Villemeureux e Auvray
Au rédacteur du Courrier des spectacles
Le Courrier des spectacles, ou Journal des théâtres, Paris 25 february 1800, pp. 3-4.
1 volume available
Ironic letter by Villemeureux, sergeant-major of the consular guard, and Auvray, exposing the trick of the «invisible person» of the «famous physicist» of the cloître Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. Having gone to the address given in the paper of 3 ventôse, they are led by a little girl in clogs not to the second floor but to the attic, where a «magician with a haggard face» takes the money in a wretched garret. The case, half cardboard and half glass, hangs in front of a dormer window and a brass-wire grille prevents one from walking round it, but one end almost touches a freshly whitewashed wall; the speaking-trumpet has three mouthpieces, the third hidden against the wall, which carries the questions to a girl hidden in a cupboard disguised under the new plaster, who watches the spectators through a small hole and answers by putting her lips to the wall. On leaving they find the little girl in clogs again, «stripped of her invisibility»; the authors remark that she speaks only in a low voice because a loud voice would betray the mystery, and that admission costs 1 franc 50 centimes. Full transcription and Italian translation.
Language
French
