The Orphan’s Plight
The Orphan’s Plight
The Orphan’s Plight
The Orphan’s Plight
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The Orphan’s Plight

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$ 100.00
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Available by Special Order

Please allow 4 weeks

Orphanages in the early 1900s were dreary, depressing places, frequently run by unqualified individuals or couples who more often than not used stern disciplinary tactics to control the little urchins.

Such a couple were Wendell and Wilma Morrison. They may have been more extreme in their application of disciplinary procedures than most. In fact, their treatment of those in their establishment was tantamount to abuse, and they derived a certain pleasure from seeing the children suffer.

A child is selected by the prospective parent (spectator) from among the 14 orphans in residence at the orphanage, without allowing the performer to see which one is selected. Based on the toys selected by the spectator (the child’s favorite ones), the performer identifies the chosen child and proceeds to relate several bits of personal information about the child, known only by the spectator.

This is the first effect. The chosen photograph is placed in a box (the “closet”) and the lid closed. Once selected, the child would be separated from the rest of his peers. The truth of the matter was, there never was going to be an adoption, for you see, the chosen child had not just been separated from the others…he had been murdered and stuffed into a closet in the basement of the orphanage!

The performer opens the box to show a photograph of a crushed skeleton where the photograph of the child had previously been. This is the second effect. After all, the Morrisons could not have some poor child running around relating to the world the horrors they had suffered at the hands of their keepers. And anyway, not to worry.

There were plenty of new arrivals at the orphanage for the Morrisons to victimize, and the cycle repeated itself over and over again. And thus was the orphan’s plight. The Morrisons never were caught, and they continued their scheme for years, until finally, some of the children figured out what was going on. Together, they plotted, and when next the Morrisons visited the basement, the children followed them, shoved them into that closet and set the building on fire!

The box is opened and a photograph of the Morrisons is placed therein, and the lid is closed. The children escaped to the relative freedom of the streets, and the Morrisons got their just reward. The box is opened to show the Morrison photograph, now scorched and burned. This is the third effect.

What you receive: -

14 hand-made children cards -

4 hand-made toy cards -

2 Morrison couple cards, one of which is burned and scorched -

1 crushed skeleton card -

1 orphanage card -

1 special box with an embedded magnet and two flaps -

1 loose magnet to help remove the flaps from the box -

1 instruction manual, complete with suggested patter