AN ELABORATE PRACTICAL JOKE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1611, 14 January 1903, Page 44 (Supplement)

AN ELABORATE PRACTICAL JOKE.

A. “topsy-turvy room,” not illusory, but actually so built existed near Paris s ome years ago, and may still exist. On© who saw ic thus describes it and the use to whicn it was put: —“I was the guest of the owner of the house (he says) from Saturday to Monday. He was a. bachelor very convivial in his tastes and w© were a very jolly party of men. When we broke up, about two o’clock on the Sunday morning, one of our number, sound asleep on the couch in the Tbilliard-room, w^s 1 carried! out like a log by a couple of servants. My host gave me a solemn wink, and told me that if a sudden summons came I was to rush from my bedroom, or else I might miss a sight worth seeing. I wanted nothing but sleep—and was relieved when the summons came to Jjkat was broad daylight. Yawning, I followed' th© valet, and foundJ myself, f° ur others silently peeping through little holes m a wall. The scene was absurd. ridiculous. A dazed man, slowly waking to full consciousness, was lyin«on a plastered floor, looking up in horror at a carpeted ceiling. Two heavy couches, an, easy chair, chairs and stables securely fastened, stared down at him from above. The man’s eyes at last rested on a flower-pot directly over his head, from which a flaring rose l —apparently real—was blooming. He gave a cry, and, rolling over, grasped with frenzied hands the stem of the chandelier, which came up through the floor. The host burst rncc the room with a, loud laugh. r They all do it,’ he cried; ‘they fear they will fall up to the ceiling.’ ”

To talk through a human body—or a row of human bodies, for the matter of that—is one of the weirdest of the electrician’s feats. If a telephone wire be severed and the two ends he held by a person, one in each hand, hut far apart, it is quite possible for two individuals to carry on a conversation through the medium of a body as readily and as distinctly as if the Hne had It is not' generally known that when a. person falls into the water a common felt hat (without ventilating holes) may be made use of as a life preserver, and by placing the hat upon the water, rim down, with the arm round it, pressing it slightly to the breast, it will keep •- a man afloat for hours.