you choose to call them, which I have
accidentally discovered that I am able to
perform.

``I am a fire-eater, as it were. (Applause).

``I used to DREAD the fire, having been
scorched once when an innocent child. (A
laugh.)

Mr. Sothern (severely)--``I HOPE there
will be no levity here, and I wish to say
now that demonstrations of any kind are
liable to upset me, while demonstrations
of a particular kind may upset the audience.''

Silence and decorum being restored,
Mr. Sothern thus continued:

``Thirteen weeks ago, while walking up
Greenwich Street, in New York, I stepped
into a store to buy a cigar. To show you
there is no trick about it, here are cigars
out of the same box from which I selected
the one I that day lighted.'' (Here Mr.
Sothern passed around a box of tolerable
cigars.)

``Well, I stepped to the little hanging
gas-jet to light it, and, having done so,