He succumbed to the lure of commercialism finally, and is now in the jewelry business in the "down-town district" of New York City.
Sword-swallowing may be harmlessly imitated by the use of a fake sword with a telescopic blade, which slides into the handle.

Vosin, the Paris manufacturer of magical apparatus, made swords of this type, but they were generally used in theatrical enchantment scenes, and it is very doubtful if they were ever used by professional swallowers.
It is quite probable that the swords now most generally used by the profession, which are cut from one piece of metal-handle and all--were introduced to show that they were free from any telescoping device.
Swords of this type are quite thin, less than one-eighth of an inch thick, and four or five of them can be swallowed at once.

Slowly withdrawing them one at a time, and throwing them on the stage in different directions, makes an effective display.
A small, but strong, electric light bulb attached to the end of a cane, is a very effective piece of apparatus for sword swallowers, as, on a darkened stage, the passage of the light down the throat and into the stomach can be plainly seen by the audience.

The medical profession now make use of this idea.
By apparently swallowing sharp razors, a dime-museum performer, whose name I do not recall, gave a variation to the sword-swallowing stunt.
This was in the later days, and the act was partly fake and partly genuine.

That is to say, the swallowing was fair enough, but the sharp razors, after being tested by cutting hairs, etc., were exchanged for dull duplicates, in a manner that, in better hands, might have been effective.