was a pity. All they knew was—there were
the children.

A gentleman who seemed to be the
guardian-in-chief then stepped forward, and with
still greater candour and liberality began
thus:—" Gentlemen and ladies, with the story
just told to you, we have nothing at all to
do"—at that we halted somewhat. Why
then did you write Aztec Lilliputians on our
tickets? Why did you placard London with
coloured tableaux representing atomies on
pillars being worshipped, desperate and picturesque
assaults, and so on, all belonging to
the story that has just been told us ? Why
did not the flaming picture of the show outside
correspond to the reality within ? The
gentleman disclaimed, however, all responsibility
for the story. If it were false, what is
the truth? As for him, there were the children.
Account for them in any way, and
still were they not wonders? If their guardians
had meant to palm a tale upon the
public they could easily have manufactured
a Velasquez, and produced him. So on. Then
the children were introduced; wonders certainly
as dwarfs, and not the less—but all the
more—unfit for popular exhibition. They
began their performance by running very
obediently together, like horses in a circus,
round the long platform in the middle of the
room. Then they were put upon the platform
and played monkey tricks for the amusement
of the public, which assembled round them
very much as it collects about the monkeys at
Regent's Park, and gave them cakes, and
differed chiefly in its behaviour from the
same public looking at monkeys, in the
common manifestation of a desire to kiss
them.

Next to kissing, the chief pleasure seemed
to consist in feeling their heads. They are
not themselves by any means so small as they
are represented to be on the bills out of
doors. In those bills they are shown as
veritable Lilliputians, perched like sparrows
upon columns, or " as exhibited before Her
Majesty;" of dimensions that would allow
them to stand comfortably in the hat held
by one of the suite who is looking on. Bodily
they are three feet high; but their heads are
disproportionately small, instead of being
disproportionately large, as dwarfs' heads usually
are. They are like dolls' heads, and so of
course it is agreeable to feel them.

Her Majesty's name was judiciously introduced
into the entertainment; and it was
dexterously suggested to us that many ladies
come repeatedly to observe whether the children
make any progress as the days roll on.
Perhaps that was the case of an enthusiastic
lady, who made the air alive with cries of
"Kiss me, darling—Come, Maximo, dear—
kiss me, dear—O (to her friend, another
lady), he is very much improved." Some
cheap toys had been put forward from a hand
or two about the room—one of them a cat
capable of squeaking. Maximo was causing it to squeak. " What's that," asked the lady.
" Isn't it a cat ? Say cat. Say cat, de—ar !"
Maximo at last was persuaded to obey. " It's
the first time," said the lecturer, in an interested
way, " that I have heard him pronounce
the word—cat." We were all, of
course, thrilled with interest.

Then there was a little boy who played
with the children, and carried round the Illustrated
History of the Aztec Lilliputians, price
one shilling, with all the startling tableaux in
it; and who seemed too much at home to be a
page. He began walking round the platform
with a " Daguerreotype picture of the Aztec
Lilliputians, only half a guinea," and our ears
deceived us if it was not the rapturous lady
who told him that he was a silly fellow, and
that it couldn't be sold to-night; certainly
it was the rapturous lady's friend who
scolded him sotto voce—we happened to stand
close by—and told him that if his father
heard him he would be very angry. Nevertheless
he went off to try a little unobtrusive
bargaining in another corner.

We began to crumple up the paper upon
which letters from Professor Owen and Dr.
Latham (both discrediting the Aztec story)
had been made into a handbill, for the sake
of connecting the names of those eminent
philosophers with the show. Maximo was
being asked to sit down. Presently he squatted
with his legs turned out in idol attitude.
"O," cried the enthusiastic lady, "that's the
way he was worshipped! I am sure of it. I
am sure," turning to her friend, but speaking
so that every one might hear her, though
in a low voice, " I am sure he was
worshipped as a god, sitting in that way."
After a little more such entertainment we
departed.

If these children had been exhibited as American
dwarfs, (as, for example, the abnormal
offspring of a Hebrew father and a mulatto
mother; which they are as likely as not to
be), however much we might have deplored
the taste of the town in gathering about
them with sponge cake and kisses, we
should have quietly submitted to the passing
folly. We are disposed to think, however,
that a grave social topic is involved, whenever
we observe success in any gross attempt
to practise upon public credulity. As for
gullibility itself, that, we suppose, will last
among us till the schoolmaster shall have his
own. It is a vulnerable part that we cannot
remove; nevertheless we may defend it from
barefaced attack.

On the 6th of September will be published, price 5s. 6d.,
neatly bound in Cloth.
THE SEVENTH VOLUME
OF
HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
Containing Numbers 154 to 179 (both inclusive), issued
between March 5th and August 27th, 1853.