During the last experiment Mr.
Sothern sang in an excellent tone and voice, "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary." The question now is, were the fifteen auditors of Mr.Sothern fooled and deceived, or was this a genuine manifestation of extraordinary power?
Sothern is such an inveterate joker that he may have put the thing upon the boys for his own amusement; but if so, it was one of the nicest tricks ever witnessed by yours truly, ONE OF THE COMMITTEE.
P.S .-- What is equally marvellous to me is that the fire didn't burn his clothes where it touched them, any more than his flesh.
P.C.
(There is nothing new in this.

Mr.Sothern has long been known as one of the most expert jugglers in the profession.

Some years ago he gained the soubriquet of the "Fire King!" He frequently amuses his friends by eating fire, though he long ago ceased to give public exhibitions.
Probably the success of the experiments last night were largely owing to the lemons present.

There is a good deal of trickery in those same lemons .-- Editor Inter-Ocean.) Which suggests that the editor of the Inter-Ocean was either pretty well acquainted with the comedian's addiction to spoofing, or else less susceptible to superstition than certain scientists of our generation.
The great day of the Fire-eater--or, should I say, the day of the great Fire-eater--has passed.

No longer does fashion flock to his doors, nor science study his wonders, and he must now seek a following in the gaping loiterers of the circus side-show, the pumpkin-and-prize-pig country fair, or the tawdry booth at Coney Island.