My brother has called me to join him.'' This prediction was fulfilled, for shortly after their arrival in Hong Kong he underwent an operation for a liver trouble, and died under the knife.The brothers were buried in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, in the year 1877.
All this was related to me at the Marlborough-Blenheim, Atlantic City, in June, 1908, by Kellar himself, and portions of it were repeated in 1917 when Dean Kellar sat by me at the Society of American Magicians' dinner.
In 1879 there appeared in England a performer who claimed to be the original Ling Look.He wore his make-up both on and off the stage, and copied, so far as he could, Ling's style of work.His fame reached this country and the New York Clipper published, in its Letter Columns, an article stating that Ling Look was not dead, but was alive and working in England.His imitator had the nerve to stick to his story even when confronted by Kellar, but when the latter assured him that he had personally attended the burial of Ling, in Hong Kong, he broke down and confessed that he was a younger brother of the original Ling Look.
Kellar later informed me that the resemblance was so strong that had he not seen the original Ling Look consigned to the earth, he himself would have been duped into believing that this was the man who had been with him in Hong Kong.
The Salambos were among the first to use electrical effects in a fire act, combining these with the natural gas and ``human volcano''
stunts of their predecessors, so that they were able to present an extremely spectacular performance without having recourse to such unpleasant features as had marred the effect of earlier fire acts.Bueno Core, too, deserves honorable mention for the cleanness and snap of his act; and Del Kano should also be named among the cleverer performers.
One of the best known of the modern fire-eaters was Barnello, who was a good business man as well, and kept steadily employed at a better salary than the rank and file of his contemporaries.He did a thriving business in the sale of the various concoctions used in his art, and published and sold a most complete book of formulas and general instructions for those interested in the craft.He had, indeed, many irons in the fire, and he kept them all hot.
It will perhaps surprise the present generation to learn that the well-known circus man Jacob Showles was once a fire-eater, and that Del Fugo, well-known in his day as a dancer in the music halls, began as a fire-resister, and did his dance on hot iron plates.But the reader has two keener surprises in store for him before I close the long history of the heat-resisters.The first concerns our great American tragedian Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) who, according to James Rees (Colley Cibber), once essayed a fire-resisting act.Forrest was always fond of athletics and at one time made an engagement with the manager of a circus to appear as a tumbler and rider.The engagement was not fulfilled, however, as his friend Sol Smith induced him to break it and return to the legitimate stage.Smith afterwards admitted to Cibber that if Forrest had remained with the circus he would have become one of the most daring riders and vaulters that ever appeared in the ring.
His adventure in fire-resistance was on the occasion of the benefit to ``Charley Young,'' on which eventful night, as the last of his acrobatic feats, he made a flying leap through a barrel of red fire, singeing his hair and eyebrows terribly.This particular leap through fire was the big sensation of those days, and Forrest evidently had a hankering to show his friends that he could accomplish it--and he did.
The second concerns an equally popular actor, a comedian this time, the elder Sothern (1826-1881).On March 20, 1878, a writer in the Chicago Inter-Ocean communicated to that paper the following curiously descriptive article:
Is Mr.Sothern a medium?
This is the question that fifteen puzzled investigators are asking themselves this morning, after witnessing a number of astounding manifestations at a private seance given by Mr.Sothern last night.
It lacked a few minutes of 12 when a number of Mr.Sothern's friends, who had been given to understand that something remarkable was to be performed, assembled in the former's room at the Sherman House and took seats around a marble-top table, which was placed in the center of the apartment.On the table were a number of glasses, two very large bottles, and five lemons.A sprightly young gentleman attempted to crack a joke about spirits being confined in bottles, but the company frowned him down, and for once Mr.
Sothern had a sober audience to begin with.
There was a good deal of curiosity regarding the object of the gathering, but no one was able to explain.Each gentleman testified to the fact Mr.Sothern's agent had waited upon him, and solicited his presence at a little exhibition to be given by the actor, NOT of a comical nature.
Mr.Sothern himself soon after appeared, and, after shaking hands with the party, thus addressed them:
``Gentlemen, I have invited you here this evening to witness a few manifestations, demonstrations, tests, or whatever you choose to call them, which I have accidentally discovered that I am able to perform.
``I am a fire-eater, as it were.(Applause).
``I used to DREAD the fire, having been scorched once when an innocent child.(Alaugh.)
