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Over a Barrel · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Fame is a strange creature.
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  Speaker 1: It is both elusive and lucrative, and some people seek
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  Speaker 1: it by any means necessary. Nowadays, there's no such thing
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  Speaker 1: as bad publicity if it means keeping your name in
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  Speaker 1: the news. But for Helen, fame came at a steep price.
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  Speaker 1: She was born in in central Scotland, and from a
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  Speaker 1: very young age, the people around Helen knew something was
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  Speaker 1: off about her. She often scared classmates with grim warnings
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  Speaker 1: of the future, and she convinced many of them that
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  Speaker 1: she could talk to the dead. As she got older,
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  Speaker 1: Helen's um gifts garnered her much acclaim and popularity among
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  Speaker 1: her neighbors. She often held seances in her home, where
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  Speaker 1: she would not only conjure spirits related to those in attendance,
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  Speaker 1: but she would also produce ectoplasm from her mouth, as
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  Speaker 1: though the dead were speaking through her. On rare occasions,
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  Speaker 1: phantoms would appear behind her, including some Helen referred to
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  Speaker 1: as her spirit guide to the other side. This spirit
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  Speaker 1: guide was a child named Peggy, who would float above
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  Speaker 1: the crowd, her spectral gown flowing overhead. Unfortunately, Helen and
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  Speaker 1: the spirit world shared a common enemy, flash photography. During
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  Speaker 1: one of her seances, while Helen was blindfolded, a photographer
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  Speaker 1: in attendance snap some pictures of the so called phantoms
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  Speaker 1: the host had managed to summon. They were moving around
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  Speaker 1: behind her, wearing long white robes and stiff, cherubic faces.
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  Speaker 1: It was hard to see in the dark, but once
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  Speaker 1: illuminated by the photographer's flash, it became clear exactly what
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  Speaker 1: the famous medium had actually managed to call forth masks
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  Speaker 1: on coat hangers, wrapped in long white nightgowns. Oh and
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  Speaker 1: that ectoplasm or spiritual energy that Helen would sometimes spit
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  Speaker 1: up that was nothing more than cheesecloth and egg whites.
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  Speaker 1: But Helen wasn't about to give up that easily. She
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  Speaker 1: honestly believed she had a talent, and during November of
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  Speaker 1: ninety she put that talent on full display. Helen and
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  Speaker 1: her husband had recently moved to Portsmouth, the home of
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  Speaker 1: the Royal Navy, and during one of her sessions, she
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  Speaker 1: managed to conjure a sailor from the battleship h M.
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  Speaker 1: S Barham. The sailor told the audience he had been
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  Speaker 1: killed in battle and gone down with the ship, a
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  Speaker 1: miraculous feat for anyone present, except for one problem. Nobody
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  Speaker 1: knew about that accident. Given her history, most people didn't
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  Speaker 1: put much faith in her powers. However, the Navy certainly did.
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  Speaker 1: As it turned out a German sub really had sunk
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  Speaker 1: the h M. S Barham months earlier and killed almost
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  Speaker 1: nine hundred of her crew. News of the sinking had
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  Speaker 1: been kept under wraps to fool the Nazis. The only
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  Speaker 1: people who knew were the relatives of the deceased, so
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  Speaker 1: there was no reason Helen would have known anything about
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  Speaker 1: what had transpired. Word about Helen's prediction spread, and a
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  Speaker 1: short while later, a Navy lieutenant attended a seance to
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  Speaker 1: get a look for himself at the wondrous Mrs Duncan
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  Speaker 1: and was shocked by what he found. She had manifested
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  Speaker 1: an apparition of his late aunt, as well as his sister,
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  Speaker 1: who had recently passed away. The lieutenant left angry and confused,
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  Speaker 1: and contacted a police officer soon after, and that's because
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  Speaker 1: he had no aunt nor a sister. The jig was up,
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  Speaker 1: as they say, and Helen found herself in a lot
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  Speaker 1: of trouble. You see, certain laws on the books hadn't
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  Speaker 1: been updated with the times. Mediums were popular in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forties England, but many had been exposed as con artists
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  Speaker 1: and were often charged under antiquated edicts such as the
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  Speaker 1: Vagrancy Act of eighteen twenty four, as well as various
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy and larceny laws. After all, they were swindling well
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  Speaker 1: intentioned folks out of hard earned money. Helen's case, however,
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  Speaker 1: proved difficult. She protested aggressively on behalf of her innocence.
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  Speaker 1: She didn't see herself as a liar or a cheat.
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  Speaker 1: In her mind, she was the real deal, providing a
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  Speaker 1: much needed service and form of relief to mourning loved ones.
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  Speaker 1: So prosecutors found another way to get her. They convicted
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  Speaker 1: her under the Witchcraft Act of seventeen thirty five, and
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  Speaker 1: that earned her a jail sentence of nine months. Upon
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  Speaker 1: her release, she promised to not conduct another seance as
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  Speaker 1: long as she lived. She held on to that promise
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  Speaker 1: for fifteen years until nineteen fifty six, when she was
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  Speaker 1: arrested again after violating the Fraudulent Media Him's Act of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, the act that had replaced the Witchcraft Act.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps Helen Duncan was a fraud, or maybe she was
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  Speaker 1: the real deal. No one has been able to prove
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  Speaker 1: how she obtained her knowledge of the h. M. S.
