On Monday evening last, a man named William Dempster, a juggler of
inferior dexterity while exhibiting his tricks in a public house in
Botchergate, kept by a person named Purdy, actually accomplished the
sad reality of one of those feats, with the semblance only of which he
intended to amuse his audience. Having introduced into his throat a
common table knife which he was intending to swallow, he accidentally
slipped his hold, and the knife passed into his stomach. An alarm was
immediately given, and surgical aid procured, but the knife had passed
beyond the reach of instruments, and now remains in his stomach. He
has since been attended by most of the medical gentlemen of this city;
and we understand that no very alarming symptoms have yet appeared, and
that it is possible he may exist a considerable time, even in this
awkward state. His sufferings at first were very severe, but he is now,
when not in motion, comparatively easy. The knife is 9 1/2 inches
long, 1 inch broad in the blade, round pointed, and a handle of bone,
and may generally be distinctly felt by applying the finger to the
unfortunate man's belly; but occasionally, however, from change of its
situation it is not perceptible. A brief notice of the analogous case
of John Cumming, an American sailor, may not be unacceptable to our
readers. About the year 1799 he, in imitation of some jugglers whose
exhibition he had then witnessed, in an hour of intoxication, swallowed
four clasp knives such as sailors commonly use; all of which passed
from him in a few days without much inconvenience. Six years
afterward, he swallowed FOURTEEN knives of different sizes; by these,
however, he was much disordered, but recovered; and again, in a
paroxysm of intoxication, he actually swallowed SEVENTEEN, of the
effects of which he died in March, 1809. On dissection, fourteen knife
blades were found remaining in his stomach, and the back spring of one
penetrating through the bowel, seemed the immediate cause of his death.
Several women have adopted the profession of sword-swallowing, and some
have won much more than a passing fame. Notable among these is Mlle.
Edith Clifford, who is, perhaps, the most generously endowed.
Possessed of more than ordinary personal charms, a refined taste for
dressing both herself and her stage, and an unswerving devotion to her
art, she has perfected an act that has found favor even in the Royal
Courts of Europe.
Mlle. Clifford was born in London in 1884 and began swallowing the
blades when only 15 years of age. During the foreign tour of the
Barnum & Bailey show she joined that Organization in Vienna, 1901, and
remained with it for five years, and now, after eighteen years of
service, she stands well up among the stars. She has swallowed a
26-inch blade, but the physicians advise her not to indulge her
appetite for such luxuries often, as it is quite dangerous. Blades of
18 or 20 inches give her no trouble whatever.
In the spring of 1919 I visited the Ringling Bros., and the Barnum &
Bailey Show especially to witness Mlle. Clifford's act. In addition to
swallowing the customary swords and sabers she introduced such
novelties as a specially constructed razor, with a blade five or six
times the usual length, a pair of scissors of unusual size, a saw which
is 2 1/2 inches wide at the broadest point, with ugly looking teeth,
although somewhat rounded at the points, and several other items quite
unknown to the bill-of-fare of ordinary mortals. A set of ten thin
blades slip easily down her throat and are removed one at a time.
The sensation of her act is reached when the point of a bayonet, 23 1/2
inches long, fastened to the breech of a cannon, is placed in her mouth
and the piece discharged; the recoil driving the bayonet suddenly down
her throat. The gun is loaded with a 10 gauge cannon shell.
Mlle. Clifford's handsomely arranged stage occupied the place of honor
in the section devoted to freaks and specialties.
Cliquot told me that Delno Fritz was his pupil, and Mlle. Clifford
claims to be a pupil of Fritz.
Deserving of honorable mention also is a native of Berlin, who bills
herself as Victorina. This lady is able to swallow a dozen sharp-bladed
swords at once. Of Victorina, the Boston Herald of December 28th,
1902, said:
By long practice she has accustomed herself to swallow swords, daggers,
bayonets, walking sticks, rods, and other dangerous articles.
Her throat and food passages have become so expansive that she can
swallow three long swords almost up to the hilts, and can accommodate a
dozen shorter blades.
This woman is enabled to bend a blade after swallowing it. By moving
her head back and forth she may even twist instruments in her throat.
To bend the body after one has swallowed a sword is a dangerous feat,
even for a professional swallower. There is a possibility of severing
some of the ligaments of the throat or else large arteries or veins.
Victorina has already had several narrow escapes.
On one occasion, while sword-swallowing before a Boston audience, a
sword pierced a vein in her throat. The blade was half-way down, but
instead of immediately drawing it forth, she thrust it farther. She
was laid up in a hospital for three months after this performance.
In Chicago she had a still narrower escape. One day while performing
at a museum on Clark Street, Victorina passed a long thin dagger down
her throat. In withdrawing it, the blade snapped in two, leaving the
pointed portion some distance in the passage. The woman nearly fainted
when she realized what had occurred, but, by a masterful effort,
controlled her feelings. Dropping the hilt of the dagger on the floor,
she leaned forward, and placing her finger and thumb down her throat,
just succeeded in catching the end of the blade. Had it gone down an
eighth of an inch farther her death would have been certain.