■Hli il MnBflffl Bfflm ■V8HH Htf m 119 Bra Wm IB8811 1111 ilHii Mill rHH 111111 1 Book > & 9J LEAVES FROM Conjurers' Scrap Books OR, MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Srf>\ H. J. BURLINGAME. CHICAGO: Donohue, Henneberry & Co. 1891, Copyright, 1891, BY H. J. BURLINGAME. DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS, CHICAGO. PREFACE Modern Magic, skillfully presented, has many attractions, and this book has been written because such a book was repeatedly asked for. Therefore no apology is needed for its publication. H. J. B. Chicago, January, 1891. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Of the Mysteries of the Black Art.-The Old School Conjurers. Comte's Talent ; his Tricks.-The Dexterity of Philippe and Tor- rini.— The Genius of Anderson for Advertising.— Account of Robert Houdin ; his Successful Career as a Conjurer. - 7 CHAPTER II. AMERICAN CONJURERS. Zera Semon.— Edward Reno.— Prof. Samuels.— J. M. Balabrega.-M. Hartz.— Carl Hertz.— Imro Fox.— Wm.— Robinson.— "Zanzic." Prof. Zamloch — Charles F. Fillebrown.— Powell Brothers.— Vari- ety Performers— Prof . Canaris, the "Greek."-The Romance of Prof. Henry Willio.— Goldberg.— Hatton.- Eddie. Abbott, the 41 Only Boy Magician. "—Robert Heller. 14 CHAPTER III. PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. John Nevil Maskelyne.— Dr. Hoi den.— Dr. Lynn.— Robert Kudarz — Buatier de Kolta.— The Bamberg and Basch Families.— Jacoby- Harms.— German and French Conjurers.— Prof. Patrizio.— Prof. Hartwig Seeman. .---- 38 CHAPTER IV. PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. Amateurs of the Pacific Coast.—" Mine Host " Taylor.— The Appa- ratus Amateurs buy.— Chicago Amiteurs,— Salo Ansbach; his Career. ---------*---. 52 CHAPTER V. THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. The Original Carl Herrmann.— Alexander Herrmann ; his Confed- erates; how They Sometimes Fail.— Harry Kellar; his Travels. Alexander Herrmann's Cremation.— Mar tino's Sphinx.— Kellar's Growth of Flowers. .__- 64 CHAPTER VI. HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. How to Hypnotize.— The use of Confederates.— The Kennedy Broth- ers.— Robert Fulton's Experiments.—" Professor " Johnson. - 91 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. J. Randall Brown.— Washington Irving Bishop.— Stuart Cumberland. —How to Become a Mind-Reader.— Seymour.— Paul Alexander Johnstone.— Remarkable "Test" by Sid. Macaire.— Lucy de Gentry; her Quick Success.— An Aspiring Amateur's Predica- ment. - - ---------_ - 108 CHAPTER VIII. INSTANTANEOUS MEMORIZATION. The Art of Memory.— Instantaneous Memorization made use of by Patrizio.— Effects Produced by Hatton and Roberth. - - 128 CHAPTER IX. SECOND-SIGHT AND ANTI- SPIRITUALIST ARTISTS. The Balabregas, Roucleres, Merlins.— Prof. Marvelle.— Anna Eva Fay; her Exciting Chicago Experience.— The Baldwins.— The Steens. __._135 CHAPTER X. THE VANISHING LADY, COCOON, CREMATION AND OTHER ILLUSIONS. The Vanishing Lady.— The Magic Husband.— The Cocoon.— Alex- ander Herrmann's Decapitations.— Vanek's Decapitation.— Cre- mation.— The " Mystery of She."— "The Lady from an Envelope." —The Spirit Bell of Prof. Alkahazar.— The "Amphitrite" Illusion. 151 CHAPTER XI. PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. The St. Louis Genius.— The Impatient Albany Man.— Some Remark- able Letters.— East Indian Fakirs.— What Barnello Saw.— The Sailor and his Parrot. ----------177 CHAPTER XII. MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. Dr. Holden's Adventures in Egypt, Algeria and India —Deaf Men at a Show.— Frazer Coulter's Failure as an Assistant.— The Old Trick of "Prof. Hume."— Baron Seeman's Wit and Ingenuity; his Russian Experience.— Old Bamberg's Arrest; his Skill.— How D'Alvini Broke up the Sharpers.— Foreign and Home Audiences. —Lady Professionals.— The Future of the Art. 189 APPENDIX. Instantaneous Memorization Code.— Application for a Patent on a Spirit Room.— The "Stroubaika" Illusion.— The Palanquin Trick— Heller's Second-Sight Code. 226 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Of the Mysteries of the Black Art— The Old School Conjur- ers— Comte's Talent— The Dexterity of Philippe and Torrini — The Genius of Anderson for Advertising — Account of Robert Houdin — His Successful career as a Conjurer. It is comparatively easy novv-a-days to look behind the scenes on the stage of a prestidigitateur. A number of makers of magical apparatus sell every- thing desired: wands, cups, rings, balls, prepared cards, coins, and many other articles. Directions accompany each and every article. Books, from the cheap " sell " of a ten cent pamphlet to the finely bound and illustrated edition, offer to initiate one into* the mysteries of the black art; but all these only say in what the trick consists, not how it is done.* Usually the most interesting tricks are kept *As an exception to this are the admirable manuals written by Prof. Hoffmann and Mr. Sachs, of London. Q MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. secret by adepts, or only revealed in consideration of an extra high price. The conjurers of the better class were, formerly, mostly French or Italian. They called themselves " Physiciens " or " Escamoteurs." The name of prestidigitateurs was first used by Jules De Rovere, who belonged to the old school, to which belonged also Olivier, Prejean, Brazy, Comus, Chalons, Adrien pere, Courtois and Comte — not to mention Lichten- berg's famous Pinetti. The most noted w r as undoubtedly Comte. A Frenchman from head to foot, he did extraordinary things with rare taste and great amiability. All his illusions meant for a small audience carry the impress of finest humor. For instance, he assures you he is going to steal all the ladies present ; the gentlemen are scared and amused ; Comte reassures them with the promise that he will do it to their satisfaction. He waves his hands in the air and produces a quantity of the most beautiful roses out of nothing. He continues: "I had promised to take away and metamorphose all these ladies ; could I choose a more graceful and pleasant form? In metamorphosing all to roses, don't I offer the copy to the model ? Don't I take you away to give you back to yourselves ? Tell me, gentlemen, did I not succeed?" Then he begins to divide the roses among the audience. " Here, mademoiselle, is a rose you made blush with jeal- ousy ! " Before another pretty girl he changes the rose into an ace of hearts, and the wizard says : " Will you please, madam, lay your hand on your heart ? You have only one heart, is it not so ? I INTRODUCTION. 9 beg your pardon for this indiscreet question ; it was necessary; for, though you have only one heart, you might have them all." Such " plays on words," are told about Comte by the hundred. An important progress in the development of the art of conjuring was made by Philippe and Torrini. The latter especially possessed such a dexterity in handling cards, and such a boldness of execution, that the audience was involuntarily carried away to admiration without suspicion. His piquet trick stands alone of its kind. Also in other respects he showed admirable boldness. He was an Italian nobleman who had been driven to take the career of a prestidigita- teur by adverse circumstances, and once while staying in Kome he was asked to give a performance before the Pope. The day before, he happened to see a very valuable watch in a jeweler's window, and which was said to be the only one in existence like the celebrated watch of Cardinal X. This one had arrived the day before from Paris. After Torrini had ascertained that the Cardinal would be present at his performance, he bought the chronometer for the respectable price of twelve hundred francs, and made the watchmaker promise to keep silent about the matter. At the close of his performance Torrini asked for any very costly object, which, if possible, was the only one of its kind in the world. At the pope's orcler the cardinal handed his watch to the artist. Torrini took a mortar, dropped the watch in it in plain sight of all, and with a pestle pounded the irreparable jewel to a thousand atoms, to the horror 10 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. of the spectators. Torrini invited them all to come up and look at the remains of the watch in the mor- tar. On doing so the cardinal announced, with a trembling voice, that his watch had not been exchanged, as he could recognize it in the pieces; the watch had really been destroyed. Torrini used this moment of general excitement to drop the watch unobserved into the pope's pocket, and as soon as quiet was restored he asked his audience to name a person who was sure not to be in secret understand- ing with him. As he had expected, everybody pointed to Pius VII. " Very well," continued Tor- rini, making some mysterious motions, u I want to reproduce the watch, and it shall be found in the pocket of His Holiness." The pope at once felt in his pocket with signs of incredulity, and, blushing with excitement, took the watch out of his pocket, which he at once handed to the cardinal in a great hurry, as if he was afraid of burning his fingers with it — this mysterious object. One can imagine what a sensation this trick caused in Kome. Tor- rini never repented this expensive but original adver- tisement. As far as advertising was concerned, nobody was more inventive than Anderson, the " Wizard of the North." Once in the forties he sent to all London butter dealers wooden molds with his name, his " titles," and the hour of his performance engraved on them, with the request they might put this stamp on the butter they sold. As almost everybody is obliged to use butter, this idea deserves to be remem- bered. Another time he offered a silver vase as a INTRODUCTION. 1 1 prize for the best conundrum that could be made between acts. Everybody had the right to offer a conundrum, and the audience should give the decision by the strength of the applause thev bestowed. Not enough, Anderson had all these more or less good conundrums taken down in short- hand and printed in small books which he sold at a shilling each. He knew very well that most people like to see themselves in print. Each book contained over 1,000 conundrums. Whether Philadelphia, Dobler, or Bosco were really as prominent as one would suppose from their performances, remains an open question. Of Bosco we know positively that it was the reverse. He used any and every means to produce an effect, and carried his brutality so far as to really kill the birds he often used in his tricks. He used every opportunity to show off his tricks; on the stage, at the table d'hote, in cafes, in saloons, everywhere he performed his tricks. Last, but not least, his har- monious yet odd name helped him to become pop- ular. These were the same circumstances which some decades later gave Bellachini his reputation. All these performers, and the many not mentioned, are distanced by that classic artist among prestidigi- tateurs, Eobert Houdin. Houdin gave to the public the incidents of his life in a book, which is interesting reading on account of the attractive, varied contents, and the simplicity of its narration. He also tells with admirable frank- ness the secrets of the order whose grand master he was, and he describes minutely all his mechanical, 12 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. technical and especially his electro-technical inven- tions. He must be recognized as a man of fine edu- cation, as a graceful writer and as a technical genius. To him we owe the electric bell, the first mechanical barometers, the first perfect match safe, besides the first application of the system of pneumatic tubes. He was the first one to use the principal of the tele- phone in what he called " the waves of sound." As a child he handled the instruments in his father's workshop, who was a watchmaker. This taste for all mechanical appliances grew to a passion as strong as the passion of a bibliomaniac for rare books, or of a numismatologist for his coins. Houdin investigated everything that was put together ; he wanted always to repair and to build. He had very original ideas. At college he invented the following means to waken early : he tied a string around the great toe of his right foot, carried it through the half-open window to the garden gate, where he fastened it so that it should pull when the gate was opened. Every morning when the old servant opened the door, little Robert was obliged to jump quickly out of bed, which thoroughly awakened him. From these primitive arrangements to the celebrated " Magic Villa " is a long step, but the former are to the latter as the promising begin- ning is to the happy end. The country residence of the old, private gentleman caused great admiration ; there were electric wires from the cellar to the gar- ret; mysterious automatons turned up at odd cor- ners; folding doors joined rooms together; bells, INTRODUCTION. 13 traps and self-acting revolvers kept the burglars away ; in short, it was the real fairy house. A conjurer of German descent gave Houdin, then a ten-year-old boy, his first lessons in conjuring ; a book taught him, later on, the most important tricks. How he continued to study the conjurer's art and at last adopted the conjurer's calling, to the consterna- tion of his family, can be read in his biography. Much can be said of his triumphs. Before emperors and kings, before Manchester working men and African savages, this magician performed with brill- iant success. From an obscure watch-maker's shop his genius and talent as a conjurer carried him through a long, successful and honorable career. Since the days of Houdin no new reformer has appeared in the magic art. It continues in the same groove as forty years ago, though it tries to deck itself with anti-spiritualism and mind-reading. There is also now a lack of prestidigitateurs who are masters in all branches. One may excel in card tricks, another in coins, while another handles apparatus to perfection. Of the many hundreds of others, all that can be said is, they work well. CHAPTER II. AMERICAN CONJURERS. Zera Semon— Edward Reno — Prof. Samuels — J. M. Balabrega— M. Hartz — Carl Hertz — Imro Fox — William Robinson— "Zanzic" — Prof. Zamloch — Charles F. Fillebrown — Powell Brothers — Variety Performers — Prof. Canaris, the "Greek." — The Romance of Prof. Henry Willio — Goldberg — Hatton — Eddie Abbott, the " Only Boy Magician" — Robert Heller. A prominent American Magician is Zera Semon, who makes the good old city of Richmond, Va., his home. If any one has been fortunate enough to make his acquaintance, he will soon discover from his entertaining qualities as a conversationalist, that he comes from the old "F. F. Vs." He is well known through the Southern States, where he enjoys a very good reputation. The past two years he has been traveling through the Northern States and Canada, where he is a great favorite. He is, perhaps, now the only leading conjurer in the States making gifts a feature of his show. His programme consists of the usual effective tricks that are found in the repertoire of the better class of magicians. In addi- tion to this, he is the only one in this country intro- ducing a full stage set of life-size marionettes in a complete minstrel scene. He is ably assisted by his 14 AMERICAN CONJURERS. 15 accomplished wife. Together they secure deserved success and applause in their original spiritualistic canopy act, which is an improvement on the one first introduced by the celebrated Eobert Heller. One of the rising young magicians of the present time is Edward Eeno. He carries a large, first-class outfit, and is one of the few that know how to work what he has to advantage. His experience dates from the year 1880. In the manipulation of his tricks and apparatus he shows a skill rarely sur- passed. He is noted as one who always gives what is called a " square show." For a number of years he has traveled over the same route in the Western 'States, a repetition of tours over the same ground being a sure proof of popularity. At present he is touring New York State, and meeting with the suc- cess he deserves. He has one peculiarity quite re- markable in a conjurer, and that is, he very seldom plays any game of cards ; in fact, does not care to play cards at all. When he does, he nearly always wins, if he wishes to, because he is able to make nine different passes with a pack of cards, and deals with facility from either the top or bottom of a pack, feats that are even rare among magicians. Prof. Eeno is ably assisted by his amiable and esteemed wife, who is one of the best lady magi- cians on the stage in our country. She is exceed- ingly careful in all her work, and never attempts a trick before the public until certain of success. It would be to the advantage of other professionals to follow her example in this respect. There is no reason why Prof. Eeno should not have the con- 16 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. tinued favor he so well merits ; and he will, no doubt, be one of the leaders of the profession in a few years. A very clever conjurer, who retired from the pro- fession a few years ago, is Prof. Samuels, now liv- ing at Fort Sheridan, 111. A leading critic once said of one of his performances: "He just keeps the grip on his audience from first to last, and never offends the most fastidious." To have seen one of his magical entertainments was indeed a treat, as there has been no magician of late years on the stage in our country who was so witty, original and entertaining as he. In this respect he can only be compared to Robert Heller. Not only was he noted for extraordinary skill in conjuring, but also as a mimic and ventriloquist. As an inventor of in- genious mechanical effects and sleight-of-hand tricks, he has probably no superior living. The best expert conjuring talent of Europe have acknowledged that some of his inventions deserve the very highest praise, and that he shows an extraordinary inventive genius. This talent he has used in many lines out- side of conjuring. He is occasionally prevailed upon to give an entertainment for some charitable society in his vicinity, and he never fails to draw a full house. It seems almost a pity for the improvement of the conjurer's art, that Prof. Samuels should have given up a professional career to engage in commercial pursuits ; yet, in many cases, professionals are, no doubt, doing the best thing who follow his example, as the vicissitudes of a showman's life are known AMERICAN CONJURERS. IT to all. At the time the trick of the Yanishing Lady was introduced, he made the witty remark that it was a fine chance for performers to start out in a new branch of the divorce business, as they would no doubt have plenty to do, by vanishing anybody's wife for the sum of twenty-five dollars. One of the leading younger professionals who has made himself prominent, is J. M. Balabrega, known for a number of years as the " Swedish Wonder." He was born at Helsingborg, a little town in the southern part of Sweden, the twentieth of August, 1857. In those times in that country workers in the " Art Mysterious" were not as plentiful as now, and were looked upon by the lower classes as some- thing more than human. Prof. Balabrega well remembers the success created by one of his father's contemporary wonder-workers, the old Prof. LeTort, whose performance he witnessed when a child. Such a thing as guessing then how the tricks were done seemed to be quite out of the question. The only conclusion to be arrived at was expressed by the three Swedish words "nan forvander synen," "he perverts the eyesight." These were golden days for conjurers, courted and petted as they were by the elite, held in awe by the common people, and patron- ized by all. At eleven years of age, Balabrega came to America and soon mastered the difficulties of the English language. Purchasing a large book on Magic, he commenced practicing, which he kept up for a num- ber of years, becoming a skillful manipulator in sleight-of-hand. From amusing evening parties at 18 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. home he soon began to give little entertainments at the hall of the Swedish Society, in Brooklyn. Here he again met his old friend LeTort, who was thor. oughly disgusted with American modes of doing business. " Why/' said he, " here I have to cover the side of every house or fence with flaming posters; in Sweden I have only to say to some old woman, ' LeTort is coming to town, don't tell any- one,' and in twenty -four hours the town is adver- tised; and when I show, it is to a full house : I am going back to Sweden." He did and died there. From entertaining friends at home and in the Swedish hall, it was but a step for Balabrega to branch out as a young professor. As the " Boy Magician," he opened at the Olympic Theatre on Broadway, New York. He was so successful in his first engage- ment that he was soon called to Philadelphia, Bos- ton, and other cities. His career since then has been. one of steady progress, until he is now one of the leaders in the profession. For the last few y ears he has been touring South America, assisted by his skillful wife. No American performers have created such a sensation in foreign countries as have the Professor and the clever Mrs. Balabrega in the Span- ish-speaking countries. They were the first to intro- duce there the Second Sight Act in the Spanish lan- guage. They have had many remarkable experi- ences, perhaps the most striking and expensive of which was the loss of their entire outfit, which went to the bottom of the sea in the Straits of Magellan, in the ill-fated steamer, Cotopaxi. This was a hard blow, but, with the irrepressible energy peculiar to AMERICAN CONJURERS. 19 most conjurers, he was soon on his feet again, and has just left the United States for another extended tour of those countries, where doubtless they will again duplicate their success. One of the prominent performers of our country who has achieved distinction abroad in his line is M. Hartz, at present traveling in Europe. Some of my readers may remember him as having been the partner of Mr. Levy, the firm being Hartz & Levy. These gentlemen were the first to open an establish- ment of any prominence in New York City for the sale of conjuring apparatus, and for a time met with good success. Finally Levy went into other busi- ness, and Hartz adopted conjuring for a livelihood, traveling for a number of years through the States, showing some very excellent illusions and displaying considerable skill. Of late years he has made a sensation in his line throughout Great Britain and Europe. In these countries he has had more pros- perity than he secured in the United States, as his skill is more appreciated there than here. Had he the address of such performers as Heller, Seeman, and Balabrega, he would have succeeded better at home, because here skill will not alone carry a per- son through. It must be combined with good address, and especially with a command of language. These are qualities that few conjurers possess. Both these' are a sure forerunner of success for the magi- cian. Another conjurer who has made quite a mark in Europe is Carl Hertz. He was originally from San Francisco, and for a number of years played in side 20 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. shows and variety theatres through the States, finally crossing the Atlantic, where his style of per- formance " caught on " better than here. Another conjurer, at present making a hit in the Music Halls of London, is Imro Fox, who, although a German, has resided long enough in the United States to be called an American. While he has nothing particularly new in his programme, he has such an original and comical way of introducing his tricks, that he succeeds where all others would fail. There are few professionals who can crowd such a variety of skillful illusions into such a short time as he. A professor who had quite a long experience in side shows and museums is William Robinson, who was known as " The Man of Mystery." He is at present assistant to Alexander Herrmann. While showing on his own account, he owed much of his success to his wife, and their act of the self-rising aerial suspension has never been excelled. Another magician by the name of Robinson has been traveling in the Western States for the past few years, but is going under the professional name of Zanzic. Being a clever performer, it would seem he ought to have originated a more healthful-sound- ing name, which is " sick'led o'er with a pale cast of thought." The leading conjurer of the Pacific Coast is Prof. Zamloch, who travels continually through the extreme Western States and Territories. He is a skillful, painstaking performer, not dwelling so much AMERICAN CONJURERS. 21 on sleight-of-hand as on neat ways of using appa- ratus. He is very popular. Undoubtedly the oldest professor of magic in the States is Charles F. Filiebrown, of Salem, Mass.. The senior Mr. Chase, of Boston, a celebrated maker of conjuring apparatus, made tricks for Prof. Fille- brown over forty years ago. Very few men living have had an experience of half a century in the magic circle. A Talking Skull was once sent to Prof. Fillebrown neatly packed in a large pail. It was received by his good-wife from the express- man, who, thinking some of her kind friends had sent her some butter, at once proceeded to open the package. The reader can imagine her surprise when instead of butter she saw a skull staring her in the face. Two magicians very well known in most of the Eastern States, are the Powell Brothers — F. Eugene Powell and Lloyd Powell, of Chester, Pa. They give a refined entertainment, showing much skill in the introduction of conjuring feats, spiritualistic phenomena, and second-sight, introducing these under the name of " Powell's Wonders." An admirer of theirs describes their extensive knowledge in the following acrostic : " Portentous signs at Magic's strange command; Occult, mysterious, spring from earth and air. Wonders come forth from Physic's wonder-land; Ethereal spirits, 'neath the master's hand, Lavish their secret treasures, rich and rare. Like springs from unlike; Alchemy 's surpassed; Spontaneous Combustion 's found at last. 22 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. " Weird powers of darkness, from Mephisto's Chest, O'ermastering nature set the captive free; Nectar from Memory's cup, by Pallas blest, Delights the mind, while, to the ear addressed, E,lysian echoes speak of mystery. Rapt seers see all things, though with shrouded eyes; Strange Second-sight, bewildering surprise." In contrast to this production are the following lines, copied from the advertising dodger of a country conjurer, who, by the way, said that he valued it very highly as it had taken three years of thought to make it perfect. It is given just as he used it : "Come Gentlemen and Ladies all, Come Lads and Lassies, great and small, And see yourselves the Dancing Stand, And Bird Cage vanish from the Hand." Included among many other performers who have played most of their engagements in variety theatres are Koltair, Morphet, Verona, C. T. Taylor, Dr. Alex. Davis, Will B. Wood, Clever Carroll, Marvelle, Haviland, Vertelli, the Lees and Eohss. The majority of these are using their best endeavors to cut loose from the variety stage and travel with their own entertainments, and a number of them have suc- ceeded in doing so. Yerona is also known as a " King of Fire;" he was for some time associated with Earnello, also a "Fire King." These two have, no doubt, introduced the best act of eating fire. It was an easy step for them to take up magic, which Yerona did some years ago, his leading attraction being the self-rising aerial suspension. Barnello is, however, only just now commencing the conjuring AMERICAN CONJURERS. 23 business. The special attraction of the Lees, is their introduction of Miss Bessie (Mrs. Lee) in their "Arabian Night's Dream," which is the self-rising aerial suspension. This apparatus is now used by quite a number of professionals, but none of them have been able to surpass the Lees, in their hand- some costumes and tableaux. The ease and grace of Mrs. Lee in the act are quite remarkable, and fully bear out all the great praise bestowed on her. This same illusion is also the leading attraction of Prof. Rohss, who is also ably assisted by his vivacious little wife. A young performer who, considering the time he has been before the public, has made quite a suc- cess, is Elmer P. Ransom, of Brooklyn. He made his first appearance at Tony Pastor's Theatre, where he scored a hit at once. Like a good many other young men, who owe their advancement to the genial " Tony," he is very grateful to him. He is using very little apparatus, but makes it up in skill and attractive language, known to the profession as "patter." A young gentleman who is making a very envia- ble record as a prestidigitateur is Mr. John W. Little, of New York. It has been but comparatively a short time since he commenced his magical career, and it bids fair to be a successful one. He shows much more originality than the average professor, par- ticularly is this noticeable in his excellent "patter" and skillful sleight-of-hand tricks. He presents a very interesting programme and invariably succeeds in making his audience enthusiastic. He also displays 24 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. much skill as a "Lightning Caricaturist," thus making his programme doubly attractive. A clever conjurer who was prominent in most of the Eastern cities some ten years ago, was Robert Nickle, the only magician who played in the Cen- tennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia, where he had a prominent position for the display of his skill in the art. While his repertoire was not a large one, he showed considerable skill in the feats he introduced. Had it not been for his convivial habits, he would no doubt have enjoyed a much greater popularity. Sad to relate, he had become so addicted to the flowing bowl that it finally caused his death, and he was laid away in a potter's field at Washington. One of his co-laborers of late years, was a Mr. Harrington. This man has had such a variety of names that it is almost impossible to keep track of him. His favorite ones have been Wyman, Way- man, LaFayette and Blitz. A performer not unknown to fame, though some- what a stranger to the public at large, is one who calls himself " Canaris, the Greek Conjurer." He started out from Boston some years ago and traveled across our continent, where he. met with but meagre encouragement. He displayed no particular talent nor genius in his tricks. After playing through to the Pacific Coast, he went out to New Zealand and Australia, where he met with much less success than he did here. He has himself to blame for his ill fortune in those countries, principally from the rea- son that he billed very extensively to produce the Cocoon and the Vanishing Lady, but failed to ful- AMERICAN CONJURERS. 