interested, many of them getting up to ask him questions. He also
reported to them the tiger's conversation, which consisted chiefly of
complaints against the management with regard to its food.
"To be everlastingly fed on scraps of horse-flesh," it said, "when
there were dozens of plump young women sitting in the stalls, under
its very nose, was tantalizing to a degree. Would Mr. Kelson kindly
speak to whoever was responsible for such cruelty and negligence?"
A bear and a crocodile having been tamed in the same manner, and their
remarks interpreted to the audience, the entertainment concluded.
The next day the papers were full of it.
The _Planet_, under the startling announcements--
"RECOVERY OF THE LOST SENSES.
MORE EXTRAORDINARY FEATS IN COCKSPUR STREET.
LEON HAMAR BECOMES INVISIBLE AT WILL,"
--narrated all that had occurred.
The _Monitor_--if anything more sensational--declared--
"THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS DISCOVERED AT LAST!
THE PROBLEM OF BREATHING UNDER WATER--SOLVED!
DEMATERIALIZATION AT WILL ESTABLISHED!"
And even the _Courier_--the steady, ever cautious old _Courier_,
England's premier paper, created a precedent by the use of a quite
conspicuously large type; vide the following--
"THE AGE OF MIRACLES REVIVED!
ACTUAL CASE OF SUBDUING AND CONVERSING WITH WILD ANIMALS.
RECOVERY OF THE PROPERTIES OF INVISIBILITY; OF WALKING ON WATER,
AND OF BREATHING UNDER WATER."
As before, there were innumerable cases of imitation, many of them,
unhappily, resulting in the death of the imitator. At Dover, for
instance, a Congregationalist Minister convinced that he had the
requisite amount of faith, announced from the pulpit, that he intended
walking on the water, in the Harbour, after service. Thousands flocked
to see him, but despite the fact that he said "I will! I will!" with
the greatest emphasis, the unkind waves would not support him. Indeed,
since they swallowed him, it might almost be said that the Rev. S----
supported the waves.
For two whole days there was regular stampedes of experimenters to
Hyde Park and Regent's Park, and the banks of their respective waters
resounded with the words, "I will walk! I will walk!" succeeded by
splashes and cries for help.
Nor was the water feat the only one that induced imitators. Crowds
flocked to the Zoological Gardens, and the various houses were
literally packed with people trying to get into conversation with the
animals; these attempts being also marked by a large proportion of
fatal results. One old gentleman--a Fellow of the Royal
Society--carried away in his enthusiasm to talk with a tiger, after
making what he thought to be the correct signs, slipped his nose
through the bars of the tiger's cage, and had it promptly bitten
off--whilst a girl, in her endeavours to sniff the crocodiles, and so
get in conversation with them, fell in their midst, and was torn to
pieces before help arrived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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