man as well, and kept steadily employed at
a better salary than the rank and file of his
contemporaries. He did a thriving business
in the sale of the various concoctions used in
his art, and published and sold a most complete
book of formulas and general instructions
for those interested in the craft. He had,
indeed, many irons in the fire, and he kept
them all hot.

It will perhaps surprise the present
generation to learn that the well-known circus man
Jacob Showles was once a fire-eater, and that
Del Fugo, well-known in his day as a dancer
in the music halls, began as a fire-resister, and
did his dance on hot iron plates. But the
reader has two keener surprises in store for
him before I close the long history of the heat-
resisters. The first concerns our great American
tragedian Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) who,
according to James Rees (Colley Cibber), once
essayed a fire-resisting act. Forrest was
always fond of athletics and at one time made
an engagement with the manager of a circus
to appear as a tumbler and rider. The engagement
was not fulfilled, however, as his friend
Sol Smith induced him to break it and return
to the legitimate stage. Smith afterwards
admitted to Cibber that if Forrest had remained
with the circus he would have become one of