25 fill his promise as to either of them. Audiences will not tolerate anything like that, now-a-days. From Robert Kudarz, of New Zealand, we have received a published criticism on the appearance of Prof. Canaris at Sydney. It is a severe arraign- ment: " The time for vengeance will come. As we write, the small boy is growing, who, when he is big enough, will rush the show of Professor ' Canaris,' at Sydney Academy, and shove that abject Greek frost off the stage, and the brick is being baked which will be thrown at an early date right through the 'Shadowgraph.' In the course of a troubled existence we have met with many palsied horrors ending with 'graph,' but never before did we en- counter so appalling a graph as this. It consisted of a damp tablecloth with a light behind it, and two painfully conspicuous boys, without any coats on, moving figures of horses, goats, pigs, etc., across this plain and ordinary scene. A naval conflict was shown, in which a sailing vessel of no particular rig and with six yards on each mast was knocked about by a steamer. One of the boys apparently lit a match at intervals and uttered a whoop to represent the artillery, and ultimately both vessels went down. The steamer, however, promptly came up again and sailed away with one end sticking up in the air. The sad old Davenport Brothers' show was also exhibited, and a 'committee' of four went up on the stage to see that all was fair. An astonished old gentleman, with a look of simple bewilderment spread all over his head, formed a part of this body, 26 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. and the other members were evidently the twin brothers of the gentlemen who used to go into a trance at the Opera House in the days of Professor Kennedy, and eat soap, and find half-a-pound of flour in their hats, and pursue visionary rats with brooms and other implements. The Professor got his dress-suit badly crushed in his struggles to free himself from his fastenings, and if he does the cabi- net trick often he will have to buy new clothes or else go around in a petticoat. "The last part of the show was advertised to con- sist of ' Ancient and Modern Necromancy,' embrac- ing six imposing items : ' The Pacific on the Stage ; A Terrible Massacre ; Egyptian Necromancy ; The Terrible Flood,' and two others equally large and pompous; but they all finally resolved themselves into the old, shattered, broken-down joke of extract- ing 100 yards of ribbon out of a borrowed hat. A young-lady assistant in male attire stood on the stage and looked on without shifting from one leg to the other more than twice in ten minutes, but at last the flying Greek made an observation in a low tone, and she fled and didn't come back. Probably he remarked 'get out!' in the melodious Athenian language, but this is only conjecture." Henry Willio was born in Cologne, on the Rhine, in 1846. At the age of 12 years he developed a talent for the sorcerer's art, and became a magician and prestidigitator. When but 18 years old he had become so deft at deception that he sought the broad world in which to practice his arts of necro- mancy, and made his way to London. There he AMERICAN CONJURERS. 27 soon married a woman named Marion Cook, and for some years held the boards at the London theatres as a magician. In August, 1871, the Kiralfy Broth- ers found him there and brought him to New York with them. He tilled several engagements at the Olympic Theatre, and later was with Tony Pastor in his pantomime. In 1866 a child was added to his family, and five years later another. Both were girls, the oldest being named Ellis Hannah, and the second Mabel Lillian. On the eighteenth of January, 1874, the magician with his family left New York with a company of actors, jand went to the West Indies. They gave exhibitions about the islands, and in December of the same year found themselves stranded in Jamaica, when the members of the company started out to shift for themselves, each regardless of the fate of the others. With some it was an easy matter to stroll about and pick up a meagre subsistence, but with the magician it was not so. He had his wife and family to care for and he must earn them food and shelter. He bade them good-by and started out to find work. He journeyed to Aspinwall and to the Isthmus of Panama, where he was prostrated with the yellow-fever and for seven months lingered between life and death. At last he recovered sufficiently to be able to travel, and made his way back to Jamaica, where he had left his wife in a delicate condition among strangers who had no benevolence toward foreigners. All his inquiries brought the same response. The people remembered that his wife had died while giving birth to a child, and that 28 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. her death had been hastened by the news from the Isthmus of Panama that Willio, the magician, had died of yellow fever. The wife and child had been buried in the potter's field, and the people remem- bered that a variety actress named Effie Johns had happened along and had taken the two children with her to Havana, Cuba. Thither the sorrowing father journeyed, only to find that Effie Johns had left Havana for New York. The magician could not bring his arts to bear in the long and tiresome search for his children. He visited New York and traveled through all the prin- cipal cities of America, always inquiring for his children. Back to the West Indies and through Venezuela and the United States of Columbia he went, giving exhibitions at different cities to enable him to continue the search. He had obtained a slight trace of his lost children in New York, where a man had told him that Mile. Lola, a trapeze per- former, had been seen with two children in her com- pany answering the description he gave of the little ones. There remained but one thing to do, and that was to find Mile. Lola. Her address was published in the dramatic papers, and every week the magi- cian wrote to her and received no response. At last he arrived in San Francisco and there met Effie Johns in 1880. She informed him that when about to take the steamer from Havana for New York, Mile. Lola had asked her for the children and she had relinquished them. She had not seen her since that time, but thought that some trace of her might be gained by communicating with her mother, Mrs. AMEBIC AN CONJURERS. 29 John Parshal, at Kochester, N. Y. He wrote to Mrs. Parshal, but received no answer. Disheartened but not discouraged the magician again took up the search and traveled through Oregon, Washington Territory, and the entire Northwest with no better success. By dint of tireless inquiry he learned that Mile. Lola had been seen at Atchison, Kans., and had two little girls with her. He wrote to her there, and after many days of weary waiting his letter was returned to him with the words " not known" writ- ten on the outside of the envelope. On examining the returned letter the magician found that it had been opened and deftly sealed again. He now became assured that some one was trying to keep his children from him. He went to Atchison and learned that Mile. Lola had lived there for some time, and that she had suddenly left for the Black Hills. He went to the Black Hills only to find that she had gone to Mexico some few days previous to his arrival. He was nearer now to the object of his search than he had ever been before, and the hours seemed long as he rode southward to find his lost children. At El Paso, Tex., he was obliged to stop and give an exhibition to get money to carry him farther, and while there received a letter from Effie Johns, saying that his eldest daughter had appeared as a variety star, and that her stage name was " Little Pearl." He also heard in El Paso that Mile. Lola was traveling in Mexico with the Orrin Bros.' circus, doing trapeze business. He wrote a letter to the address of " Little Pearl " and sent it in the care of a dramatic paper to New York. He 30 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. received an answer to this letter which did not have the effect to make him very happy. " Little Pearl " was still his daughter, but she had eloped with a man named William Ackerman and had married him in San Francisco. He must still look for his baby daughter, and for more than two years he traveled through Mexico, never succeeding in finding Mile. Lola, who, if she did not have his child, must possess some knowledge of where she could be found. Back toward New York the magician journeyed, and while stopping at Cincinnati in the early part of February, 1887, learned through the dramatic papers that Mile. Lola was in Chicago. He lost no time in coming to this city, and after a few days' search, looking through hotels where the artful Lola had given false addresses, he succeeded in locating her at Spring Valley, Wis., where she was giving a performance with what was known as Lola's Gypsy Company. He caused her arrest, and, threatening her with prosecution for kidnapping his daughter, she told him that Mabel Lillian was in Kochester, N. Y., where she was attending an industrial school for girls. The magician had at last found his child and sought out Officer Dudley of the Illinois Humane Society, who listened to his story with sympathy. " We will restore your daughter to you," said Mr. Dudley, "and if you write a letter to her I will inclose another to the officials of the institution. " This advice the magician followed, and in a few days received the following : AMERICAN CONJURERS. 31 No. 133 Exchange Stkeet, Rochester, N. Y., March 4, 1887. — Dear Papa: Is it possible that my dear father lives? This is indeed, a resurrection to me. It seems like a dream from which I will awake only to find myself again desolate and an orphan. I have been praying for a good home to open its doors to me, little expecting that my prayers were to be answered. I can hardly wait to see you and my darling sister. I was lame for a long time, but the kind care I have had here has cured me entirely. Miss Hamilton has been like a mother ever since I came. Can you come next w~eek? I will tell you everything when I see you. I am very happy now that I have a dear father and sister to love me. I will now close with a thousand kisses and my best love to you and dear sister. Your daughter, Mabel Lillian Willio. "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." — John, 14th chapter, 14th verse. The letter was written in a neat, round hand, and the father could hardly believe his senses. He showed the communication to Officer Dudley and could not refrain from weeping. Mr. Dudley had also received a letter from the officials of the school. They demanded that the character of the father be vouched for by some responsible person and his identity established before they would consent to surrender the child. Mr. Dudley looked into the honest face of the magician and said : " I think I can have no hesitancy in vouching for the character of a man who will travel seven times across the continent to find his children. Mr. Willio, I will myself become } 7 our surety." The necessary guaranty was forwarded to Rochester and an early train brought the young lady to Chicago. She is a prepossessing blonde of 16, and is highly educated and refined, as her letter shows. She 32 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. relates her story with fascinating emphasis while she tosses back the profusion of wavy blonde hair that falls about her forehead. " I don't remember very much,'- said she, " about what occurred in Jamaica, for you know I was only 4 years old then. But I do remember about mother's death and of getting on board a steamer going to New York. On that journey the crew mutinied and the Captain walked the deck with a pistol in each hand, making them obey his orders. I think the vessel must have been sinking then, for guns were fired and were answered by a Spanish man-of-war, who took us on board just before the vessel went down. I know that Effie Johns gave us to Mile. Lola and I was left in New York with Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Burnham. While there I fell down stairs and sprained my ankle, and in a short time Mrs. Parshal took me to Rochester, JST. Y. My sis- ter traveled with Mrs. ParshaPs two daughters, Lola and Jeannette, who are trapeze performers. I went to the industrial school in Rochester, where they taught me everything. They were very kind to me there, especially a Miss Hamilton, who took a great interest in me. "Well, I'm glad I found my father, anyhow, and, some way or other, I always thought he was alive, and prayed for him every night." " Yes, daughter, I know you did," said the magi- cian, as he took the child's hand, and the two walked silently away. * * Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and, although at the time put to great inconvenience, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we were the means of Professor Willio's finding his long lost daughter, and of re-uniting- a family. Prof . Willio has proved himself very grateful for the assistance rendered him and wliich enabled him to go again on the road in a manner befitting his capabilities. AMERICAN CONJURERS. 33 In his favorite tricks and manipulations of cards, coins and other small objects there is now no person traveling who is the superior of Prof. Wiliio. Shortly after finding his daughter, he started on an extensive tour through Mexico and South America, and when last heard from was in Peru. A clever artist in conjuring, and who formerly traveled considerably in our country, is Mr. Henry Hatton, of New York and Brooklyn, where at pres- ent his services are in very good demand for enter- taining evening parties and societies. He is favora- bly known from his interesting article on second- sight and conjuring published some years ago in Scribner's Magazine. A skillful performer of late years, particularly with cards and small objects, and who started out with even 7- prospect of a good future before him, was Goldberg, of New York. He was a very peculiar individual and became possessed with the idea that no person could do the feats he did ; this belief of his is perhaps better expressed in the words of an Eastern correspondent: "There has just died in this city, a man who fixedly believed that he was the devil. His name was Goldberg, and he was a performer of sleights. He was a magician, according to both his show bills and his own conceit. He had a marvelous dexterity in the deceptive handling of cards, and his tricks with them were far better than those of any of the more celebrated showmen whom I have ever seen ; but he was not equally expert in devising or hand- ling such mechanism as made the fame of Anderson, 34 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. the wizard, nor was he the entertaining talker which we remembered Heller to have been. The conse- quence was that Goldberg gained little prosperity and remained a mere card manipulator until his mental vagaries brought him to a lunatic asylum. I remember that, during the last summer in which he was sufficiently sane to be left at large, he gave exhibitions in the hotel parlors at country resorts. While at Long Branch the gamblers who run the great hells there became acquainted with Goldberg's sleight-of-hand abilities. None of them, however, though they were in the dishonest manipulation of cards, could either imitate or understand the tricks which he showed them. Charley Eeed, mana- ger of one of the club houses, took him aside and said to him : " Goldberg, how much did you make out of the show you gave in the Ocean House parlor to-day?" "Oh, the collection amounted to $16, about," was the reply. " You ought to be ashamed of it," the gambler retorted. " What's the use of run- ning yourself in a sort of pass-the-hat show when you could turn your talent to more profitable account? Now, I'll give you $200 cash down if you'll teach me to do that trick with the four aces." "I couldn't," was the sober reply, " if you paid me two millions. I don't know how to do it." The truth was that the trick, which consisted in dealing four aces at will from an apparently well-shuffled pack, depended chiefly on that dexterous handling of the cards called palming, but the demented Goldberg was convinced that, being himself the personal devil, it was purely supernatural. All the while that he AMERICAN CONJURERS. 35 was practicing the most delicate and deceptive manipulation he was unaware that the results were obtained by trickery and skill. This was a most peculiar phase of mania." This chapter would be incomplete without par- ticular mention of the " Only Boy Magician." This is Master Eddie Abbott, just past six years of age. Eddie's home was at Millville, N. J., where his father was engaged as a fine worker in cut glass. He discovered his boy's talent, and, under the instructions of others, commenced teaching him all that could be taught one so young. It was not long before Eddie acquired such a proficiency that his professional tours commenced. His first one was through the interior towns near Philadelphia. Then he played to crowded houses at the Academy of Music and at the Carncross Theatre, in that cit) r , besides giving many performances in private houses, notably in John Wanamaker's and George W. Childs'. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children would not permit him to play in JSTew York City. Eddie's next exhibitions were given in Quebec, where, on the start, he was not well received because he could not speak French, but in a few days he had learned it well enough to deliver his little speeches in that language, and thereafter achieved great success. Our illustration shows him introduc- ing his Talking Skull. He is very pretty in face, tiny in form and attractive in manner. He well deserves the warm words of praise the press has bestowed on him. He treads the stage like a vet- 36 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. eran, and performs remarkable tricks in magic with the greatest ease and with the most captivating sang- froid. One look- ing at him can scarcely realize that he is but a child. The first part of his pro- gramme is de- voted to the cus- tomary feats of conjuring, which are faultlessly ex- ecuted. The sec- ond part is usually the introduction of the mysterious " Egyptian Black Art," in which, dressed in white, he suddenly ap- eddie abbott and his talking pears in the midst skull. of the blackness on the stage, while tables, vases, flowers, rabbits, doves and other things move through the air, at his word of command, in a most mysterious manner. Master Eddie wins the hearts of his audiences. Should he continue in the profession he will undoubt- edly reach the top round of the ladder. The first foreign conjurer of prominence who visited our shores was Herr Alexandre, a skillful performer, who came to New York about 1845. AMERICAN CONJURERS. 37 Assisted by his daughter Bertha he introduced the second-sight mystery, with which he obtained suc- cess. His daughter dying suddenly stopped his career among us, as he returned at once to Europe. He was followed by Macallister, the Scotch con- jurer, who in turn was followed by the renowned "Wizard of the North," Anderson. Then came Signor Blitz, whose interesting book, •" Fifty Years in the Magic Circle," has had many readers. Our next visitor was Heller, who made his home with us. The American stage has never seen such a witty, clever and skillful entertainer as Heller was. His greatest success was made with second-sight, in which he was assisted by his sister, Zaidee Heller. On his first poster were the words : " Shakespeare wrote well, Dickens wrote Weller ; Anderson was , But the greatest is Heller." Heller made considerable money, was the prince of entertainers, but, .sad to say, died poor. With him commenced what might be called the beginning of the conjurer's art in America, Blitz had only been a short time in this country when he found he had more than a dozen mediocre imitators all travel- ing under his name, and even Heller has been fol- lowed by a score or more who have used his name. CHAPTER III. PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. John Nevil Maskelyne— Dr. Holden— Dr. Lynn — Robert Kudarz — Buatier de Kolta — The Bamberg and Basch Families — Jacoby-Harms— German and French Conj urers — Prof. Patrizio — Prof. Hartwig Seeman. Of foreign conjurers, those of the British Isle first demand our attention because "they are English, you know/' Probably the most prominent among them is J. Nevil Maskelyne, whose long career as a public entertainer in London has brought him very prominently before the public. Having occupied the Egyptian Hall, " England's Home of Mystery," for a great many years, he has been so situated, with all conveniences at his command, that he has been able to produce a large number of fine optical illusions, which even now remain the principal feature of his entertainments. His cabinet, his automatons, Psy- cho, Zoe, Labial and Fanfare, are never-failing sources of interest and wonder. In the display of mechanical skill, he has fully rivaled the renowned Robert Houdin. Mr. Maskelyne is a very genial gentleman, and his manners are such as to command respect and attention. One of the most clever conjurers in England now 33 PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 30 is the " Queen's Magician," whose peculiar boast is that he is the only conjurer whom Queen Victoria ever asked to repeat a trick. Dr. Holden's reper- toire consists mainly in tricks requiring considerable skill and very little apparatus, and in this particular branch he has scored quite a success, possessing a great deal of ready wit and any amount of self-con- fidence, both of which are necessary to a successful magician. He has proved himself an interesting conjurer and "A magician in spite of himself." A popular English conjurer that we do not hear much about, now-a-days, is Dr. Lynn. Some of his friends claim him as an American, and that his real name is not such a striking one. He is the same Doctor for whom the inimitable Artemus Ward wrote a wonderful programme. Dr. Lynn is popu- larly known as " The Talky Talky Man," and is always telling his audience just how he does it, and yet they never know. His principal feat of late years was the introduction of the handsome illusion known as " Thauma." Under the head of English Conjurers, should be mentioned Robert Kudarz. Although his field of operation is in the Australian Colonies, where he enjoys a well deserved reputation, some American readers will understand his programme pretty well, when they know that it is modeled on the plan of that of Harry Kellar. . Prof. Kudarz makes his home at Wellington, New Zealand. In addition to his mag- ical performances, he adds tricks of the Anti-Spiritu- alistic order, his wife being his valuable assistant. He obtained considerable renown from being one of the 40 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. first to introduce in that far awa}^ country the now well known trick of the Vanishing Lady. He well remembers what a hard time he had in getting her out there, as she went astray in San Francisco, where some would-be-intelligent railroad official consigned her to a storage warehouse, where she remained in "durance vile" for nearly six months. This accom- plished official, receiving notice that he would have a burden on his hands if he kept her there longer, finally started her on her long voyage across the Pacific Ocean to the Professor, who, although her coming was somewhat late, received her with open arms, and succeeded in adding much to his reputa- tion when she made her debut. While not coming under the head of English con- jurers, the Hungarian performer, Buatier, has become very popular in the last few years, owing to his tours in England. Not long ago, be joined hands with Mr. Maskelyne, of London, for the purpose of availing himself of the mechanical ingenuity of the latter in developing some of his stage illusions, at least three of which were patented in England. He enjoys a great reputation for skill in sleight-of-hand, and is credited with introducing a number of very fine and effective tricks, that may be classed under the head of " parlor magic," as most of them are suitable for parlors and small stages. He has, no doubt, received much commendation to which he is not justly entitled, because of his first introducing tricks in England, the knowledge of which he had obtained on the continent. The writer saw tricks offered for sale bv continental manufacturers of conjuring apparatus, PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 41 fifteen to twenty years ago, that were afterwards introduced into England for the first time by Prof. Buatier. He thereby obtained the undeserved repu- tation of being the originator of them. He also received the unmerited credit of being the inventor of "Black Art," for which he took out a patent in England, after he had first seen it performed in Ber- lin, in a much more complete manner than it was introduced by himself. However, it is not to be denied that he possesses great skill. Some time ago it was rumored that he intended coming to America. In this connection it may be well to say that for- eign professionals, especially those in England, who are credited with a great amount of skill and ingenu- ity, have not prospered in America. By this is meant that they have not made the "tremendous hit," or "screaming success" which they expected to make, when they came across the " Big Ferry." It not only takes skill, but also management, to gather in the " shekels " on this side of the water. This simply proves that the major part of the clever performers in the United States are farther advanced in the mysteries of conjuring than the majority of foreigners are willing to admit. In confirmation of this, we have only to look at the unlimited praise bestowed on Prof. Hartz, and the California boy, Carl Hertz, both of whom stirred up the conjurers on the other side to a great extent, although there are many fully their equals here, if not their superiors, especially of the latter, whose success with us was only a moderate one. 42 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Passing from England to the continent, across the stormy North Sea, and landing on the dyke-guarded shores of Holland, we find two families of conjurers living in the hearts of the people, and known as the Basch and Bamberg families. David T. Bam- berg, son of the original " Old Bamberg," who was the contemporary of Houdin, is living at Amster- dam, having retired from the profession, and is known as the " Cabinet Maker to his Majesty, The King." Perhaps the most popular conjurer of recent years in that country was Prof. Basch, who amassed a competency in a few years. It can be said, greatly to his credit, that no trick, if good, was too dear for him. His outfit contained all the most modern and original effects he could procure. His programme was divided into three parts ; first, original feats in conjuring, in which he dis- played much skill, attempting successfully tricks that would astonish many professionals. His second part was sometimes an exhibition of the Enchanted Fountain, or the production of the Ghost Show. This he had developed to a great degree, making use of many characters ; and any person who has seen his spectral illusion of u An Artist's Tour Around the World" will not soon for- get it. His third part usually consisted in showing a fine selection of high-class dissolving views. As a hint to American conjurers, we would say that Prof. Basch has very often played from one to two weeks in a town of twenty thousand inhabitants. How many conjurers in America have a repertoire suffi- cient to do that ? PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 43 Leaving the flowery meadows of Holland, so noted for their wonderful hyacinths, tulips and cro- cuses, we pass into the fair country of Belgium, and stop at its beautiful capital, Brussels. Here, for a number of years, resided Prof. DeVere, who has enjoyed quite a continental reputation. Of late he has traveled extensively, exposing spiritualistic pre- tensions. This gentleman once carried on the busi- ness of making conjuring apparatus in London. Leaving the " Frenchified " Belgians, it is but a step across the Rhine into Germany. Here we find so many clever conjurers that we hardly know which way to turn. Stopping for a moment at the pictur- esque old city of Nuremberg, we find one of the oldest manufacturers of conjuring apparatus, who, for a great many years, has carried on the leading business in manufacturing boxes of conjuring tricks. It may be news to American readers, that nearly all of these have been exported to France, where they are sold as being of French production. Prof. Jacoby -Harms not only has exhibited great skill in his spectral illusions, but has also shown him- self to be a gentleman of considerable literary abil- ity. He has published several interesting works on the mystic art. His entertaining volume of " Zau- ber-Soiree" is not only interesting, but displays much care in its preparation. The attractive feature of the book is its photographs, which are indeed fine works of art.