Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Pig-Headed

Transcript

Pig-Headed · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to the cabinet of curiosities. As the old saying goes,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: give a man of fish and he'll eat for a day.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Education to that enlightened fisherman was as important as life itself.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: To some, it's the reason they were put on this
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: earth in the first place. A good teacher can move
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: us forward, make us better, make life a little more fulfilling.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But a good teacher can do more than that. A
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: good teacher can teach the unteachable and fulfill not only
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: their lives, but the lives of those around them. Samuel
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Bissett was just to teacher. He was born in Perthshire, Scotland,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: in the early seventeen hundreds and originally sought work as
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a shoemaker before trying his luck in London at a different,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: more lucrative career. He was reading a story about an
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: attraction at a local fair when he was struck with
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: an idea, an idea that might have sounded absurd to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: anyone else. Beset read of a horse that could perform
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: odd tricks. The novelty, combined with his own stubborn refusal
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: to settle down into one line of work, set him
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: on a path towards becoming an animal trainer. He started
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: by training a horse and a dog for his first act,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: then moved up from there. He trained one monkey to
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: dance on a type rope while another held a lit
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: candle and turned a barrel organ. Not content with his
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: small zoo of performing animals, Samuel went bigger, well technically smaller,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: but with the plan to put on a grand musical
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: performance with cats. Not those cats with the costumes and wigs,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I mean actual cats. He purchased three kittens and worked
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: with them for months, teaching them how to hit dulcimer
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: strings with their paws so as to create music. The
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Cat's Opera he called it, ran for almost a week
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and made Bissett rich, which only encouraged him to add
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: more animals to his routine. He taught a rabbit how
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to play military marches on a drum with its hind legs.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Small birds such as sparrows and canaries, could spell anyone's name.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: In the audience, and even though he already had a
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: dog in his lineup, he taught a turtle how to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: play fetch. But while Bissett had proven successful in training
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: animals with un characteristic talents to entertain crowds, none of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: his acts proved as financially successful as his cat's opera.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: He thought perhaps he had exhausted his opportunities in London,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and decided to take a show on the road, moving
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: his human family and his furry family to Ireland for
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a new start. It was there where he encountered a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: seemingly unbeat herble challenge. According to some local folks, the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: only animal that was too stubborn to train was a
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: pit It couldn't be done, they said. Samuel, of course,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: believed that he could prove them wrong. He accepted the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: challenge and purchased a black suckling pig for three shillings.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: He immediately taught it to lay down under the stool
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: where he worked, but unfortunately that's about as much as
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the pig would learn. At first, Samuel nearly gave it
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: away until he looked at the problem from a different angle.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: He worked closely with the pig over the next sixteen months,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: turning what was originally considered an obstinate and unreasonable animal
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: into something akin to a loyal golden retriever. The Learned Pig,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: as it had come to be known, could do all
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: sorts of amazing tricks to enthrall their audiences. It could
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: sell time down to the second, It had an impeccable
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: talent for picking up married folks from unmarried folks, and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: knew how to spell out a person's name and in
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: some cases read a woman's mind. It could also kneel
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: out of respect, the way you or I might do
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: before the Queen, but not everyone loves Samuel and his
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Learned Pig. One night, a man wielding a sword broke
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: into his hotel room with the intent to kill the pig.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: To him, the animal was an affront to God and
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: everything decent. The man swung the sword around the room,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: destroying everything in his path, before plunging the blade into
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the unsuspecting trainer. Samuel begged the man to leave and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: showed him the permit he had obtained from the chief
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Magistrate for his pig to perform. The attacker accepted the proof,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: but threatened to drag Samuel to jail if he ever
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: showed his face in that town again. What it mattered,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: though the injury he sustained became infected, and not long
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: after Samuel Bissett passed away. The pig, however, lived on.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Not only did it continue to perform under a new owner,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: but it inspired similar acts all throughout the nineteenth century.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: The image of an educated pig even became a common
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: way for cartoonists to illustrate the greed of the rich
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and the debaucherous nature of celebrities and politicians. In a way,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the learned pig became something all of us today might recognize,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: one of the first and longest lasting memes in history.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: It's been said that beauty is fleeting. This is often
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: interpreted as meaning our good looks won't last as we age.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: What once was beautiful will eventually with her. But there's
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: another meaning, a deeper one, that something is beautiful not
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: because it lasts, but because it's temporary. We have it
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: only for a short time, and therefore should cherish it
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: because one day it will all be gone. People, animals,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: flowers all have limited time on this planet and are
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: therefore beautiful. Maybe that's what Anna Ivanovna the Empress of
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Russia had in mind when she ordered the construction of
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a new palace in St. Petersburg. Her forces had just
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: defeated the Ottomans in a war that spanned four years,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and Empress Anna wanted to do something big to celebrate.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: A party would not last long enough and a statue
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: would be too small. She needed a true monument to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: her success built in order to honor their victory and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the scores of soldiers lost on the battlefield. She hired
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: renowned architect Peter Europkin to design the impromptu castle. Europkin
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: had been responsible for redesigning St. Petersburg after the death
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: of Peter the Great, as well as palaces for chancellors
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and princes all over the country. If you were building
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a grand structure in Russia, Peter Europkin was the man
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: with the plan. The palace was designed to be over
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: sixty five ft tall and one hundred sixty four feet wide.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: The giant bricks the builders used, though, weren't held together
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: with mortar. Instead. George Croft, who was overseeing the construction,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: put his scientific background to the test and instructed workers
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: to use plain water as a binding agent, an odd
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: choice for something as massive as a palace, but a
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: wise decision in the end. When completed, the palace featured
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a lush garden with trees and wildlife such as birds.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: An elephant was brought in to entertain guests. Sculptures of
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: all kinds adorn the walls, as well as artillery similar
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: to that use during the war. Elaborate furniture pieces filled
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: each room, and a tall wooden fence was erected around
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the perimeter of the building to keep commoners out. Naturally,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: once completed, the palace became a setting for ceremonies and
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: amusing performances, including a mock wedding between two jesters. You see.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Years earlier, Empress Anna had taken offense at the marriage
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: between a prince and a Catholic woman. After his new
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: wife passed away, the prince was forced to become a
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: jester for the empress. As the party began, Empress Anna
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: chose one of her poor servants to become the prince's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: new bride, someone she knew the prince would find unattractive.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: The reluctant couple rode atop that offense, both of them
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: dressed as clowns, while a menagerie of creatures and circus
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: performers trailed behind them. After the wedding, they were stripped
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: of their clothing and tossed into a freezing honeymoon suite,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: with nothing to keep them warm but their own body
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: heat and a sheepskin coat the servants had bartered with
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: one of the guards. Books about the palace were published
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: almost a hundred years later, with films hitting screens a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: century after that. The unique and charming castle had captured
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the imaginations of everyone who heard about it. If only
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Empressona had lived long enough to enjoy it more. She
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: passed away one year after construction was completed, leaving behind
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: her glorious creation for all to enjoy until the following summer.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: That is, you see, there was one problem with the structure,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: something the architect or the builders couldn't have fixed. Regardless
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: of the level of their engineering that went into its construction.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It couldn't handle the heat. By the following fall, Empress
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Ana's palace had disappeared entirely. It had melted. You see,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the palace was never intended to exist beyond Russia's famous winter.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: The sculptures, the furniture, the trees, the birds, and even
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that elephant all had been carved out of ice. I
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.