Page:Houdini - Miracle Mongers.djvu/222

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198
MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

force of his middle finger, having laid them on the first and third finger.

3. Having thrust under his garter the bowl of a strong tobacco-pipe, his legs being bent, he broke it to pieces by the tendons of his hams, without altering the bending of his leg.

4. He broke such another bowl between his first and second finger, by pressing his fingers together side-ways.

5. He lifted a table six feet long, which had half a hundred weight hanging to the end of it, with his teeth, and held it in a horizontal position for a considerable time. It is true the feet of the table rested against his knees; but as the length of the table was much greater than its height, that performance required a great strength to he exerted by the muscles of his loins, those of his neck, the masseter and temporal (muscles of the jaws) besides a good set of teeth.

6. He took an iron kitchen-poker, about a yard long, and three inches in circumference, and holding it in his right hand, he struck upon his bare left arm, between the elbow and the wrist till he bent the poker nearly to a right angle.