* These photographs were taken by * On the opposite page is shown a reduced photo-lithograph of one of them, which represents him in his rope-tying act on the stage, just as the spirits are supposed to have untied him. u MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. means of the electric light. In his rope-tying maneuvers he probably has no superior. His pro- gramme consists usually of the finest feats in magic, r — # ■'■■ :re u * , - ,, ; • '»" > ■• $*■• - — r~ : *«i ill f:|sl HOW THE SPIRITS UNTIE JACOBY. anti-spiritualistic effects, and spectral illusions. In the first part he makes use of all his ingenuity in PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 45 getting up devices for using flower and bird tricks, realizing that these prove the most attractive, thereby gaining the sympathies and good will of the fair sex. Perhaps the men who have contributed the most toward the success of professional conjurers in Germany, have been the prominent manufacturers of conjuring apparatus — M. Hermann, of Berlin, and Oscar Lischke and Carl Willmann, of Hamburg. All three have been in the professional manufacturing line for a good many years, and many effects pro- duced by them have been shown by conjurers as being of their own invention. A couple of clever performers who are not unknown in the United States, should not be forgotten ; these are Messrs. Thorn- and Darvin, who made quite an extended tour in this country a few years ago. Of late, their professional tours have taken them through Germany, Russia, Austria and other continental countries. Their leading sen- sational feat during the last year has been that of causing the instantaneous disappearance of a live horse, which is accomplished through that mysteri- ous medium called " Black Art." Casting our eyes toward France, we find the most prominent conjurer is Prof. Cazeneuve. This gentleman, some time ago, made a very successful tour through the United States. Unable to speak the English language, he was, probably, the first one to make use of an interpreter on the stage, who translated the "patter" of the professor to the audience. While here he obtained much Applause 4C> MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. and admiration from the fair sex; as be held their attention by means of the orange-growing trick, invented by Houdin, and also by an elaborate vari- ation of the coffee trick, serving both oranges and coffee to his audiences in unlimited quantities. For some years after his return to France he traveled through the provinces there, and is at present at Marseilles. Of late years the most prominent conjurers in France are Dickson, Jacobs, Duperrey, Carmelli and Anderson, all of whom performed in Paris during the World's Exposition of 1889. Duperrey and Carmelli are extraordinarily skillful. While they have not introduced anything particularly new, they displayed that grace and elegance that only a Frenchman can. It is a pleasure to know that such clever performers are meeting with the success they deserve. Another prominent magician abroad is Patrizio. He also made a tour of the United States some years ago, but, owing to his lack of knowledge of the English language, did not meet with the success he deserved. There are few in the pro- fession who are as painstaking as he. For a number of years past he has been traveling through the West Indies and in South America, where he is quite a favorite. His repertoire is very extensive, comprising the " Ghost Show," and the finest of modern automata. Prof. Hart wig Seeman was born in Sweden on June 3, 1833. His father had been an officer in the Swedish army, and his ancestors had fought under the renowned conqueror, Gustavus Adolphus, PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 47 in Russia, Finland, Germany, Turkey and France. Young Seeman had always shown a decided inclina- tion for ingenious mechanical effects, hence it is not to be wondered at that he became interested in magic. In 1859 we see him in Berlin, Germany, happily married, and well known as a prominent scenic artist, honored and popular in society. The proprietor of Victoria Theatre failed, and Seeman, receiving no money for his labors, was obliged to have recourse to his knowledge of magic. He had about a dozen small trick boxes which he had kept for his own and his friends' private amusement. Taking these, and with $30.00 in his pocket, he started out on a tour, but, owing to the poverty of his exchequer, and lack of knowledge in advertising, he lost instead of making money. This was in 1860. Shortly afterwards he obtained engagements in Hamburg, Copenhagen and Christiania. His salary was sufficient at the end of the year to enable him to increase his stock of conjuring apparatus. After a few successful tours in Norway, he succeeded in saving some $6,000. With this capital, he made a bold move and crossed over from Phillipstad to London. There he leased the Egyptian Hall in Pic- cadilly, and occupied it for over one year and a half, giving his entertainments to crowded houses nightly. After that he made a tour through the provinces, and visited all the leading cities and towns in Scot- land and Ireland. Returning to London, he trans- ferred the scene of his triumphs to the Crystal Pal- ace at Sydenham, and performed there for six months continuously. On the day when he took his 48 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. farewell benefit, he performed before audiences of over forty thousand people, included among whom were no less than thirty -six members of royalty; the Shah of Persia, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge and the late Czar of Kussia, being among the num- ber. Seeman had not then determined what he would do next, and, while still hesitating, received a visit from an officer of a Eoman Catholic Missionary Society in London, who proposed to him that he go out to the Cape of Good Hope for their society, and teach the natives how to perform some of his tricks, in order that the missionaries might be better able to contend against the Fetish men of the negro tribes. The offer was such a novel one that he at first hesitated, but, the terms being liberal, it was finally accepted. Embarking at Southampton, within five weeks he was landed at Cape Town. There he gave a series of performances which were largely attended by the natives. At the conclusion of each, he explained to a number of the most intel- ligent of them how the tricks were performed, and made them do them themselves, until they became thoroughly proficient, meantime explaining to them, through an interpreter, that the white man's God had nothing to do with the performing of the tricks ; and yet the tricks performed were much more diffi- cult than those their Fetish men could do, although they declared they were only able to perform them when inspired by their gods. Leaving Cape Town our J\ftigician took passage to India, and on arrival there journeyed to the city of PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 49 Benares, the sacred city of Hindostan, for the pur- pose of studying the jugglery of the Fakirs. He remained there for some time, in the course of which he learned many East Indian feats of jugglery; which, as every modern conjurer knows, do not compare with the skilled feats of an accomplished conjurer of the present time. Leaving India, Prof. Seeman traveled directly to Vienna, where he performed during the Vienna World's Exposition of 1873, during the months of July and August. From there he returned to his native land, and while giving his exhibitions through .Sweden he devoted all "his leisure time to the solv- ing of the problem of suspension in mid-air without visible support. In February, 1880, after nearly eight years experimenting, which cost him a great deal of money, he found the problem no longer a mystery, having solved it. He received a number of offers from the United States, one of which he accepted, and on the twentieth of June, 1880, gave a private exhibition of his marvelous invention at the Academy of Music, New York City, to the members of the press and a select party of its invited guests. His success was beyond his highest expectations, and the press unitedly insisted that the invisible suspension of Miss Seeman was one of the most marvelous achievements of the conjurer's art. He made a number of tours through this country with great success, earning the commendation of being one of the most accomplished performers that have ever appeared here in his line. 50 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. During his last tour through the Southwest, See- man, with his family, was obliged to remain over night in a train at Bremont, Texas. Here he con- tracted a severe cold, which resulted in inflammation of the lungs, from which he died the following day, March 25, 1886, at Kosse, in that State. In the death of Prof. Seeman the conjuring fraternity of the entire world suffered an irreparable loss. Few gentlemen have lived that have enjoyed such a repu- tation in his line as this superior and accomplished artist. His programme consisted usually of high class feats in conjuring, the introduction of automa- tons, and the exhibition of most excellent dissolving views, which were drawn and painted by himself. He invariably closed his programme with his marvel- ous suspension, the mechanism of which has puzzled the brains of thousands. While several other illu- sions similar to this of his have since been produced, no conjurers introducing them have succeeded in making such a success with costumes and tableaux as he did. His invention was protected by a patent in this country, the first one of its kind. Other patents on similar contrivances have been taken out since, necessarily making use of the principle used in his. Two of these were by Mr. Will B. Wood; their numbers are 415,084 and 415,085 ; and, as all drawings of patents are common property of the people at large, any person who feels sufficient interest in the mechanism to know how it is done, can, by sending twenty-five cents to the Commis- sioner of Patents, with the above numbers, learn the secret. PROMINENT CONJURERS ABROAD. 51 Mr. Adolpb Seeman, the son of Prof. Seeman, is following in the footsteps of his father, and is in a fair way to achieve great success. With his wife, who so ably assisted his father, he is duplicating the same performances in our leading cities. CHAPTER IV. PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. Amateurs of the Pacific Coast— " Mine Host" Taylor— The Apparatus Amateurs buy — Chicago Amateurs — Salo Ansbach, His Career. Our attention is first called to amateur conjurers of the Pacific Coast. The leading one of that part of our country is, so far as known, Louis Beyersdorf, who traveled professionally for a number of years, but who is now the proprietor of a saloon in San Francisco. Pie is very expert in sleight of -hand- work of all kinds and exceedingly clever with cards, at which he probably has no equal on the Coast. Another amateur of San Francisco is Christian Meinecke, who is noted as being very expert in "palming." He is also credited with having turned out some very good pupils. A couple of gentlemen of the same city, that were associated together professionally, are John B. Knudson and Charles Haslett. The former is occa- sionally occupied in giving private entertainments and is skillful in sleight-of-hand work. Mr. Haslett also still appears, but only at private parties. Both were variety performers when in the business pro- fessionally, although they have a better idea and 53 PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. 53 knowledge of the Magic Art than many performers of greater reputation. They excelled in their " second-sight," which was a signal improvement on the system used by Heller. Theirs was invented by Haslett, although elaborated and completed by both. The questions were natural and short, and it would be exceedingly difficult to produce any article that they could not describe. A conjurer of the same city, who gives a very neat performance, is Mr. O. Erickson. He has a good knowledge of the art, but excels more with appara- tus than he does with sleight-of-hand. A gentleman coming from a conjuring family on the other side of the Atlantic is Mongreni de L'As- sommoir. He teaches conjuring and occasionally goes out on the road professionally, doing his work quite satisfactorily. The Pacific Coast professionals and amateurs have always preferred buying their apparatus of Eastern or foreign make, second or third hand, consequently cheap, or else have had it made up at home as cheaply as possible. It is a fact known to all manufactur- ers of conjuring apparatus that amateurs, with a few exceptions, insist on having cheap apparatus ; and this was what caused an excellent manufacturer and teacher, Kobert Hellis, of London, a gentleman noted for his skill and good judgment, to remark about some poor apparatus once — " That it was bad enough, even for an amateur." One magician who will have only good work, is Thomas H. Kerr, of San Francisco. He is the only one of the far Western amateurs who has bought 54 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. extensively of Eastern and foreign manufacturers, always paying even more than catalogue prices, because he desired to have especially fine workman- ship in apparatus. He has collected the most exten- sive outfit on the Coast. He has also invented many mechanical effects in conjuring apparatus. His specialties are cards and coins. There are very few interested in the art who have as extensive a knowl* edge of it as he. His qualities as an entertaining con- jurer are highly appreciated. While there are amateurs scattered all over the Western States and Territories, we naturally find the majority of them in our most populous cities. One quite well known through the Central and Western States as a very clever performer, is N. K. Aristos, of Kansas City, Mo. There are very few gentlemen, either in or out of the profession, that have a more extensive knowledge of necromancy than he, and, although his name is very rarely seen in theatrical journals, he is one of the few clever performers in the semi-professional line who find it quite profit- able. A skillful amateur is the genial Frank Taylor, until recently " Mine Host " of the Bowler House, at Marshall town, Iowa. There is not a professional traveling who can excel Taylor in cards, coins, and tricks with small articles ; and whenever Frank is prevailed upon to give one of his excellent enter- tainments, he is certain of a full house and an appre- ciative audience. Chicago is well supplied with amateur conjurers of all classes; they number wealthy Board of Trade PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. 55 men, clerks, book-keepers, even Senators and mem- bers of the Supreme Bench among their rank. W . A. Havemeyer has probably invested more money in the art than any amateur of the city. He was quite prominent in the magic circles of New York and Brooklyn a number of years ago. We have here so many amateurs from such varied conditions that a volume might be written about them. In the Eastern cities there are still larger numbers of amateurs than in Chicago, many of whom were quite prominent a number of years ago, but, for various reasons, these have, generally, lost their interest in the Art. As they grew older they made way for younger ones to follow in their footsteps, In getting up programmes, there are very few amateurs who have shown much originality. One in Chicago copied into his programme the name of every trick he could find in books of magic or cata- logues of manufacturers of conjuring apparatus. The result was such a long list of names and such a conglomeration of them that one would not know what to expect. Others have copied programmes of leading professionals so closely that there is left no originality in their own. An amateur magician known throughout the coun- try is Salo Ansbach. He is properly spoken of as a semi-professional, as he makes a business of travel- ing and teaching tricks. He puts up at the most fashionable hotel, and is always "in the swim." He scatters his business cards broadcast, taking care that they reach the hands of the better class. He shows feats to a business man in his office and 56 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. does not hesitate to exhibit one on the street to a prospective pupil. He gathers his classes around him in his rooms at the hotel and charges each pupil from five to ten dollars for a half-dozen tricks. He is a very painstaking teacher. One of the favor- ite little performances of his, is showing a person how to pull a handkerchief through the flame of a gas jet without the handkerchief taking fire. A number of years ago, Salo taught a class at the Gibson House in Cincinnati, in which there were a number of prominent gentlemen, and one of them felt sure he could do the handkerchief trick without practicing it. On returning home that evening he showed his wife some of these interesting feats he had just learned from Ansbach, but reserved the masterpiece until they were about to retire. In lieu of a handkerchief he thought he would take some- thing larger to make the effect more startling, and, seizing hold of a pillow case, began to pull it quite successfully through the gas without its taking fire. The first trial was not enough, although his wife was greatly surprised at this." The second attempt resulted in igniting the pillow case, and in trying to get it out of his hands he succeeded in setting fire to the bed. Considerable excitement was created which cost him more than it did to learn the trick. In this case, the prophecy of Ansbach was fulfilled, as he always states that when the trick is properly produced it will not fail to create a sensation. While Mr. Ansbach - has not a very extensive knowledge of the magic art, the tricks he teaches are very clever ones, and he is exceedingly success- PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. 57 ful with them, much more so than his pupils, who all learn identically the same ones. From this arose a most peculiar co7itretemps, which is described by a gentleman present, in a San Francisco paper. The identity of Ansbach is concealed under the name of Zimmerman. " One pleasant afternoon, not long ago, Hon. Stephen Gage was sitting in his office on the corner of Fourth and Townsend streets, when he suddenly became aware of the presence of a rather good-look- ing young man who had entered the door unan- nounced. " ' Your name is er ,' and Mr. Gage looked very inquiringly. As the young man did not say anything, he ran his finger up and down over a row of cards on which were written the names of people in the ante-room who wanted to see him. " ' Is your card here, sir ? ' said Mr. Gage. " ' You will find it in the bottom of that drawer,' was the reply. " Mr. Gage frowned, for he was annoyed at the intrusion, and especially so that a man should coolly tell him that his card was in a drawer that was always locked. " ' I have no time to trifle, sir. If you have any business, state it, and be as brief as possible.' " ' If you will unlock the drawer you will find my card and my business on it.' " Mr. Gage impatiently unlocked the drawer and his face changed somewhat in expression as he saw lying there a card which read as follows : 58 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. L. ZIMMERMAN. Teacher of Legerdemain. '. "He looked up at the young man and smiled slightly. '"Well, I guess you've got me this time. How the deuce did that card get there ? ' " 'I can't tell you that, but if you wish to learn a few new and valuable tricks, I can teach them for a small amount.' " ' I have no time now to learn tricks. This is my busy day, and I hope you will let me transact my regular business and allow me to bid you good Say, how the mischief did you do that ? ' " Mr. Gage's query was natural enough, for Mr. Zimmerman, who was about to go, wiped his brow with a large silk handkerchief and then dropped the handkerchief into his hat. "As he did so he turned the inside of his hat toward Mr. Gage, but the hat was empty. " Mr. Gage gazed at Mr. Zimmerman with absolute astonishment. " ' Do you mind doing that again ? ' " ' I will teach you the trick for two dollars, Mr. Gage.' " ' Do you absolutely guarantee that I can do it ? ' " "'All right, here's the money.' " Mr. Zimmerman proceeded to initiate Mr. Gage PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. 59 into the mysteries of the trick, and then Mr. Gage began to practice- it. "'Pshaw!' said Gage, 'that's too simple for any- thing. ' " ' That's the beauty of all my tricks — they're simple. Here is another. Take that cane in both hands.' " Mr. Gage firmly grasped the cane, and as he did so the conjurer tapped it a few times with a brass ring, and, presto, the ring was whirling round the cane, having encircled it in a most inexplicable way. "'How much? ' said Mr. Gage. " ' Five dollars, sir.' " In about five minutes Mr. Gage knew all about that trick also, and then the magician proceeded to show him how to pull a whole clothes-line full of underwear from a stove-pipe hat ; how to make newly -laid eggs go through tables without breaking either egg or table ; how to make a dollar dance all over the floor as if it were alive; how to change tanks of ink into pure Spring Valley water full of live gold-fish, and scores of other astonishing feats which any one can do if he is only properly taught. " It took just four hours for Mr. Zimmerman to teach Mr. Gage all the tricks he knew, and the bill was just eighty dollars. " Meanwhile, the ante-room where people cool their heels while waiting to see the magnates of the road was almost like the Black Hole of Calcutta. It was packed with men and women who wanted to see Mr. Gage. The small boys who carry the cards 60 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. could not get in, and the room got hotter and hotter every moment. It happened to be one of those days when the Nevada contingent was there in full force. " Black, Wallace, ' Cleve,' George Cassidy, Judge Boardman, H. M. Yerrington, Bob Keating, Joe Douglas and Governor Stevenson were in the ante- room holding an indignation meeting. " Messages of all description were sent in by the boy, but Mr. Gage merely said, ' Lay them on the table,' and the boy would go back and say, 'Mr. Gage is busy.' Then the Nevada crowd would blas- pheme awhile and wonder who the devil was taking up so much time. " Then they grew troubled, for they thought they scented some political job that they were not in, and that did not make them feel any better. The crowd in the room was finally so great that not another person could be wedged in, and the air was stifling. " The people went away in droves, and the air along down the street was murky with profanity. "It was 5 o'clock when the Professor of Magic had finished his labors, and Mr. Gage, realizing for the first time that it was 5 o'clock, decided to go home, leaving by a side door. " That evening at his Oakland residence he showed some of the new tricks to the children, and he had the audience of amazed youngsters spell-bound. It was midnight before any one realized how late it really was. Each day he practiced the tricks until he became as proficient as the Professor himself. "Then he concluded to give a performance on PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. 61 Saturday evening, and sent invitations to Creed Haymond, J. C. Stubbs, J. A. Fillmore, W. H. Hills, Ariel Lathrop, T. H. Goodman and K. H. Pratt to come over and have a quiet evening at whist. "He had everything ready for a bewildering entertainment. The paraphernalia was all arranged, the lights were , regulated so as to assist the per- former, and everything was in apple-pie order by 8 o'clock. " The guests were all there at the appointed hour, and after a very little time spent at whist it was voted a bore, and suddenly Mr. Gage was aware of the fact that Land Agent Mills was doing a very extraordinary card trick, one that he had paid Zimmerman $2 to learn. "When it was finished there was no applause, and Mr. Goodman was up in a flash with a better one. " No one seemed much astonished, and then Pratt and Fillmore, in different parts of the room, began doing tricks with a hat and handkerchief, and each did exactly the same trick at the same time. " Then Creed Haymond did the ring-and cane trick. " ' Oh, that's nothing ; anybody can do that,' came in a general chorus from all sides. " Stubbs was on his feet to show how to make a half-dollar go through the table. " It was very cleverly done, but it astonished no one. " Fillmore made a coin dance all over the carpet like a drunken mud-turtle trying to waltz, but the 62 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. usual looks of wonder and amazement were wanting to complete the scene. " Each man had a new and better trick than all the rest, and each performer, when he saw a trick done, merely turned up his nose and said it was nothing. He could beat it. " Each guest was wrangling to get his turn; they were pulling omelets and white rabbits out of all sorts of impossible places, and the little rabbits were skipping all over the floor. " It began to dawn upon Mr. Gage that the whole crowd had been taken in by Zimmerman, although he recollected that Zimmerman had given him a most solemn assurance that he taught him these tricks with the understanding that he had the exclu- sive monopoly as far as the Southern Pacific Rail- road was concerned and that not another soul in the building was to know a single trick. At 12:30 the crowd had exhausted the Zimmerman repertoire and Mr. Gage had not been given an opportunity to show his skill in a single trick. The crowd paused. They were exhausted and then began to look at one another in a curious way. " Then a young daughter of Mr. Gage said : * Papa has been practicing these same tricks all day.' " There was an explosion of laughter that shook the house, and it lasted about ten minutes. "Mr. Gage was always known as a liberal enter- tainer, and he led the way to the supper table. " ' Gentlemen, you have entertained me very nicely PROMINENT AND SKILLFUL AMATEURS. 63 this evening, and your tricks are very clever. Sit down, everybody.' "Then they sent the children to bed and the neighbors say that the sounds of good-natured revelry could be heard until nearly daylight in the Gage mansion." Mr. Ansbach is originally from Chicago ; and, as far as known, is the first person who has made a pronounced success as a traveling teacher of magic. He occasionally gives entertainments at hotels and fashionable resorts, and at such times is assisted by his accomplished wife. CHAPTER V. THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. The Original Carl Herrmann— Alexander Herrmann, His Con- federates, How They Sometimes Fail— Harry Kellar, His Travels— Alexander Herrmann's Cremation— Martino's Sphinx — Kellar's Growth of Flowers. A number of conjurers have appeared in different parts of the world under the name of Herrmann. The original one, who made the greatest success, was Carl Herrmann, He made his first appearance before an English-speaking audience at the Adelphi Theatre in London. He styled himself then " premier prestidigitateur," of France, and "first professor of Magic in the world." This was in 1848. At that time he gave a series of performances, assisted by his wife. One of his feats was the famous second- sight deception, which was then helping to make the fame of Houdin on the continent. This " Prince of Conjurers," as he called himself, died at Carlsbad, in June, 1887, after a short illness, at the age of seventy -two. He possessed most extraordinary skill in his line, his father having also been a conjurer by profession. While still a boy he accompanied his father to Paris, where the dexterity of the young conjurer 64 THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 65 attracted much attention. He seems, however, to have become tired of supporting himself by his wits, and, entering the Paris University, he studied medi- cine, living in great poverty in the Quartier Latin, After some ten years of this he gave it up and definitely resumed his old profession, which in the end brought him honors and a large fortune. His tours extended over the entire civilized world, and there was probably not a single Royal Court in Europe before which he did not perform. He was the only conjurer who had given lessons to Royalty themselves, the Queen of Belgium having been one of his pupils. The unfortunate Sultan Abdul Aziz was amongst Herrmann's warmest admirers, and used to pay him a thousand pounds (Turkish) for every representa- tion. During one of these performances he exhibited two pigeons, one white and one black, and did the trick so popular at the beginning of this century, of placing the white head on the black pigeon and vice versa. This pleased the Sultan greatly and he asked Herrmann to try the same trick with a black and white slave, but the conjurer declared that that was beyond his powers. On another occasion he took a rare and valuable watch from the Sultan and pretended to throw it into the sea ; his Majesty, of course, finding it again in his own pocket. The Czar Nicholas also bestowed valuable favors on Herrmann, who, it is said, cleared a million rou- bles on one Russian tour. He was very charitable (something uncommon in a conjurer), and only a few days before his death sent 1,500 francs for the relief 66 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. of the victims of the Opera-Comique disaster. In Vienna, where he resided, he was very popular, and when he celebrated his seventieth birthday a distin- guished company assembled at his residence to con- gratulate him. He left a large fortune and a collec- tion of rare antiquities, which he spared no trouble or cost in amassing. He left a widow, a French lady. She was his second wife ; his first, from whom he was divorced, being the prima donna, Madame Czillag, who is still living and is a teacher of singing. His tours in America took place in the sixties. The gentleman traveling in this country by the same surname is known as Alexander Herrmann, who, it is generally understood, claims to be a brother of the original Carl Herrmann. This seems rather odd, as Carl Herrmann was more than old enough to be Alexander Herrmann's father, and diligent corre- spondence and inquiry fail to establish the fact of brothership. A number of persons have claimed that the original name of Alexander Herrmann is Simon, while others have said he was Jack Marr, of Buffalo, but these were no doubt parties w T ho had usurped the name of Herrmann. Harry Kellar, who has had a long experience among conjurers, gives his name as Niemann, as will be