FRIENDLY SUGGESTIONS.
As the amateur will aspire to come before his parlor audience some day
or other, it may be some little service and help to him to give a few
suggestions as to the best way of conducting such an exhibition, and to
specify the kind of tricks to which he will do well to limit himself.
It will be desirable to open with an off-hand expression of his wish to
place before them a few amusing tricks to wile away an hour; and let
him assume a lively air, for his own liveliness will sustain that of
the spectators.
There are some conjurors who, though they can perform good tricks,
exhibit them in such a heavy, uninteresting way that they create no
enthusiasm. An over-anxious look, coupled with a creeping, fearful
movement, and a dull, monotonous voice, will suggest distrust and
dissatisfaction, even where the audience has come together prepossessed
with the expectation of mirth and glee. Let none assume, then, to
wave the conjuror’s wand till he has himself some confidence in his
powers, knows what he purposes to do, and means to carry it out.
I would say that a moderate degree of assumption, a gay vivacity,
ready to break out into a smile, a cheerful spirit, and a joyous
voice, will go a great way to bespeak favor, which the performer can
quickly repay by dashing off his tricks with enthusiasm. The language
used by the conjurer should be studiously guarded. Let there be no
vain-glorious assertions, no self-praise, but respectful deference
to the judgment of the spectators; rather inclining to give them the
credit of understanding more than they do, than twitting them with
understanding less. Be neither overbearing with conceited “chaff” upon
any of the company; nor, on the other hand, venture upon extreme and
disconcerting compliments to any person present. Rather, as a courteous
master of the ceremonies, conduct the experiments with a simple effort
to please and to amuse all. With the exhibition of an amateur, the
performance of some lively airs upon the piano by any friend will form
an agreeable accompaniment, especially if the spirited and humorous
melodies are introduced, which the public taste recognizes as the tunes
of the day. You will do well to have your table neatly and carefully
arranged. Let it not lie too near to the spectators, nor within reach
of too minute inspection. It should be of sufficient height to show
the main objects placed on it; but the surface of it may be just high
enough to be sheltered from the spectators clearly viewing every
article upon it. The ornaments should be few, yet, at the same time, be
serviceable to shade a few articles which it may be policy to conceal.
1. The centre table may be a moderate-sized kitchen table, with a
drawer to stand open; so that the performer can take any article out
of the drawer with one hand, while engaging the eyes of the spectators
with his other hand. A colored cloth should be over the tables, on the
side towards the spectators.
2. Two small tables, at the sides of the centre table, may also be
useful, as in Fig. 23.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.]
3. With tables arranged somewhat in this manner, the amateur will
be able to take up articles, from either the surface or back of the
tables, without attracting notice to his doing so. He must practise
taking up things with one hand, while his other hand and his eyes are
ostensibly occupied with some other object; for if the spectators see
him looking behind his table, their eyes will immediately follow in the
same direction.
The amateur will do well to select the simpler tricks for his first
attempts, and never pretend to exhibit even those without having
frequently and diligently practised them. He must make up his
resolution to train his hands to the passes, and to the several
manœuvres in the tricks, as diligently as young ladies train their
fingers to the keys of the piano.
And let them not be discouraged if they feel awkward and nervous at
first. Some of the best conjurors have candidly confessed their early
failings and misgivings. With practice and perseverance this will, in
most cases, wear off. I would augur that, if they feel an interest in
the art, and a desire to excel in it, they will most probably secure a
measure of success that will amply repay their efforts.
TRICK 25.—The Conjuror’s “Bonus Genius,” or Familiar Messenger.
This is an old trick that has delighted thousands, and may amuse
thousands more, if adroitly performed. There are only the simplest
mechanical arrangements connected with it; its successful exhibition
depends upon the dexterity and vivacity of the performer.
PREPARATION.
You must have a strong wooden doll, about eight or ten inches high; the
head must fix on or off by a peg at the bottom of the throat, being
placed in a hole made at the top of the bust. Besides a close-fitting
dress to its body, a large, loose, fantastic cloak must be placed round
the whole figure, but must be so arranged as to allow the head to be
pushed down through the part of the cloak that covers the bust, and
an elastic pocket must be neatly made inside the cloak to receive and
retain the head.
Having the above apparatus ready, you may commence by saying:
“Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to introduce my learned friend and
assistant—indefatigable in traveling to the most distant parts on any
message I may wish to send him. He used to be recognized by early
conjurors as their Bonus Genius—their good familiar spirit. But,
whatever his special title, he is gifted with the art of rendering
himself visible or invisible, as he feels disposed, while he travels to
distant countries.
“Allow me to call your attention to the solid frame and unflinching
nerves, at any rate to the well-seasoned constitution of my friend.
[Rap him loudly, rap, rap, rap, on the table.] The raps he received
during his education doubtless accustomed him to bear much without
flinching. Though his travels have ranged from China to Peru, from the
Equator to the Poles, you perceive he still sounds like a hardy Pole
himself. (Rap, rap, rap.)
“I perceive, however, by the glaring of his eye, that, after my too
rough handling, he is desirous of starting on his travels. I suppose
we must provide him with the needful for his expenses. Large sums are
given now-a-days to special correspondents in foreign countries; who
will kindly give him sufficient? He will want a golden or silver key
to open some curiosities he may wish to inspect in foreign cities.
(Pause.) Oh, well, as there is a delay about it, I must myself supply
him. I think I have a few disposable coins in my pocket: he shall have
them.”
Suiting the action to the word, while your left hand holds the upper
part of the cloak near the neck, so as to cover what you are doing,
you withdraw the wooden body with your right hand, while you move your
right hand down to your pocket for the coins. You then leave the body
of the doll in your pocket, and taking out the coins, present them to
the head and cloak of the figure, which is held in your left hand,
saying: “There, my good friend, you can now, if you wish, proceed
on your tour to Algiers, or Dahomey, or Timbuctoo, or wherever the
universal Yankee travelers fancy at the present to resort.
“Ah, I see he is pleased and in good spirits again. He wishes
apparently to bid you good-bye. You will excuse his looking also round
about him, to judge whether the weather is fair to set out; after
which I will lay my hand on his head to express my good wishes for his
journey. I dare say he will not stay much longer after that than a
schoolboy does after his master has bid him good-bye.”
Place with formal ceremony your hand on his head, press it down through
the opening below it, receive it in your left hand underneath the
cloak, and bestow it safely in the pocket.
Affect astonishment at finding the gown alone left in your hands, and
fold it up with a lamentation at his departure. You may say: “It is
clear that he has chosen to go to a hot climate, as he has left his
cloak behind him.”
Discourse for a few minutes about sending a telegram to overtake him at
London or San Francisco—talk about the sea-passage, railways, tunnels,
and what not.
“Ah, but I need none of these if I wish him back. I can summon him
again by a few mystic wavings of my wand and by secret art. Hey, my
friend, I need thy presence; quick, return, I pray you. I wish to see
you again in your familiar garb—
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something ghostly hither comes.”
Swell out the cloak with your left hand, and at the same time thrust up
the head from the pocket. It will appear as if the whole figure stood
before them.
Then say: “I fear, dear friend, I have trespassed by abridging your
tour. You can hardly have traversed Algeria, crossed the mountains
of the moon, or found the birthplace of the Nile; and no one returns
now-a-days without some such marvel to relate. I will let you depart
again. As some people say to troublesome visitors: ‘You may depart now;
please to call again to-morrow.’”
Repeat the manœuvre, as before, of secreting the head. Then exclaim:
“Alas! he is gone in earnest, like the sojourner of a day (with mock
pathos.) When we have lost him, we feel our loneliness.”
Fold up sorrowfully the cloak of the departed, and so conclude the
trick.
TRICK 26.—The Shower of Money.
A dozen silver coins, or pennies, will be equally useful in exhibiting
this trick; but some fictitious coin, in color resembling gold, will
perhaps more effectively delight those who are charmed by the yellow
glitter of the precious metal. The performer must have provided himself
with so many of these in his left hand as he purposes to produce at the
end of the trick, and two of the same coin also must be concealed in
his right palm. He must further borrow a hat from one of the company.
The imagination of the spectators having been excited by the
expectation of beholding a shower of money, the adept in
sleight-of-hand, keeping one of the two coins in his right hand
concealed, must advance the other coin to the end of his forefinger
and thumb, while he pretends to pick a coin out of the candle, or of
the rim of a hat, or from a lady’s fan or shoulder, or may pretend
to clutch a coin floating in the air. As he brings away his prize,
he may rattle it against the other coin concealed in his right hand.
Then, making Pass 1, he may pretend to pass it into the hat, being
careful precisely at the same moment to drop, audibly, a coin from his
left hand into the hat which he holds in that hand. Let him tell the
audience to keep count how many he collects: it will rather distract
their attention.
He can continue this pleasant appearance of acquiring wealth for ten
minutes, or as long as he can devise various methods of appearing
to clutch it, till the number with which he stored his left hand is
exhausted.
