VENTRILOQUISM OF M. BRABANT, ETC. 239 



duced the subjects of demons and spectres and the 

 torments of purgatory, and, during an interval of silence, 

 the voice of the miser's deceased father was heard com- 

 plaining of his dreadful situation in purgatory, and 

 calling upon his son to rescue him from his sufferings 

 by enabling Louis Brabant to redeem the Christians that 

 were enslaved by the Turks. The awe-struck miser was 

 also threatened with eternal damnation if he did not thus 

 expiate his own sins ; but such was the grasp that the 

 banker took of his gold that the ventriloquist was 

 obliged to pay him another visit. On this occasion, not 

 only his father, but all his deceased relations appealed to 

 him in behalf of his own soul and theirs, and such was 

 the loudness of their complaints that the spirit of the 

 banker was subdued, and he gave the ventriloquist ten 

 thousand crowns to liberate the Christian captives. 

 When the miser was afterwards undeceived, he is said to 

 have been so mortified that he died of vexation. 



The ventriloquists of the nineteenth century made great 

 additions to their art, and the performances of M. Fitz- 

 James and M. Alexandre, which must have been seen by 

 many of our countrymen, were far superior to those of 

 their predecessors. Besides the art of speaking by the 

 muscles of the throat and the abdomen, without moving 

 those of the face, these artists had not only studied with 

 great diligence and success the modifications which sounds 

 of all kinds undergo from distance, obstructions and other 

 causes, but had acquired the art of imitating them in the 

 highest perfection. The ventriloquist was therefore able 

 to carry on a dialogue in which the dramatis voces, as they 

 may be called, were numerous ; and when on the outside 

 of an apartment he could personate a mob with its infinite 

 variety of noise and vociferation. Their influence over an 

 audience was still further extended by a singular power 

 over the muscles of the body. M. Fitz-James actually 



