrible suiferings he was enduring in
lpurgatory, and saying that there was no
way Of obtaining alieviation except by
his son advancing money to the visitor
for the sake Of ransoming Christians
from the hands of the Turks.
The usurer was terrified, but too much
in love with his gold to yield ut once.
/ Brabant went next day and resumed the
| convers alton, when shortly afterwards
| W ere heard the voices OF host of dead
1 relations, all telling the same terrible
i story, and all pointing out the only way
i OF obtaining relief. The usurer could re-
/ sist no longer. He placed ten thousand
4 crowns in the hands OF the unsuspected
Il Yentrlloquist, who, oil course, forgot to
i pay it over for the ransom of the Chris
tians, either in Turkey or anywhere
| else. When the usuer learned after
| wards how he had been duped, he died
OF Vexation.