Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — THE BOTTLE IMP. [ARTICLE]

THE BOTTLE IMP.

An English Hoax that Was Repudiated a Century and a Half Ago. The bottle-imp hoax was one of the most gigantic of the many hoaxes and impostures played on the English people during the eighteenth century, says American [Notes and Queries. The Duke of Montague, in the year 1749, laid a wager with another nobleman that if an imposter, advertising that he could jump into a quart bottle should come along, all London society would flock to see the wonder. In order to decide the bet the following advertisement was put in all the papers:

“At the new theater in the Haymarket on Monday next, the 16th inst., is to be seen a person who performs the several most surprising tricks following, viz: First, he takes a common walking-cane from any of the spectators, and thereon plays the music of every instrument now in use. Secondly, he presents you with a common wine bottle (which any of the spectators may first examine); he then places the bottle on a table in the middle of the stage, and he without any equivocation goes into it in sight of all the spectators. While in the bottle he will sing all the popular songs of the day. During his stay in the bottle any person may handiest and see that it does not exceed' a common tavern bottle in size.” This advertisement excited the curiosity of the people, and on the evening mentioned a prodigious number of people gathered in and around the Haymarket. Royalty went in disguise and beggars in their every-day clothes. Not more than half the crowd, the* account says, could find seats in the great building. Finally the supposed conjuror appeared on the stage. The majority of these confidently expected tp see him soon in the odd-shaped bottle sitting on the table. Not until he brazehly told them that If they would pay double fare he would go Into a pint bottle instead of a quart did it dawn upon them that they had been sold. A general row ensued, during which masks were removed by force and many aristocratic features exposed.