This once popular family entertainment, often performed by favourite uncles, fell from favour with the advent of the wireless set, when people at home no longer had to make their own entertainment. It had become far more dangerous too, owing to the fashion for soft furnishings.
Imagine the frisson of excitement as Uncle Douglas positioned himself on the chaise longue; his elder brother, no longer the focus of the family's attention, might have been heard to whisper harshly: "Maybe the damned fool will blind himself this time".
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