Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-05-17
Mysterious Sounds.

Mysterious Sounds.
Perhaps the most familiar Of mysteri-
Gus sounds are those produced by the
yentriloquist; familiar, because almost
every country fair is visited by one or
other of these exhibitors; mysterious,
because the real source of sound does
not correspond with the apparent. 1t
lies within the province of the anatO-
mist or Psychologist to explain how il is
that men can speak as if from the stom-
ach instead of the throat, and without
any perceptible movement of the lips;
but the person who can do this, the ven-
triloquist, may make himself a most
bewildering deceiver of those who listen
10 him. Our power of determining the
exact direction whence a sound comes
is less than we usually imagine. 1t is
said that Saville Cary, who could well
initiate the whistling of the wind,
would sometimes anus. himself by ex-i
ercising this art in public ccoffee-hOuse;
some of the guests at once rose to see
whether the windows were quite closed,
while others would button up their
coats, as if cold. Sir David Brewster
notices ventriloquist of exceptional
skill, NJ. ST. Gille, who one day entered
a church where some monks were Ia
menting the death of brother. Sud-
denly they heard a voice, as If from
over their heads, bewailing the condi-
ton of the departed in purgatory, and
reproaching them for their want of
zeal; not suspecting the trick they fell
on their faces and chanted the De Pro-
funds. A committee appointed by the
Academic des Science TO report on the
phenomena of ventriloquism went with
VI. st. Gille to the house of lady, to
whom they announced that they had
come TO investigate a case of aerial
Spirits somewhere in the neighbor-
hood. 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 ventriloquistic voice of
NJ. ST. Gille. Brewster tells of another
master of this art, Louis Brabant valet
de chambre TO Francis l., whose suit
was rejected by the parent of a beauti
ful and well-dowered girl with whom
lac 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, expressing remorse
for having rejected LOUIS Brabant, and
conjuring her TO give her immediate
consent to the betrOthal. Frightened
and alarmed, she consented. Brabant,
deeming it desirable to behave literally
in the marriage arrangements, but hay-
ing not much cash at command, re-
solved to try whether his ventriloquism
would be as efficacious with a money
lending banker as Ii had been with the
widow. Calling on the old usurer at
LYONS, he managed that the converse
ton should turn upon demons, spectres,
and purgatOry. Suddenly was heard
the voice of the usurer's father, COM
planning of the horrible sufferings he
was enduring in purgatory, and saying
that there was no way of obtaining alle-
Walton except by the usurer 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 at once. Brabant went next day
and resumed the conversation, when
shortly were heard the voices of a host
of dead relations, all telling the same
terrible story, and all pointing out the
only way of obtaining relief. The usu-
rer could resist no longer; he placed
10000 crowns in the hand of the unsus-
pected ventriloquist, who, of cOurce for
got to pay it over for the ransom of
Christians in Turkey or anywhere else.
When the usurer learned afterwards
how he had been duped he died of veXa-
ton. OF all producers of so-called mys-
terious sounds, DIR. Tyndall's sensitive
or vowel flame is one of the most curious.
Out of a particular kind of gas, with
burner of peculiar construction, the
learned Professor produces lighted
jet of flame nearly two feet in height,
extremely narrow, and so eXquisitely
sensitive TO sounds that it sings and
dances up and down in response to
everything that is sung or said, with
different degrees of sensibility for differ
ent vowel sounds. ''The slightest tap on
distant anvil reduces its height to seven
inches. When a bunch of keys is shaken,
the flame is violently agitated and
emits loud roar. The dropping of a
siXpence into hand already contain
ing coin, at distance of twenty yards,
knocks the flame down. 1t is not pOssi-
BILE to walk across the floor without agi-
tating the flame. The creaking of boots
sets it in violent commOtiOn. The
crumpling or tearing of paper, or the
rustling of a silk dress does the same.
1t is startled by the patter of rain-drop.
/ hold a watch near the flame; nobody
hears it tick; but you all see their effect
on the flame; at every tick it falls and
roars. The winding up of a watch also
produces tumult. The twittering of a
distant sparrow shrieks in the flame;
the note of cricket would do the same.
A chirrup from distance of thirty
wards causes it to fall and roar" In re-
ference to the power of the flame to re-
spond TO poetry the Professor says:
'.The flame selects from the sound those
to which it can respond; it notices some
by the slightest nod, to others it bows
more distinctly, to some its obeisance is
very profound, while to many sounds
it turns an entirely deaf ear.'-Ckdna-
Iers' Journal.