Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-02-22

'A'N~N
Entered at the Fostoaco at Alexandria, Virginia, 81
| eecond-class matteT.i
TRICKS OF A VENTRILOQUIST.
la variety entertainment there is one
thing that, if performed successfully, never
! fails to please the audience. No matter how
dull and uninteresting may be the preceding
| "act," no sooner does the Ventriloquist come
forward with his paraphernalia, consisting
| of trunk. table, automatons, and dolls, than
Interest reyives and soon every one is laugh
ing aud many wondering how its done. At-
ter enjoying such performance, the other
day, a reporter sought out the professor OF
the art. Mr.. ]. w. Bingham. He was found
in the dressing room OF the Chicago Mu
scum, Just removing his stage toes and dom
ming his ''store" clothes. Seated on his
trunk he talked to his visitors who had for
resting-pacc ono of Mrs. Gen. Tom
Thumbs travelling boxes.
do you have many chances to practice
ventrloqusm in private, where you can
have some fun out Of it without being dis
covered?" WAS asked.
''Why," answered the professor. laughing,
Il have some ludcrous experiences, but
such occurrences do not happen often, for it
is necessary to have the proper surroundings
to carry out the deception"
Would you mind relating & few OF
them 2"
'sNo; though not having kept any record
| do not know that | can be very exact, or
give YOU the most ludicrous However,
do remember u very funny incident which
occurred while was Oil a midnight train
going from Philadelphia to Washington, d.
c. On the same train were couple of va
riety actors, who got into the smoking car,
one Of them carrying in his arms what
is known as a property" dog-that is, one
made Of skin stuffed with straw. In the
hurry of packing, it had been left out Of
their trunks. | noticed the actor stow it
carefully under seat in the car. When
the train got we'll underway the passengers
were fast asleep. commenced initiating
the whining of a puppy. First one person
woke, tn en- another. "Confound that dog
said one. "ContouDd the man that don't
know enough to put a dog i'll the baggage
car said another, while some one else
cursed the railroad company for allowing a
dog in the car. Finally the conductor was
sent for Keeping up my limitations, no
| soon located the obnoxious cur under GER
| tain seat, and reached for it. | snarled and
| he ierked his hand back, and after several
attempts to pull the beast out by hand he
got The stove poker and raked it out. Suf-
| fee to say, when it was held up to public
view the shouts Of laughter drove Mr.. Con-
ductOr out of the car.
"Another time when in Philadelphia Il
servant girl at the hotel came into my room
to announce dinner. | stepped out of the
door ahead Of her, and just as she closed 1T
I threw my voice into the room. Let me
out. let me out. yelled an imaginary voice,
in piercing tones. The girl looked startled,
opcnea tho door again, and saw no one. She
looked bcwldered and closed the door, [
tried it again, but she caught me this time.
sMusha,' she said, you have the devil III
you anyway. You kape away from me
after this and with that she gave me a
| crack on the back that nearly took the
| breath out OF me.
'Then | remember being in a hotel in
Rochester, New York. In the next room to
me heard Il lady put Il child to sleep and
then 90 out of the room. Before she got
many feet away | initiated the crying of a
baby through the transom between the
rooms. The mother ran back in alarm,
only to find her child peacefully sleeping.
Again and again | played the trick until
| nv heart smote me, and | let the mother
depart in peace.
;'Once l played trick which is quite
commonly played by good ventriloquists.
Going 10 Mount Desert one day on steamer
noticed man oiling the machinery about
the walking beam | stood quietly near and
commenced initiating the creaking Of ma.
chinery. The man was perplexed. He looked
over it and poured more oil on. When he
:. r., ,l,a,, L.
ing commenced The more oil he put on
the worse the creaking got. Well, played
il on him until got tired and he was never
| the wiser.
But probably the quecrest of my experience:
were in the South. The negroes arc terribly su
perstitious, and used to call me 'hoodo man.
| remember meeting ono of them, who had been al
our performance, afterward. With sort OF awe
he said to some opened mouth companions, Dere
dat we're man what got the debbil ia his stomach
doan go nigh him, yer bet yer life. tlrs thing
yer know holl hab me hangin' up in dc sky
WHY, really. they got to look on me IS able to d'
anything, and was bothered to death with then
com ing to select numbers TO play policy on.
Major Newell and l strayed down to the leve
ut Mobile one day. 4 row Of darkies sat will
their backs against pile of cotton bales, baskln!
in the MONDAY sun. | saw an opportunity 10
some fun. and threw my voice into one oil Tn
bales You should have seen the expression OF
the black faces OF the gang. Inc! stoou IL ~
two or three minutes but as the sepulchrld voic
rolled ont louder and louder the whole of then
took to their heels like scared rabits. The Malo
and waited around awhile to see the after effects
Pretrv soon out comes the oyerseer to set his me-
TO work. Did they go? Well, we hung aroun
for half an hour, and when we left he had no
succeeded. Each and every darkey swore tn
voice sounded as if it came right from hell u
through the cotton bale. AerS'
CoRsETs! CoRsETs! CORsETs!-Dr. Scott