He may then request some one to count out, audibly, into a plate the
coins collected in the hat, which will coincide with the number he has
appeared to collect so magically from various sources. When adroitly
done, this trick is very pleasing and effective.
TRICK 27.—To Furnish Ladies With a Magic Supply of Tea or Coffee, at
their selection, From One and the Same Jug.
PREPARATION.
Have a metal jug to hold not less than three pints. It must be
constructed with two compartments in the lower part of it, holding
about a pint and a quarter each, and these must each have a pipe
connected with the spout of the jug and another pipe connecting
with its handle, and in the handle a small hole about the size of a
letter—o—in this print. These lower compartments must be filled with
good tea and coffee before the jug is produced.
The upper chamber or compartment, like the upper portion of a patent
coffee-pot, must have no communication with the lower divisions, and
must be well closed also at the top with a tin cover, closely fitting.
Have half a dozen small tea-cups and half a dozen small coffee-cups
ready on a tray.
Begin the trick by placing openly in the upper compartment
coffee-berries and tea, mixing them together. Take up, as a sudden
thought, an old blacking bottle, and pretend to pour from it into
the jug, to furnish highly-colored liquid to improve the coffee; and
a little gunpowder, about a teaspoonful, may be fired off over the
mixture to make the tea strong. Wave your wand over the jug.
Then you may address the ladies: inform them that the ingredients are
well mixed, and invite them to name which they will prefer, “tea or
coffee,” as you can produce either at their command from the same jug.
Get some friend to hand the cups, while you follow him, and, by
unstopping the holes in the handle for admitting air upon the coffee or
tea, the one of them that each lady names will flow out from the spout
of this magic jug.
TRICK 28.—A Pleasing Exhibition for both the Performer and the
Audience to view when they feel a little Exhausted.
PREPARATION.
Have two pint bottles and one quart bottle; the pint bottles to
be filled, one with a liquid resembling port, the other with one
resembling sherry; the large bottle to be at first empty. Three opaque
metal stands—the centre one to stand under the quart bottle, to have a
large cavity to hold a quart, and the upper part of this stand to be
full of large holes, like a cullender, for the liquor to run from the
opening at H into that cavity.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.]
You must also have three metal covers, of proper size to cover the
above three bottles—these covers to have handles at top, so as to be
easily lifted. The large centre cover is simply a cover; but the two
side ones, which are to cover the pint bottles, must be made with metal
cavities large enough to hold, one a pint of port, the other a pint of
sherry, at top, with a descending pipe to fall into the mouths of the
pint bottles.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.]
There must be a small hole at top of each of the small covers, at B
and C, which hole, being covered with tinfoil, will, as long as it is
closed, prevent the wine from running out at D. But when the tinfoil is
scraped off, and the hole admits the air, the wine will then be able to
run into the pint bottles.
The above apparatus being all ready, commence by saying: “I will
now pour this pint of port and this pint of sherry into the large
bottle, mixing them inseparably together.” Having done so, remove the
stopper at bottom of the large bottle as you place it on its stand,
and immediately place the large cover over it. The mixed liquid will
gradually run out into the concealed cavity in the stand.
You must now talk a little magic nonsense, to draw off the attention,
while you place the special covers over each of the small bottles,
so that the descending pipes in the covers fit in the necks of the
bottles. Remove the tinfoil with which you had covered the holes at A
and B.
With a few magic waves of your wand, and words of art, say: “I shall
now cause the mixed liquids in the centre bottle to appear severally in
their own original bottles.” Let the covers remain a few seconds. Clap
your hands, saying: “Change, begone!” Lift the centre cover: the large
bottle will be seen to be empty. Lift successively the covers from the
small bottles: they will be seen to have each their proper wine—one
port, the other sherry.
TRICK 29.—To Furnish a Treat to the Gentlemen.
For this the magic bottle must be procured. One with three or four
compartments is amply sufficient. In these place gin, sherry, and port
wine, respectively. The bottle will have three or four holes, on which
you place your fingers as if stopping the holes of a flute. You may
have a bucket of water and a common bottle, resembling the magic one
in size and appearance, near your table. Have ready also a tray of
wine-glasses of thick glass, and holding only a very small quantity.
Exhibit the common bottle to the audience, and then place it on your
table, and direct attention to some of the other articles on your
table. “Now I must begin my experiment. I will wash and drain my
bottle, that you may see the experiment from the beginning to the end.”
Place it in the bucket, and while shaking it about, and letting the
water run out, exchange it for the magic bottle lying by the bucket.
Wipe that carefully with a napkin, as if drying it, and calling
two or three of the audience forward at a time, inquire which they
prefer. Have the stops according to alphabetical order to prevent your
mistaking—gin, port, sherry. Continue supplying the small glasses as
called for, till your bottle gets nearly empty, and then pour them out
indiscriminately. There will have been sufficient to satisfy the most
eager.
But if you wish to continue the trick, yen may have a second magic
bottle prepared in the same way, and you will easily, while propounding
some magic charm and gesticulating, make some pretence that will enable
you to exchange the empty for the second bottle, and so proceed.
VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY.
WHAT IS VENTRILOQUISM?
Before we take the reader into the precise and minute instructions
which he will have to study and practice ere he can become the
possessor of the coveted art, it will be necessary to inform him what
Ventriloquism[1] is, and in what it consists. In doing so, we shall
endeavor to be as plain and clear as possible. Ventriloquism may be
divided into two sections, or general heads, the first of which may be
appropriately designated as Polyphonism, and consists of the simple
imitation of the voices of human creatures, of animals, of musical
instruments, and sounds and noises of every description in which no
illusion is intended, but where, on the contrary, the imitation is
avowedly executed by the mimic, amongst which we may classify sawing,
planing, door-creaking, sounds of musical instruments, and other
similar imitations.
[1] Literally signifying belly-speaking, from _venter_, the belly, and
_loquor_, I speak.
Secondly, we have ventriloquism proper, which consists in the imitation
of such voices, sounds, and noises, not as originating in him, but
in some other appropriate source at a given or varying distance, in
any or even in several directions, either singly or together—a process
exciting both wonder and amusement, and which may be accomplished by
thousands who have hitherto viewed the ventriloquist as invested with a
power wholly denied by nature to themselves. It is needless to observe,
that when the imitations are effected without a movement of mouth,
features, or body, the astonishment of the audience is considerably
enhanced.
The terms polyphony, mimicry, or imitation, are employed to
designate results obtained in reference to the first division of the
subject, where no illusion is intended; while the term ventriloquism
distinguishes those under the second division, where an illusion is
palpably produced. The first is much more common than the latter;
indeed, there is scarcely a public school which does not possess at
least one boy capable of imitating the mewing of a cat, the barking
of a dog, or the squeaking voice of an old woman. On the other hand,
from a want of the knowledge of _how_ to proceed, it is very seldom
that even a blundering attempt at ventriloquism is heard, except from a
public platform.
There have been many statements put forward defining ventriloquism,
but we are decidedly of opinion that the theory of two of the most
celebrated of foreign ventriloquists, Baron de Mengen and M. St. Gille,
who were sufficiently unselfish to avow the secret of their art, is not
only the most correct, but it is at once the most reasonable and the
most natural.
From Baron de Mengen’s account of himself, and the observations made by
M. de la Chapelle, in his frequent examinations of St. Gille, whom we
shall afterwards refer to, it seems that the factitious ventriloquist
voice does not (as the etymology of the word imports) proceed from the
belly, but is formed in the inner parts of the mouth and throat.
The art does not depend on a particular structure or organization of
these parts, but may be acquired by almost any one ardently desirous of
attaining it, and determined to persevere in repeated trials.
The judgments we form concerning the situation and distance of bodies,
by means of the senses mutually assisting and correcting each other,
seem to be entirely founded on experience; and we pass from the sign
to the thing signified by it immediately, or at least without any
intermediate steps perceptible to ourselves.
Hence it follows that if a man, though in the same room with another,
can by any peculiar modifications of the organs of speech, produce
a sound which, in faintness, tone, body, and every other sensible
quality, perfectly resembles a sound delivered from the roof of an
opposite house, the ear will naturally, without examination, refer it
to that situation and distance; the sound which he hears being only
a sign, which from infancy he has become accustomed, by experience,
to associate with the idea of a person speaking from a house-top. A
deception of this kind is practised with success on the organ and other
musical instruments.
Rolandus, in his “Aglossostomographia,” mentions, that if the
mediastinum, which is naturally a single membrane, be divided into two
parts, the speech will seem to come out of the breast, so that the
bystanders will fancy the person possessed.
Mr. Gough, in the “Manchester Memoirs,” vol. v. part ii. p. 622 London,
1802, investigates the method whereby men judge by the ear of the
position of sonorous bodies relative to their own persons.
