The audience stood so close to the platform that I could almost touch the foremost persons, and I felt that under such conditions I could have very little success. But even here, a bright young lady who stood among those in the first rank of the crowd and directed her attention entirely to my face and lips in order to test the matter, after-ward assured me that the illusion of ” the man

Under the floor ” was perfect, and that the voice did not seem to proceed at all from myself. This may sound egotistical, but I simply relate the incident to show the perfection which may be obtained, and for the encouragement of those among my readers who desire to take up the art.
Unlike the magician, who requires an elaborate” fit-up” to properly perform his illusions, the ventriloquist always has the mysterious at his command. From a haystack by the country roadside or from behind the closed portals of an empty store or the depths of an open sewer in the city, he can evoke ” spirits ” to amaze and mystify the hearers, which yet exist in nothing more substantial than his own voice. The art is an old one, and there is no doubt that in earlier times it was used by unscrupulous priests to terrify ignorant people and keep them in subjection. It has been practiced on the banks of the Nile and among the Esquimaux in the Arctic Circle, and probably has its exponents in those regions today.

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