hereafter seen. Alexander Herrmann is a skillful performer, par- ticularly so in sleight-of-hand tricks ; however, much of his success is due to his name. He is noted as using more confederates among his audiences than any other professional traveling, something that is discountenanced bv all real admirers of the art. He THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. b ( often makes use of five or six in the course of one evening's performance. By employing so many con- federates, he has sometimes had the tables turned on himself, and been obliged to get out of his trick the best way he could, to the disappointment of his audience. He was once performing in one of our Southern towns, when he was to show the basket trick, the important part of which is, that the assist- ant goes from the stage and appears in front among the audience as quickly as possible. On this occasion the shortest cut from the stage to the front was down through a shoe store. The owner of the store was also the owner of the theatre, and he agreed to have his man open the doors at the proper time each evening for the assistant to make his hasty trip. All worked well for the first two nights, the assistant using the trap in the stage, going down through the shoe store and out, then up the main entrance to the front of the house, scarcely a minute elapsing. The third night all went smoothly until the assistant went through the store. A policeman who was not " in it," saw a man skip out of the door in a rush, without any hat, and he immediately seized him and marched him to the station house to explain matters. The reader can imagine the fix Herrmann was in. The Professor was once disappointed in a con- federate in the following manner : A marked dollar bill was given to a " culled pusson," and also a ticket for a seat in one of the back rows, and he was told not to be too quick in producing it. Then Herrmann began the trick requiring the marked dollar bill, 68 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. borrowing one, having it marked, loaded in a pistol and fired in the air. He then stepped to the foot- lights, and asked if there was not some one in the audience who had felt a sensation in their pocket. Still no reply. He finally spied the "gentleman of color," and invited him up on the stage ; after a good deal of trouble and coaxing, he came up and was asked if he felt any queer sensation; he answered, "No." The professor whispered in his ear to pull out the dollar note— "now is the time," while he acted in a very serious manner. The dusky con- federate was confused, and at last pulled some loose change from his pocket with the words : " Heah it am, -Massa, all dats left ob dat dollar bill you gib me ; I done gone spend some for a drink." It is a peculiar fact that amateurs have thought more of Herrmann's performance than of most any other professional, especially so in the large cities. It has often been a struggle to see who could be his first confederate. Even prominent and wealthy amateurs have made themselves and the art common, we mrght say, by going to his performances with their pockets loaded with packs of cards, for the sake of having him pull them out in the presence of the audience, thus obtaining a little cheap notoriety. During an engagement not long ago at Hooley's Theatre, Chicago, he commenced the week's enter- tainments with a mishap, which seemed to unnerve him. The result was, nearly every other- trick went wrong throughout the entire evening, and the audi- ence could see that he was ill at ease during the THE HKRKMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 69 performance. A local writer thus speaks of the misfortunes then attending him : " Herrmann, the magician, had a pretty rocky night of it at his show Monday. Either he or his assistant was continually dropping something that marred the smoothness of the performance. The machinery for the "cocoon " trick didn't work well and there were a good many other things to annoy him. One of the contretemps was funny and was appreciated by those on the inside. One of the things he does is known in the profession as the ' omelet trick ' — you know it, borrowed rings in skillet, eggp broken and put in with them, a little grease from a lighted candle to give it flavor, some spirits poured over the whole mess, lighted, the cover clapped on, a pistol fired, presto ! off comes the cover, and in the place of the omelet stuff are found doves, around the neck of each a ribbon, and on the end of the ribbon a borrowed ring. As he usually performs the trick, four rings are borrowed and four eggs are used. These eggs are produced as follows : ' Mr. Gumbo,' his colored assistant, has a small egg in his mouth. Herrmann has three others concealed about his clothes. He ' palms ' an egg — that is, conceals it in his hand — pats Mr. Gumbo on the back of the head with the open hand, and Gumbo makes the egg in his mouth appear. Herrmann, covering Mr. Gumbo's mouth with the hand holding the concealed egg, pushes back the one showing between his assistant's lips and produces the one he has in his hand, the effect on the audience being precisely as 70 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. if he took the egg from the assistant's mouth. This process is repeated three times with the eggs Herrmann has concealed in his hand ; and the fourth time he really takes the egg from Gum- bo's mouth, making the four required in the trick. Monday night everything went on swimmingly until it came to the unlucky fourth egg. Herrmann patted Gumbo on the back of the head and looked for the egg to appear between his lips. But it didn't come. Instead of it there spread over Mr. Gumbo's face a most comical mixture of astonishment and disgust, and turning short about he rushed off the stage. The egg had ' squashed in his mouth.' That left Herrmann short one egg for the trick, and so in asking for the loan of some rings he requested that there be three instead of four as usual. Gumbo col- lects the rings on a little stick. Slipped over the end of the stick and concealed by his right hand, in which he holds the stick, are three substitute rings. As soon as three rings are .borrowed, Gumbo trans- fers the stick to his left hand, letting the borrowed rings run into that hand and the substitute rings take their places on the stick, while the audience is unaware that any substitution has been effected, and thinks that the borrowed rings go into the omelet. Of course they don't ; Gumbo takes them off with him, ties one to each of the ribbons, puts a ribbon around each bird's neck, puts the birds inside the cover to the skillet, which has a false bottom for the purpose, and places the whole business on the stand near Herrmann, where he can get at it at the proper moment. That is what is done when everything THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 71 goes smoothly. Monday night Gumbo, after collect- ing the rings, let one of the substitutes fall off the stick, and it got lost among the fiddlers. ' Never mind,' says Herrmann, i come along.' Then he gave Mr. Gumbo a look enough to burn him up, put the two remaining substitutes into the skillet, pretended to pick the third out of the air, and then proceeded with the trick. At the critical moment, after clap- ping on the cover to the skillet, he knocked the pistol off the table and had to go sweeping around the floor with his hand until he found it. The rest of the trick went all right, but he came nearer losing his nerve that time than I ever saw him before. There was a succession of mishaps enough to upset the best man in the world." The " Major" of the "Turn-Over" Club, of Chi- cage, tells the following about Herrmann using confederates. The story is told of his former busi- ness manager, Frank Curtis, and a similar thing happened to George Eyerson, son of the dramatist of Den Thompson's " Old Homestead," when he was in the business : Frank was supposed to plant the necessary con- federates in seats that Herrmann knew of. He purchases two plug hats exactly alike, one of which goes to the confederate, and the other to the magi- cian. Herrmann walked down and politely asked the loan of a hat from the man sitting in the usual seat. Now it happened that Frank had been busy and had neglected to arrange for the hat trick. The magician took the borrowed hat, kicked it, tore it in pieces and rammed it in a gun and shot it 72 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. towards the dome. The people looked up and there hung a "spick and span" new hat. It soon fell down and was brushed with a silk handkerchief and handed back to the man from whom it was bor- rowed. Then only was it discovered that a mistake had been made, and the man who loaned an eight- dollar Dunlap received in return a two-dollar dicer, which just sat on the top of his head. It is unnec- essary to state that Frank has never since then neglected his part, as he had to replace the hat which was destroyed. One of the marked peculiarities of both Herrmann and Kellar (which is noticed more in them, owing to their prominence), is, that they invariably intro- duce their tricks and illusions as being of their own invention, which is not the case, as neither of them have ever invented any trick or illusion of particular importance. Herrmann introduces such as make him rely more on his assistants than does Kellar. We remember that when the latter commenced using the " suspension in the air," without support, similiar to the one patented by Will B. Wood, he advertised it in the 'New York papers very exten- sively as a most wonderful illusion and his own invention, which called forth a card from the makers of it, that they were the originators. The facts are, very few professionals now traveling have invented their own illusions or effects, depending on persons who make that a specialty. Harry Keller (for that was his real name) was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, July 11, 1849. He changed the spelling of his name to " Kellar," in. THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 73 order the people might not think that he was imitat- ing the name of Heller. He has probably traveled as much about the world as any performer now before the public in our country. The major part of these years of foreign travel has been spent in heathen countries, where his " grey -haired and bearded tricks," as a Western paper puts it, are more appreciated than here. He has written a sketch of his tours round about the world, or rather had it written by one who signed himself " Satan ;" but, by reading the book, any one can see that that dignitary had nothing to do with it, as he is a being supposed to have considerable ability. A little over a year ago a great rivalry sprang up between Herrmann and Kellar, which resulted for a time in each one exposing some of the other's tricks during their performances throughout the country. Prof. Kellar's side of the matter is better expressed in the words of a reporter who interviewed him for one of the Philadelphia papers : "For some time Herrmann, the other magician, has been professing to give an expose of Kellar's performance. Yesterday Mr. Kellar was asked for his side of the controversy. Assuming an easy atti- tude and calmly puffing away at a cigar, Mr. Kellar watched the wreaths of smoke which curled toward the ceiling of his room for a moment or so, and then slowly said : " ' Well, Alexander Niemann's, or Herrmann, as he calls himself, expose of my work affects my business just about as much as that smoke. I don't consider myself in the same class with Mr. Niemann. His 74 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. explanations of my tricks are so far from correct that while they may have given him a little cheap notoriety they have done me no harm, and I pro- pose going right ahead with the same " tricks," as he calls them. Mr. Niemann has a great many things to learn yet. All he knows now he has picked up from the original and bona fide Herrmann, whom he once assisted and who is now dead. Of course his expose of a few of my simple feats were correct. " ' Mr. Niemann's actions do not affect me in the least. I could afford to pass them by unnoticed, but what disgusts me is his despicable way of trying to influence theatrical managers against me. For a long time he has endeavored to get the managers to cancel their contracts with me by threatening to refuse to show in their houses should I show there first. " ' I don't think he will ever try to down me on an open fight again, though,' chuckled Mr. Kellar, as, after a violent struggle with the lid of his portable safe, he succeeded in kicking it open and fishing out a lot of documents. ' I don't think Mike Leavitt wants any more of it either. Let me give you a little unwritten history of one of the biggest fights I know of. Last year I was under contract with Leavitt to make a tour through the far West, Cali- fornia and Mexico. The trip was to begin Septem- ber 1. Herrmann, as soon as he heard of the pro- posed trip, found Leavitt and talked to him. Leav- itt wrote to me explaining that he could do better by postponing my trip until October, and although 1 was not satisfied I consented. I afterward learned THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 75 that Leavitt had contracted to take Herrmann, or, more properly, Niemann, over my route on my old dates. This would have been ruinous to me, with my large company, as Niemann would have got the pick of the patronage, so I paid Leavitt a forfeit and canceled the contract. " ' I was pretty hot, and made up my mind to make a fight of it. I made arrangements with the Orrin Brothers to play in the City of Mexico, and engaged the Nacionale, the largest theatre in the place, for the only available dates, from September first to eleventh. By this means I would beat Herrmann there should he fill his California dates. I had con- tracted with Manager Heuck to play two weeks from August fifth, in Cincinnati, but as soon as Herrmann learned from his Mexican agent that I had taken the Nacionale for September first he made arrangements to open in Mexico a week ahead of me, and engaged the theatre Principale, a small house. This, of course, compelled him to cancel some of his California dates. (That is not a pun. The fruits were bitter for Herrmann.) As soon as I heard of it I went to Manager Heuck and offered him the gross receipts of the first week, I to take the second week's receipts. He agreed, and I imme- diately gave up the second week, and telegraphed my man to get the " Eacionale " at once, regardless of cost, on August seventeenth. " 'I jumped to Mexico. The Spanish Opera Com- pany had the " Nacionale," but I made arrange- ments to show in conjunction with them, and in that way got in a big week ahead of Herrmann, who, 76 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. instead of coming right on to Mexico, then toured the country for a month. When he reached Mexico I was in San Luis Potosi and had intended leaving the country, but Mr. Orrin telegraphed me that Herrmann had boasted iD the lobby of the theatre that he had driven me out of Mexico. This raised my Pennsylvania Dutch and I determined to make it warm for Mr. Herrmann. I jumped back to Mexico, took the 4 ' Arbeau " Theatre, and played against him his second and last week. " ' He had only two towns left to do in Mexico, Puebla and Yera Cruz. I engaged the only two theatres in Puebla and the best one in Yera Cruz. This forced him to stay a longer time in Mexico or play that week in Puebla. He did the latter, play- ing two nights of his City of Mexico engagement at Puebla. It cost him about $300 a round trip to take his company to Puebla. He took in $315 and $385 on the two nights, and had to pay 60 per cent, of that to the dramatic company in conjunction with which his show was given.' " Kellar has made considerable capital out of his exposure of Charles H. Bridge, of Boston, Mass. A correspondent well acquainted with both of these gentlemen, and who lives in Boston, wrote that he could not quite understand the Kellar-Bridge " racket," but believed Kellar became angry with something Bridge had performed. Bridge himself has stated that Kellar was afraid he, Bridge, might do something he could not duplicate, and therefore at the commencement of the old trick of the " bench THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 77 test," he " gave it away." An article on Kellar's tricks in the Chicago Herald, is in some of its details quite ingenious : " The future of the modern prestidigitateur will be a very uncertain quantity if the policy of reveal- ing their methods, which is made a feature of this season's work by the two leading professors of that art, continues. Kellar, who has just closed an en- gagement at the Columbia, " gives away " some of his best tricks, and Herrmann, who is expected here shortly, is also posing as a revelator. Business must either have been so good as that both are getting ready to retire or it is so poor as to need the extra inducement of the revelations to draw paying audi- ences. In either event the system would seem to an outsider to be suicidal. The end is inevitable. Peo- ple will not continue to pay their money to see tricks performed that are no longer mysteries. Either original effort of an order somewhat higher than has been put forth will have to be employed in the con- trivance of new illusions, or the business of necro- mancy will soon be a thing of the past. " Two classes of tricks are performed by the mod- ern magician. The one depends largely, if not entirely, upon mechanical aids. In the other reli- ance on sleight-of-hand is the main-stay of the per- former. Some are combinations of the two, and perhaps this class predominates to-day. Grace and ease of manner are essential to a successful sleight-of- hand performer, while eternal vigilance and exten- sive financial resources are necessary in order to enable a mechanical operator to keep abreast of the 78 MODfcKN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. times, and to both the greatest secrecy is of the first importance. It is almost impossible to protect these, by patent or otherwise, from infringement by brother professionals; and, indeed, any shrewd observer, with a good opera-glass, can detect the modus operandi of the tricks involving expensive machinery. But this is apart from the public dem- onstration of the methods that seem to have been adopted as a policy for this season by Kellar and Herrmann. Between the two there is precious litile left for the imagination or detective ability of the audience to work on. "The performance at the Columbia lacked the comedy character infused into the * business' by Kellar's great competitor, Herrmann. If shorn of its extraneous aid from the musical and second-sight members of the company it would probably fall flat. Kellar starts in with the trick which made our great- grandfathers open their eyes in wonder, consisting in the juggling of empty cups with false tops, which are made to represent the surface of coffee and milk and filled ones hidden away in a box of shavings. His next is the equally time-worn trick of the rings, pistol and many boxes. This, as every school-boy knows, is done by substituting for the rings borrowed from the audience an equal number of brass cir- clets held on the same wand as the loaned jewelry is placed, but concealed by the left hand until an opportunity occurs for an exchange, the brass rings being loaded into the pistol, or more likely slipped into the coat-sleeve pocket. The gold rings are dropped on a table in the * flies,' where the assistant THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. {V can get and inclose them in a box which is hidden in a recessed space in the table which is brought in to place the outer boxes on. These boxes are 'nested,' but one has a false bottom, through which the ring containing casket is pressed from its hiding place in the table top. The pistol is duly fired and then the boxes are opened with a great show of freedom from unnecessary contact with the perform- er's person. The last one has the rings inside, each neatly attached to a bouquet. " The trick of the bottle with its many liquors on tap is explained in every book on parlor magic extant, the fluid being contained in a funnel inserted in the lower portion of the bottle, from which the bottom has been removed. Between the false bot- tom and the wide end of the funnel is the space for the guinea pig. " Lightning calculation, which has become so common an achievement now as to be used by street- corner fakirs, is one of Kellar's strong ' cards.' He does some very creditable work in this line. " The automatons, i Psycho' and 'Echo,' are very simple pieces of mechanism. The first consists of a figure seated on a stand, supported by a glass cylinder resting on a flat wooden base Avith three knobs, which alone touch the floor. In front of the table at which ' Psycho ' sits is a row of figures, with cards behind. In answering problems the figure's head and hand are raised by the initial movement, and a lateral motion causes the hand to swing into position over the numbered card required. Then the hand and head drop, the fingers closing over the 80 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. card in the act of falling, and a repetition of the first movement raises the card, which afterward drops from the hand on the latter reaching a given altitude. The motive power is air pumped through a hole in one of the knobs, which is hollow and placed in opposition to a corresponding hole in the floor. The assistant below the stage has a book of logarithms and a two-thousand-year almanac at hand, and as he hears the operator on the stage repeat problems given by the audience, he works his air-pump according to the solution found in his lim- ited library. Kellar's lightning calculation comes in when he proves the problems on a blackboard. The ' second-sight ' trick was performed in the same way as when a blindfolded ' clairvo}^ant ' is on the stage — by a code in which the answer required is con- tained in the question. " 'Echo's' mechanism is simpler even than that of his brother, ' Psycho.' ' Echo ' is a little figure seated on a chair with its feet raised from the floor and a brass cornet to its lips. Mrs. Kellar is a pro- fessional cornetist, and it is her dulcet strains made below the stage that are poured forth from the mouth of the otherwise silent instrument in the hands of the ' automaton.' A preliminary puff of air sent, up through the leg of the chair raises the arm of the figure, and the cornet is brought into contact with the lips of ' Echo/ and then the music is transmitted by means of sounding boards and tubes. " The old, familiar cabinet tricks were performed, with a slight variation, which seemed to presage a THE HERRMANNS AND HAEEY KELLAR. 81 speedy revelation of the simple maneuver by which they are accomplished, in the near future. Kellar released and ' tied ' himself again in full view of the audience. He failed to show, however, his relatively large wrists and small hands, or the twist he gives to the cord so as to keep an available amount of 1 slack.' This trick he learned, as he freely states, in his long connection with the Davenport Brothers. " 'Astarte ' is the new mechanical trick which is supplanting, under various names, the aerial sus- pension act. A parting of the draperies in the rear of the stage, which, with the auditorium, has been reduced to a dimly-lighted condition, shows a female figure in tights. Her waist is a third larger than any other portion of her body, and this gives a clew to the whole business. Be- hind the dark plush background is a sort of der- rick, worked with a crank, and by this the woman is supported and moved up or down, to the right or left. A "universal joint" gives her freedom of motion to turn aerial handsprings, and the steel band which encircles her waist-harness permits her to revolve teetotum fashion, or to pirouette. An ingenious aid to the illusion is an apparently unbroken hoop, decorated with ribbons, which the performer flourishes about and passes over her head and down below her feet, thus seemingly disproving the otherwise rather obvious origin of her suspen- sion from behind or the alternative one of wire sup- port from above. This ring has an opening which allows the supporting iron to pass through it. The lateral and vertical openings in the plush curtain 82 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. background through which the steel support moves are apparent to a close observer, even without a glass." Alexander Herrmann's "Cremation" is thus sketched by a Western journal: "Herrmann made his cremation act the leading feature of his pro- gramme, but while it was vested with weird and somewhat thrilling details, still the trick is as palpa- ble as any in his repertory. "Without going into all the minor details it may be said that ' Cremation ' is a combination of the old Indian basket trick and the Pepper ghost illusion. Instead of a large wicker basket, with a false cover, which drops down on the inside and takes the place of the back part, which falls down backward, a wooden box or casket is used. But this is the only difference, and it is just as easy for a person to escape from one as the other, and then pass through a trap in the stage. After Mme. Herrmann had assumed a reclining position in the casket, it was closed for a time long enough for her to pass out through the back and take her posi- tion under the stage for the final part of the act. There was a little by-play to distract the attention of the audience while the lady was passing from the casket, and the lights were also lowered to prevent detection. "The casket was on trestles and some distance above the stage, but in the dim, uncertain light the back part of it could be let down so as to touch the stage, and the lady thus pass out without the least fear of detection. In some tricks by a certain arrangement of mirrors under a table four legs are THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 83 shown, but two are by reflection merely. The mirrors are so placed, also, that they reflect the sur- roundings in such a way that the audience imagine they can see under the table and whatever may be back of it. But in reality they can only see half- way. "After the torch has been applied to the supposed human form in the casket (the same having been re-opened and disclosing a dummy), there soon appears at the back of the stage an apparition of the lady clinging to a cross. Then a ghostly per- formance is enacted between Herrmann, the spirit of the cremated lady, Mephistopheles and a skeleton. The apparitions suddenly appear and disappear, and look (leaving out the skeleton) like i real flesh and blood.' " The illusion is produced in this manner : At the back part of the stage and inclined toward the audience at an angle of say forty-five degrees, are two large-sized plate glasses, but the audience only see the back scenery which shows through them. Herrmann takes his position behind these glasses ; that is, furthest removed from the audience. There is an opening in the stage, and through that pass the reflections of persons acting before bright lights beneath the stage, and their reflections are re- ceived on the plate glasses. Herrmann, from his position, does not see any of the ghost-like forms, but after careful rehearsals, and being enabled to observe the movements of the performers under the stage, he suits his actions exactly to the movements seen by the audience on the glasses in front of him. 84 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. " There are many traveling magicians who have a good repertory of tricks, including many as equally pretentious as any performed by professors of well- established reputations, but, owing to a lack of impressive stage appearance, self-confidence, dex- terity, and the gift of interesting conversational powers, they fail, in a measure, to achieve pecuniary, as well as artistic, success." During a rivalry between Kellar and Herrmann, in Chicago,. some of the papers contained articles on tricks of conjurers. Says the Herald : " The old trick, or rather illusion, of the talking head, generally known as the " Sphinx," in which two mirrors are placed at right angles in a table to con- ceal the person behind them, is well known, yet this was the basis of an entertainment given some years ago that made considerable merriment. A certain professor Martino was giving a gift show through this State, and having hard luck was obliged to leave part of his outfit in a certain town as security for his board bill. He reached Bloomington, where he held forth at " Schroeder's " and had advertised to give the " talking head " as his special attraction, in addi- tion to giving away 200 useful articles. He had an audience of about 2,000, but his tricks were bad, and their execution worse. Such bungling was never seen, yet the gifts smoothed over much of that, though they did not prevent some hissing at his bad effects. The attached sketch shows how he made up a talking head in a hurry to save his fortune. This was "caught on to " and greatly hissed at by the boys. h THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 85 Though the " Sphinx " pulled in his legs, the boys still hissed, till the police came in and stopped them. a Mart in o had a ~Z crowded house every night he showed, and a few days after along came Hartz, the most skillful performer living, but he drew only thirty- six people in the house. Such was the power of gifts in those days. Now it is changed and far more skill is required. " An illusion that has lately attracted considerable attention around dime museums has been that of the 'transparent Turk,' who was supposed to have been shot through the body, leaving a hole which could be seen through. This is simply an adaption of the old trick of looking through a brick. The person wears a large hollow belt under his clothes, with mirrors at right angles in each of the curves it makes, and an oval glass at each opening in front and back, the costume of a Turk being such that it easily con- ceals the openings and glasses. On this same princi- ple is the trick of running a sword through a person's body. The sword is of a very thin elastic steel, and the performer wears around his body a hollow metal belt, and if another person runs the sword through the performer it is usually one who understands how it is done, and pushes it against his breast, where the small opening guides it, and at the back the opening is so arranged that the point of the sword sticks straight out. The sketch explains it. 86 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Harry Kellar's trick that he makes the most of is purely an American inven- tion, but so old that, besides him- self, there are only two or three others traveling who make use of SWORD THROUGH BODY. it. It Was first taken to Europe from the States by the performer known some thirty or more years ago as Professor Stodare, who first showed the " Sphinx." Hartz used it a number of years ago, and now Kellar is using it constantly. It is the production of several large pots filled with flowers from an empty cone. Three bushes of flowers are usually produced. Conse- quently three small stands are on the stage, each one having a suspicious reminder of the past in magic, as each has fine drapery around it, reaching to within about a foot or more of the floor. Behind this drapery, and a little above the lower end of it, is a shelf on which rests the flower pot and flowers, covered with a cone. Each table is thus prepared, usually the first table having flowers and cone, the other two generally having the same, including the pot. The first pot is shown empty, and down through the cone is dropped a bud, which was held palmed in the hand. As attention is being called to this, the THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 87 performer drops the empty cone just shown down behind the table over the cone and brings all up inside the cone, stepping away from the table quickly over to the other one. The cone fits closely into the first one shown, and the fingers on the inside at the top of cone hold the inner one fast to- gether with the flowers, though these are usually kept in position by a thread slipped in a cut in the top of the cone. The flowers, or flowers and pot together, are allowed to drop out on top of the table from the cone, or into the pot as the case may be; and as soon as the cone is removed the hand naturally and carelessly drops down behind with it over another one on the shelf, and again the performer quickly walks over to another table and produces it. Thus he proceeds till all are produced. "To facilitate the picking up of the cones one after the other, and that no extra motions are neces- sary, the back of the top of each stand is cut out in crescent shape. This can not be observed by the audience. It follows, thus, that at the end of the trick the performer has four cones in his hand, one inside of the other. The flowers used are usually the best qualit} 7 of artificial ones, though Kellar keeps the trick very popular, and makes it very KELLAR S GROWTH OF FLOWERS. FRONT VIEW. 88 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. expensive, by always using real flowers, even in the midst of winter. This gives him a chance to kill a great deal of time, in cutting each one off of the fine wire on which it is fastened, in order that he may present them to the ladies. The two cuts show both front and rear views of the stands. The cone used is usually about four inches across the smaller end, eight inches across the wider end, and about sixteen inches long. The proportion of stands, flowers and cones as to size vary according to the size or height of the performer, many of whom use chairs instead of stands. The trick has not been pop- ular of late years, owing to the suspicious drapery." KELLAR'S GROWTH mi f 11 £ ' l of flowers. The following manner of intro- rear view, ducing the trick by that clever per- former, Prof. Samuels, has not been excelled by any professional. His stage being set for the trick, he comes on with a tambourine in one hand and a large wine bottle in the other. Placing the musical instrument on a chair, he pours out several glasses of wine from the bottle and gives them to the spectators, then places the bottle on a chair opposite the tambourine. His " patter " is about as follows : " Ladies and gentlemen : In calling your attention to these ordinary flower pots, containing nothing but mother earth, I would kindly request you to THE HERRMANNS AND HARRY KELLAR. 