CHAPTER V.Marionettes.
Inperusing these articles the reader must have observed, ere this, that a great deal of the success of mechanical, and, in fact, all kinds of conjuring, consists as much in the credulity and ignorance of the audience as in the perfection of the trick itself.
It is not at all surprising that, centuries ago, the performer of a few juggling tricks, or the man slightly in advance of his age in science, should have been looked upon by the vulgar crowd as a person having dealings with another world, and that his Infernal Majesty himself should have been called in to father all his supernatural tricks and wonders. Happily, we have reached an age when enlightenment has driven superstition almost entirely away; and while we marvel and wonder at the cleverness of such men as Maskelyne and Cooke, Dr. Lynn, and many others, even the most ignorant of persons would never think that these gentlemen had any diabolical contract with such an uncanny gentleman as Mephistopheles. I make these remarks because the tricks I shall shortly describe have been performed, perhaps in a slightly different manner to what they are now, centuries ago, in the distant ages of Egyptian might, the earlier days of the Hindoos, and long before civilization had reached the west of Europe.
A venerable and oft-repeated magical delusion is that of dismembering a living person. Dr. Lynn relies upon this worn-out pantomime trick for the staple of his performance; but it must be confessed that his method of manipulation and neatness of execution saves, what would be in a clumsy person’s hand, a very sorry exhibition.
A man is brought upon the stage, and is told that his limbs are going to be amputated. The victim makes a rush behind the curtains, no doubt frightened that the threat would be duly executed, but is brought out and made to stand still while the exhibitor coolly cuts off an arm and then a leg. The frightened, trembling subject of the professor’s carving operations is an assistant, who takes good care to be the first on the stage when a person among the audience is requested to step up and be carved. When he rushes off behind the curtains, it is to affix to one shoulder and thigh a dummy arm and leg, while his real limbs remain behind the curtains reclining upon rests. So quickly is this done that the audience cannot but believe that the arm and leg are the real flesh and blood contingents to the human frame. The professor carefully amputates the false arm and leg. Of course he can as readily replace the limbs by simply gliding the false limbs through the curtains, and releasing thebona fideleg and arm from their constrained and awkward position.
Another exhibition offered by Dr. Lynn to his patrons is that known as the Living Marionettes. This novel and amusing illusion was first introduced by a Frenchman, and was shown in the metropolis long before the British public had heard of Dr. Lynn, and before he brought it out as a novelty at the London Aquarium. On a small stage, a real living head, attached to a miniature body, sings, talks, and acts; and it is plainly evident to the audience that while the head is really a human one, the manikin body is but a toy. Apparently the curious figures are not connected by any means with anybody, either at the back, sides, or beneath the stage. It will be noticed that the drapery is entirely of black, and that the eye is deceived, by the absence of any break in the color of the drapery, as todistance. The person appearing as the Living Marionette, fixes beneath his chin the framework of the body. The back drapery is so arranged that he brings on the stage with him the curtains forming the background to his head, while with wires fixed to the legs and arms, he produces a motion in the toy, giving it the appearance of walking on the stage; so that while the Living Marionette is in the centre of the stage, the body of the man is behind it. Thus there are two backgrounds to the stage—one of black, fixed; the other also of black brought on with the head; but being black, is not seen by the audience, who imagine the head passes before the black curtain. Any number of heads can be shown, and two could perform at the same time by coming on the stage from each side, with each half a curtain or background fixed to their heads. The annexed illustration will show the head, to which is fixed a movable black frame, and the position of the real and the dummy body. There is sufficient space between the extremity of the stage and the fixed curtain at the back for the performer to stand and pass along. As I said before, the arms and legs of the toy are worked by means of wires passed through the counterfeit curtain. A very pleasing and startling entertainment may be obtained if the persons selected to perform are vocalists and comedians.