A Chinese Ventriloquist.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 305, 24 December 1891, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Chinese Ventriloquist.

A spectator thus describes a performance' of a Chinese ventriloquist .ifc Pekin : — ' He was seated behind a screen, wherethere was nothing more than a tabic, chair, fan, and a ruler. Uβ knocked with cha. latter on the table to command silence, and, everyone was quiet. Suddenly, we heard.' the barking , of a dote, then the movernenb of; a woman, awoke by the noi.se,- and arousing i her husband to chat with him. The crying,, of a child interrupted their conversation.. Tha woman nursed aud rocked jfc, and. afterwards gob up to arrange ib for thai' night.. An older child awoke in another-, bed, the father scold od, the baby continued to cry at its mother's breast. ■ Presently everybody, slept, ths father snored, the mother tapped the baby's back less and less.. A mouse was heard to run across the floor, and on to some vessel,, and upset it; the mother coughed in her sleep. A cry of, "Fire!" is raised, the mouse had over*-' turned, the night-lamp and set fire to tha.! . curtains. Tho parents cried for holp;,' . children screaaicd ; a crowd assembled in : the street; a thousand voices shout; doga > bark; walls fall in; petards explode; there is a general rush to get oub > of danger. The fire-engines arrive ; tha ! water falls in torrents, and hisses on , the burning embers. It was so Hfe ; like ) that the spectators were jjroing to escape too, believing ib to be a real conflagration, ' when a second knocking on the table waa 1 heard, and complete silence succeeded to the terrible tumult. Everybody hurried to look c behind the screen ; there were only the 3 ventriloquist, tho table, the chair, and tha i ruler, as before.'