This author observes, in general that a sudden change in direction of
sound, our knowledge of which, he conceives, does not depend on the
impulse in the ear, but on other facts, will be perceived when the
original communication is interrupted, provided there be a sensible
echo. This circumstance will be acknowledged by any person who has had
occasion to walk along a valley, intercepted with buildings, at the
time that a peal of bells is ringing in it. The sound of the bells,
instead of arriving constantly at the ears of the person so situated,
is frequently reflected in a short time from two or three different
places. These deceptions are, in many cases, so much diversified by
the successive interpositions of fresh objects, that the steeple
appears, in the hearer’s judgment, to perform the part of an expert
ventriloquist on a theatre—the extent of which is adapted to its own
powers, and not to those of the human voice.
The similarity of effect which connects this phenomenon with
ventriloquism, convinced the author, whenever he heard it, that what
we know to be the cause in one instance, is also the cause in the
other, viz., that the echo reaches the ear, while the original sound is
intercepted by accident in the case of the bells _but by art_, in the
case of the ventriloquist.
It is the business of the ventriloquist to amuse his admirers with
tricks resembling the foregoing delusion; and it will be readily
granted that he has a subtle sense, highly corrected by experience to
manage, on which account the judgment must be cheated as well as the
ear.
This can only be accomplished by making the pulses, constituting his
words strike the heads of his hearers, not in the right lines that
join their persons and his. He must therefore, know how to disguise
the true direction of his voice; because the artifice will give him an
opportunity to substitute almost any echo he chooses in the place of
it. But the superior part of the human body has been already proved
to form an extensive seat of sound, from every point of which the
pulses are repelled as if they diverge from a common centre. This is
the reason why people, who speak in the usual way, cannot conceal the
direction of their voices, which in reality _fly off towards all points
at the same instant_. The ventriloquist, therefore, by some means or
other, acquires the difficult habit of _contracting_ the field of
sound within the _compass of his lips_, which enables him to confine
the real path of his voice to narrow limits. For he who is master of
his art has nothing to do but to place his mouth obliquely to the
company, and to dart his words out of his mouth—if the expression may
be used—whence they will then strike the ears of the audience as that
from an unexpected quarter. Nature seems to fix no bounds to this
kind of deception, only care must be taken not to let the path of
the direct pulses pass too near the head of the person who is played
upon, but the divergency of the pulses make him perceive the voice
itself. Our readers will, therefore, not be surprised that the French
Academy adopted this view of the subject, and laid down that the art
consists in an _accurate imitation of any given sound as it reaches the
ear_. In conformity with a theory so incontrovertible, physiologists
have suggested a variety of movements of the vocal organs to explain
still further the originating cause; and some have gone so far as to
contend for a peculiarity of structure in these organs as an essential
requirement; but they have wisely omitted to specify what. Nothing,
however, can be more accurate than the description of “the _essence_”
of ventriloquy in the “English Cyclopædia”—namely, that it “_consists
in creating illusions as to the distance and direction whence a sound
has travelled_.” How those sounds are produced, we shall show in
another chapter.
VENTRILOQUISM AMONGST THE ANCIENTS.
Charles Lamb gave utterance to the thought that it was “pleasant to
contemplate the head of the Ganges,” but the student of ventriloquism
finds it difficult to obtain a view of the source of his art. In the
dim and misty ages of antiquity, he may trace under various guises the
practice of it. Many of the old superstitions were fostered by its
means; from the cradle of mankind to the birthplace of idolatry, we
incidentally learn of the belief in a familiar spirit—a second voice,
which afterwards took the form of divination.
The various kinds of divination amongst the nations of antiquity which
were stated by the priesthood to be by a spirit, a familiar spirit,
or a spirit of divination, are now supposed to have been effected by
means of ventriloquism. Divination by a familiar spirit can be tracked
through a long period of time. By reference to Leviticus xx. 27 it will
be seen that the Mosaic law forbade the Hebrews to consult those having
familiar spirits, and to put to death the possessor. The Mosaic law was
given about fifteen hundred years before Christ. Divining by a familiar
spirit was, however, so familiar to the Jews, that the prophet Isaiah
draws a powerful illustration from the kind of voice heard in such
divination, see Isaiah xxix. 4.
There can be little doubt but the Jews became acquainted with this
voice during their compulsory captivity in Egypt. In many of the
mysteries which accompanied the worship of Osiris, the unearthly
voice speaking from hidden depths of unknown heights was common. Some
philosophers have imagined that a series of tubes and acoustical
appliances were used to accomplish these mysterious sounds. The statute
of Memnon will instantly suggest itself as a familiar instance. The
gigantic stone-head was heard to speak when the first rays of the
worshipped sun glanced on its impassive features. The magic words were
undoubtedly pronounced by the attendant priest, for we find a similar
trick prevalent throughout the whole history of ventriloquism, and even
now the public professors of the art know how much depends on fixing
the attention of their audience on the object or place from whence the
sound is supposed to proceed. The Jews carried the art with them into
Palestine, for we trace the agency throughout their history.
The Greeks practised a mode of divination termed gastromancy, where the
diviner replied without moving his lips, so that the consulter believed
he heard the actual voice of a spirit speaking from its residence
within the priest’s belly.
In the Acts of the Apostles (xvi. 16), mention is made of a young woman
with a familiar spirit meeting the Apostles in the city of Philippi,
in Macedonia,—St. Chrysostom and other early Fathers of the Christian
Church mention divination by a familiar spirit as practised in their
day. The practice of similar divination is still common in the East;
it lingers on the banks of the Nile, and is even practised among the
Esquimaux. This divination by a familiar spirit has been practised
upwards of three thousand years.
MODERN PROFESSORS OF THE ART.
The earliest notice of ventriloquial illusion, as carried out in
modern times, has reference to Louis Brabant, _valet-de-chambre_ of
Francis I., who is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful and
rich heiress, but was rejected by the parents as a low, unsuitable
match. However, the father dying, he visits the widow; and on his
first appearance in the house she hears herself accosted in a voice
resembling that of her dead husband, and which seemed to proceed from
above. “Give my daughter in marriage to Louis Brabant, who is a man of
great fortune and excellent character. I now endure the inexpressible
torments of purgatory, for having refused her to him; obey this
admonition and I shall soon be delivered; you will provide a worthy
husband for your daughter, and procure everlasting repose to the soul
of your poor husband.”
The dread summons, which had no appearance of proceeding from Louis,
whose countenance exhibited no change, and whose lips were close and
motionless, was instantly complied with; but the deceiver, in order
to mend his finances for the accomplishment of the marriage contract,
applies to one Cornu, an old and rich banker at Lyons, who had
accumulated immense wealth by usury, and extortion, and was haunted by
remorse of conscience. After some conversation on demons and spectres,
the pains of purgatory, &c., during an interval of silence, a voice is
heard, like that of the banker’s deceased father, complaining of his
dreadful situation in purgatory, and calling upon him to rescue him
from thence, by putting into the hands of Louis Brabant, then with him,
a large sum for the redemption of Christians in slavery with the Turks;
threatening him at the same time with eternal damnation if he did not
thus expiate his own sins. Upon a second interview, in which his ears
were saluted with the complaints and groans of his father, and of all
his deceased relations, imploring him, for the love of God, and in the
name of every saint in the calendar, to have mercy on his own soul and
others, Cornu obeyed the heavenly voice, and gave Louis 10,000 crowns,
with which he returned to Paris, and married his mistress.
The works of M. L’Abbe La Chapelle, issued 1772, and before alluded
to, contain descriptions of the ventriloquial achievements of Baron
Mengen at Vienna; and those of M. St. Gille, near Paris, are equally
interesting and astonishing. The former ingeniously constructed a doll
with moveable lips, which he could readily control by a movement of the
fingers under the dress; and with this automaton he was accustomed to
hold humorous and satirical dialogues. He ascribed proficiency in his
art to the frequent gratification of a propensity for counterfeiting
the cries of the lower animals, and the voices of persons with whom he
was brought in contact. So expert, indeed, had practice rendered him
in this way, that the sounds uttered by him did not seem to issue from
his own mouth. La Chapelle, having heard many surprising circumstances
related concerning one M. St. Gille, a grocer at St. Germainen-Laye,
near Paris, whose powers as a ventriloquist had given occasion to many
singular and diverting scenes, formed the resolution of seeing him.
Being seated with him on the opposite side of a fire, in a parlor on
the ground floor, and very attentively observing him, the Abbe, after
half an hour’s conversation with M. St. Gille, heard himself called, on
a sudden, by his name and title, in a voice that seemed to come from
the roof of a house at a distance; and whilst he was pointing to the
house from which the voice had appeared to him to proceed, he was yet
more surprised at hearing the words, “it was not from that quarter,”
apparently in the same kind of voice as before, but which now seemed to
issue from under the earth at one of the corners of the room. In short,
this factitious voice played, as it were, everywhere about him, and
seemed to proceed from any quarter or distance from which the operator
chose to transmit it to him. To the Abbe, though conscious that the
voice proceeded from the mouth of M. St. Gille, he appeared absolutely
mute while he was exercising his talent; nor could any change in
his countenance be discovered. But he observed that M. St. Gille
presented only the profile of his face to him while he was speaking as
a ventriloquist.
