THE next "artiste" on my list had a line peculiarly his own. 

He was a fine, jovial negro from one of the Southern States, and chancing to notice at an early age that his mouth was of unusual capacity, even among his kind, he came to see a fortune in it. 

He began to practice, and was always more or less in form.  He supplemented his more natural endeavors by a gutta - percha ball, which was made to expand by a screw arrangement. 

The result is, I submit, perfectly apparent from the photographs reproduced on this page.  First the merry fellow is seen displaying his extraordinary ability in what I might term an "assisted yawn."  In the next illustration he has inserted a hand, comparable only to a small leg of mutton; and in the third he has gravely placed in situ a good-sized plate.  He would remain like this for hours if necessary.  Observe his aspect of strenuous eagerness in the first two portraits, and contrast this with the expression of mild complacency - even benignity and broad philanthropy - in the third.  He is a thorough good fellow, is this negro - good-natured, good-tempered, hilarious, making heaps of money, and spending it recklessly. 

What a unique advertisement he would be fore Somebody's tooth - power, with his expansive smile and superb set of "ivories:!  T

hese photos, were forwarded to the well - known showman, Mr. E. H. Bostock, of Elgin House, Norwich, by his brother, Mr. F. C. Bostock, of Boston, U.S.A., with a suggestion that possibly the "Man with the Largest Mouth in America" night prove a big draw in Great Britain.

From an article 1897 Circus Music Hall - by William G. FitzGerald