"Ye'll Never Make a Fool Out o' Me No More, Guv'nor!"

"The Manikin."
By John D. Swain (?-?).
First appearance: Munsey's Magazine, October 1924.
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online at UNZ (HERE).

"A story of the strange ending of a long professional partnership."

According to the song, "breaking up is hard to do"; but a lifetime (if that's the right word) of abuse and neglect must inevitably lead to someplace dark and unforgiving and spiteful: "I growed a soul o'sorts—just enough to suffer with."

Resources:
- Personal information about John D. Swain is practically nonexistent on the Internet; FictionMags lists dozens of short stories by Swain that appeared in quite a few pulps
and slicks from 1900 to 1939.
- Wikipedia has an article about ventriloquism (HERE), and a website called Travalanche
has "A Short History of Evil Ventriloquists in the Movies" (HERE).