On another occasion, M. St. Gille sought for shelter from a storm in
a neighboring convent; and finding the community in mourning, and
inquiring the cause, he was told that one of their body, much esteemed
by them, had lately died. Some of their religious attended him to the
church, and showing him the tomb of their deceased brother, spoke very
feelingly of the scanty honors that had been bestowed on his memory,
when suddenly, a voice was heard, apparently proceeding from the roof
of the choir, lamenting the situation of the defunct in purgatory, and
reproaching the brotherhood with their want of zeal on his account. The
whole community being afterwards convened in the church, the voice from
the roof renewed its lamentations and reproaches, and the whole convent
fell on their faces, and vowed a solemn reparation. Accordingly, they
first chanted a _De profundis_ in full choir; during the intervals
of which the ghost occasionally expressed the comfort he received
from their pious exercises and ejaculations in his behalf. The prior,
when this religious service was concluded, entered into a serious
conversation with M. St. Gille, and inveighed against the incredulity
of our modern sceptics and pretended philosophers on the article of
ghosts and apparitions; and St. Gille found it difficult to convince
the fathers that the whole was a deception.
M. St. Gille, in 1771, submitted his attainments in this direction to
several experiments before MM. Leroy and Fouchy, Commissioners of the
Royal Academy of Sciences, and other persons of exalted rank, in order
to demonstrate that his mimicry was so perfect as to reach the point
of complete illusion. For this purpose a report was circulated that a
spirit’s voice had been heard at times in the environs of St. Germain,
and that the commission was appointed to verify the fact. The company,
with the exception of one lady, were apprised of the real nature of
the case, the intention being to test the strength of the illusion
upon her. The arrangement was that they should dine together in the
country, in the open air; and while they were at table, the lady was
addressed in a supernatural voice, now coming from the top of adjoining
trees, then descending until it approached her, next receding and
plunging into the ground, where it ceased. For upwards of two hours was
this startling manifestation continued with such adroitness that she
was convinced the voice belonged to a person from another world, and
subsequent explanation failed to convince her to the contrary.
M. Alexandre, the famous ventriloquist, had an extraordinary facility
in counterfeiting all the expressions of countenance and bodily
conditions common to humanity. When in London, his mimetic powers,
which he was fond of exercising both in public and private, made his
company in high request among the upper circles. The Lord Mayor of the
City, in particular, received the ventriloquist with great distinction,
and invited him several times to dine at the Mansion House. But it
unluckily happened that on every occasion when M. Alexandre dined
there, he could not stay to spend the evening, having contracted
engagements elsewhere. The Lord Mayor expressed much regret at this,
and the ventriloquist himself was annoyed on the same account, being
willing to do his best to entertain the guests whom the Lord Mayor had
asked each time to meet him.
At last, on meeting M. Alexandre one day, the Lord Mayor engaged him to
dine at the Mansion House on a remote day. “I fix it purposely,” said
his lordship, “at so distant a period, because I wish to make sure this
time of your remaining with us through the evening.” Through fear of
seeming purposely to slight his lordship, M. Alexandre did not dare to
tell the Mayor that on that very morning he had accepted an invitation
from a nobleman of high rank to spend at his house the evening of the
identical day so unfortunately pitched on by the civic dignitary. All
the ventriloquist said in reply was, “I promise, my lord to remain at
the Mansion House, till you, yourself think it time for me to take my
leave.” “Ah, well,” said the Lord Mayor, and he went off perfectly
satisfied.
At the appointed day Alexandre sat himself down at the magistrate’s
board. Never had the ventriloquist comported himself with so much
spirit and gaiety. He insisted on devoting bumpers to each and every
lady present.
The toasts went round, the old port flowed like water, and the artiste
in particular seemed in danger of loosing his reason under its potent
influence. When others stopped, he stopped not, but continued filling
and emptying incessantly. By and by, his eyes began to stare, his
visage became purple, his tongue grew confused, his whole body seemed
to steam of wine, and finally he sank from his chair in a state of
maudlin, helpless insensibility.
Regretting the condition of his guest, the Lord Mayor got him quietly
lifted, and conveyed to his own carriage, giving orders for him to
be taken home to his lodgings. As soon as M. Alexandre was deposited
there, he became a very different being. It was now ten o’clock, and
but half an hour was left to him to prepare for his appointed visit to
the Duke of ——’s _soiree_. The ventriloquist disrobed himself, taking
first from his breast a quantity of sponge which he had placed beneath
his waist coat, and into the pores of which he had, with a quick and
dexterous hand, poured the greater portion of the wine which he had
apparently swallowed.
Having washed from his person all tokens of his simulated
intoxication, and dressed himself anew, M. Alexandre then betook
himself to the mansion of the nobleman to whom he had engaged himself.
On the following day the fashionable newspapers gave a detailed account
of the grand party at his Grace the Duke of ——’s, and eulogized to the
skies the entertaining performances of M. Alexandre, who, they said,
had surpassed himself on this occasion. Some days afterwards, the Lord
Mayor encountered M. Alexandre. “Ah, how are you?” said his lordship.
“Very well, my lord,” was the reply. “Our newspapers are pretty pieces
of veracity,” said his lordship. “Have you seen the _Courier_ of the
other day? Why, it makes you out to have exhibited in great style last
Thursday night at his Grace of ——’s!” “It has but told the truth,” said
the mimic. “What? impossible!” cried the Mayor. “You do not remember,
then, the state into which you unfortunately got at the Mansion House?”
And thereupon the worthy magistrate detailed to the ventriloquist
the circumstances of his intoxication, and the care that had been
taken with him, with other points of the case. M. Alexandre heard his
lordship to an end, and then confessed the stratagem which he had
played off, and the cause of it.
“I had promised,” said Alexandre, “to be with his Grace at half-past
ten. I had also promised not to leave you till you yourself considered
it fit time. I kept my word in both cases—you know the way.” The civic
functionary laughed heartily, and on the following evening Alexandre
made up for his trick by making the Mansion House ring with laughter
till daylight.
Many anecdotes are told respecting M. Alexandre’s power of assuming the
faces of other people. At Abbotsford, during a visit there, he actually
sat to a sculptor five times in the character of a noted clergyman,
with whose real features the sculptor was well acquainted. When the
sittings were closed and the bust modelled, the mimic cast off his wig
and assumed dress, and appeared with his own natural countenance, to
the terror almost of the sculptor, and to the great amusement of Sir
Walter and others who had been in the secret.
Of this most celebrated ventriloquist it is related that on one
occasion he was passing along the Strand, when a friend desired a
specimen of his abilities. At this instant a load of hay was passing
along near Temple Bar, when Alexandre called attention to the
suffocating cries of a man in the centre of the hay. A crowd gathered
round and stopped the astonished carter, and demanded why he was
carrying a fellow-creature in his hay. The complaints and cries of
the smothered man now became painful, and there was every reason to
believe that he was dying. The crowd, regardless of the stoppage to
the traffic, instantly proceeded to unload the hay into the street.
The smothered voice urged them to make haste, but the feelings of the
people may be imagined when the cart was empty and nobody was found,
while Alexandre and his friend walked off laughing at the unexpected
results of their trick.
It would be obviously invidious to compare the merits of living
professors. Mr. Maccabe, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Thurton and Mr. Macmillan
have long been favorites with the public.
THE THEORY OF VENTRILOQUISM.
Many physiologists aver that ventriloquism is obtained by speaking
during the inspiration of air. It is quite possible to articulate under
these circumstances, and the plan may with advantage be occasionally
adopted; but our own practical experience and close observation of many
public performers, and of not a few private friends who have attained
distinctness and no small amount of facility in the art, convince us
that the general current of utterance is, as in ordinary speech, during
_expiration_ of the breath. Some imagine that the means of procuring
the required imitation are comprised in a thorough management of the
echoes of sound. Unfortunately, however, for this theory, an echo only
repeats what has been already brought into existence. Several eminent
ventriloquists, including the late Mr. Matthews, have displayed the
vocal illusion while walking in the streets. Baron Mengen describes
as follows his mode of speaking, when he desired the illusion to take
the direction of a voice emanating from the doll: “_I press my tongue
against the teeth, and then circumscribe a cavity between my left check
and teeth, in which the voice is produced by the air held in reserve in
the pharynx_. The sounds thus receive a hollow and muffled tone, which
causes them to appear to come from a distance.” The Baron furthermore
mentions that it is essential to have the breath well under control,
and not to respire more than can be avoided. M. St. Gille was seen to
look somewhat exhausted when the vocal illusion grew less perfect. We
ourselves, and all ventriloquists with whom we have conferred, have
acknowledged that they have experienced fatigue in the chest, and have
attributed it to the slow expiration of the breath. M. St. Gille, with
the majority of ventriloquists, was often compelled to cough during the
progress of his exercitation.