89 look at them in order to satisfy yourselves that they do not contain any internal mechanism. Now, although you have freely examined them, you have overlooked the principal element requisite for the performance of so mysterious an experiment as that of growing flowers from seed. Of course the seed is necessary ; it is at present completely hidden from view, being imbedded in the earth, awaiting the mysterious influence of magic to arouse its dormant germs to life. I have simply to cover it over for a few seconds with this perfectly empty paper cone, and while thus completely con (e) fined, magical ac- tion has taken place, and germination is the in- stantaneous result. Here you perceive the plant just sprouting from the earth; I have arrested its pro- gress in the first stage of its development in order to show it to you. I will continue the experiment and endeavor to produce the perfect plant. I will cover it as before to exclude all unnecessary action of light. I leave it a moment and then lift the cone and the plant is in sight. This production of fairyland I will leave here on this stand, while I attempt to pro- duce a rose tree in full bloom in the other pot. Light is absolutely unnecessary ; in fact, it would prove in this instance absolutely dangerous to the fine tex- ture of the plants developed by such spontaneous action ; hence I grow them in the shade. Wow, ladies and gentlemen, I will shed refulgent light on the subject by revealing to you this mysterious mag- ical creation. Sometimes when the atmospheric con- ditions are favorable I have no difficulty in produc- 90 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. ing a third growth of flowers, oh yes, here we have one already." With these concluding words he produces the last pot full of flowers ; then taking up the tambourine, it changes to a bouquet in his hands; and picking up the empty bottle, whirls it around in the air, and that too changes without leaving their sight into another fine bouquet. CHAPTER VI. HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. How to Hypnotize— The use of Confederates — The Kennedy Brothers— Robert Fulton's Experiments — " Professor John- son." The word " mesmerism," expresses the same mean- ing as now conveyed by " hypnotism." Mesmerism comes from the name of the originator, Mesmer, and "hypnotism" from a word meaning sleep. There are few scientists in this country who have investigated hypnotism as deeply and as continu- ously as some of the prominent ones of the old world. That there is something in it, some scientific men are ready to acknowledge. The career of Mes- mer is well known. After him the first persons among the English-speaking nations to call attention to it was the Englishman, Braid, to whom is due the first well-defined operative manual of hypnotism. He has been followed by scores of writers who have been more or less prominent. Of late the experi- ments of Charcot and his confreres in France and other European countries have attracted attention, and many finely illustrated articles and works on this subject have been issued in the past few years. 91 92 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. It is not our intention to go into the scientific details of what is claimed for hypnotism, but to explain the practical part of it and how it is being used. The first question usually asked by a person on being satisfied of the genuineness of mesmeric or hypnotic phenomena, is : " Can I mesmerize or hypnotize a person \ " The answer is in the affirma- tive. But just as the ability to play the piano well is possessed by but few, and just as only those gifted with a fine musical perception and opportunity for constant practice can hope to excel in that accom- plishment, in like manner are there only few who can attain to the higher development of the hypnotic power. A successful hypnotist must possess sound health, great concentration and a steady, firm voice and gaze. Faith in one's self is absolutely essential to success in hypnotism. Having obtained a willing subject, the operator places him in an easy position in a chair, his legs uncrossed, with both feet on the floor. Place in his hand a small coin, a button, or, what is most generally used, a circular piece of lead with a copper point in the center. Instruct the sub- ject to gaze at it attentively for several minutes. Another manner considered equally as good is to have the subject close his eyes and place his right fingers on his left wrist, telling him to count his pulse beats continuously. The object of this is to assist the hypnotizer by putting the subject into a quiet, passive condition. Do all possible to intro- duce a solemn, impressive and deliberate monotony. Speak firmly, authoritatively, and behave through- HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 93 out in a manner calculated to impress the subject with a profound idea of your power. All tendency to any frivolity, levity or jocularity must be rigor- ously repressed. Keep the subject steadily gazing at the object in his hand or counting his pulse as long as possible. Five minutes is the average time, but the longer the better. During this time you remain standing, silent, gazing steadily at the sub- ject. After three or four minutes have passed com- mence making the passes. These should be pre- viously practiced. Throw your hand in the direc- tion of the subject's forehead, as if dashing water in his face, and continue the passes downward, just below the chest. Practice will overcome the awk- ward, jerky and exhaustive passes common with beginners. In raising the hand to repeat the pass avoid turning the back of it toward the subject. This has a demagnetizing effect. Passes alone will not suffice; the will must accompany them. The mind must be centered on one object, namely, to close tightly the eyes of the subject, which he should be told to close before beginning the passes. After live minutes of this operation place your hand upon his forehead, passing the thumb lightly downward till it rests on the root of the nose. Eepeat this several times, increasing the pressure. The third or fourth time press the thumb rather hard, and in a firm, authoritative voice, say : " You can't open your eyes," willing at the same time that he shall not. If he open them, repeat the process of the passes till you succeed, which you will do sooner or later. 94 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. When you have been successful in fixing his eyes so that he can not open them, tell him to go to sleep, and continue making passes for some time to deepen your influence. Let him sleep for a few minutes, then awake him by a sharp slap on each shoulder, with the exclamation of "Awake!" and two or three upward passes. He is now in a fit state for phenomenal experiment. It should never be forgotten that the will must accompany the act. Amateurs, it is said, too often lose sight of this and are consequently puzzled and disheartened by finding themselves unable to pro- duce the results promised them. When once the subject has been thoroughly charged with the mes- merist's magnetism he is the victim of the sugges- tion and control of that will. The mesmerist places a stick in his hand, telling him it is a whip or a pencil, and willing strongly that the subject should see it as such. At first reason struggles against the obvious denial of facts, but ultimately the superior will becomes dominant, and the subject implicitly accepts the assertion, and sees whatever the mesmerist wills he shall see. The field of illusion here opened is inexhaustible. As the subject is a victim of suggestion, the mesmerizer can make him believe anything he pleases. To undo any effect or remove any impression pro- duced, the mesmerizer has only to make one or two upward passes and exclaim " Right," or any similar ejaculation. The experimentist must be prepared for all sorts of unexpected phenomena. The subject may develop hysterical symptoms — a HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 95 common thing with girls and women. Demagnetize them at once, awaken and speak to them firmly, even sharply. Other subjects sleep very heavily. If they are difficult to arouse, dispose them comfortably and safely and leave them to sleep off the effect. Two, six, or even twenty-four hours may be required, but in any case there is no cause for alarm so long as no other person is allowed to touch them. This should on no account be permitted. The person who induced the control can alone remove it. In bringing about any delusion on the mind of a mes- merized subject, it is necessary to command him with considerable authority. For example, it is desired to deprive him of his name. Make a pass or two down his face and in tones of authority say: ' You can not remember your name," willing strongly that he should not. Were you to begin by asking his name, the chances are that, unless you willed with great power, he would reply. Never attempt to mesmerize when you feel unwell or suffering from any disease, and do not allow your- self to be influenced by any one not in apparent good health. The higher phases of the phenomena should not be attempted until practical tuition or extensive theoretical knowledge has been obtained. The dangers of mesmerism are sufficiently great to be worth avoiding, but are not as great as the igno- rant and skeptical assert. A person in the mesmeric state can not be induced or made to do any act that would be repellant to him in the waking state. The state is one of artificially induced slumber or somnambulism, and just as one wakens from a bad 96 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. dream before the consummation of any terrible act so the horror of being directed to commit a crime would result in any moral person shaking off the con- trol of the mesmerist and awakening. It is not pos- sible, as some believe, to endow a mesmerized subject with attributes foreign to him ; but it is a demon- strable fact that a person will perform any act par- taking of the nature of an accomplishment much better when in a mesmeric state. For example : A speaker, nervous and stammering in the normal state, could be made to speak fluently while entranced ; a singer would sing his very best, and a pianist would transcend himself, if put to perform under mesmeric control. This may be explained by the removal of distracting influences and the deprivation of volition which impels them to act as required by the mes- merizer. When the person is under control as before men- tioned, he is only in what is known as a psycholog- ical condition, mesmerism or hypnotism being an advanced stage of it. In this the subject is easily operated upon and can not refrain from doing what he is told to do, as he is in that passive condition where his mind is controlled by what seems to him a more powerful one, and he feels an impulse to obey it which he can not withstand. It requires considerable experimenting to become a good operator, simple as it may seem. "When the person is under the influence of the operator he can then commence his experiments. Not only is the power of voluntary motion lost, but the senses of smell and taste are perverted. The performer can HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 97 * put the arms of the person hypnotized in motion and tell him he can not stop them, and he really can not. Tell him to walk the floor, and he is forced to do so until he is countermanded ; tell him to dance, and he dances ; to sing, and he sings ; to shout, and he shouts ; to run, and he runs. You can make him believe an onion is a most fragrant flower, or that water is eau de cologne ; he may be made to drink water and believe it has the sweetness of honey, the bitterness of wormwood, the delicacy of wine, the acidity of vinegar, or the emetic power of soapsuds. You change his identity and make him believe he is a woman and take a woman's manner and walk and tone ; you can convince him that a cane is a living snake ; that a chair is a ferocious animal ; that a handkerchief is a revolting reptile, or that a knife in his pocket is getting hot and burning a hole in it ; you can show him an old woman in rags, or a little boy or girl, and convince him that he has found his long-lost parent, and he will embrace them with the greatest fervency ; shut his mouth and he can not open it ; draw a chalk line on the floor and he can not cross it ; lay down a penny and make it too heavy for him, and he can not lift it. In fact, there is no end to the delusions you can make him believe in, many of these being devised by the will and inge- nuity of the performer. Many persons are very easy to put in this condition ; hence this is the reason that all prominent professors of this art now before the public carry w T ith them one or two subjects upon whom they work the most. When the psychological condition has been pro- 98 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. duced in an individual the mesmeric sleep can be brought on almost instantly. The mode by which it is done is this : The subject is seated upon a chair, and the operator passes the tips of his lingers over the subject's eyes, and requests him firmly " to go to sleep." It is usual to put the subject to sleep by passes made downward from his head, and to bring him out of the sleep by passes made upward ; or, mesmerism may be induced directly, in wiiich case all that is required is patience and a proper disposition in both parties. Let the subject sit down in the easiest and most comfortable position. The operator should be seated in front, and take a hand of the subject in each of his own, looking stead- fastly in the eyes of the latter, and allowing their feet and knees to come in contact. The room should not be too light and everything kept quiet. The subject should keep his eyes fixed on those of the operator and yield himself unreservedly to his influence. If this course is persevered in for from ten minutes to one hour, some effect will generally be observed in that time. As soon as the subject's eyes begin to close and he manifests symptoms of drowsiness, the operator should make downward passes over the forehead and temples of the subject and he will soon be sound asleep. If this effect is not produced at the first trial, daily sittings of one hour each will in time overcome the most obstinate disposition. In most subjects this sleep is simply quiet and no further experiments can be made while it continues. This deep sleep, known as the hypnotic sleep, is HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 99 used by practitioners with great success in the treat- ment of all nervous and mental diseases, the patient invariably awaking much refreshed We have thus described what believers in hypno- tism claim can be accomplished by it, and what startling results can be obtained by some of those who perform experiments with it. But just here we will say, in adding what is further claimed by hypnotists, that the power of mesmerizing persons, while it is possessed by only a few persons who un- derstand it well, may, it is averred, be cultivated to a considerable extent ; yet at the present time there are many so-called professors practicing this art who are not gifted with this power in the slightest degree. Nevertheless their performances upon the stage appear to an unenlightened audience to be bona tide in every respect. It is certain that public mesmerizers make use of confederates, who are thoroughly coached up into what is required of them to do, and they know how to act before they go on the stage. These subjects are known in the vernacular as "horses," and their services can be secured at a salary ranging from $5 per week upward. This particular style of selecting subjects has many disadvantages, the principal one being that some of these "horses" are apt to reveal to some of their friends, of course as a very great secret, that they were never mesmerized at all, but that they simply acted and did whatever they were instructed to do. Many alleged professors, through following this course of selecting their subjects, have many times 100 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. been subjected to rather unpleasant exposes. Of recent date some of these tricksters have astonished the scientific men of both continents with their so- called effects in hypnotism, while all their experi- ments have been accomplished by the use of "horses." The performances of these professionals are so much alike that the description of one will make all of them clear, and it will therefore suffice to describe and explain a series of experiments that have been introduced and performed by one of these alleged celebrated professors and his young lady medium. Their performance is certainly the most successful in this respect that has yet been introduced, and the spectators in every case are completely amazed and mystified, and even persons in the profession have been puzzled to decide as to whether the medium was really mesmerized or not, and their opinion is that if she was not in reality mesmerized then this pair of performers must take rank as the best per- formers that have ever appeared, as everything is done so exactly and in such complete unison with the other as to make the supposed mesmerism appear a reality. The performer, having explained to his audience the nature of the experiment with which he intends to commence the proceedings of the evening, brings forward his medium, introduces her to the audience, and then leads her to the chair placed in the center of the stage. Before proceeding further the mesmerizer requests two or more gentlemen from the audience to come forward upon the stage and to remain during the HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 101 various experiments that are to follow, and requests them to examine the chair upon which the young lady is seated to satisfy themselves that there is no apparatus concealed in any portion of it. After satisfying themselves of this the gentlemen are requested to seat themselves at each side of the stage. The performer now advances toward the medium and makes the usual passes as already described, and when she appears to be under the effect of mesmeric power he makes the motion with his right hand and the medium slowly opens her eyes, fixing them wide open upon vacancy. When she has her eyes fixed in that way the performer takes a wax match and, hav- ing lit it, holds it alight in front of each eye, which remains perfectly fixed and without the slightest movement or twinkling of an eyelid. The match is held before the eyes of the medium until it is burned out ; in fact, one Morton thus holds an entire box of blazing sulphur matches in front of his lady medi- um's eyes. The hypnotizer now shows a gentleman's gold scarfpin, which he hands to the two gentlemen on the stage to examine, and when it is handed back to him he slowly advances toward the medium and makes a motion with his right hand, and the medium, with her eyes fixed and without the slightest expression in them, slowly raises her left arm until it is brought in a straight line before her, and the performer, advancing slowly to her left side, passes his right hand two or three times slowly down her arm from her shoulder toward her hand ; now tak- 102 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. ing a firm hold of her wrist with his left hand, the performer exhibits the gold scarfpin and slowly drives it through the fleshy part of her arm until the pin is buried in the arm up to the head, the point of the pin projecting through the flesh beneath. During this operation the medium does not exhibit the slightest sign of pain, and not a muscle is seen to move, her eyes still having the same expression- less stare in them. The performer now beckons to the two gentlemen on the stage to come forward and satisfy themselves that the pin is in reality passed through the arm of the medium. When they have satisfied themselves of this, he beckons them to take their respective seats, and again passing his right hand down the arm of the medium two or three times, the performer takes hold of the scarfpin by the head and slowly draws it forth from the medium's arm, and after having done so, exhibits it to the audience. JSTo blood fol- lows the release of the pin. He now releases his hold of her arm, and, walking backward a few paces, he makes a slight motion with his right hand and the medium slowly lowers her left arm again until it hangs powerless by her side. Another movement of the right hand on the part of the performer and the medium slowly closes her eyes, when the performer advances in the manner before described and brings the medium again to the full use of her faculties. This experiment before being performed must be thoroughly practiced, because in the, first place it is very difficult to keep sufficient command over the muscles of the face, and to prevent any movement HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 103 of the eyelids, especially when a lighted match is held very close to the open eyes, but after practicing a few times the medium will not find it so difficult as it appears at first. Therefore when the medium has become proficient in this, she will have become able to exercise sufficient power over her nerves for other experiments which would be more trying still if she had not obtained a complete, mastery over her- self in order to prevent the slightest movement or contraction of muscles in any way. The experiment with the pin is to the spectators one of the most wonderful and marvelous that they have ever seen, because the pin used is an ordinary gold scarf pin, and is really forced through the arm. When it is forced through the fleshy part of the arm, however, no blood follows the apparent puncture of flesh, and neither does any blood flow after the pin is withdrawn. The secret of this marvelous feat is very simple when once known. Ladies are in the habit of hav- ing their ears pierced to enable them to wear ear- rings, and the secret of being able to force a breast- pin through the arm rests, therefore, in a nutshell. The arm of the lady medium is pierced through the fleshy portion in the same manner as a lady's ears would be pierced, but in this case the hole punctured is much larger. After the arm has been pierced a thick gold wire is passed through, projecting beyond each side, and this wire is kept in the flesh until the puncture has thoroughly healed. It is necessary, however, to oil the wire occasionally and to move it through the punctured hole several times, to pre- 104 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. vent the flesh from contracting too tightly around the wire in healing. When the hole is thoroughly healed it is necessary to pass the wire occasionally, well oiled, through the punctured place to prevent its closing and to allow of a scarf pin being passed through the hole at any time. Professor Donati, now showing in this country, places particular stress upon this part of his hypnotic experiments, wherein he states that the lady, being in a cataleptic condition, can be made to sustain her body horizontally, and a heavy weight also. He then places her extended body on the back of two chairs, one being under her shoulders and the other under her feet. He then seats himself on her body and swings back and forth. This is also a trick, as the lady wears a corset of steel, similar to the old Aerial suspension now so well known. This supports her body entirely in a horizontal position, and it is so arranged with sockets and joints that she walks about with ease. This is being done in side-shows around the country as an experiment in hypnotism, but was first introduced some ten years ago in Europe as a test of the same. There are many other and more remarkable tests in this so-called mysterious power of hypnotism that are introduced by traveling professors. The most mysterious effects can be obtained from professionals who have made it a study to invent experiments which now interest audiences more than ordinary tricks. The present price of the most com- plete system is now held at from $200 to $300 by gentlemen having the same for sale. Of course this. HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 105 requires a great deal of study and application, which, however, performers are not willing to attempt, hence they resort to the use of " horses." One of the most noted subjects of this kind was formerly known as H. M. Robinson. Many will remember what a sensation was created in Chicago some years ago, when Robinson came to the front and acknowl- edged that he was a " horse " and that for the sake of a few dollars per week, which by the way had not been paid him, he allowed himself to be prodded with needles, burned with lighted cigars, have cay- enne pepper thrown in his eyes, swallow the bitter- est drugs and submit to all sorts of torture without a tremor. Not finding this a successful business experiment he resumed his role of a conjurer. Many will also remember Dr. Chas. G. Davis, of this city, who was censured by the Chicago Medical Society for introducing before them several u horse " subjects, believing that he could really hypnotize them. Dr. Davis was sincere in his belief, but had not had the experience to see that he was imposed upon by these " horses." About this time the Kennedy Bros, were coming to the front as hypnotists. They also failed in estab- lishing their proof as such before the medical gen- tlemen of Chicago. Nevertheless they are on the road traveling and meeting with much success. One of them is at present reaping a good harvest in England. Some years ago there was quite a prominent millinery establishment in the Palmer House on State street, Chicago, the presiding genius of which 106 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. was Mrs. Fulton. She had a bright and lively son named Robert. He was formerly an usher at the Columbia Theatre, afterward going out as treasurer of the Night Owls Company, and is, no doubt, still on