3-016-962 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from Mr. Woodin's Entertainment, "Elopement Extraordinary," at the Polygraphic Hall, 1864. A carriage on '...the London, Tilbury, and Southend Railway...A strong-minded young lady, taking advantage of Leap-year, has eloped with a weak-minded young gentleman, and is pursued by her uncle, who...[hides] in a second-class carriage, while they occupy one of the first class...the old gentleman...[discovers that the young man] has come into a large fortune...Hearing the lovers quarrel in the next carriage, he joins them with the design of preventing a rupture, still keeping his face concealed...Mr. Woodin plays all three characters himself, the audience burst into wondering laughter when they see carriages entered by one person after another, and behold heads popping now out of this window, now out of that, while all these travellers are but one and the same man. But their astonishment reaches its height when the scene changes...with the uncle, the two lovers, and the head of a ticket-collector thrust in at the window, all visible at once. This combination is produced by an ingenious arrangement of stuffed "dummies," which Mr. Woodin animates at pleasure by introducing his own face where the face ought to be and working the several arms'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.