To attain an exact and positive knowledge of the modifications of voice
specified as ventriloquism, it is important to be familiar with the
distinctions of the sounds uttered by the mouth; and to ascertain how
the organs act in producing those vocal modifications, it is necessary
to know how the breath is vocalized in all distinctions of pitch,
loudness, and quality, by the ordinary actions of the vocal organs. In
ordinary language, we speak of noise, of common sound, and of musical
sound-terms employed by Dr. Thomas Young in illustrating the mechanical
agencies of articulation:—“A quill striking against a piece of wood
causes a noise, but striking successively against the teeth of a wheel,
or of a comb, a continued sound, and, if the teeth of the wheel are
at equal distances, and the velocity of the rotation is constant,
a musical sound. The general terms—pitch, loudness, quality, and
duration, embrace all the distinctions with which the musician has to
deal, and which he uses in his art.”
The distinguishing feature of musical sound is its uniform pitch
throughout its duration, and acoustically musical sound is composed of
an equal number of impulses or noises produced in equal tones.
The general terms—pitch, loudness, quality, and duration, also embrace
all the distinctions heard in ordinary sounds. These sounds differ
from the musical in the pitch constantly varying throughout their
duration, as the human voice in speaking, and the voice of quadrupeds.
Acoustically such sounds are composed of an unequal number of impulses
or noises produced in equal tones. And from this circumstance pitch, in
the strictly musical sense, is not a property of ordinary sound.
The general terms—loudness and quality, embrace all the distinctions
heard in a noise, as in the collision of two unelastic sticks. Pitch
and duration can scarcely be considered as belonging to common noise.
Thus we have—(1) noise whose audible distinctions are comprehended
under the general terms loudness and quality; (2) common sound, whose
audible distinctions are comprehended under the general terms—loudness,
quality, duration, and every varying pitch; (3) musical sound, whose
audible distinctions are comprehended under the general terms—loudness,
quality, duration, and uniform pitch.
Phonation, or the production of voice, is a result of actions taking
place under two distinct classes of laws—namely, the ordinary
mechanical laws of acoustics, and the physiological laws of muscular
movement. The adjustment of the vocal mechanism to be brought into
operation by the current of air, is made by actions under the latter
laws; and phonation is the result of the reaction of the mechanism on
the current of air, by mechanical movements under the former laws.
Now, the pitch of the voice essentially depends on the tension of the
vocal ligaments; the loudness or the extent of the excursion of these
ligaments in their vibration; the duration on the continuance of the
vocalizing causes; the quality on the organization of the larynx, and
also on the form and size of the vocal tube. The form and size of
this tube can be altered in various ways—for instance, by dilating
or contracting the pharynx; by dilating or contracting the mouth; by
contracting the communication between the pharynx and mouth, so as
to constitute them distinct chambers, or by dilating the opening so
as to throw them into one, which is chiefly attained by movements
of the soft palate; and by altering the form of the mouth’s cavity,
which is effected by varying the position of the tongue. Each of these
modifications of the vocal tube conveys a peculiarity of quality to
the voice,—all, however, being local or laryngeal sounds. Moreover,
sounds can be produced in the vocal tube, apart from the larynx. These,
strictly speaking, are not vocal sounds, though some of them may be of
a definite and uniform pitch, while others are mere noises—as rustling,
whispering, gurgling, whistling, snoring, and the like. Now, as
everything audible comes under the classes of noise, sound, or musical
sound, and as each variety originates in the vocal apparatus of man, it
is obvious that _an ordinary vocal apparatus is all that is required
for the achievement of the feats_ of ventriloquism.
A person having an ear acutely perceptive to the nice distinctions of
sounds, may, by a little practice, imitate many sounds with accuracy.
Those persons, however, who are highly endowed with the mental
requisites, which consist of an intense desire to mimic, coupled with
the ability to originate mimetic ideas, are able to imitate sounds at
first hearing.
We next proceed to treat of those illusions, where the voice so
perfectly counterfeits the reality intended, that it appears not to
issue from the mimic, but from an appropriate source, in whatever
direction, and at whatever distance the source may be. We do not hear
the distance which a sound has travelled from its source, but we judge
the distance from our former experience, by comparing the loudness
which we hear with the known distance and known loudness of similar
sounds heard on former occasions. Common experience will prove that we
oftener err in estimating the distance of uncommon than of familiar
sounds. In apology for such an error, the ordinary language is, “It
seemed too loud to come so far,” or “It seemed too near to be so faint
a sound,” as the case may be,—both of which are apologies for an
erroneous judgment, and not for faulty hearing. Near sounds are louder
than distant ones. Now, by preserving the same _pitch_, _quality_, and
_duration_, but with an _accurately graduated reduction of loudness_,
a series forming a _perspective_ of sounds may be created, which,
falling in succession on the ear, will suggest to the mind a constantly
increasing distance of the sound’s source. The estimate, then, which is
formed of the distance which a sound has travelled before reaching the
ear is a judgment of the mind formed by comparing a present perception
(by hearing) with the remembrance of a former loudness in connection
with its known distance. With regard to direction, it is observed,
“The direction whence a sound comes seems to be judged of by the right
of left ear receiving the stronger impression, which, however, can
only take place when the sound’s source is in a plane, or nearly so,
with a line passing through both cars. It is familiarly known that
a person in a house cannot by the noise of an approaching carriage
judge with certainty whether it is coming from the right or left. He
accurately judges it to be approaching, passing, or receding, as the
case may be, by the gradations of loudness, but is unable to decide
with certainty whether its approach or recession is from up or down
the street. Enough has been stated to show that we do not _hear_, but
that we judge _the direction a sound has travelled from its source on
reaching the ear_.” The ventriloquist indicates, either directly or
indirectly, the direction from which he wishes his audience to believe
the sound is coming. Thus he directly indicates it by words, such
as—“Are you up there?” “He is up the chimney,” “He is in the cellar,”
“Are you down there?” &c., as illustrated in the various examples. He
indirectly indicates it by some suggestive circumstance, as an action
or gesture, which is so skilfully unobtrusive and natural as to effect
its object without being discovered. Thus, when the ventriloquist
looks or listens in any direction, or even simply turns towards any
point, as if he expected sound to come thence, _the attention of an
audience is by that means instantly directed also to the same place_.
Thus, before a sound is produced, the audience expect it to come in
the _suggested direction_; and the ventriloquist has merely, by his
_adjustment of vocal loudness_, to indicate the necessary distance,
when a _misjudgment of the audience will complete the illusion which he
has begun_.
The effect which is produced on sound by its travelling from a
distance, is observed to be:—
(1) That its loudness is reduced in proportion to its distance.
(2) That its _pitch_ remains unaltered.
(3) That its _quality_ or _tone_ is somewhat altered.
(4) That its duration remains unaltered.
(5) That the human speech is _somewhat obscured_, chiefly in the
_consonant_ sounds.
It must be remembered that the ventriloquist makes the sound, not as
it is heard at its source, _but as it is heard after travelling from a
distance_.
THE MEANS BY WHICH IT IS EFFECTED.
Before entering upon the first and easy lessons, it will be as well
to consider the means by which the effect is produced. The Student is
supposed to have made himself thoroughly acquainted with the previous
chapter, as to the effect to be produced, _not on himself_, but _on the
spectators and audience_. And we may assure him, that if he has a fair
range of voice, a diligent observance of the rules which we are about
to lay down, coupled with attention to the nature of sound as it falls
upon the ear, will lead him to such triumphs as, in all probability,
he never imagined he could have attained—an assurance which we are
emboldened to offer from _our own pursuit and practical realization of
the art_.
The student must bear in mind that the means are _simply natural
ones_, used in accordance with _natural laws_. We have given him the
acoustical theory of the effect on the auric nerve, and the means are
the organs of respiration and sound, with the adjoining muscles. They
are the diaphragm, the lungs, the trachea, the larynx, the pharynx,
and the mouth. The diaphragm is a very large convex muscle, situated
below the lungs, and having full power over respiration. The lungs are
the organs of respiration, and are seated at each side of the chest;
they consist of air-tubes minutely ramified in a loose tissue, and
terminating in very small sacs, termed air-cells. The trachea is a
tube, the continuation of the larynx, commonly called the windpipe:
through this the air passes to and from the lungs. It is formed
of cartilaginous rings, by means of which it may be elongated or
shortened. The larynx is that portion of the air-tube immediately above
the trachea: its position is indicated by a large projection in the
throat. In the interior of this part of the throat are situated the
vocal chords. They are four bands of elastic substance somewhat similar
to India-rubber. The cavity, or opening between these vocal chords is
called the glottis: it possesses the power of expanding or contracting
under the influence of the muscles of the larynx. The pharynx is a
cavity above the larynx, communicating with the nasal passages: it is
partially visible when the mouth is opened and the tongue lowered. Near
this part of the root of the tongue is situated the epiglottis, which
acts as a lid or cover in closing over the air-tube during the act of
swallowing. The mouth forms a cavity to reflect and strengthen the
resonance of the vibrations produced in the air-tube; it also possesses
numberless minute powers of contraction and modification.