the road. One of the first tours he made was with a company who carried a mesmerist as the principal attraction. It occurred in southern Indiana, where the temperance drinks served were too strong for the mesmerist, and as the time for the entertain- ment approached it was noticed that he would be in no condition to appear on the stage. Along with the company, in the capacity of property man, was a colored man, who was also the mesmerist's " horse." Robert had surmised, as he expressed it, that the whole thing was a fake, and decided to test it. He hunted up the darky and said: " Here, John, the old man is sick and can't perform his act to-night. You and I have got to do the business. Stand up and let me see you go through it." And Robert, taking an onion from his pocket, said : " Here is an apple, eat it," which the darky proceeded to do with great gusto, declaring it a very good apple. Robert then continued, " Here is a piece of candy, eat that," handing him a tallow candle, which the darky also ate with relish. Robert stopped here, telling the darky that was enough ; he was satisfied he could do his act all right. While Dr. Davis may think that he was handled without gloves, he can now have the satisfaction of knowing that some of his co-laborers have been duped worse than he was. An operator known as Professor Johnson, a schoolmate of the HYPNOTISTS AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS. 107 Kennedy brothers, and Eobert Fulton, previously mentioned, commenced his career in Chicago and has flashed from one end of this country to the other as a shining light in mesmerism. He is the only man living, as he expresses it, that went before an assemblage of physicians and mesmerized himself into a cataleptic condition. While in this condition he was cut and tortured worse than " horses" usually are. For instance : A needle and thread was drawn through the skin on the back of his hand, which was then sewed to his lips and nose. Though severe tests were made on him, he appar- ently suffered no pain whatever, and a close observer could not tell but what he was in a perfect catalep- tic state. After a short time he came to and stated that he had no recollection of what had occurred. Now the fact is that this man was not mesmerized at all, and was not in a cataleptic state. He felt the pain just as any other mortal would. He has repeatedly made the following statement : " I have done what no other living man has done ; I have gone before a college of physicians and put myself in a cataleptic condition and allowed them to cut, torture and sew me up. Look at my arms ; they are masses of scars, every one of which I have felt just as much as any other person would. What have I done this for ? For nothing but fame and money, both of which I have made." CHAPTER VII. MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. J. Randall Brown — Washington Irving Bishop — Stuart Cumber- land—How to Become a Mind-reader — Seymour—Paul Alex- ander Johnstone — Remarkable " Test" by SidMacaire — Lucy de Gentry, Her Quick Success — An Aspiring Amateur's Pre- dicament. Mind-reading began its career in Chicago. The sensation produced by it was astonishing, and it has not yet " had its day." It has not only puzzled the minds of every-day people of the world, but has also engaged the attention of scholars, scientific men, statesmen, and even crowned heads. The first per- son who made any display of it was J. Randall Brown. He became a monomaniac on the subject, experimenting with all his acquaintances, and in- forming them of the many wonderful things he could do, till they began to think he was " pos- sessed," as some of them expressed it. Brown's first public success, and that which caused him to adopt mind-reading as a profession, was, strange to say, on a wager which he made with an old and well- known resident of Chicago. He made a bet that he could find a pin, no matter where it was concealed, stipulating only that it should be within walking dis- 108 MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 109 tance. After considerable speculation as to where the hiding-place should be, the gentleman concealed the pin beneath one of the rugs in front of the Sherman House. Brown was blindfolded, took his friend's hand, and, after wandering about, led him directly to the spot, much to the man's surprise, as well as to the depletion of his pocket-book. Brown, feeling assured of success, now started out profes- sionally. He made a tour of the States, creating great astonishment, and coining both notoriety and money. His success was unprecedented, but he could not stand prosperity. He fell from public notice, being physically incapacitated for a considerable time from following up his profession. About four or five years ago he resumed the stage, and since then has been traveling about, giving much the same entertainment as formerly. Washington Irving Bishop traveled with Brown for some time as assistant, and finally discovering how the trick was done was shrewd enough to go abroad where it had not yet been introduced. For a person having no credentials whatever, and no means, Bishop created a most astonishing sensation. He required an assistant, and secured the services of a bright youth named Charles Garner, who, like Bishop, was well posted in anti-spiritualistic per- formances. Like his employer, Garner was an assistant but a short time until he also became master of the art, taking it at once to the continent, where, under the name of Stuart Cumberland, he, too, made a great success. The public exploits of these two gentlemen are well known. Their careers 110 MODERN MAGTCIANS AND THEIR WORKS. have attracted the attention of many scientific men, and much speculation has been made as to the cause and effect of their tests. The pursuit of mind-reading as a profession (such is the claim put forth) does not affect the nervous system any more than any other intellectual calling, in fact not as much. Although circulars of promi- nent mind-readers are, in very large part, exaggera- tions of the possibilities of their performance, and such as are probably beyond the power of man to accomplish, nevertheless, the work may be varied in form as indefinitely as the performer's brain is fertile of invention. The one essential condition which is to be impressed unmistakably upon those who take part in the performance, is that the person to be led to the secreted article must concentrate his mind upon the place where the article is hidden, until that place has been reached by the mind- reader and himself, and then upon the article itself. This mental concentration is required as constantly as possible to the end. If the mind-reader fails, the fault lies with the subject, for he must succeed, it is claimed, if the subject fairly complies with this single condition. There may occasionally be found an individual incapable of prolonged or even brief mental concentration, because of great trouble, loss of fortune, or ill health. Such subjects are alwa} 7 s to be avoided if possible, as the accomplishment of the trick with them is exceedingly improbable, if not altogether impossible. It follows then that the best minds available should alwavs be chosen. The mind-reader has then noth- MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. Ill ing to do but to establish physical contact between himself and his subject, and, after starting a motion of his body in any direction, quietly surrender him- self to the involuntary muscular leading of his sub- ject, when he will find himself led unconsciously to the proper place. Almost any physical contact will be sufficient, although Brown's method of placing the back of the subject's hand to his forehead is probably the best, because the most impressive. When you have the back of the subject's hand to your forehead, start a swaying motion around and go in the direction you find it easiest for the subject and yourself to move; go and you will be led to the place. If you lead him in a different direction to the one he is thinking of, you will find more resistance to moving him or his hand. To'be blindfolded is not essential, although helpful, because it presents the appearance of render- ing the work of the mind-reader more difficult, while it really assists him in being passive to the leadings of his subject, as it shuts out from his mind all exterior detractions. The body of any and every person has always an inclination, more or less strong, in the directions of the thoughts of the mind, more especially so if the body is in motion. For instance, if you think of an object on your right, accompanying that thought will be a slight motion of the body in the same direction. Then place your mind upon some other object in the opposite direc- tion, and over will go the body accordingly. This natural law of mutual dependence between mind and matter — or habit of harmony of action 112 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. between the brain and body, of man or beast — is, it is claimed, the whole secret of mind-reading. It fol- lows that all the mind-reader has to do is simply to observe carefully the actions of the muscles of his subject's hand against his forehead, and follow in the direction indicated by the subject's muscles, and he will find himself led unmistakably toward the place upon which the subject's mind is concentrated. Having reached the place, the mind-reader will feel around with one hand until the secreted article is found, and as soon as his hand touches it — although he has no previous knowledge of its nature — he will recognize it instinctively, for the subject has uncon- sciously imparted such information by the relaxa- tion of his muscles. As mind is indivisible; or, in other words, as it is impossible for a person's mind to be in two places at the same time, it is plainly to be seen that if the subject honestly concentrates his mind upon the article hidden, he can not discover the fact that he is leading the so-called mind-reader, instead of being led himself. It is obvious from the foregoing explanation, that instead of the mind- reader being the operator and leading the subject, as is generally supposed, he is himself led by the sub- ject : hence, the mind-reader is the subject, and the subject the operator. To sum it all up, the mind- reader " must follow the least resistance." The tricks of mind-reading are too numerous and varied to be mentioned in this connection, but we will give the leading ones: (1) The finding of a concealed article, usually a pin. (2) The finding of a person thought of. (3) The imaginary murder ; MIND-RE ADEKS AND THEIR TRICKS. 113 a number of knives are laid on the table, and are considered instruments of death. Any person selects any one of the knives, and with it kills, in his mind, one of the audience ; then conceals the knife and the body, the latter imaginary of course. The mind-reader first finds the murderer, then the knife, then the party supposed to have been killed, and whether it was a thrust or a slash, then the place where the body was to be concealed. (4) The love- token, very popular with the ladies. A young man thinks of a handsome lady present to whom he would present a bouquet as a token of love. The mind-reader takes the bouquet in his hand, and finds the lady, to whom he presents it. (5) The game of chess. Two gentlemen are seated at a table to play chess; one of them actually plays, the mind-reader guesses the play of the other ; that is, he takes and places the men the other only thought of. A very fine experiment. (6) The living picture or tableau. Several ladies and gentlemen form a tableau, all in different or grotesque positions, and then resume their seats. The mind-reader finds each person in the order they were called, and places each one in the same position they were before, forming the tab- leau perfectly. (7) The finding any number thought of, usually of a bank-note. The mind-reader holds in his right hand a piece of chalk, and the person who knows the number places his or her right hand on the right hand of the mind-reader, thinks first of the first number or figure of the series, and the mind- reader writes thus the first figure on the blackboard, and so on till the full number is written. The hand 114 MODERN MAGICIANS AJSTD THEIR WORKS. of the mind-reader is guided entirely by the hand of the subject. (8) Drawing. A painter thinks of an animal, and the mind-reader draws an outline of the same. The principle is the same as writing a num- ber thought of. (9) To find things placed on a table or to select a small object from a large number of objects. The mind-reader places the finger tips of the left hand of the subject on the finger tips of his right hand, moves them thus connected to and fro over the articles. The mind-reader can be blind- folded. When the hand is over the article thought of, the mind-reader feels a strong pulsation in the finger tips of the subject, and this is always a proof that the article is the one thought of. These are, generally, the first "tests" used by beginners. Of course there are many others, such as the tracing of a route on a map, the driving of a pair of horses to find an article, the spelling of names, all depending on the ingenuity of the mind-reader in devis- ing them. In all cases some kind of contact between the operator and the subject must exist. The con nection by a wire is quite sufficient in many " tests" for an expert, it is declared, but does not prove satis- factory to a beginner. The statement which is sometimes made that mind-reading can be used in detecting crime, is, of course, preposterous, even though there is in "mind transference " all that has been claimed; for where is there a criminal that will comply with the required conditions? It has been suggested that mesmerism has something to do with mind-reading ; and even some " second-sight " art- ists in the United States bill themselves as mind- readers. MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 115 Brown, the originator of mind-reading, has had many imitators. Few of them, however, have achieved notoriety. One by the name of Seymour met with success in museums and variety theatres. He had the assurance, however, to claim that he originated mind-reading and had practiced it before Brown. The latest " Kichmond in the field " of mind-read- ing is Paul Alexander Johnstone, formerly of Chi- cago, but lately a resident of St. Paul. He shows self-possession by attempting feats tried only by those who have had considerable experience. His most notable performances have thus far been given in Chicago. First, he successfully accomplished, as he claims, the feat of driving, blindfolded so as to be wholly unable to see, through the streets from one hotel to another ; then, still blindfolded, he found in a register a page thought of by a committee, finishing the "test" by writing the name. After- wards, he gave an entertainment in Central Music Hall in that city, where he opened a combination safe which had been loaned by the proprietors of a prominent hotel. Only two persons, it is declared, knew the combination of the safe, one of them being Johnstone's subject. An account in the Chicago Tribune, sl short time afterwards, has this to say of Johnstone : "If Paul Alexander Johnstone is not a fraud he is a most remarkable young man. If he is a fraud, some of the smartest people in Chicago will feel sheepish to-day when they know they have been deceived by a trick as transparent as the mohair 116 MODEEN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. hood which Dr. Charles Gatchell asserts Johnstone peered through when he made his famous trip in the downtown streets September 10. Dr. Gatchell is a well-known physician and is editor of the Medical Era of this city. He occupies the chair of the theory and practice of medicine at the University of Michigan and is a confirmed materialist. He doesn't believe in mind-reading or thought transference. It was an unlucky day for Johnstone when Dr. Gatchell got on his trail. Dr. Gatchell followed him in his trip through the streets and was confident the alleged mind- reading was fraudulent. He had no way of proving it, though, till he met Dr. G. F. Butler, a lecturer at Eush Med- ical College, whose office is at No. 240 Wabash ave- nue. Dr. Butler was a member of the committee which accompanied Johnstone, and he had his sus- picions. When he had talked with Dr. Gatchell and the two doctors had experimented a little, they learned, as they think, the secret of the tricks by which Johnstone deluded the public and gathered more money in a month than most men make in a year. A week ago last Saturday Dr. Gatchell broke up Johnstone's performance at Central Music Hall and yesterday he showed a Tribune reporter how the young man from St. Paul does the trick. He did it more easily and better than Johnstone had done it, and he used neither whisky nor hysterics to help him out. The Tribune reporter and Dr. Butler composed the committee which tested Dr. Gatchell in his MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 117 rooms at No. 235 Michigan avenue yesterday morn- ing. ' I will imagine I am Johnstone,' he said. Then he snapped his fingers and stamped and sweated just as Johnstone did. 'Put these gloves over my eyes. Now tie them tightly with this handkerchief. I want the gloves to be near the optic nerve. That's right. Higher, a little. Now .try this hood on and tell me if you can see through it.' The hood was a double thickness of black cloth, and only a faint light came through its meshes. The reporter said he couldn't see, and the doctor, still imitating Johnstone, drew the hood over his own head. ' Pick out a word in the Century Magazine and remember the page. 5 The committee chose the word ' ignorant.' 'Now take a trip through the hall and down- stairs. Remember the directions and the number of steps you take.' The committee went out, turned to the right a few yards, came back, went down-stairs eight steps, and returned to the room. ' Stand against that wall,' Dr. Gatchell said to the reporter. Then to Dr. Butler : ' Trace in the air the directions you took. Now the number of steps. Now the page in the magazine and the word you selected.' Dr. Butler did all this because he was the man who made the tracings for Johnstone. When he had finished, Dr. Gatchell seized one hand, the reporter took the other, and the three men galloped 118 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. into the hall. Dr. Gatchell dragged the committee to the right, back again, down eight stairs, up eight stairs, and into the room. Then he called for whisky because Johnstone had called for it. Unlike John- stone, he didn't drink it. ' Pencil and paper ! ' he shouted. The pencil and paper were furnished. The doc- tor bent over the book and ran through the pages, shouting, meantime : ' Give me air.' ' Why don't you keep your minds concentrated ? ' ' Whisky. No; hold on, boys, I don't want any.' When he reached the page he stopped and said : ' Your minds are off the subject. Why don't you say this is the page? ' 'It is,' said the committee. Then the doctor snapped his fingers some more and fainted once to give verisimilitude to the imitation and finally wrote a word on the paper. The word was 'ignorant.' The imitation had been successful. The hood had been examined as closely as it was examined by the committee at the Auditorium Hotel. Dr. Butler had made all the test conditions that have ever been enforced at Johnstone's exhibitions. At least one of the committee never thought of the word once after the fun began ; yet Dr. Gatchell had not only picked one word out of forty, but one out of 400 or 500. Then he sat down and laughed. ' Would you like to know how it is done ? ' he said. ' Look at these two gloves. You see I fold them and place them against my eyes. That is John- stone's first deceit. It looks like an additional safe- guard against fraud, but he couldn't read a mind MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 119 without it. Tie this handkerchief about my head. Tie it as tight as you can and knot it above my ears. Johnstone always tells you to tie it tight, and that seems like another safeguard. Without it he couldn't do his trick.' The doctor's eyes were apparently bandaged securely, the strain of the handkerchief falling on that part of the glove which rested against his contracted eyebrows. "When he raised the brow, up went the bandage and the twinkling eyes peering out under the gloyes saw everything in the room. * Now,' he said, 'look at this hood.' With a quick motion of his hands he yanked the hood apart and drew the outer cover over the reporter's head. The cloth was mohair and as transparent as the street veils women wear. The committeeman took off the mohair and tried on the outer hood. It was thick broadcloth and as difficult to see through as a board. ' Wait,' cried the doctor. He pulled the strings that secure the hood around the neck, and lo ! the front seam opened wide. That was all there was of it. The apparently supernatural feat of mind-read- ing became as simple as the commonest parlor trick. There was nothing occult about it. Anybody can be a P. Alexander Johnstone so long as the side- show draws crowds and green goods are for sale. ' I have been led to expose this trickery,' said Dr. Gatchell, ' because this man is unseating the faith of the people. Bishop was as bad but no worse than Johnstone. I am surprised that the intelligent, cynical men of the world who saw him drive through 120 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. the streets and pick out the name in the register were taken in so easily. I examined this hood at Central Music Hall and found it was double. I did not have an opportunity to look for the aperture, but I am confident I have reproduced the garment he wore when I saw him. When he tested the Audi- torium committee he made one of the members trace the route before he left.' 'I did that,' said Dr. Butler, 'and I want to tell you something in connection with it. When we drove over the route first we went to Monroe street. I made a mistake when I traced and drew " two and one-half blocks north," instead of three and one-half. That threw him off, and, although I kept my mind firmly fixed on Monroe street and he claimed to read my thoughts, he turned on Adams street. That was what first made me suspicious.' 'He watched the tracing through the aperture in the inner hood,' Dr. Gatchell continued. ' Then he made the committee trace the name and date chosen in the Grand Pacific Hotel, and he was ready. Did you notice how he drove % He stood with his back bent and his head thrust forward. He could see in the broad light of the afternoon every bit as well as you can, and you could have driven as he did. When he reached the hotel he asked to be sent to a room. He remained there alone for five minutes, and when he came down-stairs his hood was gone. He said he needed fresh air. Maybe he did, but the coincidence is strange that the office of the Grand Pacific Hotel is so dark that one can not read in it through a mohair mask. When he had turned the leaves to MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 121 the date Aug. 25, with his eyes close to the book as I held mine, he found the name J. G. Butler, Jr., which had been selected for the test, and wrote it on a piece of paper.' 'The 4 ' Jr." wasn't in my mind at all,' said Dr. Butler. ' When he went home,' Dr. Gatchell resumed, ( he had what looked like congestion of the brain. I am satisfied from the symptoms described to me that he had nothing but hysteria and whisky — the kind of hysteria a woman gets when she wants to frighten her husband into buying a new bonnet for her: the kind of whisky they sell at the bar of the Grand Pacific Hotel. His pulse was higher. That was the whisky. My pulse is over 100 at this moment from the exercise I have taken. 4 1 propose to show this man up as a trickster, and to do this I will make these offers : I will pay to him $500, or I will hand it over to a charitable institu- tion, if he repeats the performance of Sept. 10 and lets me do the blindfolding. Or, if he will repeat the performance, I will do it after him with the same committee or forfeit to him $500. Or I will forfeit $500 if he will "read" a single word in my mind under simple test conditions. I don't know how he opened the safe. I can only explain and repeat what I have seen him do.' The doctor left at the Tribime office a certified check for $500. Whenever Mr. Johnstone wants to make the trial, Dr. Gatchell will write a name on the back of the check and pin the check to the wall. Then, if Paul Alexander Johnstone writes the name 122 MODERN MAGICIANS AJSD THEIR WORKS. on another piece of paper Paul Alexander can take the check and place it in his waistcoat pocket. A reporter tried to bring the ' mind-reader ' to the Tribune office yesterday. Mr. Johnstone looked as healthy as a farmer's boy. When told of the test proposed his health began to fail. First he wouldn't come for money. 'Hundreds have offered me $1,000 bills if I could tell the number of the bills,' he said. 'I always gave the number and refused the money.' ( Where were these offers made % ' ' O, I don't remember exactly, they were so frequent.' 'Can you name one town of the hundred \ ' 'Let me see. I think one place was Appleton, Wisconsin. No, I'm not sure of that either.' When it was suggested that the matter of money be waived he pleaded the absence from town of his manager, Gooding, and when that obstacle was bat- tered down with argument he said he was too sick to work. While he talked he grew worse, and when the interview ended he looked as if he needed a doctor's care. He said Gooding had his hood and his bandages. Johnstone has made a great deal of money by his performances. He was patronized by the Press Club and he was taken up by the Union Club and many societies to his great pecuniary advantage. His last show was before the Union Club, and the wealthy young men of that organization were spell- bound by his phenomenal feats of mind-reading." As a sequel to this, we give the following from MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 123 the columns of the Chicago Evening Journal of a few days later : " The doctor who has been 'exposing' Johnstone, the mind-reader, walked up to the clerk's desk at the Wellington Hotel this morning, carefully placed his satchel, overcoat and umbrella on the desk, hung his crooked cane on the register and said to the clerk : 1 My name is Dr. .' ' Suite of three or five rooms? ' asked the obliging clerk. 'JSo; I don't want to register; but I would like to ask you a few questions,' said the doctor. The clerk resigned himself to his fate, and the doctor leaned over the desk and asked in a very confidential manner : 'That safe-opening puzzles me. Did Johnstone open that safe on the square, and — ' ' You have stated in the papers,' replied the clerk, 'that you could perform the tricks or feats that Johnstone did. Now, I do not undertake to say anything about his driving through the streets blindfolded; but if you will open that safe as John- stone did, we will give you $1,000. At the time no one knew the combination of the safe excepting myself and the proprietor ; we will agree to keep our minds centered upon the combination as we did then, and if you can so influence our minds, or read them, learn the combination and open the safe, you can take out and keep the first $1,000 you lay your hands upon, and we guarantee that the money is there.' That settled tlie doubter," 124 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Quite a remarkable "test" was once made by Sid. Macaire, formerly of Chicago, but now quite a prominent conjurer in Dublin, Ireland. When practicing mind-reading, he gave a trunk key to a gentleman to hide. It took place at a private house. The subject took the key and disappeared through the rear door of the house. On his return, Macaire took his hand, after having himself blindfolded, and led the man out of the house into the yard, back again into the basement of the house, then into the laundry, where the domestic was getting out the family washing, then up to the tub, at which she was at work ; down into the dirty water went his hand, and the key was found at the bottom of the tub, underneath the clothes. Ladies, owing to their delicacy of touch, make excellent mind-reading operators. None of them have become prominent in the conjuring profession in the United States, but a number have abroad. This chapter would be incomplete without men- ion of Miss Lucy de Gentry, who has attracted more attention as a mind-reader than any other lady. She is originally from Eussia, and has created quite, a sensation throughout Europe, as she not only performed the same experiments that Bishop and Cumberland did, but she did them much quicker and with more brilliant success. She differs very materially from these opera- tors, by her quiet and distinguished appearance in her experiments. Her presence, compared with the extreme nervousness of the gentlemen just men- tioned above, is very striking, as their nervous MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 125 condition which they assumed to a great degree often left a painful impression on their audiences. In her entertainments she would generally take hold LUCY DE GENTRY. of any small object, the other end of which was held by the medium ; for instance, she would use a handkerchief or a ruler ; this is similar to some of 126 MODEEN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. the original methods used by Brown, who very often separated himself from the medium by a short piece of stiff wire. A (i test "which she executed very quickly took place in Vienna. A handkerchief was tied around her wrist — she being blindfolded — and a gentleman who had fixed his thoughts on a certain flower in a large basketful on the table took hold of the other end of the handkerchief, and she very quickly picked out the flower he had thought of. A comical performance took place in Dublin a few years ago. The particulars are given by Sid. Macaire : "After a very successful engagement of Mr. Bishop, at the Ancient Concert Booms, an aspiring amateur (who hid his light under the bushel when writing to the daily papers scathing and, I may add, nonsensical letters, under a nom de plume, antago- nistic to Mr. Bishop's performances) proposed to reproduce the experiments — not, however, by muscle- reading, but deception. A hall was engaged — the night for experimenting came — and the would-be exponent appeared behind the foot-lights' glare in faultless attire. A test was : Finding the pin. The pin was hidden. He searched — high up and low down — here, there, and every- where — but without success; when the concealer suggested to the experimenter to sit down and he would surely find it. He did sit down — and he found it ! ! — for it was bent and stuck in the seat of the chair, after the style most amusing to school- boys — and when the gentleman in question felt the point of the joke he had not seen, he bounded into MIND-READERS AND THEIR TRICKS. 