AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19047, 18 December 1923, Page 4

AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY.

Mr P. T. Selbit, who at the Plaza Theatre this evening will apparently perform the amazing feat of sawing through a hox containing a woman, first produced his trick in London in 1921. How it is done is a mystery. A number of amusing incidents have occurred during Mr Hclbit’s tours with this mystery. Once, when he was appearing at one of the Gulliver Hails at Lewisham, near London, the management offered £5 to any girl who would come up to the theatre in the morning and 'bo sawn through. The morning arrived, ami so did imout 203 gi; Is, standing in a long queue at the, stage floor. It happened on that day that, the electrician had bc«..i washing the lamps, and a quantity of red painthad Lenrno mixed with tin- water in the pu.il. Mr Selhit saw this pail of red liquid standing in the “wings,” and advised (h electrician to throw it away. The first girl came in, and everything was going well. The electrician to reach: the nearest drain, had to pass out the stage door and down the queue or girls. One of them, more observant than the rest, spot ted the bucket, ami with some trepidation asked of the contains. The electrician, lining something of a humorist, replied for a joke, “Oh, bless yon. miss: that’s the hiood from last night’s performance!” A fine bill of selected pictures, including Tom Mix in ‘Stepping Fast,” will be screened in addition to this great vaudeville .act.