We now proceed to give the instructions to which we have
referred—instructions guaranteed by a proficiency which we are ever
ready to submit to the ordeal of a critical examination, either in
private or in public.
If the student will pay strict attention to the parts printed in
_italics_, and will practice the voices here specified, he will find
that they are the _key to all imitative sounds and voices_; and,
according to the range of his voice and the capabilities of his mimetic
power, he will be enabled to imitate the voices of little children, of
old people, and, in fact, almost every sound which he hears.
Too much attention cannot be bestowed on the _study of sound as it
falls on the ear_, and an endeavor to imitate it as it is heard—_for
the “secret” of the art is, that as perspective is to the eye so is
ventriloquism to the ear_. When we look at a painting of a landscape,
some of the objects appear at a distance; but we know that it is only
the skill of the artist which has made it appear as the eye has seen
it in reality. In exactly the same manner a ventriloquist acts upon
and deceives the ear, by _producing sounds_ as they are heard from any
known distances.
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
NO. I.
THE VOICE IN THE CLOSET
This is the voice in which Mr. Frederic Maccabe, the celebrated
mimic and ventriloquist, excels, and the clever manner in which he
can adapt it off-hand, as it were, will be best illustrated by the
fact mentioned to us by the gentleman in question, whom we call Mr.
B. in Mr. Maccabe’s presence. Mr. B., who was an invalid, suffering
from some nervous disorder, originating by overwork and anxiety, was
travelling in Ireland in search of health, and when on his way from
Dublin to Cork, he lay exhausted in a corner of a railway-carriage,
muffled up in cloaks and wrappers in a paroxysm of pain. At Mallow, two
gentlemen entered the carriage, one of whom was in exuberant spirits,
and commenced telling some amusing anecdotes. At length the porter
came to collect the tickets. They were all handed in but one, when the
following colloquy ensued:—
_Porter._—A gentleman hasn’t given me his ticket.
_Gentleman._—Bill, in the next compartment, has the ticket, (tapping at
the partition). Haven’t you, Bill?
The imaginary Bill, who appeared to be suffering from a severe
cold, replied that he had, and the porter would not take it. The
official went off to find the ticket, but Bill, in the mean time had
vanished. Back came the porter and indignantly demanded the ticket.
He was interrupted by a shrill voice in the opposite compartment,
crying,—“Porter! porter! why don’t you come and take the ticket!
There’s some one insulting me!” Away went the chivalric porter, to
come back puzzled and chafed to receive the ticket, which was handed
to him. His hand had not reached the coveted piece of pasteboard, ere
the yell of a terrier under the wheels caused the porter to draw back,
amid bursts of laughter, during which the ticket was thrown out, and
the train moved on. And Mr. Frederic Maccabe stood confessed, but not
penitent.
_Voice No 1._—To acquire this voice, which we so name for distinction’s
sake, speak any word or sentence in your own natural tones; then open
the mouth and _fix the jaws_ fast, as though you were trying to hinder
any one from opening them farther or shutting them; draw the tongue
back in a ball; speak the same words, and the sound, instead of being
formed in the mouth will be formed in the pharynx. Great attention must
be paid to holding the jaws rigid. The sound will then be found to
imitate a voice heard from the other side of a door when it is closed,
or under a floor, or through a wall. To ventriloquize with this voice,
let the operator stand with his back to the audience against a door.
Give a gentle tap at the door, and call aloud in a natural voice,
inquiring “Who is there?” This will have the effect of drawing the
attention of the audience to a person supposed to be outside. Then fix
the jaw as described, and utter in voice No. 1, any words you please,
such as “I want to come in.” Ask questions in the natural voice and
answer in the other. When you have done this, open the door a little,
and hold a conversation with the imaginary person. As the door is now
open, it is obvious that the voice must be altered, for a voice will
not sound to the ear when a door is open the same as when closed.
Therefore the voice must be made to _appear_ face to face, or close to
the ventriloquist. To do this the voice must not be altered from the
_original note_ or _pitch_, but be made in another part of the mouth.
This is done by closing the lips tight and drawing one corner of the
mouth downwards, or towards the ear. Then let the lips open at that
corner only, the other part to remain closed. Next breathe, as it were,
the words out of the orifice formed. Do not speak distinctly, but expel
the breath in short puffs at each word, and as loud as possible. By so
doing you will _cause the illusion_ in the mind of the listeners, that
they hear the same voice which they heard when the door was closed,
but which is now heard more distinctly and nearer on account of the
door being open. This voice must always be used when the ventriloquist
wishes it to appear that the sound comes from some one close at hand,
but through an obstacle. The description of voice and dialogue may be
varied as in the following examples—
EX. 1. THE SUFFOCATED VICTIM.—This was a favorite illustration of
Mr. Love, the polyphonist. A large box or close cupboard is used
indiscriminately, as it may be handy. The student will rap or kick the
box apparently by accident. The voice will then utter a hoarse and
subdued groan, apparently from the box or closet.
STUDENT (_pointing to the box with an air of astonishment_): What is
that?
VOICE: I won’t do so any more. I am nearly dead.
STUDENT: Who are you? How came you there?
VOICE: I only wanted to see what was going on. Let me out, do.
STUDENT: But I don’t know who you are.
VOICE: Oh yes, you do.
STUDENT: Who are you?
VOICE: Your old schoolfellow, Tom, ——. You know me.
STUDENT: Why, he’s in Canada.
VOICE (_sharply_): No he ain’t, he’s here; but be quick.
STUDENT (_opening the lid_): Perhaps he’s come by the underground
railroad? Hallo!
VOICE (_not so muffled as described in direction_): Now then, give us a
hand.
STUDENT (_closing the lid or door sharply_): No, I won’t.
VOICE (_as before_): Have pity (_Tom, or Jack, or Mr. ——, as the case
may be_), or I shall be choked.
STUDENT: I don’t believe you are what you say.
VOICE: Why don’t you let me out and see before I am dead?
STUDENT (_opening and shutting the lid or door and varying the voice
accordingly_): Dead! not you. When did you leave Canada?
VOICE: Last week. Oh? I am choking.
STUDENT: Shall I let him out? (_opening the door_). There’s no one here.
2. THE MILKMAN AT THE DOOR.—This affords a capital opportunity of
introducing a beggar, watercress or milkman, and may be varied
accordingly. We will take Skyblue, the milkman; and we would impress
on the student, that, although we give these _simple_ dialogues, _they
are merely intended as illustrations for the modest tyro_, not to
be implicitly followed when greater confidence and proficiency are
attained.
VOICE: Milk below!
STUDENT: Is it not provoking that a milkman always comes when he is not
wanted, and is absent when we are waiting for the cream?
VOICE: (_whistling a bar of “Shoo Fly”_).
STUDENT: Oh, yes, always the broken-hearted milkman as if he was not as
happy as a king.
VOICE (_nearer_): Milk below! Why, Sally, where’s the can?
STUDENT: Sally will be long in answering, I think.
VOICE: Sally’s gadding with the police. Milk below!
STUDENT (_slightly opening the door_): We don’t want any milk, my good
man.
VOICE: No skim milk for the cat, or cream for tea?
ANOTHER VOICE: Watercresses!
STUDENT: Really, this is too bad. Go away.
VOICE: You owe me ten cents for last week’s milk; I was to wait.
STUDENT: This is intolerable. I’ll send for the police.
VOICE [_ironically_]: Send for Sally and p’lice, I’ll foller.
STUDENT: Impudent rascal.
VOICE: Keep your compliments at home, Master Idlebones.
STUDENT [_opining the door_]: I’ll report you to your master.
VOICE [_louder, as the door is opened_]: Will you, young
Whippersnapper, pay us the dime, and let us go?
STUDENT offers to pay, while the voice gets weaker in the distance with
“Milk below!” until it becomes inaudible.
A conversation may be held in a similar strain with _cellarman_: and,
as a rule, the lower notes of the voice will be best for voices in the
basement, and formed as low in the chest as possible.
STUDENT: Thomas, are you coming?
VOICE BELOW [_gruffly_]: I should think I was.
STUDENT: We are waiting for the beer.
VOICE [_partly aside_]: The longer you wait, the greater our honor.
Mary, have another drop.
STUDENT: Why, the scamp is drinking the beer! Thomas! Who’s there with
you?
VOICE: Myself. [_Aside_] Make haste with the pot, Mary; he’s in such a
hurry.
STUDENT: You drinking rascal, how dare you!
VOICE: Coming, sir. The barrel’s nearly empty.
STUDENT: I should think so, tippling as you are at it.
VOICE: Now don’t be saucy.
STUDENT: The fellow is getting intoxicated. Thomas!
VOICE: Wait till I come. I have waited for you many times.
STUDENT: I suppose it is of no use hurrying you?
VOICE: No, it isn’t, my young tippler. I’m COMING! _coming!!_ coming!!!