127 the air with three good war-whoops — a sanguinary yell, which invoked blessings on the man that invented pins — and evolutions that convulsed the audience from the celestials to the foot-lights." Moral : Never profess ability to do what you can not achieve. CHAPTER VIII. INSTANTANEOUS MEMORIZATION. The Art of Memory — Instantaneous Memorization made use of by Patrizio — Effects produced by Hatton and Ro berth. " The Art of Memory (Mnemotechny) is," says one who has given much thought to the subject, " the producing of classified mind impressions ; or, scientifically, it is the doctrine of the principles of this art. By classified mind impressions, we mean, to treat ideas in such a way that, at any time, we can voluntarily be conscious of one or all of them. Thus the Art of Memory can be applied to alJ ideas, or conceptions, for which we have words, or at least such signs, like numbers, which can be translated into words. " In order to explain our system, let us look first at some of the remarkable memories of the past. According to Xenophon, Cyrus knew all of his cap- tains by their proper names, though later Pliny and Quintilian exaggerated this fact into the belief that he knew the names of all his soldiers. It is said of Scipio that he knew the names of every Roman citizen. Mithridates, a King over twenty-two Nations, held court in as many tongues. Cy neas, sent to the Romans by King Pyrrhus, learned in one day the names of all 128 INSTANTANEOUS MEMORIZATION. 129 the members of the senate, and of all Romans who had gathered around it. Hortensius recited all the prices obtained at an auction. Justus Lipsius offered to recite Tacitus, word for word, a person standing near him with a naked dagger ready to stab him should he miss one word. The learned Venetian lady, Modesta Pozzo, named Moderata Fonsa, could repeat word for word any sermon she had heard. Brendel, a physician and surgeon at the University of Goettingen, and known as a learned man, could recite the whole iEneid, forward and backward. Who has not read of Zacharias Dase, the king of mental arithmeticians? His feats of memory were confined to numbers, but in them they were almost miraculous. All of these persons had a natural, innate memory. " Now the question arises, can a memory which lacks the above natural advantages acquire them through art? This is the important problem which Mnemotechny in its earlier attempts has solved but incompletely. In its present form, however, it solves this problem to a high degree. Being the art of mind-impressions derived from the first condition and principles of memory, it teaches to submit to a voluntary repetition, separately or jointly, all ideas which are or can be represented by words. Before proceeding further, the question may arise, how far we can speak of a history of memory. A proper or general art of memory not having been known, we can only speak of its history in so far as what we understand by Mnemotechny as really deserving this name. As far back as history shows 130 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. there were two methods. The ancient one con- nected the picture of what was to be remembered with a locality; the modern which gives all concep- tions to be remembered only as ideas. In order to distinguish one from the other, and both from the real or general art of memory, we shall call the first, which locates, the locating method ; the latter, which reflects only, the reflecting method. The poet Simonides, born B. C. 469, is supposed to have been the first to connect a conception, with a locality, in order to impress it on the mind. Pythagoras, a con- temporary of the poet Simonides, had perhaps known the first beginning of memory even earlier than Simonides ; he taught it, and is supposed to have derived the knowledge from Hindoo sources, and to have spent some time in Egypt. Hieroglyphics, from which there is only one step to Mnemotechny, were known in Egypt in the earliest ages. The follow- ers of Pythagoras were not satisfied to remember the events of one or more preceding days, but they tried, following the advice of their preceptor, to trace them in the order they had occurred. " A fragment left by Mimas, one of the followers of Pythagoras, speaks of the great importance of the science of remembering. First, concentrate and exert your mind ; secondly, repeat often to yourself what you have heard ; third, put into pictures what you have heard — for instance, instead of the glow- worm, put fire and lustre ; instead of valor, put Achilles and Mars. During the middle ages, we have very little trace of the knowledge of memory. Under Charles the Great, it was unknown. It came INSTANTANEOUS MEMORIZATION. 131 to light again in the time of the great scholar, Koger Bacon. He wrote a special treatise on memory, which was never printed, and is still to be found in manuscript at Oxford. In the middle of the Four- teenth Century memory was revived in the flourish- ing universities and colleges, through the renewed interest in study, and the increase of literary inter- course. "The celebrated Aim£, of Paris, was the first scholar of the present century to call particular attention to the method known as the ' reflecting method.' He was followed by the Portugese broth- ers, de Castilho; and in Germany by Carl Otto Revent- low, a Dane, who issued a manual on Mnemotechny. "Vincent Scherzel, the Bohemian Mezzofanti, gives us, in his polyglot lectures, most interesting information about the easiest and quick way to learn languages. He began his explanations by singling out the different sounds in the different tongues, and showed that almost every one of our sounds is lack- ing in one language or another. For instance, the Chinese have no R, the Japanese no L, the Tahitian no S, and so on. The roots of the Hottentot lan- guage consist of only four singular inarticulated smacking sounds. During Scherzel's lectures in Germany he showed on a blackboard how the dif- ferent nations using different letters wrote down their thoughts. He wrote as required, either with the right or left hand, showing at the same time that the letters written with the right hand can also be written with the left, and vice versa. He was vig- orously applauded when he began to write with both 132 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. hands at once. In this way he wrote first to the right, then the same to the left, then with the left hand to the left, and with the right hand at the same time to the right ; then he used the so-called mirror writing; that is, reversed, writing with left hand to the right in a horizontal line, and with the right also in a horizontal line, but upside down. It was wonderful to see him write Chinese, in presence of one well versed in that language; then Arabic, reversed, and then to see him stenograph with both hands moving toward one another and from each other. The third number of his programme is well worthy of our consideration, namely, how to pre- serve and strengthen memory in general and lan- guage memory in particular. The question whether memory is innate, he answered thus : * To have a sharp and faithful memory, we must learn it as we learn to write. ' " As far as the difficulty of learning Foreign lan- guage is concerned, it lies, according to Scherzel, not in the lack of memory, but mostly in the lack of desire to learn them. One language we do not wish to study because it is too easy ; another because it is too hard. We are, however, mistaken, for those seeming too easy ; that is, those that are related to our mother tongue are the more difficult, if we wish to speak them correctly. "With love for the study we can learn a Foreign language in a remarkably short time, if we note, besides the most import- ant rules, only the most necessary words ; in most languages 2,000, or at the most 3,000, even in languages which count 20,000 to 30,000 INSTANTANEOUS MEMORIZATION. 133 words. These 2,000 to 3,000 words are quite sufficient for any everyday conversation, the other words are only unnecessary ballast to the memor}\ Scherzel closes his lectures with an interesting dis- course in not less than thirty different? languages." *The trick of Instantaneous Memorization has been performed during the past twenty-five years by a number of leading conjurers. The first one to make use of it in the United States was Patrizio, now traveling in Spanish America. Mr. Hatton, of Brooklyn, employs it with fine effect in his programme of Mental Phenomena. Prof. Bobertb, of Germany, made quite a success with it a few years ago, and he no doubt developed it to a much greater degree than any other performer. The following feat of the conjurer has caused considerable speculation. It is to run over or look through a pack of cards only twice and at once tell which card of the pack has been removed and secreted. It is only necessary to add quickly and correctly. Counting the spots on the cards, the ace as one, the Jack eleven, the Queen twelve, the King thirteen, and the others as they are ; there are 364 spots in a pack of fifty-two cards. Any person can take the pack, shuffle them and draw out a card, handing you the pack, which, as soon as you receive, run over rapidly in your hands, adding up the spots on every card ; if the pack consists of fifty-two cards, deduct the sum from 364; if it is a Euchre pack, deduct the sum of all the points from 284 ; the result gives the number of spots the selected card has. * See Appendix, Note 1. 134 . MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Now to ascertain the color of the card, go once more through the entire pack and notice which suit lacks the missing card or number, thus revealing the card to you. Suppose the nine of hearts is taken from a pack of fifty -two cards, the remaining fifty- one cards will add up 355 spots or points ; subtract this from 364, and you have a nine as the card to be guessed ; looking over the pack again to see which nine is missing, you find it is the nine of hearts. If it is a Euchre pack, the sum of all remaining cards would be 275, subtracted from 284 ; there remain nine ; to find which one, proceed as above. This is but one of the many tricks of instantaneous memo- rization." CHAPTER IX. SECOND-SIGHT AND ANTI-SPIRITUALIST ARTISTS. The Balabregas, Roucleres, Merlins — Prof. Marvelle — Anna Eva Fay, her exciting Chicago experience — The Baldwins — The Steens. Second sight is a superstition or belief, once com- mon, signifying a spectral or shadow appearance. Certain persons called seers or wizards, were sup- posed to possess a supernatural gift by which they foresaw future events, or perceived distant objects as if they were present. But second-sight in the full glare of modern science has faded away and there only remains to tell of this worn-out superstition, the feats of conjurers known by the same name, which are merely a code of signals, or questions and answers made up between parties, and diligently studied till failure is impossible. This has been fully elucidated by its first modern performer, Houdin, later by Eobert Heller, and since then by many others. Among the leading second-sight artists of the past ten years in America are the ever-popular Balabre- gas. Mrs. Balabrega is what might be called a genius. Nothing is too difficult for her to attempt. Not only does she possess musical talent, but she 135 136 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. also shows great skill and patience in handling her large flock of trained canary birds, which are the delight of all who see them. Both Mr. and Mrs. Balabrega, in developing second-sight to the per- fection they have, show a great jieal of study and close amplication, besides cultivated minds. The wife is the first American lady to make a brilliant success of it in South America, where she has created a most decided sensation, and received unlimited praise from the press. There probably is not another couple of professionals traveling who can give such a varied, refined and pleasing entertain- ment as they do. Two bright artists who excel particularly in second-sight are Mildred and Harry Eouclere. Mr. Rouclere was born in Paterson, N. J., June 3, 1866. Like a number of other professionals, he was early interested in magic, and at the age of eight had a local reputation as a boy magician. He entered the profession in 1878 as a means of obtaining a livelihood, doing a short act in magic. After passing several years in differ- ent companies, doing trapeze and acrobatic acts, he played the vaudevilles as a juggler, showing a grow- ing genius. He finally joined E. C. Taylor, the magician, to do his juggling act, and at that time began studying second-sight. He commenced to work out an original system, which, after many months of careful study, was completed, and it is no doubt to-day the most perfect of its kind in the world. It is unlimited in its capacity on account of being able to go from the silent system to the talking sys- tem and back again without detection. SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 137 The professor played a three years' engagement with Taylor's Company, and was then connected with a number of the leading specialty companies traveling throughout the States. He and his wife are now playing the leading vaudevilles of America, and are the only artists in their line now in the United States who have and are playing these thea,- tres two and three weeks of return dates at every house. They are the only performers who stipulate in their contracts with managers that, if their act does not create a sensation, they do not want their salary — rather an original idea, and something very few would care to do. Miss Mildred Rouclere is of very attractive appearance, and is quite a genius, having been con- nected with a number of dramatic and comedy com- panies, playing singing, and dancing soubrette parts. Her wonderful powers of memory were improved and cultivated by close application to studying parts. She is undoubtedly the only lady on the stage who can memorize a letter, or a page of a book, by only reading it once, and is, in reality, the only lady lightning calculator before the public professionally. She can figure up a sum of twelve or fourteen rows of figures and call off the correct result instanta- neously, something no one else does, and which far exceeds some clever amateurs, who are able to add up four and six rows at a glance. A peculiar exam- ple of her powers of retaining any one in her memory is the following : While playing in Troy, New York, a gentleman who acted upon their committee had a charm attached to his watch chain with an inscrip- THE ROUCLERES. SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 139 tion in Greek upon it, which she translated to the satisfaction of every one present. Over seven months later they were again playing at the same theatre in Troy, and the same gentleman happened to be upon the committee to assist, and inquired if he could ask Miss Mildred a question, which was of course granted ; and without any cue or assistance from her husband she gave a correct translation of the Greek inscription, and also told the gentleman the year, month and day of his birth, which she had told him before, thus remembering these peculiari- ties in a stranger after a lapse of over seven months. In addition to his other acquirements as a magi- cian, Prof. Eouclere is an exceedingly skillful juggler. An entertaining couple who have made quite an extensive tour of the United States, are the Morritts, from England. They did not succeed as well here as their American brethren, undoubtedly from the fact that they are not quick enough. Charles Morritt is known as a very skillful sleight-of-hand performer, and with his talented wife have been entertaining audiences at Mr. Maskelynes, in London, for the past year since their visit here. Two clever artists in second-sight are Dr. Merlin and wife. For eighteen months in the city of Bos- ton, they have given their specialty of second-sight, eight times daily, which our readers will agree is remarkable. It is certainly the longest run second- sight has ever had at any one place, by any operator in this or any other country. Their system is easy and natural, and like the Balabregas and the Eou- cleres they interest and entertain their audiences. 140 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. The doctor has quite a reputation as a skillful anti- spiritualistic performer, and with his entertaining wife has traveled extensively over our country. To show what an amount of study and research is necessary for a second-sight artist, we give place to the following from the columns of the New York Clipper, of recent date : ; ' Margaret Hayden, wife of Dr. A. Merlin, pre- sented her husband with a rare and valuable gold ring last week. The ring is of solid gold, and is sup- posed to have been taken from the ringer of an Egyptian mummy, whose body was embalmed over two thousand years ago. On the inner band of the ring appear the twelve signs of the Zodiac, raised in gold one eighth of an inch, which would go to prove that its original owner was one versed in the science of astrology, or that the ring was worn as a talisman or charm. The ring was presented to Mar- garet Hayden by a Mr. Morey, of Boston, Mass., a gentleman who has made the study of ancient Egyp- tian, Roman and Greek coins the hobby of his life, and is the owner of a large collection of ancient coins. Mr. Morey, having heard of Miss Hayden's wonderful exhibitions of mind-reading and psychom- etry, w T agered with a friend that he could present an article which Miss Hayden could not describe. His friend accepted the wager, and when the test took place Miss Hayden, while blindfolded and her back towards the audience, described the ring in such an accurate manner, speaking of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and stating their names as is understood in the science of astrology, and also men- SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 141 tioning the fact that the ring was originally worn on the finger of an Egyptian mummy, and other facts concerning it, which were known only by Mr. Morey, that it is needless to add that Mr. Morey was dumb- founded by her description, and presented Miss Hay- den with what he considered the most valuable relic of Egyptian antiquity among his great collection." An exceedingly clever performer in the anti- spiritualistic line, is Prof. Marvelle. He has dis- played a great deal of genius in his tricks and appa- ratus, which has not been confined to magic alone, as he has taken out valuable patents on some mechanical contrivances particularly adapted to railroads and large manufacturing' establishments. He excels in anti-spiritualistic work, such as rope-tying, slate-writing, materializations, table- lifting and mind -reading; and many of his friends will remember how he has made them pay the expense of suppers, because they doubted his ability to find any concealed article. J. Eandall Brown is at present traveling with his entertainment, which he has given successfully for a great many years. His tricks are all of the anti- spiritualistic order, and he is assisted by his wife in his cabinet seances. There is no person living who has created such a furore in the spiritualistic world as Miss Anna Eva Fay ; in person, a slender, almost fragile creature, gray eyes, flaxen hair, always richly dressed, and with half a score of rings set with glittering dia- monds, she invariably has made a most bewildering sensation. No woman has ever trod the stage who 142 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. possessed more confidence in herself and her language, than this little, vivacious, almost enchant- ing personage. The most noted scientists of England, whom she so cleverly duped, called her a very spiritueUe being. Her astonishing career, both in Europe and America, has been fully explained by Truesdell in his book, " The Bottom Facts of Spirit- ualism." On Sunday morning, March 6, 1887, the residents of Chicago were surprised to see the enormous adver- tisements of Miss Anna, which appeared in all the daily papers. The space taken up by these was larger than any amusement enterprise had ever occupied before. They called particular attention to her " Company of eminent English Mediums in Spiritualism, no cabinet used whatever.*' The enter- tainment took place at Battery D Armory, chairs being put in for about four thousand, and there was room for about two thousand persons more. The general admission was advertised as fifteen and twenty-five cents, but on arriving at the door, seats were seventj^-five cents — the same old story. What happened inside, and the result, is best told in the words of the Chicago Tribune, in its issue of Monday, March 7, 1887. " The medium's hands were firmly bound with knotted cords. Stepping from the cabinet, he held them up before the audience and said : Ui Ladies and gentlemen, please examine those knots.' " ' Ches-knots ! ' yelled a man in the crowd. Which remark was received with* an appreciative howl by the 6,000 people there assembled. SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 143 " It was at the big spiritualistic show held at Battery D last night — the biggest show of the season. It was probably the biggest and most successful spirit- ualistic seance ever held in the United States — suc- cessful, that is, from a financial point of view. "Battery D was literally packed to the doors, probably not less than 6,000 people being present. As early as seven o'clock there was a long line of people at the ticket-window, and by 7:30 there w r as a double line extending around the corner and down the sidewalk to the Exposition Building, a distance of about 300 feet. The advertised price of admis- sion was twenty-five and fifteen cents, but when the crowd began to gather the price bobbed up to fifty cents, the pretense being that this was for reserved seats. There was no order inside, the two or three boy ushers being utterly power- less to guide the inpouring army. Before 8 the place was packed like a sardine box, and men w T ere clinging to the gallery-posts, window-sills, and other places that afforded a possible view of the stage. Mr. Pingree, the juvenile husband of the medium- in-chief, Miss Anna Eva Fay, had charge of the ticket-selling business, and long after the hall was full continued calmly selling " reserved seats " to the still waiting crowd. Hundreds bought tickets and tried to get into the hall, but after passing the door- keeper and getting beyond the screen which hid the throng from those outside found thev could not even get standing room. Owing to the great crowd, it was impossible to get back to the box-office to demand a return of the money, so Mr. Pingree con- 144 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. tinued to take in the half-dollars. Finally, when the struggle and clamor became so great that no further sales could be made without the interference of those who wanted their money returned, Mr. Pingree glided out with his $3,000 or so, and soon thereafter appeared smiling on the stage. " The attraction for this enormous crowd was a Spiritualistic seance, by the 'World-Famous Indescrib- able Phenomenon,' Miss Fay, and Miss Fay's very clever advertising was to thank for such an attend- ance. Dodgers describing her performance were lavishly distributed in the hotels and saloons yester- day, and the Sunday papers fairly blazed with her announcements, illustrated by pictures of ' Bel- shazzar's Feast,' ' Joseph's Dream,' and other histor- ical Spiritualistic phenomena. Everything was to be done in the light. ' A large piano,' said the adver- tisement, ' will rise clear from the floor, and is played upon without a living soul touching it'; 'the medium will be raised from her seat and float in mid-air'; ' tables will float in mid-air ' ; ' spirit hands and faces will be seen and recognized by friends ' ; and a lot more of the same kind — all to take place under the electric light on the open stage. "About 8:30 a man with a parboiled countenance and the general appearance of a Bowery tough in a ^ress-suit stepped upon the stage and made a speech. He told in florid language how Miss Fay had been tested by 'all the great scientists of Europe' and had ' astounded the world.' 'The crucial test of the galvanometer' (whatever that may be) had been applied, and the lady had come out victorious. She SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 145 had in her possession a 'parchment of sheep-skin' testifying to all this, said parchment being signed by 'Dr. Crookes, F. E. S., and others.' 'The liter- ati of Europe,' said the boiled-faced man, ' have all signed it.' "By and by the people got impatient and yelled : " ' We paid for our seats ! ' ' Clear the aisle ! ' and a dozen other calls of the same kind. " Then a woman near the center got up on a chair and made a speech to those around her. She was evidently mad about something. At the same time a row took place at the south door and blows were exchanged. The man on the stage, continuing with his speech, requested some persons to come on the stage and act as a committee of investigation. After some delay, two Spiritualists and a reporter got on the platform. The crowd meantime yelled ' Clear the aisle ! ' in an almost continuous chorus. " Some sort of order was obtained about 9 o'clock, and Miss Fay, the world-renowned, in gorgeous evening dress, with a train a yard long on the floor, swept over the stage. She is a dainty little blue- eyed, diamond-bedecked piece of humanity — at least she seemed to have lots of diamonds last night. A necklet of diamonds, each as big as a bean, glistened on her white throat, and several others sparkled on her fingers. " There was a cabinet, of course. The committee bound Miss Fay's hands and feet in approved style, after which she was put in the cabinet. In a few seconds she was heard playing a tambourine that had been placed on her knees. Then the curtain was 140 MODERN MACxICTANS AND THEIR WORKS. thrown back and she was found bound as before. A dozen or more of the same sort of tricks were per- formed, tricks that almost any one of the thirty clairvoyants on the West Side can do at the drop of a hat. Indeed, many local mediums could give Miss Fay points in anything she attempted last night. " Next came some card tricks. Mr. Pingree held cards with the faces to the audience, and Miss Fay, from the recesses of the cabinet, called out their names. This trick is one that has been very popular in the dime museums this winter, but it would pay Miss Fay to get a few further lessons in it. D' Alvini, the juggler, can do it incomparably better in less time. " Then one of the committee was shut in the cabi- net with the medium. That member chanced to be the reporter, and his report of the affair is that the medium simply took one of her hands out of the loop by which she was presumed to be bound and scratched some marks on his cuffs with a pencil. " Then three chairs were placed in front of the cabi- net, and George Ober, a volunteer member who had been added to the committee and who turned out to be a skeptic, took the middle seat, with Miss Fay on his left and another female medium on his right. The three were enveloped in print muslin, as men are when they get their hair cut at a barber's except that the one piece of muslin covered all three, leaving only their heads exposed. The committee said there was nothing in the cabinet but some flowers and a guitar and tambourine. The cabinet was closed — when, presto ! hands were thrust out and SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 147 flowers flung on the stage. Mr. Ober subsequently proclaimed to the audience — after the show was over — that the women held his hands and talked sweet to him to keep him quiet, and that the thing was a very cheap sleight-of-hand trick. "The Bowery young man also performed some cabinet tricks with his hands tied. There was to have been a third act, but the assembly was so bois- terous and guyed the performers so unmercifully that the show stopped short at 10:15, being then, according to Miss Fay, only half over. When Miss Fay began some ordinary table-rapping tricks, rais- ing a light table by her hand, and so on, the specta- tors howled derisively. " ' Chestnuts ! ' said one. " k Rats!' said another. " ( Where 's your piano in the air ? ' asked a third. " ' Give us a song,' said a fourth. "Good hand to draw to — three knaves,' said another. " ' Hello, Balshazzar! Give us a bit o' writin' on the wall,' yelled some one else. " ' I'd like to see the ghost of my half-dollar,' shouted another. " When Miss Fay and her assistants finally left the stage in disgust, a portion of the crowd clambered up to examine the cabinet, and in about five minutes cabinet, scenery, and properties were a complete wreck. There was no row over it ; the crowd simply and coolly tore the things down and pulled them to pieces. "Without question it was the most impudent exhi- bition ever given in the city." 148 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. The Inter Ocean of same date says : "As large an assembly of fools as ever gathered in a hall was seen at Battery D Armory last night. For howling stupidity it was not to be surpassed. A drove of donkeys braying for fodder could not have made a more discordant din, nor have exhibited less sense of its own interests. The occasion of this heterogene- ous and mob-like gathering was the appearance of Miss Anna Eva Fay in a series of so-called spiritual- istic manifestations. Much before 8 o'clock several thousand people, the majority of them unruly to a boisterous degree, surged into the hall, and, paying no attention to the fact that the forward seats were reserved, overwhelmed the ushers, took places to suit themselves, and swarmed pell-mell into the aisles, stubbornly indifferent to the rights or comfort of others. In the vain hope of somewhat regulating the confused state of affairs, the management had the doors closed against the hundreds of others strug- gling to get in. Failing in this, the doors were re-opened, and another in-surging crowd gave its force toward creating pandemonium. After wait- ing twenty minutes beyond the time set for begin- ning the performance a representative of Miss Fay made a dignified appeal to the throng for order. Finally when the programme was opened a blatant fellow with a Y-shaped bald head and a close-cut chin beard began waving his hands and clamoring to have the aisles cleared, a feat it was impossible for the management to perform, but which the fel- low insisted upon, to the interruption of the per- formance. His braying set all the other asses SECOND-SIGHT ARTISTS. 