SWORDS TO SHARPEN THE APPETITE.

Western Star, Issue 2220, 8 July 1898, Page 6

SWORDS TO SHARPEN THE APPETITE.

Chevalier aliquot, who is now engaged in the appetising occupation of putting swords, watches, and incandescent lamps into his inside at the Westminster Aquarium, has been telling how he learned to accomplish these extraordinary feats. The London doctors have already expressed their complete inability to understand how the tiling is done, as it i~-, without any trickery, so the real facts ought to appall tn these with weak digestions. " Although I keep font teen swords down iu my inside at the same time, and each one sinks a distance of twenty-four inches/' said Mr. Cliquot, " 1 have no tube running inside me, nor have I any artificial receptacle which prevents the swords cutting me up inside. '• How did I begin ? When I was fourteen years old I beuau to practise with a hit of wire. This I only got as f;.r as the tonsils ; it wouldn't go any farther. It made me cough a good ileal, I can tell you. After getting used to the wire 1 had to try to find a passage down my throat without stopping my breath. Having learned how to do this I made a short steel blade and began to push it down my thioat ; then 1 took a genuine sword, but not a sharp oue, and by degrees I managed to get it right inside me without causing any harm.

" Then 1 took a sharp sword, and after three or four years of hard and continuous practice waR enabled to put twenty-two inches of sword in my inside with ease. Now I can put any eavalry srvord you like down me, aud if you place a bar across the blade of the sword aud bang a fifteen pound weight at each end I caa get it down myinteriorand let it stand by itself with the pointof the weapon'restingou my flesb inside. " Jly great difficulty was getting used to cold steel, as steel draws the heat and clo»es the arteries. What Ido now is to push a sword twenty-two inches inside me, or from six to eight inches past the oesophagus, where there is a stoppage. .And when I have the sword insi,le_l don't hold it, mind—l simply let it rest where it is. Another thing the doctors can't understand is how I can put a bayonet, measuring an inch wide, into my inside and completely turn it round. Rut it really doesn't hurt me; I've made the passage wide enough. In fact, you know, it's so wide that it affects my voice sometimes.

"I can swallow anordinary watch and leaveit right iuside me—of course holding it up by the chain—for a minute and a half. A lady's watch I can keep down for about two and a half minutes and smoke at the same time. I can take fourteen sword-blades measuring four and ahalfiochei in circumference, and keep them all in my inside at once. This stopi breathing altogether, When I was doing this feat in America once, a doctor git frightened, and, grabbing hold of all the swords, pulled them all out together, and the consequence was I lay for three days unconscious. People said I'd swallowed my last sword." " You look pretty fit on a sword diet." " 1 was never better in my life, but I have to take great care of myself. First thing in the morning I drink a good glaxs of ice-cold wster, and then I practice, firstly, in onl»r to see if my throat is clear, mid secondly, to gauge how much pressure it will hear. As soon as I've done practising I take a glass of good wine into which has been beaten a couple of new-laid ~gg s_r,mllys _ r , m lly new-laid, nvnd. This settles the nerves.

"Than I'm bound to take an hour's rest, after which I drink a cup of coffee. I have to eat very sparingly during the duy.and always leave an interval of three hours and a half between each meal and my performance, After my day's work 1 become exceedingly hungry. The sharp sword encourages a keen appttits. I dtink a glass ot iced water after each performance This is esssntial for keeping the throat clear. My principal trouble is warding off colds. The cold draws all the arteries together, and, my passage being very delicate, I have some difficulty in keeping it open owing to the change of climate."