From this illustration the student may proceed to try the second voice.
NO. II.
_Voice No. 2._—This is the more easy to be acquired. It is the voice
by which all ventriloquists make a supposed person speak from a long
distance, or from, or through the ceiling. In the first place, with
your back to the audience, _direct their attention_ to the ceiling
by _pointing to it or by looking intently at it_. Call loudly, and
ask some question, as though you believed some person to be concealed
there. Make your own voice very distinct, and as near the lips as
possible, inasmuch as that will help the illusion. Then in _exactly
the same tone and pitch_ answer; _but, in order that the same voice may
seem to proceed from the point indicated, the words must be formed at
the back part of the roof of the mouth_. To do this the lower jaw must
be drawn back and held there, the mouth open, which _will cause the
palate to be elevated and drawn nearer to the pharynx_, and the sound
will be reflected in that cavity, and appear to come from the roof. Too
much attention cannot be paid to the manner in which the breath is used
in this voice. When speaking to the supposed person, expel the words
with a deep, quick breath.
When answering in the imitative manner, the breath must be _held
back and expelled very slowly and the voice will come in a subdued
and muffled manner_, little above a whisper, but so as to be well
distinguished. To cause the supposed voice to come nearer by degrees,
call loudly, and say, “I want you down here,” or words to that effect.
_At the same time make a motion downwards with your hand._ Hold some
conversation with the voice and cause it to say, “I am coming,” or,
“Here I am,” each time _indicating the descent with the hand_ (_see
examples_). When the voice is supposed to approach nearer, the sound
must alter, to denote the progress of the movement. Therefore let the
voice at every supposed step, roll, as it were, by degrees, _from the
pharynx more into the cavity of the mouth_, and at each supposed step,
_contracting the opening of the mouth_, until the lips are drawn up
as if you were whistling. By so doing the cavity of the mouth will be
very much enlarged. This will cause the voice to be _obscured, and
so appear_ to come nearer by degrees. At the same time, care must be
taken not to articulate the consonant sounds plainly, as that would
cause the disarrangement of the lips and cavity of the mouth; and in
all _imitation voices_ the consonants must scarcely be articulated at
all, _especially if the ventriloquist faces the audience_. For example;
suppose the imitative voice is made to say, “Mind what you are doing,
you bad boy,” it must be spoken as if it were written “’ind ’ot you’re
doing, you ’ad whoy.”[2] This kind of articulation may be practised,
by forming the words in the pharynx, and then sending them out of
the mouth by sudden expulsions of the breath clean from the lungs at
every word. This is most useful in ventriloquism, and to illustrate
it we will take _the man on the roof_ as an illustration. This is an
example almost invariably successful, and is constantly used by skilled
professors of the art. As we have before repeatedly intimated, the eyes
and attention of the audience must be directed to the _supposed spot_
from whence the illusive voice is supposed to proceed.
[2] It is very rarely that a ventriloquist shows a full face to his
audience: it is only done when he is at a great distance from them, and
is pronouncing the labial sounds, in the manner given, for any movement
of the jaws would help to destroy the illusion.
STUDENT: Are you up there, Jem?
VOICE: Hallo! who’s that?
STUDENT: It’s I! Are you nearly finished?
VOICE: Only three more slates to put on, master.
STUDENT: I want you here, Jem.
VOICE: I am coming directly.
STUDENT: Which way, Jem?
VOICE: Over the roof and down the trap. (Voice is supposed to be moving
as the student turns and points with his finger.)
STUDENT: Which way?
VOICE (_nearer_): Through the trap and down the stairs.
STUDENT: How long shall you be?
VOICE: Only a few minutes. I am coming as fast as I can.
The voice now approaches the door, and is taken up by the same tone,
but produced as in the first voice. As another illustration, we will
introduce the reader to
THE INVISIBLE SWEEP.—This is a striking example of the second voice.
Let the student pretend to look up the chimney, and rehearse the
following or some similar colloquy:—
STUDENT: Are you up there?
VOICE: Yes. Chimley want sweep?
STUDENT: Really, it is extraordinary. What are you doing?
VOICE: Looking for birds’-nests.
STUDENT: Birds’-nests! There are none there.
VOICE: Dick says there be.
STUDENT: Come down!
VOICE: I shan’t.
STUDENT: (_stirring the fire_); I’ll make you show yourself.
VOICE: I say, don’t; it’s so hot.
STUDENT: Come down, then.
VOICE: Don’t be so stupid. Let I alone.
STUDENT: Will you come down?
VOICE: Yes, I will.
STUDENT: What’s your name?
VOICE (_much nearer_): Sam Lillyvite. I say, what do you want me for
among company?
STUDENT: To show yourself,
VOICE (_nearer_): What for?
STUDENT: To let these ladies and gentlemen see that there are many
strange things between heaven and earth, but not Sam Lillyvite, the
sweep.
Another good illustration is to hold a conversation with a friend
who lives on the first floor, and with whom you can converse on
any subject—as the _retired and mysterious student_—but the moment
the student can master the elementary sounds, he will not need our
assistance in providing him with dialogues, which, however simple they
may be to read, have _an extraordinary effect when properly spoken_.
POLYPHONIC IMITATIONS.
THE TORMENTING BEE.—It is related that Mr. Love, when young, took
great delight in imitating the buzzing of insects and the cries of
animals; indeed, it is difficult to decide whether he or Mr. Thurton
most excelled in this particular species of mimetic illusion. In all
imitations of insect noises, the bee should be heard to hum gently at
first, so as in a private party not likely to attract attention till
the right pitch is obtained, and be it remembered that the sound,
without being particularly loud, can be made to penetrate every corner
of a large room. The illusion is greatly increased by pretending to
catch the offending and intrusive insect. The humble bee, the wasp,
and the bluebottle fly are best to imitate, and afford an agreeable
relief to the other exercises of ventriloquial power. To imitate the
tormenting bee, the student must use considerable pressure on his
chest, as if he was about to groan suddenly, but instead of which, the
sound must be confined and prolonged in the throat; the greater the
pressure, the higher will be the faint note produced, and which will
perfectly resemble the buzzing of the bee or wasp.
Now, to imitate the buzzing of a bluebottle fly, it will be necessary
for the sound to be made with the lips instead of the throat; this
is done by closing the lips very tight, except at one corner, where
a small aperture is left, fill that cheek full of wind, but not the
other, then slowly blow or force the wind contained in the cheek out of
the aperture: if this is done properly, it will cause a sound exactly
like the buzzing of a bluebottle fly. These two instances will show how
necessary it is for the ventriloquist to study minutely the different
effects of sound upon his hearers in all his exploits. And to make
the above properly effective, he should turn his face to a wall; with
a handkerchief strike at the pretended bee or fly, at the same time
pretend to follow his victim first this way and then that, and finally
to “dab” his pocket-handkerchief on the wall as though he had killed
it; the sounds should be at times suddenly louder and then softer,
which will make it appear as it is heard in different parts of the room.
THE SPECTRE CARPENTER.—The noise caused by planing and sawing wood can
also be imitated without much difficulty, and it causes a great deal of
amusement. The student must, however, bear in mind that every action
must be _imitated_ as well as the noise, for the eye assists to delude
the ear. We have even seen ventriloquists carry this eye-deception so
far as to have a few shavings to scatter as they proceed, and a piece
of wood to fall when the sawing is ended. To imitate planing, the
student must stand at a table a little distance from the audience, and
appear to take hold of a plane and push it forward: the sound as of
a plane is made as though you were dwelling on the last part of the
word hu_sh_—dwell upon the _sh_ a little, as _tsh_, and then clip it
short by causing the tongue to close with the palate, then over again.
Letters will not convoy the peculiar sound of sawing—it must be studied
from nature.
A MOUNTAIN ECHO.
Some persons imagine ventriloquism to be an echo; but, as we have said,
an echo only repeats what has been said before—it could not answer a
question.
An echo is reflected sound, and the reflecting body must be at such
a distance that the interval between the perception of the original
and reflected sounds may be sufficient to prevent them from being
blended together. No reflecting surface will produce a distant echo,
unless its distance from the spot where the sound proceeds is at least
56½ feet, because the shortest interval sufficient to render sounds
distinctly appreciable by the ear is about one-tenth of a second;
therefore, if sounds follow at a shorter interval, they will form a
resonance instead of an echo; and the time a sound would take to go
and return from a reflecting surface, 56½ feet distance, would be
one-tenth of a second.
It would, therefore, be impossible for a ventriloquist to produce an
echo in a room of ordinary size, as the walls, being so near, would
cause the sounds to be blended, and would only produce one impression
on the ear; and yet the skilled ventriloquist can with ease imitate, in
a room, a mountain echo. We will give the instructions, as it is very
amusing.
Turn your back to the listeners; whistle loud several short, quick
notes, just as if you were whistling for a dog; then, as quick as
possible, after the last note, and as softly and subdued as possible to
be heard, whistle about a third the number of notes, but it must be in
_the same note or pitch_; this will cause the last whistle to appear
just like an echo at a great distance. This imitation, if well done,
never fails to take the listeners by surprise, and causes astonishment.
