We shall let this versatile John Brooks close
the pre-Chabert record and turn our attention
to the fire-eaters of Chabert's day. Imitation
may be the sincerest flattery, but in most cases
the victim of the imitation, it is safe to say,
will gladly dispense with that form of adulation.
When Chabert first came to America
and gave fresh impetus to the fire-eating art
by the introduction of new and startling
material, he was beset by many imitators, or—
as they probably styled themselves—rivals,
who immediately proceeded, so far as in them
lay, to out-Chabert Chabert.
One of the most prominent of these was a
man named W. C. Houghton, who claimed to
have challenged Chabert at various times. In
a newspaper advertisement in Philadelphia,
where he was scheduled to give a benefit performance
on Saturday evening, February 4th,
1832, he practically promised to expose the
method of poison eating. Like that of all
exposers, however, his vogue was of short
duration, and very little can be found about this
super-Chabert except his advertisements. The
following will serve as a sample of them:
ARCH STREET THEATRE
BENEFIT
OF THE AMERICAN FIRE KING
A CARD.—W. C. Houghton, has the
honor to announce to the ladies and
gentlemen of Philadelphia, that his
BENEFIT will take place at the ARCH
STREET THEATRE, on Saturday evening
next, 4th February, when will be
presented a variety of entertainments aided
by the whole strength of the company.
Mr. H. in addition to his former
experiments will exhibit several fiery feats,
pronounced by Mons. Chabert an
IMPOSSIBILITY. He will give a COMPLETE
explanation by illustrations of the PRINCIPLES
of the EUROPEAN and the
AMERICAN CHESS PLAYERS. He
will also (unless prevented by indisposition)
swallow a sufficient quantity of phosphorus,
(presented by either chemist or
druggist of this city) to destroy
the life
of any individual. Should he not feel
disposed to take the poison, he will
satisfactorily explain to the audience the
manner it may be taken without injury.
In our next chapter we shall see how it went
with others who challenged Chabert.
A Polish athlete, J. A. B. Chylinski by name,
toured Great Britain and Ireland in 1841, and
presented a more than usually diversified
entertainment. Being gifted by nature with
exceptional bodily strength, and trained in
gymnastics, he was enabled to present a mixed
programme, combining his athletics with feats
of strength, fire-eating, poison-swallowing, and
fire-resistance.
In The Book of Wonderful Characters,
published in 1869 by John Camden Hotten, London,
I find an account of Chamouni, the Russian
Salamander: “He was insensible, for a
given time, to the effects of heat. He was
remarkable for the simplicity and singleness
of his character, as well as for that idiosyncrasy
in his constitution, which enabled him
for so many years, not merely to brave the
effects of fire, but to take a delight in an
element where other men find destruction. He
was above all artifice, and would often entreat
his visitors to melt their own lead, or boil their
own mercury, that they might be perfectly
satisfied of the gratification he derived from
drinking these preparations. He would also
present his tongue in the most obliging manner
to all who wished, to pour melted lead upon
it and stamp an impression of their seals.”
A fire-proof billed as Professor Rel Maeub,
was on the programme at the opening of the
New National Theater, in Philadelphia, Pa.,
in the spring of 1876. If I am not mistaken
the date was April 25th. He called himself
“The Great Inferno Fire-King,” and his
novelty consisted in having a strip of wet
carpeting running parallel to the hot iron plates
on which he walked barefoot, and stepping on
it occasionally and back onto the hot iron, when
a loud hissing and a cloud of steam bore ample
proof of the high temperature of the metal.
One of the more recent fireproofs was
Eugene Rivalli, whose act included, besides the
usual effects, a cage of fire in which he stood
completely surrounded by flames. Rivalli,
whose right name was John Watkins, died in
1900, in England. He had appeared in Great
Britain and Ireland as well as on the Continent
during the later years of the 19th century.
The cage of fire has been used by a number
of Rivalli's followers also, and the reader will
find a full explanation of the methods
employed for it in the chapter devoted to the
Arcana of the Fire-eaters, to which we shall
come when we have recorded the work of the
master Chabert, the history of some of the
heat-resisters featured on magicians'
programmes, particularly in our own day, and the
interest taken in this art by performers whose
chief distinction was won in other fields, as
notably Edwin Forrest and the elder Sothern.
