The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-07-07
MAOE LIVING BY
HANGING HIMSELF
Could Initiate the Process of
Dying, and Death Itself,
to Perfection.
THREW HIMSELF INTO
PERFECT COMA AT TINES
Declared Dead by Experts. He
Would at Once Jump Up.
Frightening Witnesses.

There died in Paris the other day a
man whose life may be said to cxem-
plify perfectly all that may be gained
III life If II man viii but hang To IT,.
That is, it will eXemplify this 10 per
sons of a particular cast of thought.
To others it may as perfectly exemplify
all that falls TO the mere hanger.on.
lie Pendu, as he came to be
called-his real name was Simeon
Aiguicr, and he was born at Sollies
Vile, in lS51-''le Pendu'' made his
living by hanging himself. He grew to
be one of the best known of music hall
artists. Unlike Fregol. who initiates
various personages by sudden changes
Of clothes, le Pcndu could in way
transform his body and possessed the
most curious physical adaptabilities
ever known.
Puzzled the Doctors
When young man he surprised and
puzzled the army doctors. As he pre-
scnted himself for physical examina-
ton he appeared as Il thin, spare
ribbed fellow, almost a skeleton, aud
before the examination was over he
stood IN the presence of the army doc
tor with an enormously inflated abdo-
men, as If he had dropsv While the
physician was examining tins abnormal
development the abdomen retreated and
a big bloated tumor suddenly grew on
the young man S throat, as ii he had
an immense goitre. He had, apparent
ly, in an instant transferred the swell.
ing from the lower part of his body
to his throat. When the examination
H. 4, L
young fellow as before
His gifts in bodily Transformation
soon became known all over his native
district and he was induced TO show
himself on the music hall stage. For
a long time he was known as the skele
ton man, though he also exhibited him
self as the tat man. His physical
transformations dad not stop here.
Gould Initiate Death.
lie was able 10 initiate the process
at DYING and death itself TO perfection.
Scientists and the members of various
medical faculties often wished to exam
inc his strange faculties. but he con
stantly refused 10 divulgc the secret
of his transformations When he imi-
tatcd the state of dead person he
threw himself into perfect coma.
His heart apparently ceased to beat,
and The most expert physicians are said
80 have been unable to detect the slight
est movement of his pulse. They went
so far as To apply various instruments
10 detect life without success, and even
through the stethascope not the slightest
action OF the heart could be per
ceived. The most expert doctors would
have declared him dead, and yet in
the next instant he would Jump up and
crack Jokes and be as much alive as
anyone.
Would Hang Himself.
His last trick, and one which kept
audiences spellbound, was when he used
10 hang himself by the neck with
cord. There was no mere make believe
about it, He would hang himself, or
allow himself to be hanged, from a nail
III the ceiling in the presence Of large
audience The rope would fastcn around
his throat, his muscles would stiffen, and
the frightened public would see him 90
through every one of the phases of
man who was actually hanged. The
CHASTITY spectacle WAS first exhibited in
n cabaret in Montmarire, and despite
ITS horrors, or, rather. on account of
them. it had a great success. A story
is told that he once played the trick
IN a hotel where he WAS stopping. He
hang himself from the ceiling after
ringing the bell, and when the waiter
entered he was horrlfed by the sight,
duU TuSucu uoWH 10 INFORM INC pro-
prietor. Before the. returned to the
room The man who was supposed to have
hanged himself had taken up his valise
and met them quietly on the stairs, Al
though ii might have been expected
that some day he would hang himself
in real earnest, such a calamity never
befell him.
Died of Illness.
He died of most commonplace i'll
ness, the grip. at his home near Houlon,
where he had retired. after carning a
considerable fortune on the stage. He
never divuiged the secret of how he
produced the extraordinary rigidity of
the muscles of his neck when he used
TO perform his feat of hanging, and
carried the mystery with him 10 his
grave. Doctors proposed to perform
an autopsy on his body TO discover his
secret, but his family refused TO al
low IT,