CHAPTER EIGHT.
SWORD-SWALLOWERS: CLIQUOT, DELNO FRITZ, DEODATA, A RAZOR-SWALLOWER, AN UMBRELLA-SWALLOWER, WILLIAM DEMPSTER, JOHN CUMMING, EDITH CLIFFORD, VICTORINA.
It has sometimes been noted in the foregoing pages, that fire-eaters, finding it difficult to invent new effects in their own sphere, have strayed into other fields of endeavor in order to amplify their programmes.

Thus we find them resorting to the allied arts of poison-eating, sword-swallowing and the stunts of the so-called Human Ostrich.
In this connection I consider it not out of place for me to include a description of a number of those who have, either through unusual gifts of nature or through clever artifice, seemingly submitted to tests which we have been taught to believe were far and away beyond the outposts of human endurance.

By the introduction of these thrills each notable newcomer has endeavored to go his predecessors one better, and the issue of challenges to all comers to match these startling effects has been by no means infrequent, but I fail to discover a single acceptance of such a challenge.
To accomplish the sword-swallowing feat, it is only necessary to overcome the nausea that results from the metal's touching the mucous membrane of the pharynx, for there is an unobstructed passage, large enough to accommodate several of the thin blades used, from the mouth to the bottom of the stomach.

This passage is not straight, but the passing of the sword straightens it.

Some throats are more sensitive than others, but practice will soon accustom any throat to the passage of the blade.