The Miracle Mongers and their Methods | Page 9

most of the Nobility and Quality
in the Kingdom.
He intends to sup on the following articles: 1. He eats red-hot coals out
of the fire as natural as bread. 2. He licks with his naked tongue red-hot
tobacco pipes, flaming with brimstone. 3. He takes a large bunch of
deal matches, lights them altogether; and holds them in his mouth till
the flame is extinguished. 4. He takes a red-hot heater out of the fire,
licks it with his naked tongue several times, and carries it around the
room between his teeth. 5. He fills his mouth with red-hot charcoal, and
broils a slice of beef or mutton upon his tongue, and any person may
blow the fire with a pair of bellows at the same time. 6. He takes a
quantity of resin, pitch, bees'-wax, sealing- wax, brimstone, alum, and
lead, melts them all together over a chafing-dish of coals, and eats the
same combustibles with a spoon, as if it were a porringer of broth
(which he calls his dish of soup), to the great and agreeable surprise of
the spectators; with various other extraordinary performances never
attempted by any other person of this age, and there is scarce a
possibility ever will; so that those who neglect this opportunity of
seeing the wonders performed by this artist, will lose the sight of the
most amazing exhibition ever done by man.
The doors to be opened by six and he sups precisely at seven o'clock,
without any notice given by sound of trumpet.
If gentry do not choose to come at seven o'clock, no performance.

Prices of admission to ladies and gentlemen, one shilling. Back Seats
for Children and Servants, six pence.
Ladies and children may have a private performance any hour of the
day, by giving previous notice.
N. B.--He displaces teeth or stumps so easily as to scarce be felt. He
sells a chemical liquid which discharges inflammation, scalds, and
burns, in a short time, and is necessary to be kept in all families.
His stay in this place will be but short, not exceeding above two or
three nights.
Good fire to keep the gentry warm.
This shows how little advance had been made in the art in a century.
Richardson had presented practically the same programme a hundred
years before. Perhaps the exposure of Richardson's method by his
servant put an end to fire-eating as a form of amusement for a long time,
or until the exposure had been forgotten by the public. Powell himself,
though not proof against exposure, seems to have been proof against its
effects, for he kept on the even tenor of his way for sixty years, and at
the end of his life was still exhibiting.
Whatever the reason, the eighteenth century fire-eaters, like too many
magicians of the present day, kept to the stereotyped programmes of
their predecessors. A very few did, however, step out of the beaten
track and, by adding new tricks and giving a new dress to old ones,
succeeded in securing a following that was financially satisfactory.
In this class a Frenchman by the name of Dufour deserves special
mention, from the fact that he was the first to introduce comedy into an
act of this nature. He made his bow in Paris in 1783, and is said to have
created quite a sensation by his unusual performance. I am indebted to
Martin's Naturliche Magie, 1792, for a very complete description of the
work of this artist.
Dufour made use of a portable building, which was specially adapted to

his purposes, and his table was spread as if for a banquet, except that
the edibles were such as his performance demanded. He employed a
trumpeter and a tambour player to furnish music for his repast--as well
as to attract public attention. In addition to fire-eating, Dufour gave
exhibitions of his ability to consume immense quantities of solid food,
and he displayed an appetite for live animals, reptiles, and insects that
probably proved highly entertaining to the not overrefined taste of the
audiences of his day. He even advertised a banquet of which the public
was invited to partake at a small fee per plate, but since the menu
consisted of the delicacies just described, his audiences declined to join
him at table.
His usual bill-of-fare was as follows:
Soup--boiling tar torches, glowing coals and small, round, super-heated
stones.
The roast, when Dufour was really hungry, consisted of twenty pounds
of beef or a whole calf. His hearth was either the flat of his hand or his
tongue. The butter in which the roast was served was melted brimstone
or burning wax. When the roast was cooked to suit him he ate coals and
roast together.
As a dessert he would swallow the knives and forks,