The same thing can be done by shouting. Call aloud any sentence, such
as—“Holloa, you there!” Let your voice be formed close to the lips;
then quickly, and mind in the _same pitch or note_, speak the same
words very subdued and formed at the back of the mouth. This is not
difficult, and is very effective.
POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED.
In giving the succeeding instructions, it must be borne in mind that
the power and acuteness of hearing is possessed in a greater or less
degree by different individuals, and depends upon the sensibility of
the auric nerves. It will not be out of place nor uninteresting to show
the effect of sound and the manner in which it is heard by the organs
of the ear. It is said that the human ear is capable of appreciating
as many as twenty-four thousand vibrations in a second, and that the
whole range of human hearing, from the lowest note of the organ to the
highest known cry of insects, as of the cricket, includes nine octaves.
Sound first strikes the drum or tympanum, a thin membrane which closes
the aperture of the ear; when this drum vibrates by the sonorous
undulations of the external air; the vibrations are communicated by
minute bones, muscles, and fluid in the cavity of the ear, and are
then conveyed to the brain; and to show how absolutely necessary it
is that all the organs of the would-be ventriloquist should be entire
and without fault to succeed well, we will show how the ventriloquist
makes that nice distinction of the gradation of sound, and by which he
is enabled to judge whether he is causing his voice _to appear_ at the
proper distance from his audience or not.
Let any one firmly close both ears by stopping them, then speak a few
words; now, as the cars are stopped, the sound cannot enter immediately
to the drum of the ear, but it takes cognizance of the sound by a
passage called the eustachian tube, which extends from the back part of
the mouth to the cavity immediately behind the drum of the ear.
The sound vibrations made in the mouth are transmitted along this tube
to the interior part of the organs of hearing. Now it is by a nice
judgment of sound by this tube that the professional ventriloquist
judges the majority of his voices, especially those greatly obscured or
muffled. Not only must the auric nerves of the would-be ventriloquist
be perfect, but he will become more proficient as he is able to study
and understand the human voice. There is the language of emotion, or
natural language. When we say natural, we mean the language by which
the feelings manifest themselves without previous teaching, and which
is recognized and felt without teaching. Some of them are the scream of
terror, the shout of joy, the laugh of satisfaction, laugh of sarcasm,
ridicule, &c., which are made by man, and understood by fellow-men,
whatever may be the speech or country of the other.
There are also distinct qualities of voice, peculiar to each person,
both in tone and quality, and the best practice is to try and imitate
three or four people’s voices, and let them be of a different tone and
pitch.
The ordinary compass of the voice is about twelve notes, and a very
good practice to the attainment of the art is to call aloud in a
certain note, _and then in the octave to that note_; do this several
times a day, changing the note, also speak a sentence all in the same
note or pitch, properly called intonation, loud at first, and then by
degrees lower; this kind of practice will enable the ear to judge of
the modulation required to make a voice appear to recede or come near
by degrees.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
When the student is acquainted with the voices before described, he
may imitate many others by _contraction and expansion of the glottis,
and by modification of the cavity of the pharynx and mouth_. The best
way to practice is in a room by himself, to talk loud, and, while so
doing, to make all sorts of _contortions with the muscles of the mouth
and jaws—first fixing the jaws_ in the manner already described, _then
drawing the lips inward, next putting them forward, at the same time
putting the tongue in different shapes and positions in the mouth_;
also by speaking in the natural voice, and answering in the _falsetto
pitch_, which is the imitating voice for women and children.
We are confident that enough has been said to enable any one with a
good range of voice to attain proficiency in the art; the student
always remembering (and it cannot be too often repeated) that _to
render a voice perspective, the most essential thing is to attend to
the study of sound as it falls upon the ear; then imitate that sound
by the different contractions and expansions of the muscles of the
throat, mouth, face and jaws_. During these various contractions and
expansions, draw in a long breath and talk, first rapidly, then slowly,
but always with a _slow expiration of breath_. Do this a dozen times
consecutively for several days, at the same time taking particular care
to _elevate and depress the roof of the mouth_, especially the back
part, as this movement will cause the voice to appear near, or at a
distance. Ample directions have been given how all this is done, but
let it be understood that it is most essential. The student may then
practice before a friend, and he will be astonished to find that he can
deceive any listener, as to the point from which the sound comes; and
will be gratified that he has become the source of great amusement to
himself as well as in the circle in which he moves.
Thus we have acquired a working power in the art which, we trust, we
have now explained to the satisfaction of the reader. The progress of
the student will, of course, be facilitated by an inherent propensity
of mimicry, which often approaches some of the minor attainments of
ventriloquism. In every company some person may be found who, without
any professional instruction, can give admirable imitations, of the
voice, gait, and peculiarities of a friend or acquaintance; thus
proving that Nature, to some extent, supplies the basis upon which,
if we may use the phrase, the complete superstructure of vocal
illusion may be raised. The possession of this quality would amount,
comparatively, to little, without instruction and perseverance. Here,
as in other respects, practice makes perfect; and, more than that, a
diligent application of our rules will invest the originally defective
amateur with an attainment which the ignorant will attribute to the
possession of a supernatural gift.
All we need say in conclusion is, that the rules propounded will not
only clear away imaginary difficulties from the path of the student,
but entitle him, like ourselves, to an acquirement more or less near
perfection, according to a natural gift of mimicry, and to the zeal
with which he may study and practice the art.
THE MAGIC WHISTLE.
It will be pleasant when the wind is howling without, among the
snow-laden limbs of the trees, to be reminded of the gay summer by the
counterfeit notes of the woodland songsters; or, wandering among the
woods and fields in spring or summer time, how glorious to challenge
the feathered musicians to a contest of skill with you in their own
sweet language. We propose to instruct the reader in the manufacture of
a little instrument by which the notes of birds, voices of animals, and
various peculiar sounds may be imitated.
First, look at the annexed diagram, and then procure a leek and cut
off from the green leaf thereof a piece about the size of the diagram;
then lay it on a smooth table, and with the thumb-nail delicately
scrape away a small semi-circular patch of the green pulpy substance
of the leaf [as represented in the diagram], being careful to leave
the fine membrane of outer skin of the leaf uninjured—and there is the
instrument complete. It may require several experiments to make the
first one, but once having discovered the right way, they are very
easily manufactured. The reader may not be aware of the fact that the
leaf of the leek has a fine transparent outer skin, which is quite
tough, but by breaking and carefully examining one or two leaves, he
will soon find out what we allude to.
[Illustration: The section of leaf.]
The way of using this instrument is to place it in the roof of the
mouth with the side on which is the membrane downwards; then place it
gently in its place with the tongue, and blow between the tongue and
the upper teeth. After the first two or three attempts, you will be
able to produce a slight sound like a mild grunt; then as you practice
it you will find you can prolong and vary the sound somewhat, so that
in the course of a couple of days you can imitate the barking of a dog
and the neighing of a horse. With two or three weeks’ practice, you
will be able to imitate some of the song birds; but to produce exact
counterfeits of the best singing birds will probably require months of
study; the result, however, will reward you for all your pains, for
certainly to be able to carry a mocking bird, canary, thrush, cat-bird
and sucking-pig in your vest pocket, is no small accomplishment.
When not using the instrument, it should be kept in a glass of water to
prevent its drying.
THE
Hunters’ and Trappers’
COMPLETE GUIDE.
A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION IN THE ART OF
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ABOUT GUNS.
HOW TO SELECT A GUN.
BREECH-LOADERS.
HOW TO LOAD A GUN.
THE ART OF GUNNING.
THE RIFLE, AND HOW TO USE IT.
ABOUT DOGS.
MANAGEMENT OF DOGS.
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BEST DOGS FOR SHOOTERS.
HUNTING, GUNNING AND SHOOTING.
RABBIT SHOOTING.
SNIPE SHOOTING.
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WOODCOCK SHOOTING.
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BUFFALO HUNTING.
TRAPPING.
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SETTING AND BAITING TRAPS.
PROPER SEASON FOR TRAPPING.
HINTS TO TRAPPERS.
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FISHING.
BAITS, HOOKS, LINES, RODS, &c.
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Fortune Telling Made Easy;
or,
THE DREAMERS’ SURE GUIDE.
CONTAINING PLAIN, CORRECT AND CERTAIN RULES FOR FORETELLING WHAT
IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
BY THE CELEBRATED GABRIEL,
The Astrologer of the 19th Century.
=A Complete Oracle of Destiny.=
In this Book you have all that was ever made known by the ancient
Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Chinese and Hindoos relating to
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* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.
The following corrections have been made.
Trick 8 Paragraph 4 – The cambric becomes calico in this paragraph. It
has been changed back to cambric
Fig. 10 was originally labelled Fig 25.
Fig. 23 was originally labelled Fig. 22
Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus =bold=.