The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-08-07
A NOVEL STAGE TRICK.
How Man Can Be Decapitated in Full View
of the Audience

How Man Can Be Decapitated in Full View
of the Audience.
Those philanthropists and legisla-
tors who have of late been making a
study of capital punishment will be
interested, perhaps, in a performance
in which one of the performers is exc
cuted twice day, says the st. Louis
Post-Dispatch. The means employed
is the old fashioned "defunct" method
of >decapitation and although this
lacks the refinement and scientific
precision of execution by electricity, it
avoids, on the other hand, the delays
and lawsuits that ordinarily attend
this method of punishment.
The poor clown who suffers the
death penalty twelve times a week
usually enters the ring, and after per-
forming certain acrobatic feats
commits some crime against his
fellows for which he is condemned to
die. He is placed upon the block, his
head is covered with a cloth. Harle-
quin approaches as executioner and
begins to cut with huge knife across
the victims neck. In moment all
is over, the cloth is removed and
Harlequin lifts in the air the severed
head. Delighted with his trophy, he
carries it about under his arm, places
it in charger in the center of the
ring, and finally takes it back to the
block wrapped up in the cloth and
places it by the side of the headless
trunk. He removes the cloth and
then in sport places a lighted cigarette
in its mouth. In little while you
notice that the cigarette begins TO
glow, smoke comes from the nose and
the eyes roll. Evidently the head has
come to life. Not able to bear the
horrible sight, he throws the cloth
again over the head, seizes it, places
it in its original position on the
shoulders of the victim, kneads it to
the body and suddenly the figure rises,
head and all, and bows to the aud
ience-an orthodox clown. The trick
is good one and takes with the
audience. The way in which IL is
done is explained thus:
AS soon as the clown lies on the box
and his head has been covered by the
cloth he passes his head through an
invisible opening in the top of the box.
An assistant inside the box passes up
the dummy head, which is an exact
fac smile of the clowns head and
face. This is seized by Harlequin,
who makes such sport of it as he sees
tit. When he places it by the side of
the trunk, in reality he passes it
through au opening in the top of the
box to an assistant within, who sub
stitutes his own head. which is paint
ed to match the other two, in place of
it. The other steps in the perform
ance readily follow. The cloth, which
the harlequin always carries, conceals
all the sleight-o f-hand, and the whole
performance is a series of surprises.
Another performance of a some
what similar character was recently
performed at a theatre in this city, in
which clown throws himself on
sofa and is cut in two by harlequin.
One part of the sofa, with the body,
remains in one part of the stage,
while the other part, with the legs and
feet (Which are all the time vigorously
kicking), disappears through a wing at
the other end Of the stage. The action
is very sudden and the effect startling.
Of course, in this case there are two
men similarly dressed. The head and
body of one of them appears at the
head of the sofa, while the body of the
second clown is concealed in the box
under the seat at the other end OF the
sofa, the feet and legs alone being ex-
posed.-New Orleans Delta.