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Anomalous Illustration Of Man On Fire

maximus otter

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
Joined
Aug 9, 2001
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(Discussion of this image has been spun off from the Spontaneous Human Combustion thread, because it's unclear it depicts someone who's "spontaneously combusted." (See comments below ... ))

Bizarrely, in trying to find an amusing and appropriate illustration, I happened upon the following:

0997e77c4124aaef53f217bc3661df9e.png


- concerning which, a brief Google has proved to be fruitless.

maximus otter

PS: I have sent an email to the Leighton Buzzard Historical Society to see if they can cast any light on this image.

m.o.
 
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maximus otter said:
Bizarrely, in trying to find an amusing and appropriate illustration, I happened upon the following:

0997e77c4124aaef53f217bc3661df9e.png


- concerning which, a brief Google has proved to be fruitless.

maximus otter
Click to expand...
Something is burning in the background, can't really tell what.
 
Any significance that he is barefoot? Some sort of street entertainment that went wrong.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Lots of people were barefoot then. Poverty.
Click to expand...
I did wonder about that but no one else in the picture is barefoot, which made him stand out a bit. (well also the fact he was on fire of course!:roll:)
I also wondered whether he was meant to be black and that, at that time, may point to an "exotic" profession ; a fire eater advertising a circus or something like that - although I would have thought more exotic clothing would have been evident.
see:
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/201-street-entertainers-in-victorian-times/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_eating
 
Tunn11 said:
I did wonder about that but no one else in the picture is barefoot, which made him stand out a bit. (well also the fact he was on fire of course!:roll:)
I also wondered whether he was meant to be black and that, at that time, may point to an "exotic" profession ; a fire eater advertising a circus or something like that - although I would have thought more exotic clothing would have been evident.
see:
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/201-street-entertainers-in-victorian-times/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_eating
Click to expand...
He is quite clearly black skinned and he is the only barefoot person in the picture. Those two facts may be linked.

From the clothing of the crowd, I'd guess late 19th or early 20th century, but I'm no expert.

Black people were more likely to be very poor in the sort of period depicted, and therefore so more likely to be barefoot in real life. Also, perhaps black people were more likely to be illustrated in a stereotypical way as barefoot.

However, the rest of his attire does not accentuate his poverty: he is wearing clean, unpatched white trousers with a smart belt, and a smart-ish dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up as if he had been working. (Everyone else is in smart clothes.)

The crowd is showing alarm or concern rather than cheering, jeering, or mobbing him, so it does not appear to be a racist incident at the moment that it was depicted, however the earlier ignition occurred.

There is an object in the background that may be the source of ignition. I can see 2 tiny marks that may be the circular front windows of an old steam locomotive cab, with the loco facing away. The rolled up sleeves and dark shirt might possibly make him the fireman on a locomotive. However, I would have expected the locomotive to be more obvious in the picture if that was the source of ignition.

The Leighton Buzzard Light Railway opened in 1919 and was originally hauled by steam.

A few Google searches have revealed lots of bad things that have happened at Leighton Buzzard, but no clues about this image.
 
"Come visit Leighton Buzzard, where many bad things happen!"

Seriously, it's an interesting image. He has flames coming out of his shirt and his mouth, indicating some truly bizarre circumstances.
 
Min Bannister said:
Wow. The police really liked their illustrations graphic didn't they. :chuckle:
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I vividly remember a trip to Madame Tussauds in my early teens and seeing those Victorian newspaper illustrations in the Chamber of Horrors (no doubt mostly relating to the Jack the Ripper murders) and being fascinated and repelled by their ghoulishly melodramatic nature. They are obviously not 'funny' as such, dealing as they do with some tragic and grisly things, but to our modern eyes they do seem kind of ridiculously sensational. I suppose it's because we are so much more sophisticated as a society now, he said, without a trace of irony.
 
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CharmerKamelion said:
I vividly remember a trip to Madame Tussauds in my early teens and seeing those Victorian newspaper illustrations in the Chamber of Horrors (no doubt mostly relating to the Jack the Ripper murders) and being fascinated and repelled by their ghoulishy melodramatic nature. They are obviously not 'funny' as such, dealing as they do with some tragic and grisly things, but to our modern eyes they do seem kind of ridiculously sensational. I suppose it's because we are so much more sophisticated as a society now, he said, without a trace of irony.
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We still love the sensational - just look at some of the videos on social media - accidents, freak occurrences, murders, fights, shootings & so on..

We can just see them as they happened now rather than an artists impression.
 
Aye, a fire eater who bit off more than he could chew.
 
staticgirl said:
Oh yes, it's a notorious paper. I love the illustrations. There is a lot of information about ordinary Victorians in there.

That Outrage in Ireland story looks interesting/weird too.
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I was searching for the Illustrated Police News on Ebay, looking for information on the Leighton Buzzard incident (not found). However an original edition of the IPN (1882) dealing with the life and death of Jesse James was starting at $1,900 - a reproduction of a 6 page pull out on Jack the Ripper (1888) was a reasonable £12.93. I prefer the books on IPN collections though.
 
Tunn11 said:
Any significance that he is barefoot? Some sort of street entertainment that went wrong.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing that, after that incident, a lack of footwear was the least of the poor man's worries.

I had two aunts, now both sadly passed, who lived in Leighton Buzzard for a few years. Always seemed like a nice town. Totally innocuous, and with a cool and interesting name ('Buzzard' a corruption of a French word, I think, and nothing to do with buzzards). And it has a cute, dinky little railway line which ran very close to their homes too.
 
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SimonBurchell said:
Something is burning in the background, can't really tell what.
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It's a Victorian street brazier, beloved of chestnut roasters, muffin toasters and also (it would appear) fire-eaters.

What a shame for the reported victim, I hope his suffering didn't last for too long (in any sense of the phrase :-( )

victorian-riveted-brazier-norfolk.jpg


I once saw a comrade of mine ignite himself by badly-misjudging the imbibing of a flaming sambuka.... set fire to his shirt, chest-hair and eyebrows. He was only saved by the rapid communal application of many gallons of topical lager...
 
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