Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1875 — Catching a Cannon Ball. [ARTICLE]

Catching a Cannon Ball.

A very singular exhibition was given yesterday at the Jardin Mabille. There has been performing here at the Folies Bergeres a man named Holtum, an American, who has a cannon fired at him and catches the ball in his hands. This prodigious feat was witnessed nightly, and, although the actors present avowed that there was no trick, Pierre Veron, of the Monde Illustre, would not believe it. He said that the cannon ball must be thrown to Holtum from the stage. The latter made a bet of 5,000 francs that he would perform the feat under conditions which left no room to doubt, and when the bet was taken Vernon designated Mabille as the place for the trial. All the journalists of Paris were invited, and they found Holtum there before his cannon. It was examined with minute care, and the heavy ball was passed from hand to hand. “ I’am no longer in my own house,” said Holtum; “ you are master here, and you must watch over all the arrangements.” Having carefully aimed and lashed his cannon, it was charged, and Holtum took his place against a plank target some ten yards away. This was to show that the ball was solid, and the force of the powder great enough to send it through the plank. Holtum got the aim of his gun, and then placed his head in a certain position against the plank, giving the command to fire. The ball just grazed the hair and broke through the plank, rolling some twenty yards further on. The same ball was picked up by the journalists, who again charged the cannon and sent home the ball, and this time Holtum caught the ball in his hands as neatly as he does nightly upon the stage. He won his bet, and’no one seemed ’ disposed to accept his offer of 3,000 francs to anyone who would perform the same astounding feat. The physical force required must be enormous, but Holtum showed his strength by tossing up cannon balls as if they were so many oranges. The only precautions taken are very simple; he wears very thick leather gloves, and covers his breast with many thicknesses of. thin paper to form a sort of cuirass. This looks to me like a very dangerous feat, and particularly the first part of it, where Holtum places his head against the target half an inch below where the ball will probably strike. If the powder should chance to be defective, some day theres might be an accident. It is like the foolhardy trick of putting one’s head into a lion’s mouth. One day I fancy that ball will snap.his head very/neatly off— Paris Cor. New York World.