The Portland daily press., 1878-09-11
WEDNESDAY MORNING. SEPT. IL.

taoern tobacco pipe, who can perform many
wonderful equilibres on the slack or tight rope;
likewise he will transform his body in above
ten thousand different shapes and postures,
and after he has diverted the spectators two
hours and halt, he 1oM open his mouth aotde
and jump down hi own throat! He being the
most wonderfulest wonder of wonders as the
world ever wondered at, would be willing 10
join in performance with that surprising mu-
stefan on Monday next in the Hsymsrket.
He is to be spoken with at the Black haven In
Golden Lane, every day from to IL and from
2 to all day long.
Another genius advertises to turn himself
into a rattle, (which be hoped would please
young aud DID," and still others follow on his
heels. Some of the notces were printed in q
spirit of rldicuie, notably the following
SPECIMEN OF DARK WIT.
Lately arrioed from Ethiopia.
The most wonderful and surprising Doctor
Benimbe Zammanpoango, oculist and body
surgeon to Emperor Monoemungi, who will
perform on Sunday next, at the little TIN
the Hsymarkst the following surprising opera
tions, VIII. He desires any one of the specta-
tors only to pull out his own eyes. which as
soon as he has done, the doctor will show them
to any lady OF gentleman present, TO convince
them there is no cheat, and will then replace
them in the sockets as perfect aud entire as
ever 2 He desires any officer to rip up his
own belly which when he has done, he, without
any equivocatop) takes out his bowels, washes
them, aud returns them TO their place. without
the person receiving the least hurt. He
opens the head of j. of P, takes out
his brans,sud exchanges them for those of
calf; the brains of beau for those of an ass,
and the heart of bull for that OF sheep;
which operation will req der the persons more
sociable and rational creatures than they ever
were in their lives.
Boxes for this extraordinary performance
We're to cost five guineas; pit, three guineas;
gallery, two guineas. Incredible as it may
seem, people wrote to the papers in which the
advertise meDt was published, to ask if it was
hoax or not, "as there had been several public
disappointments of late"
MOUSE AS GULL BAIT.
Still more incredible is the fact that the
swindler whose baited hook appears below, can
as he die, have found gudgeons enough to profit
from. Nevertheless, he ran season of nearly
three weeks before people got mad and de-
molished his establishment a statement of
whose attractions folows:-
To be seen at Mr. Leaders, the old Horseshoe in
Wood street, Cheapside, from Nine to Twelve
and from -Four to Seven o'clock, lately brought
from France:
A full grown mouse alive, confined in a
small two-ounce phial, the neck of which is
not quarter of an inch in diameter. This
amusing creature has lived in the phial three
years and a half without drink or any suste-
nance but bread only. it cleans out its little
habitation, and hath many other pretty actions
as surprising as agreeable; but particularly
creates wonderful diversion with a fly and is
allowed to be an extraordinary curiosity, never
before seen in England; at the expense of Cd
each person.
NOTE Gentlemen or ladies who don't chuse
to come, it shall be carried to them by sending
line to Mr. Leader.
SOME FRENCH HoAxEs
Busy as the French were with their national
troubles, they found time during the darkest
days of the revolution to go booby-hunting.
In March, 1892, an "entertainment' was ad-
vertised in the Place de Creme. A certain
Professor Busy declared his intention to walk
from one side of the square to the
other in mid air, naked, and without artificial
aid. All Paris turned out and spent an un-
sheltered afternoon in terrific rain storm, to
be disappointed. Next year another swinder
hired court yard in the Rue de Temple, and
got five francs head from l, 200 people, who
wanted to see him burned alive in charcoal
furnace and afterwards reappear, Phoenix like in
the smoke from the chimney. This parsonage
found rival month later in q man who
promised to publicly convert himself into
stew, acting as his own butcher ami cook, and
then serving himself, done to turn, around to
the audience in the guise of waiter. When
the rage for mesmerism was at its height go
styled PROFESSOR Missmer mote the imitation)
called for 10000 people to assemble in the
Champs de Mars and be N esmerzed by him in
three simple motions, after which they would
be able to go about exercising the new force
by themselves, Three times the number called
for paid half franc apiece for the pleasure
of learning that they had been swindled out of
the gate money. Tnis hoax led to horrible
catastrophe, for the people who were victmized
began. as usual, to fight among themselves, and
in the disturbance twenty-one women and
nearly. fifty children were MANNED or suf-
located.
A BOGUS MIRACLE.
Even the stately Spaniard, the phlegmatic
German and the ponderous dweller by the
bikes and water meadows of the Low Coun-
er. Only twenty years ago, in Barcelona, a
girl, who was publicly notorious as a cataleptic
simpleton, woke out of one of her diurnal fits
and declared that she bad had visitation from
the Virgin. Her extravagant story was eager
ly grasped and enlarged upon, and published
far AID wide rs a miracle Some days later
the Didrio, of Madrid, printed grave colamn
purportiDg to be vista ion of the twelve apos-
ties, With the holy family and any number of
sanity celebrities, enjoyed by one Don Jaime
Navarrez of that city. Their arrival ia an
enormous chariot at midday, in the full blaze
of a summer sun, was Enthusiastically de-
scribed and the whole Christian world was
called upon to wonder and admire. Thousands
of people hurried to Madrid to see the man so
favored Of Heaven, only to discover that he was
q picture dealer; tn lat his visitors were painted
saints from some collection be had purchased,
and the celestial chariot huge baggage van.
TALENTED TULIP.
During the tulip mania in Holland an adver-
tisement extensively circulated through the
Lower Countries lured hundreds to the place
noted in it, which we are sorry to say, for de-
cency's sake, was the cesspool into which the
filth and garbage of the village was emptied.
The prospectus stated that certain Herr
Ghabbplkramme, of the town of Grendigen,
gentleman gardener, had by accident at the
full of the lucky moon. in the month OF Octo-
Der, on night when seven stars fell at once,
been attracted into his garden by species of
faint and uuearthly music. This be found to
be caused by the passage of the wind through
the petals and pistils of an enormous tulip
which had grown up since shutdown i n the mid
die of the chief flower bed. The marvellous
flower in question was of variegated scarlet,
blue, green, black aud yellow tint, and its hues
were phosphorescent, illuminating the vicinity
like powerful lantern. By day it assumed
the semblance of a cabbage, but as it then sank
to rest it bloomed regularly into supernatural
glory.
SO idiotic was the popular belief in this apoc.
ryphal flower, that thousands of letters, offer
ing the most lavish prices for the floral treas
ure, flowed in on Ghabbelkramme, who was
the village butcher. Most of them are pre-.
served to this day in the museum at Delft
But a volume would scarcely serve to con.
tain the list of similar examples. Enough have
been given, we fancy to prove that our forefa-
theirs were as great fools as ourselves, in spite
of the degenerscy of these days.