her workman
in a watch-factory of the United States drilled a hole through a hair
of his beard and ran a fiber of silk through it.

Ventriloquists, or "two-voiced men," are interesting anomalies of the
present day; it is common to see a person who possesses the power of
speaking with a voice apparently from the epigastrium. Some acquire
this faculty, while with others it is due to a natural resonance,
formed, according to Dupont, in the space between the third and fourth
ribs and their cartilaginous union and the middle of the first portion
of the sternum. Examination of many of these cases proves that the
vibration is greatest here. It is certain that ventriloquists have
existed for many centuries. It is quite possible that some of the old
Pagan oracles were simply the deceptions of priests by means of
ventriloquism.

Dupont, Surgeon-in-chief of the French Army about a century since,
examined minutely an individual professing to be a ventriloquist. With
a stuffed fox on his lap near his epigastrium, he imitated a
conversation with the fox. By lying on his belly, and calling to some
one supposed to be below the surface of the ground, he would imitate an
answer seeming to come from the depths of the earth. With his belly on
the ground he not only made the illusion more complete, but in this way
he smothered "the epigastric voice."

He was always noticed to place the inanimate objects with which he held
conversations near his umbilicus.

Ventriloquists must not be confounded with persons who by means of
skilful mechanisms, creatures with movable fauces, etc., imitate
ventriloquism. The latter class are in no sense of the word true
ventriloquists, but simulate the anomaly by quickly changing the tones
of their voice in rapid succession, and thus seem to make their puppets
talk in many different voices. After having acquired the ability to
suddenly change the tone of their voice, they practice imitations of
the voices of the aged, of children, dialects, and feminine tones, and,
with a set of mechanical puppets, are ready to appear as
ventriloquists. By contraction of the pharyngeal and laryngeal muscles
they also imitate tones from a distance. Some give their performance
with little labial movement, but close inspection of the ordinary
performer of this class shows visible movements of his lips. The true
ventriloquist pretends only to speak from the belly and needs no
mechanical assistance.

The wonderful powers of