JNYISIBLE GIRL* 



VI. 



Lelier from u Correspondetit, on the Exhibition of the 

 Invisible Girl. 



119 



Sir, 



To Mr. 2^icuoisos. 



Bristol^ Jan. 9, 1807. 



JL HE account of your correspondent X. of the manner in Confimutioa 



which the Invisible Girl amused the lounging public, ex- of the former 



actly agrees with one which I sent to Mr. Walker, of Con- thrinvkible 



duit Street, about two years ago, except that X. seems to Girl. 



have failed, as I did, in discovering the mode by which 'she 



saw the company; for one cannot.be satisfied with being 



told, that " a small hole closed with glass is left through 



'' the tunnel and side-wall of the room;" having carefully Question, Hovr 



examined the room of that exhibited at Bristol, and ascer- '^'^^^"^ ^^^ ^*c 



T» . company I 



tained that there could be no such aperture. Besides, we 



knoAV that to see through any hole of a very small size the 

 division must be nearly as thin as a sheet of paper, and a 

 hole through a tunnel and side-wall must have been very 

 long, indeed much too long to see people through. As my 

 friend never answered that letter, 1 concluded that he either 

 doubted of my account being the true one, or that he could 

 not explain satisfactorily how the view of the company was 

 acquired at Charles's exhibition ; although he would not 

 have been long^t a loss to invent some expedient, had it been 

 worth his while. 



In fact, thinking it might hurt the harmless exhibitors, or Account of an 

 lessen the amusement of the public, I desired that account exhibition a« 

 might not be published, unless necessary to prevent super- ^'^'^ ' 

 etitious uses being made of the trick ; and, after all, we lose 

 by all these discoveries when made public, much innocent 

 pleasure, as I well remember was the case when Mr. Thick- 

 ness unveiled some such exhibitions. That which I saw at 

 Bristol and Bath had a loose rail with eight legs ; seven of 

 which the operator always removed from their places to 

 blunt suspicion, but the eighth I always found immovably 

 fixed, and that was ever the leg toward tbe closot where th« 

 lady sat who directed us. 



