The Cecil Whig

A Wonderful Exhibition,

"In the year 1832," said to us yesterday, a distinguished legal gentleman of New Orleans, "I visited Paris, in the course of a European tour, that my Americanism might be polished down by a little attrition among the genteel particles of Parisian society. I found the world of Paris in a very considerable state of excitement in consequence of an extraordinary performance which was nightly exhibited by an eastern juggler, which was nothing more or less than the apparent decapitation of a man in the presence of an audience, and under the very noses of a committee of medical gentlemen who stood only so far distant while the operation was being performed as to escape the swing of the long two edged sword with which the juggler smote off the head I went to see the exhibition, which took place in a theatre, in company with several American gentlemen. The theatre was crowded with between two and three thousand spectators and the curtain was up displaying a common table, six feet long, upon the stage at the very edge of which I obtained a seat, having gone very early.

At the given time the juggler, a singular looking man, came upon the Stage, with his shirt sleeves rolled up to the shoulders, and bearing a long, heavy two edged sword. He upset the table upon the boards, and showed that there was no concealed drawer or other recess and placed it in the blaze of the foot-lights near the edge of the stage. In a few words he stated what he was going to do, and requested some of the audience to come forward and stand upon the stage, that they might see there "was no deception!" A number of medical gentlemen, who had been chosen as a committee to investigate the matter, if possible, took their position upon the stage, and soon after the victim, who had been sitting in the parquette, mounted the stage, removed his coat and cravat, turned back his shirt collar, and laying down upon his back on the table, elevated his chin to more fairly expose the neck to the headsman's weapon. The juggler then raised his keen and fearful looking sword, and giving it a wide sweep, brought it down—I say down upon the neck, for no one could see that he did not, even those within three feet of him—upon the neck of the subject with great force! Blood spurted high into the air, some of it falling on our party, and deluged the stage, while the most fearful sound, a something between a groan and a shriek of horror from the whole assemblage, shook the building, and numerous women and some males fell fainting in their seats, and were borne out by the ushers of the house. The juggler raised his sword again, and repeated the blow, and the dissevered head fell upon the floor! Taking it up by the hair he held it up to the audience for full five minutes, until the blood had ceased to flow from the several arteries, the lower jaw had fallen and the face had assumed the appearance of a corpse's; then throwing it heavily upon the stage, he requested the committee to examine it, which they did, passing it from hand to hand. They then examined the body upon the table, from the headless neck of which the blood had not yet ceased to drop upon the floor of the stage; they lifted the limbs and let them fall with the inertia of lifeless matter, and of course pronounced the man dead to all intents and purposes.

After they had concluded their investigation, the juggler informed the audience that he was going to put the man's head on again, and restore him to life. Taking up the head he laid it on the table, fitted the two parts of the neck to each other, murmured and made signs over the corpse. In about five minutes the lately decapitated man slowly turned his ghastly, and altogether horrible face—white as snow—toward the audience, and an excitement followed exceeding, if anything, that which occurred when the first blow of the sword fell. In a few moments the eyelids gradually opened and displayed the eyes wearing a glassy, corpse like stare; by degrees, a life like speculation came into them, some color returned to the face: and after stretching his limbs, the man arose from the table, resumed his coat, walked from the Stage and mingled with the crowd.

The exhibition was over. The neck of the apparently decapitated man bore a red mark and scar around it, like the cicatrice of a newly healed wound. All this I saw with my own eyes, which were as effectually deceived as those of tens of thousands of other persons I could in no way, consistently with reason, account for any feature of this horribly thrilling feat of trickery. I have never heard of the trick being performed by any other man, and very possibly it originated and died with him. However, it is scarcely more unaccountable than many often displayed feats of the adroit fraternity of Eastern jugglers.

N. O. True Delta.