disposed to take the poison, he will
satisfactorily explain to the audience the
manner it may be taken without injury.


In our next chapter we shall see how it went
with others who challenged Chabert.

A Polish athlete, J. A. B. Chylinski by name,
toured Great Britain and Ireland in 1841, and
presented a more than usually diversified
entertainment. Being gifted by nature with
exceptional bodily strength, and trained in
gymnastics, he was enabled to present a mixed
programme, combining his athletics with feats
of strength, fire-eating, poison-swallowing, and
fire-resistance.

In The Book of Wonderful Characters,
published in 1869 by John Camden Hotten, London,
I find an account of Chamouni, the Russian
Salamander: ``He was insensible, for a
given time, to the effects of heat. He was
remarkable for the simplicity and singleness
of his character, as well as for that idiosyncrasy
in his constitution, which enabled him
for so many years, not merely to brave the
effects of fire, but to take a delight in an
element where other men find destruction. He
was above all artifice, and would often entreat