Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-05-26
Marvellous Jugglery.

l
Commercial Bulletin, travelling in the
East, has contributed to that paper some
very interesting letters on the customs
of the strange people he has visited.
Under the above heading he tells, in the
last issue, his readers that ccnvales-
cence is capital time for mild amnse-
ments which will not tire the languid
brain, and we had some jugglers up al
most every day. We never could find
ont their tricks, which are very marvel
Gus. Of course. every body has heard of
the basket trick, where small boy gets
inside a basket, and the juggler plunges
a sword through and through it. bring
ing ii out reeking with blood, then holds
up the basket, shows there's nothing
there, and calls the boy, who calmly APP
pears from outside the circle of specta-
tors. And also of the mango trick,
where a seed is placed in the ground, is
covered with cloth, and appears rs a
shrub, growing visibly before ones
eyes, and then bears fruit, which ripens
and is edible in five minutes from first
planting. These fellows have very
scanty clothing, and apparently no APP
wiseacres who profess to know all about
these tricks. | never saw the disem-
boweling and immediate healing
of fakirs, in India, nor men sitting in
the air, 'levitated,' as Madame Bal
vatsky calls it. But | have
seen other tricks as surprising. and
equally unaccountable by any art or
science with which Europeans and
Americans appear TO be acquainted now
adays. | have seen man throw up
into the air number of balls numbered
in succession from one upwards. As
each went up, and there was no decep-
ton about their going up, the ball was
seen clearly in the air, getting smaller
and smaller till it disappeared altogether
out of sight. When they We're all up,
twenty or more, the operator would po-
litely ask which ball you wanted TO see,
and then would shout out No. L. NO.
l5,' and SO on, as instructed by the spec
tators, when the ball demanded would
bound to his feet, violently from some
remote distance.
Then I've seen them swallow three
different colored powders, and then,
u.
down with water, drunk in the native
fashion in a continuous stream from Il
lOtdh, or brass pot, held at arms length
from the lips, and keep on drinking till
the swollen body could not hold another
drop, and water overfowed from the
lips. Then those fellows, after squirt
ing out the water in their mouths. have
spat out the three powders on to clean
piece of paper, dry and unmiXed. Asto
the thimble-riggery of their minor
tricks, they are exceedingly expert,
out are probably equaled by many
of our distinguished prestidigitateurs;
and whatever may be said of the basket
and mango tricks, or the sitting in the
air, don't think any of our people are
up to the sending of balls into space and
recalling them in an unprecedented
order. This reminds me of the trick
Marco Polo. the great Venetian traveller
of earlier times, speaks Of having seen
at the Court of Prester John, in Central
Asia, when a bean was planted and
sprung up rapidly toward the heavens,
its summit being lost in the clouds. Up
this, one juggler travelled, and then an
other after him, with drawn sword.
In few minutes, down dropped ears,
nose, head, and limbs of No l; No
leisurely descends, wiping a bloody
sword, shovels up the fragments of his
victim into box, and goes on with other
performances, presently calling out for
his defunct companion, who thereupon
presents himself, as large as life, all
alive and kickinp from the throne
This is not a modern trick, but those |
have seen are certainly not less marvel
Gus. Then, too, it is well authenticate
ed fact that some of these jugglers, on
more than one occasion in recent years,
have suffered themselves to be buried |
alive. and have been dug out alive after |