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  Speaker 1: Bar Um, but one thing is for sure. According to
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  Speaker 1: English history, she was the last witch whoever have her
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  Speaker 1: day in court. Like most of us, Annie had big
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  Speaker 1: plans for her life. But plans don't always work out,
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  Speaker 1: do they? An upstate New York in the eighteen fifties,
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  Speaker 1: and thee's prospects were slim. She came from a big
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  Speaker 1: family with big needs, and after her father's death in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty, Annie struck out on her own. She sought
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  Speaker 1: an education to become a school teacher. It was during
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  Speaker 1: this time when she met David. The two fell in
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  Speaker 1: love and eventually married, But like I said before, plans
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  Speaker 1: don't always work out. The couple had a child who
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  Speaker 1: didn't survive past infancy. David died a short time later,
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  Speaker 1: and poor Annie spent the next several decades floating from
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  Speaker 1: one odd job to the next. She opened her own
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  Speaker 1: dance studio in Michigan, then left to teach music up north,
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  Speaker 1: eventually making her way to San Antonio, Texas, and Mexico
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  Speaker 1: City before finally settling back in Michigan. Times were changing,
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  Speaker 1: America had entered the twentieth century, and Annie was getting older.
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  Speaker 1: She had no long term financial solution to fall back on,
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  Speaker 1: and retirement was out of the question. Most women at
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  Speaker 1: the time would have looked for simple ways of keeping
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  Speaker 1: their situation, but not Annie. She needed to make a
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  Speaker 1: splash to stay afloat. Literally. Her idea was simple. On
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  Speaker 1: October nineteen o one, her sixty third birthday. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: she would pack herself into an oak pickle barrel and
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  Speaker 1: launched herself over Niagara Falls. Like I said before, simple
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  Speaker 1: right now. Understandably, she had trouble finding people to help her.
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  Speaker 1: Few wanted to be responsible for a woman killing herself
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  Speaker 1: in the most ostentatious way possible. Yet she continued with
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  Speaker 1: her plan and even did a test run a few
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  Speaker 1: days before the main event. Not with herself, mind, you know,
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  Speaker 1: she used a cat, and don't worry, the cats survived,
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  Speaker 1: and forty eight hours after it emerged from the barrel,
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  Speaker 1: Annie stepped inside her own. It was lined with a
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  Speaker 1: mattress to absorb some of the impact, and a rescue
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  Speaker 1: team was established at the base of the falls to
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  Speaker 1: retrieve her. Once the barrel reached the bottom. She planned
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  Speaker 1: for everything, it seems. Annie and the barrel rode out
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  Speaker 1: toward Goat Island, situated at the top of the falls,
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  Speaker 1: along with some of her friends. She tossed the barrel
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  Speaker 1: overboard and climbed inside while her associates screwed the lid
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  Speaker 1: down tight. Then they used a by bicicle pump to
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  Speaker 1: compress the air inside the barrel, which they then sealed
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  Speaker 1: off with a cork. And that was it. The time
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  Speaker 1: had come for Annie to make good on her promise
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  Speaker 1: and hopefully make a little money at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: The current carried the barrel down the river and over
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  Speaker 1: the falls, where it plummeted to the waters below. The
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  Speaker 1: team of rescuers found her, and, fearing the worst, pride
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  Speaker 1: the barrel open. They peered inside. There was Annie, her
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  Speaker 1: head smeared with blood, a little worse for wear, but
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  Speaker 1: she was still alive. She'd done it. Annie Edson Taylor
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  Speaker 1: had become the first woman to go over Niagara Falls
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  Speaker 1: in a barrel and live to tell the tale, which
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  Speaker 1: she did often, of course. Not long after her stunt,
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  Speaker 1: Annie went on a brief speaking to her When asked
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  Speaker 1: whether she'd ever try it again, she was quoted as saying,
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  Speaker 1: I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a
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  Speaker 1: cannon knowing it was going to blow me to pieces
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  Speaker 1: than another trip over the falls. Still, her speaking engagements
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  Speaker 1: didn't garner her the financial security that she hoped for.
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  Speaker 1: She took the posing for pictures with tourists and planned
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  Speaker 1: on doing another plunge several years later, but nothing ever
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  Speaker 1: came of it. She spent her final years once again
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  Speaker 1: bouncing around from job to job, at one time finding
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  Speaker 1: herself conducting seances as a medium, before passing away in
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  Speaker 1: in relative obscurity. Since her stint, Annie's life and experiences
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  Speaker 1: have inspired numerous stories, television specials, and even a stage musical. However,
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  Speaker 1: it has inspired rumors as well. One such rumor involved
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  Speaker 1: a stowaway inside her barrel. According to reports at the time,
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  Speaker 1: the cat that went over the falls days before Annie
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  Speaker 1: stunt hadn't been the only feeline involved. Apparently, a black
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  Speaker 1: cat had been placed beside Annie before she was sealed
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  Speaker 1: inside her barrel. And when that barrel was recovered and opened,
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  Speaker 1: they say the cat emerged unharmed, except for one small change.
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  Speaker 1: All it's black fur it turned white. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.