LIMBLESS WONDERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7808, 12 September 1903, Page 2

LIMBLESS WONDERS.

/ . - ■ — — — ■* . ' . (Paantn'a WeaUa-l The recent advent in. London of aft armless and legless mm>ture-painter, who tu-_*» ed ous very fair pictures by holding the brush between his teeth, cxeated no little sensation in artistic cirole*. Such* a performance, however, ia by no means so unique as many of those attending it seem to have fmapned. . Indeed, vfca almost all ages, and in practically, enepy country, artists handicapped after a a_-___fa-. fashion have similarly appealed to tha ettffrages of their move fortunate fallow en*tures. r ._ _ Perhaps the most famous'of them aH waa a lady; Miss Sarah BifffcnTwho . died at Liverpool in the year 1850 t at tha "J aidy ripe age of sixty six.** This ingenious persoa wasbozn ai&we / shapeless trunk, with, of course, tbe htad : attached, but minus all four of ths extremities. At the age of fourteen she is described as looking like a discarded doll that had been badly treated by its child mistress. And even when a womaa grown, she onlj. at-* tamed TO THB HEIGHT OF A TABS AS» AN INCH. Yet the frail, incomplete body was capable of great and sustained exertion. For years she worked almost day and night afc iier chosen profession, and, although her progress was for a long time exceedingly slow, she in the end attained such proficiency that she succeeded in winning the gold medal of the Society oi Arts and ma~_j~ other honours. She also seemed the patronage of royalty* and, coming to I/ondoD., established a studio in the Strand, where she actually gavejeasons in art to numbers of pupils endowed with the ordinary complement of limbs. Of her paintings, many were potboilers,, and -more or less mediocre; but a fair per . centage show considerable merit, and^are even now eagerly snapped up at stiff prices, whenever they find their way upon the market. Another limbless wonder ia the Ruasian, Kobeikoff, who visited thia country- some four or five yean ago, and aatoniahed everyone by the ease with whioh he performed numbers of apparently— fco him— __apo_sible * feats. For instance, he joggled with _cupa and balls, played battledore and shuttlecock with extraordinary skill and agility, and even scored quic__ty and cleanly at billiards, holding A SPECl_____T--_A_>E CUS BETWXEK HIS TEETH. When dining he held his fork or knife cleverly between his cheek and his shoulder. He could thread the emallest-eyed needle in far less time than most ordinary people, his method being to first stick it in the lapel of bis coat with his teeth,, after which he manipulated the thread with his. lips. Most visitors'" to Khartoum* will have noticed Ali Hassan, the armless and legless donkey boy. He, however, was aot born tbat way, bufc owes his sad plight to the cruelty of the late Khalifa, Abdullah Mohamed, who had him thus mutilated, at different times as a punishment for some infraction or other of one of his many arbitrary rules and regulations. Thus, he will stand on his head in the saddle while the donkey is going at full gallop, and then, lowering himself to hie shoulders to gain the necessary impetus,, will project himself upside down into the air liko a human rocket, alighting always ON THE SOFT SANS IN THE SAME POSITION*. Another favourite exhibition of his is to plant himself on the ground on the stumps of liis thighs, and allow a donkey, which he has trained for the purpose, to charge full tilt at him. Then,- just as the animal reaches him, and it looks aa though in another instant he is inevitably going to be sent flying head over heels, Ali wriggles his thighs wide apart, the donkey lowers hia head to the ground^ and the next moment man and beast are seen careering rapidly across the desert, the former seated astride the letter's neck. Among limbless travellers^ Mr Charles Haseltine stands easily first. Tbe only soil of a well-to-do vintner, he had ere -caching his majority, visited France, Spain, Germany, Holland and Belgium. When in his twenty-fifth year his father and mother ooth died within a few weeks of one anotber, and he then decided, having no ties fco keep him at home, to f take « more extended acquaintance with foretga lands. He then proceeded to Romey where bm

wm reoeived in special audience by the f ope. From there he travelled by easy - tttees to Constantinople, where the Sultan tern for him, engaged him- for several hours in conversation, and dismissed bim -oaded ■frith valuable presents. He spent three months in St Petersburg, mixing in the best society, everywhere attracting the greatest attention and anxiety, ,yet being at the same time treated with the most profound courtesy and respect. ' Resuming his wanderings, he crossed Siberia by sledge from west to east, and on the way encountered so furious a blizzard that his, guide died of exposure, while his (travelling companion was so badly frostbitten that both his feet and one of his tkands had to be amputated. ~ y^seltine, however, not only escaped scot », but Buffered very little, if any, ihconnlfence, a fact which Caused himi to refcark in his diary that " there was some advantage after aU in being born without Yet another limbless wonder, who Waß also a great traveller, was Peter Jackson, lor "Big Pete," a negro of unoommon size. His legs ended at the knees, yet he stood 'five feet seven inches in height, and his ohest development was prodigious. With fee jaws he could lift, by means of a -trap, LCvreSfht of fifteen hundred pounds, and Und an ordinary kitohen poker with as _ vjfta apparent difficulty as a child dealing (flier a similar fashion WITH A STICK OK gUGAR-CANDT. s?eter hired himself out to a showman, Md accompanied him practically all over the world. On returning to New York, however, the two quarrelled' about money t tnatteiß, and "Big Pete" mauled his master #o badly that his life was despaired of. He was arrested, but not before he had butted one policeman to death and severely injured four otaiers. For tbis he was senfeoced to twenty years' oonfinement in a penitentiary^ where, he shortly afterwards » jQjed. . A faar happier fate was reserved for Sanjo itots, the limbless diver of Yokohama. Originally a poor beggarman, he somehow found his way down to the port from the interior, and started giving al fresoo exhibitions of diving for money thrown from the decks of the passenger 6teai_ters .calling 'Ihere.-, '*'" Hi. «_dll grew by degrees to be little less Jhan marvellous. He kept himself afloat ' tod perf owned all sorts of e-_t_aordinary ratios and -rvolutions in the. water by a Bort i « sinuous, shake-like movement of his long; J_mb_e_6 trunk. . Copper csinis were beneath his notice, but le weald pursue a. silver or gold piece, and etbh it up, between big teeth long ere it d reached the bottom. L One day,, however, he was missing from Its 'accustomed haunts, and it was found fif lnqt__cy~t£at, having accumulated the fctrtvalent in -English money of about ©1000, he had Tsfcarned to his native village ' and wedded tin daughter of a thriving and WelJrto-do filwpkeeper. ,