Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc.Houdini, Harry
History
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc.
Houdini, Harry
Magic tricks -- History; Magicians -- Biography
Ling Look, one of the best of contemporary fire performers, was with
Dean Harry Kellar when the latter made his famous trip around the world
in 1877. Look combined fire-eating and sword-swallowing in a rather
startling manner. His best effect was the swallowing of a red-hot
sword.[1] Another thriller consisted in fastening a long sword to the
stock of a musket; when he had swallowed about half the length of the
blade, he discharged the gun and the recoil drove the sword suddenly
down his throat to the very hilt. Although Look always appeared in a
Chinese make-up, Dean Kellar told me that he thought his right name was
Dave Gueter, and that he was born in Buda Pesth.
Yamadeva, a brother of Ling Look, was also with the Kellar Company,
doing cabinet manifestations and rope escapes. Both brothers died in
China during this engagement, and a strange incident occurred in
connection with their deaths. Just before they were to sail from
Shanghai on the P. & O. steamer Khiva for Hong Kong, Yamadeva and
Kellar visited the bowling alley of The Hermitage, a pleasure resort on
the Bubbling Well Road. They were watching a husky sea captain, who
was using a huge ball and making a "double spare" at every roll, when
Yamadeva suddenly remarked, "I can handle one as heavy as that big
loafer can." Suiting the action to the word, he seized one of the
largest balls and drove it down the alley with all his might; but he
had misjudged his own strength, and he paid for the foolhardy act with
his life, for he had no sooner delivered the ball than he grasped his
side and moaned with pain. He had hardly sufficient strength to get
back to the ship, where he went immediately to bed and died shortly
afterward. An examination showed that he had ruptured an artery.
Kellar and Ling Look had much difficulty in persuading the captain to
take the body to Hong Kong, but he finally consented. On the way down
the Yang Tse Kiang River, Look was greatly depressed; but all at once
he became strangely excited, and said that his brother was not dead,
for he had just heard the peculiar whistle with which they had always
called each other. The whistle was several times repeated, and was
heard by all on board. Finally the captain, convinced that something
was wrong, had the lid removed from the coffin, but the body of
Yamadeva gave no indication of life, and all save Ling Look decided
that they must have been mistaken.
Poor Ling Look, however, sobbingly said to Kellar, "I shall never leave
Hong Kong alive. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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