Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-05
DO ALLBUT BREATHE.
Dead Creatures Almost Made to Live
in the National Museum.
RARE COUNTERFEITS OF NATURE.
A Feast of Choicest Dainties and q Rattle.
snake in the Flesh.
METHOD OF A SMITHSONIAN WIZARD.

the b finishing touches to beautiful woman,
who lay breathing SO naturally upon his
workable that one would not have guessed
her animation to be merely electrical. And
yet the heavings of the bosom were simply
produced BY an electric contrivance, while
at intervals, through the same agency, the
sleeping beauty was observed to start
slightly as if from dreaming, the lips part
ing and the limbs contracting almost i'm
perceptibly
1nasmuch as the fesh-tints were perfect,
the deception was singularly complete. But
the illusion was rendered altogether aston
lshlng by the fact that pinch or two OF
what seemed to be the flesh of the image
made evident soft and yielding quality
counterfeiting life itself.
1t is the task of the Wizard to supply
counterfeits OF life of all sorts for Uncle
Sans great permanent show at Washington.
The wonderful representations OF individuals
of various races shown in the museum, so
llfe-llke that one is startled at coming upon
them, are his work. There is nothing he
does not initiate, from shell fish to a dia-
mond, TOR exhibition purposes, and all so
| accurately that it is we'll nigh impossible to
distinguish the real from the false.
A FEAST THAT WASN'T ENJOYED.
He had a table spread Yesterday afternoon
In his laboratory not only with the common
place articles Of ordinary diet but also with
exotic fruits and other luxuries such as are
expensive to purchase at this season. For
instance, there were Hamburg grapes,
French artichokes, Mandarin oranges Brus-
sels sprouts and plums. An appetizing cold
roast OF underdone beef, with two or three
slices out of it, was accompanied by some
stalks of green-topped celery in a glass OF
water and fresh loaf of bread with pat of
! yellow butter. Your correspondent, being
| invited to partake of the feast, would have
begun upon the bread and butter; but, upon
making the attempt, he was amazed to find
that they could not be eaten. What they
were made OF the Wizard declined to explain,
but at ali events they were not real.
They reminded one of the story of the
proud maiden who would not accept any or
| dinarY suitor and was finally wooed and
won by strange prince, who took her away
with a coach and six to a palace underneath
the ground. When she was hungry, copper
bread was offered her; she could not eat that
and the Prince had silver bread brought; Tor
that she had no appetite, and bread Of gold
was generously provided. But she found
herself unable to consume such metallic
provender, and so. having married Tor
gorgeousness.
UNCONSCIOUS TRIBUTE TO HIS ART.
1t was the same with everything else The
fruits were counterfeit; so were the vege-
tables, the water in the glass, and even the
cold roast OF underdone beef Not thing
on the table was real. Five Lynn Haven
oysters on the hal shell at the newspaper
mans place looked as though they had just
been opened and tempted the palate with
their apparent juciness; but, when he at
tempted to squeeze quarter of lemon over
them, both lemon and oysters were discov-
cred to be imitation. 1t was a regular Bar
mecide repast: and the Wizard, far from
apologizing for his guests disappointment,
simply lay back in his chair, stroked his
long white beard and laughed, enjoying the
tribute to his art.
'Let me introduce you to my ass istant,
Mr.. Smith," he said, indicating middle
aged man seated at a table near the door, to
whom the visitor had spoken on entering,
though receiving no reply. The middle
aged man, who was busy stuffing a bird, did
not look up in response to the introduction
This seemed surprising until close inspec-
ton showed that Mr.. Smith was only a
dummy in workman's costume, with a pair
of spectacles on and other equipments cal
culated to make the deception complete
as possible. fOSlLlVelV, IL dppedTeu as II
nothing were real in this weird place; the
notion even suggested itself that the Wizard
himself might be only mechanical coun-
terfeit.
A WONDERFUL LABORATORY.
The whole floor of the laboratory was lit
tered with molds of every conceivable size
and shape, a great case with a glass front
was filled with bottles and jars of mysteri-
IL nd on L. l.
were hung with limitations OF all manner of
still-hfe objects SO marvellously executed
that it was hard to conceive that they were
not real. In one corner was the Apache |
terror, Geronimo, nearly finished for the |
museum, crouching in wait for an unsus-
pecting white man. HIS face was admir- |
ably done from a photograph, and his arms |
and legs were cast from real ones belonging |
to somebody else. The sleeping beauty had !
likewise been cast in sections from a real |
woman.
"The composition with which 1 make |
human flesh and all substances requiring |
soitness to be like nature is a secret of nv
own," said the Wizard. "You see that in
this woman's arm it has all the yielding
elasticity of flesh. Here is this coiled rat
tlesnake. L DEFY anyone to tell that it is
not real one, either by sight or feeling. A
cast was first made from the original snake
in the composition, and the final operation
was the painting of it. 1 give the natural
tints to whatever produce with oil colors.
The same composition that is so flexible in
the snake gives its soitness to this peach
and to these cherries. Here is pineapple
which no amount of examination will enable
YOU to tell from the real one, am sure. AS
Tor leaves, / have discovered a way OF max
ing artificial leaves out of real ones, so that
they are nature themselves and will never
theless last forever"
THE WIZARDS WORKSHOP.
J. w. Hindley is the wizards name, and
he is certainly wonderful old fellow. The
public at large never sees the most interest
ing part of the National Museum, which is
found in the workshops behind the scenes,
where the curiosities are made ready for ex-
hibition, Only next door to the wizards
laboratory is the place where all the ami
mails for the museum are stuffed and
mounted II is queer spot, the walls hung
with plaster casts OF all sorts OF beasts and
fishes, including small whale and several
kinds of porpoises, grampus, portions of
moose, the head OF bear, two legs of a
panther. the tail of seal, and ever so many
other such things, all of them intended to
serve as models in the preparations OF stuffed
creatures.
Not very many years ago few sclentlhc
men in the world had any definite notion as
to what a whale looked like in nature.
Many skeletons of the huge mammal had
been obtained, but of its appearance while
alive only very indistinct idea was had by
people who mad never seen one dead. But
it happened on one fortunate occasion that
a real whale, % feet long, was thrown up on
the beach at Provincetown, Me. Mr.. Pal
mer, then, as now taxidermist ior the
started without delay ior Province
town with two assistants. Upon arriving
there he procured II barrels OF plaster OF
Paris and used it all up IN one day making
nolds of the whale in sections. One assist