149 going, and bedlam reigned during the entire first part of the programme. After this the best people of the audience retired disgusted, having been quite unable to see or understand Miss Fay's very inter- esting and really extraordinary feats or manifesta- tions. Half a dozen policemen were needed in the hall. Such a mob is only capable of understanding the argument that is enforced by the club. Miss Fay, despite the worse than unfavorable conditions against which she worked, gave exhibitions that baffled the wisdom of the well chosen committee on the stage with her. The facts that all she does occurs in the full light of the stage, and that most of her feats are performed without the aid of the cabinet, make her entertainment unusually bewildering and attractive, giving some color to the claim that she is aided by an " unseen force," whatever that force may be. The exhibition is one that the intelligent public would enjoy under favorable conditions, and when Miss Fay appears in Chicago again it is hoped she will not be overwhelmed by a concourse of idiots." Two very clever entertainers in the anti-spiritual- istic line are Prof. S. S.Baldwin and his wife, Clara Baldwin, who have traveled quite extensively in our- country, but for quite a number of years have been traveling throughout the Orient, and at pres- ent are having much success in Australia, where his bills state that he is giving " the funniest entertain- ment on earth." Before closing this chapter we, perhaps, ought to mention a couple of performers who style themselves "Prof. Charles and Martha Steen." An idea of their performance can be gathered from the follow- 150 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. ing extract taken from the columns of the Chicago Tribune, at the time of their engagement in the Central Music Hall, of Chicago, some time ago: " A little thin man and a large fat woman, who are known as ' Professor Charles and Martha Steen,' and who call themselves ' the exposers of spiritual- ism and mind-readers' — whatever that may mean — gave a so-called < colossal silver entertainment ' to about 400 people in Central Music Hall last evening. The entertainment was supposed to be an expose of the tricks of spiritualism. ' Spiritualism is a fraud and not a religion,' Mr. Steen says, 'and anything any spiritualist can do I can do. I work by sci- ence, and science can beat spiritualism every time.' " At least three-fourths of the audience consisted of local spiritualists and professional mediums — people who may be seen practicing their religion every Sunday evening at materializing seances in half a dozen halls on the West Side. The proceed- ings began by the appointment of a committee of seven to sit upon the platform and inspect the tricks, but before the show was half over two of the commit- tee stepped off the platform and informed the report- ers present that the other five were in league with the 'professor.' The stout woman was blindfolded, and, by the aid of her husband, the professor, she managed to tell the denomination of playing cards and perform other tricks of the kind. Inasmuch as there are from thirty to fifty professional mediums in this city who could give the professor and his wife points in such displays, the performance could hardly be called a success." For Heller's Second-Sight Code, see Appendix, Note 4. CHAPTER X. THE VANISHING LADY ; "COCOON;" "CREMATION," AND OTHER ILLUSIONS. The Vanishing Lady — The Magic Husband — The Cocoon — Alexander Hsrrmann's Decapitations — Vanek's Decapitation — Cremation — The " Mystery of She" — The "Lady from an Envelope" — The Spirit Bell of Prof. Alkahazar — The " Amphitrite " Illusion. No illusions of the past ten years have attracted more attention than those introduced by Prof. Buatier — The Vanishing Lady, and The Cocoon. The first notice taken by the English papers of the trick of The Vanishing Lady was the following : "The Figaro, the most popular newspaper of the French metropolis, invited a very select number of notabilities last night to be present at the first appearance in Paris of a marvelous conjurer and of a singularly complete Eussian Choral Society. The name of the ' illusioniste,' as he calls himself, is Buatier de Kolta, and he is a Hungarian by birth. His tricks were all original and perfectly incompre- hensible even to the adepts assembled to criticise them. I will only attempt to describe one, which thoroughly puzzled all present. After spreading a newspaper on the. floor he placed a chair upon it, and then asked a young lady to sit down. He threw 151 152 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. over her a piece of silk, which barely covered her from head to foot. He then rapidly removed the drapery, and the chair was empty. As soon as the amazement of the spectators gave them time to applaud, the young lady walked on from the side, and bowed her acknowledgments. There certainly was no trap in the floor, the chair was of the ordi- nary kind, and the trick was done in a strong light. The lady, in fact, disappeared before the very eyes of the audience ; but so quickly was the trick done that no one present saw her escape. Dexterity could surely no further go." Buatier, the first person who introduced the van- ishing lady, undoubtedly performed it better than any other person. He has been credited as being the inventor of the trick, but we learn on very good authority that this statement is not borne out by the facts. Diligent inquiry shows that he purchased it from a poor Parisian mechanic at a ridiculously low price, the inventor being compelled to sell it to get food to keep himself and family alive. This is only another instance where management and skill have taken all credit away from the inventor, some- thing very common in the magical business. Mr. Maskelyne, in introducing Prof. Buatier to his London audiences, made the remark that the trick was very common in the hands of all classes of professionals, but that instead of being vanished by them she was simply murdered. This was very true, because not over half a dozen professionals did the trick as it should have been done, and there were hundreds who attempted it. THE VANISHING LADY. 153 The vanishing lady was first introduced in this country by Professor Adolph Seeman, son of the renowned Professor, Baron Hartwig Seeman. He produced it twice each evening at two theatres in Chicago, and made quite a success with it. An amusing occurrence took place at the town hall, in Longton, England, where the conjurer, Mr. Dexter, was exhibiting it. The vanishing lady was advertised to disappear at ten o'clock. At nine fifty- five, as Dexter was crossing the stage, he suddenly disappeared. By mistake he stepped on the trap prepared for the vanishing lady. When ten o'clock came, the spectators ceased to wonder how it was done. Before describing the trick of the vanishing lady, it might be well to speak of a fix a would-be con- jurer once found himself in, in a dime museum in Chicago. The proprietors of this museum had gone to considerable expense, and issued a very fine lithograph, representing the illusion, in which they showed the chair on the newspaper, and a gentle- man in the act of covering the lady seated on the chair with a large silk cover. It attracted consider- able attention, and the first time the illusion was performed at the museum, there were present several conjurers among the audience, besides a good many amateurs. To the surprise of all, the conjurer, who was unknown to fame, and was evidently making his bow to an audience for the first time, introduced the antiquated Sphinx table, the mirrors of which were not well fitted. The lady stood on the top of this table and was covered with a large sack that 154 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. had been fastened to the top of the table, and which was pulled up around her by a string running up to the ceiling and going over a pulley there, and down behind to an assistant. The lady was, of course, to go through a trap in the table while concealed by the sack ; the signal was given, the string let loose, down came the sack, and, to the surprise of the audience and the discomfiture of the performer, there stood the lady in full view of the spectators, who could only see the upper part of her body, the lower half of course being invisible, as it was concealed by the mirrors; the trap in table was not large enough to allow her to get through quickly. The audience left at once, making many remarks not complimentary to the conjurer nor the management of the museum. The ordinary manner of working the trick of the vanishing lady, is to have a chair made so that the seat lets down backwards or sideways on spring hinges that throw it back into position, after the person has gone through. A little lever on the side of the chair underneath keeps the seat solidly in position. The back of the chair is either upholstered, or of thick double cane, in order that it can not be seen through. Hanging down the back is a wire frame which can be thrown up over the back of the chair, to represent the head of the person when it is covered with a cloth. When this cover is removed the frame is thrown back behind the chair back. In some chairs this must be done with the hand, in others it is done by stepping on a lever at the back of one of the hind legs of the chair, which works a THE VANISHING LADY. 155 wire or a string stapled up the back of the chair, and thus throws back the framework of the head and shoulders. A newspaper is cut to fit the trap in the stage, and laid on the floor, the other uncut half of it is pulled over to the front and chair placed on the cut part, which is cut around only three sides of it. Lady seats herself on the chair, and the performer covers her with a large silk covering, that covers her and chair completely ; at the moment of cover- ing she lets the framework come up over her head, and pulls the lever under the chair, at the same time rising slightly to let her own weight off the chair, and the seat goes down with the trap, she with it through the trap which is shut at once, the performer in the meantime standing or holding on the silk covering to prevent it being blown up by the wind from trap. At proper moment he takes the cover off and the lady has disappeared to come on smiling from the side. In doing this trick in any room without a stage, the same chair can be used, or, what is better, to make it so that the back of it opens, and the lady goes directly backwards, a large ornamental screen must be used. This screen has three or more folds, each fold at least six feet high and from two and a half to three feet wide, three feet the best. Cover all the folds of this screen with any fancy pattern of cloth ; cretonne, or fancy Japanese patterns. In the lower middle part of the middle fold, make a com- mon double flap door, opening backwards on strong spring hinges at the side of each flap, which are 156 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. screwed to braces or cross-pieces in frame. This is all neatly covered and cut out so it will work well and easily, and must not be seen at a distance of three feet. Bring the screen on the stage first, show- ing it both back and front, and place it in position, bringing the side folds around to the front, to inclose a space as much as possible, and to prevent people who are close to the sides from seeing; in some cases it will be necessary to have several folds for this purpose. Place a borrowed newspaper on the floor, and place the chair on that, having both well back up to the middle fold of screen. Lady seats herself on the chair, performer takes the silk covering and standing up in front of the lady, holds his hands wide apart, as though to cover her and to show the size of cover, letting the cloth reach down to the floor ; at this moment the lady pulls up the head work at the back, and swings around off the chair or goes through the back of it, and quickly makes her disappearance through the door in the screen, and stands behind it or makes her way off from that point. This must be and can be done in a moment, and the instant she has gone performer drops the cover over the chair. The remainder is the same as with the trap chair. This manner of working it has in many cases some advantages. A German professor has written a poem on the advisability of ladies having husbands who are pro- fessional magicians, bringing in the vanishing lady idea. THE VANISHING LADY. 157 The nicest husband in the land Is one who lives by sleight- of-hand. At morn, for instance — one, two, three, Coffee and cream are flow- ing free; And with a few more magic thumps, He fills the sugar-bowl with lumps, "While sausage, rolls and all of that, He takes, of course, from his old hat. Though there may be of wood a dearth, He builds a fire upon the hearth; And turns a pair of worn-out shoes To beef as good as one could choose. All else that at a feast would please, He from a nightcap takes with ease; And without trouble or ado, Himself can roast, or boil or stew. At noon and evening 'tis the same, She cares for naught, the lucky dame. Whate'er is needed for her use, His magic wand will quick produce; Fresh toilets in the newest style Are ready in a little while; Wraps, gold and jewels; in short, all . That she may long for, great or small. Scarcely has she the wish complete, Before he lays it at her feet . 158 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. And yet— you'll wonder it should be — The two will sometimes disagree, And whatsoe'r he may provide, She will remain unsatis- fied. In such case, as in others, too, His sleight of -hand will help him through; If unendurable grows she, A cloth thrown o'er her — one, two, three — And silently she disap- pears; The household war no more one hears. The most ingenius illusion Buatier has introduced was certainly that of the Cocoon, and the perfection of that he owes in a great measure to the mechan- ical skill of Mr. Maskelyne, of London. This has been and is still a leading feature with all prominent conjurers. A patent for the same was taken out in England, but not in this country. Several explana- tions of it have been given from time to time in the press, but none of them have been correct. The true explanation of it is as follows : The performer stretches a ribbon across the stage, looping it over a hook at each side. To each end of the ribbon is attached a small bag filled with sand, which has pre- viously been examined by the audience. He then calls their attention to a framework of light wood or cardboard about three or four feet square and a foot deep. There is no cover to it, and the bottom is formed by a large piece of plain paper stretched over it. After this is also examined it is placed THE COCOON. 159 in the center of the stage, the ribbon is pulled down at about the middle of it and is fastened to one or two hooks in the top part of the frame, which is lifted up. The sacks at the ends of the ribbon apparently keep it suspended horizontally in the air, some distance above the floor. The per- former draws on the paper a sketch of the silk- worm, and as soon as he waves his wand the paper bursts and a large, bright, silk cocoon is seen in the frame. A stool is placed underneath it, the frame lowered by slacking up the ribbons, and as soon as it touches the stool it bursts and from the inside of the cocoon appears a charming woman dressed in the costume of a butterfly. The cocoon is made of fine silk and is stretched over an oval, or rather round, framework of iron. It is large enough to allow a person to sit in it Turk- ish fashion, and opens on one side. This cocoon is hung on two fine wires, on the other ends of which are fastened the proper counterweights to balance the woman and the frames. These wires lead up through the stage to the flies and over rollers or pulleys to the counterweights. After the per- former has placed the ribbon in po- sition he places the framework on which the pa- per is stretched"" the cocoon, 160 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. in the middle of the stage on the carpet, and while he is pulling the ribbon down to fasten to it, the assist- ant below opens a trap in the stage floor, and a flap cut in the carpet, and pushes up the cocoon which contains the woman and which the performer fast- ens in the framework. Now he has only to touch his hand to the framework and his assistants pull down the counterweights, thereb}^ raising the frame- work and the ribbon, which now apparently sup- ports all. The rest is clear. At the proper signal the lady bursts the paper and the assistants lower all onto the stool, and the trick is done. Some per- formers use a windlass to wind up the wires. When proper wires are used on a brightly illuminated stage, they are absolutely invisible. For a number of years the masterpieces of Alex- ander Herrmann have been his two decapita- tions. The first one he usually used in his mag- ical sketch, where a countryman with "a sorter buzzing" in his head has it cured by cutting off the offend- ing member. The sub- ject takes a seat in a high back, upholstered chair. The long back THE DECAPITATION CHAIR. Qf ^ ^^ jg ^ty padded and has two silk cords running crosswise on it, one from the inner edge of either arm up to the HERRMANN S DECAPITATION. 161 top corner of the opposite side, thus making a broad X. The subject being seated in a chair, a large helmet or " receiver " is placed on his head. This helmet is of any bright metal, has a vizor in front, and is open at the back. After it is placed over his head the vizor is lifted to show that the head is there, but in reality a dummy head is seen, made up to represent the subject. As the performer closes the vizor he tilts the helmet forward a little, while the subject at the same moment draws his head out of it and presses it back against the back of the chair, which gives way under the pressure and a triangular space opens, the two sides of which are formed by the lower portion of the X in the pad- ding, the base being on a line with the chair arm, where this swinging portion of the back is hinged on. On this flap, the opening of which is concealed by the receiver and a towel placed in front of it to hide the blood (?), rests the head of the subject. The receiver is now removed and placed on a small cabinet, the towel being left at the neck of the subject in the chair. In a moment the receiver is removed from the top of the cabinet, and the head is seen resting there ; it moves and speaks, and is the head of another person made up to represent the first one, and who sits be- DECAPITATION CABINET. 162 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. hind the mirror in the cabinet, and pops his head up through a hole in the top of it as soon as the receiver is placed there. This cabinet is shaped like a safe, and contains several apparently deep shelves. In reality the shelves are shallow, a mirror of proper size being placed in it, in such a position as to leave about four-fifths of the cabinet vacant. The very latest decapitation is the one now being used by Herrmann in his "Black Art." In "Black Art" the stage is peculiarly set, the interior, from the first to the third groove, being com- pletely hungin black velvet or felt, back, top and sides. In place of the ordinary foot-lights a row of gas-jets is usually placed across the stage just on a line with the inside of the boxes, and another row carried around, but outside of the arched entrance to the black chamber. The effect of this arrangement of light and shadow throws the stage into lmpene- | trable gloom. Herrmann ^appears suddenly clothed jin white. Then Mephis- topheles appears so sud- I denly that it seems as if he had jumped out of | space, but really coming through an opening in ^^^^/TT^'^R^VWRx^^the black cloth.. Then black art decapitation. CO mes a light cloak and a pretty woman in evening dress. This latter being Mrs. Herrmann, dressed in a peculiar way. She first clad herself in a black domino of the same Herrmann's decapitation. 163 material as the stage hangings, leaving her arms and head free. Over this she slips a framework of light wire covered with a fine evening dress. This frame- work has no back and she can slip out from it behind, leaving the shell with dress. For the lady to sit on, two pedestals suddenly appear. These are white, and appear by having a cover of black pulled from them quickly. One of these is about two feet high and the other about five feet high. The lady sits on the smaller one and Mephisto orders Herr- mann to cut her head off. After some demurring he finally seizes a carving knife, places a light cloak over the lady's shoulders and cuts off her head. Taking it with one hand under the chin and the other holding her hair, he carries it across the stage and places it on the other pedestal, she walking along with him, having slipped out behind the frame- work, leaving it upright on the smaller pedestal. She walks across the stage in her black domino,' or behind a black screen shoulder high, only her head showing, and finally stopping with her head on the pedestal that is about five feet high. To replace, the same gliding back is again employed, and she again resumes her dress case, and the trick is over. A San Francisco writer gives the following de- scription of the decapitation introduced by Vanek : " The first illusion of this sort seen here was that shown by a man calling himself Professor Vanek, who exhibited at Piatt's Hall, in July, 1873. He was a German and spoke very little English, while in the decapitation act he appeared in an Oriental costume and spoke none at all. The hall was darkened, a 164 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. strain of weird music was wrung out of the piano, which in those days " went with the hail," and to its rhythm the magician marched slowly on to the stage, accompanied by a pale-faced youth. The attendant laid himself upon a table in the center of the stage, and was there sent to sleep by being sub- jected to mesmeric passes. The magician then drew a small box from the recesses of his robes, and from it took a pinch of powder, which he sprinkled on the youth's face and neck. A cloth was then arranged about the victim's neck, and everything being ready, Vanek drew a scimetar, or tulwar, sent it hissing through the air, and w T ith one sweep drew the blade across the youth's neck, sepa- rating it from the body. The head was lifted up with the blood streaming from it, and placed upon a salver to be 'handed around for the company to examine.' " The examination was not superficial nor hasty, people being invited to put their fingers in the open mouth and move the closed eyelids. The ghastlv death's head was then taken back and joined to the body, the magic powder being once more brought into requisition, and the subject, being awakened, sat up, looked dreamily around and backed off the stage. "The explanation is as follows: The table was VANEK S DECAPITATION. vanek's decapitation. 165 really a long, hollow box, covered on the top and sides with black cloth and with the interior painted black. In the top of the table, and under where the head and shoulders of the youth would lie, was a trap-door, which gave way under pressure and swung downward like a door, and which was closed by a spring as soon as the pressure was removed. Every- thing being blacK it will be clear to the reader that it might be opened or closed without any one in the audience being the wiser. u Before the trick was introduced the trap was depressed and a rubber head placed in the cavity of the table. This head was a work of art. It had all the lividity of death, was fitted with real teeth, real hair, glass eyes, a flexible tongue, movable eyelids, and was soft and clammy to the touch. The assist- ant was Yanek's son, and the head, made by a cele- brated French artist, was a striking likeness of the lad. The head was placed on a plate on the table, having for companion objects a lump of ice to give the head the requi- site clamminess, and a sponge dipped in 'prop- erty' blood. The 'sub- ject ' for the experiment having been laid on the table, the magician, standing with his back inside view vanek's table. to the audience, seized his son by the hair with his left hand, and, as the scimetar went whizzing through the air, pressed down the trap until his son's head was 166 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. below the level of the top of the table and brought the sponge and rubber head up to take the place of the living. The scimetar was then drawn across the victim*s neck—only just above it — and the rubber head was held aloft with the blood dripping from the pressed sponge. The head was then boldly passed about, the magician shrewdly counting upon the dark- ness of the room and the aversion of the audience to handling dead things as sufficient guarantees against detection. The rest of the trick simply consisted of putting the head back in the table, bringing the victim's head up to the proper level and removing the cloth which had conveniently hidden the line of deflection in the neck and the slight sinking of the shoulders. It will be seen from this explanation that the trick was simple enough, but like all simple tricks it was very effective, and in this particular instance was realistically horrible." An illusion that has attracted a great deal of attention, and one that has been properly shown but by very few conjurers of late years, is the one known as Cremation. The word Cremation means the burning of a dead body; hence, no prominent pro- fessor has shown a cremation, as the act used which represents the burning of a person alive is not a cre- mation. Charles McDonald, of Portsmouth, Ya., was the original inventor. For several years he spent his spare time in working at this illusion and finally perfected it. The effect of it as worked by him is startling: A fine casket is shown to the audience and examined inside and out by a committee appointed for that purpose by the audience. It rests on two ordi- CREMATION. 167 nary trestles and has no connection with the floor of the stage. The cover is opened and a lady is assisted into the casket, and lies down in the same. The cover is .closed and the audience can see her lying there through a glass opening in the front of the casket. A black velvet cover, trimmed with silver fringe, is laid over the casket, candles are lighted and placed underneath the same. A sword is passed 5 ROF. MCDONALD S CREMATION. down through the top of the casket, the point com- ing out underneath, down which the blood runs; swords are also thrust into the casket from the front, and reach to the. back; during this the lady is con- stantly screaming. In a moment the lid of the cas- ket is raised and the whole interior set on fire ; it blazes up very briskly for a few moments, gradually dying out, when some ashes are taken out and shown around as being the ashes of the cremated person, the cover meantime being closed again, and on, 168 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. re-opening it the lady steps out uninjured. When properly made this casket can be used for introducing the illusion on any stage, in any parlor or even in the open field. Professionals reading the foregoing, would think that the casket is constructed on the plan of the old Hindoo basket trick, but such is not the case, as there is no double back, bottom, nor sides to it, and the mechanical skill used in its invention and manu- facture is, far ahead of similar effects contrived by the much vaunted Indian fakirs, or jugglers. Out of consideration for its inventor, who has scarcely obtained the success he deserved, we will not reveal the secret of its construction. Following the general idea shown in the one he first made, that is, to obtain the effect, the first one sold and used, was made on the plan of the Japanese Inexhaustible Box, sometimes called the "tip-over" box. That is the full secret which will be clearly understood by all' professionals, but the skill shown was in making it in such a way that it would bear examination inside and out, and all around, without being detected, which has been done very successfully. The only objection to the illusion in the style just mentioned, is its realistic feature, it making such a sensation that ladies among the audience have often fainted during its performance. This has caused it to have rather a limited sale. Coining at a time when the attention of the scientific world has been attracted so much to crema- tion, the advertising of this illusion naturally attracted the attention of conjurers generally, many of whom, THE MYSTERY OF " SHE." 169 desiring to have it, but not willing to pay a good price for a good article, or, from lack of necessary means, began to get up imitations of it, and they were soon being presented by the score all over the country. The first one produced with any degree of success, under that name, was shown by Prof. Seeman who had performed it for nearly two years before any other person took hold of it. His man- ner was the use of the Sphinx table, on which the lady stood, and was covered with a sack. This sack was set on lire and burned slowly down to the table top. When it was all consumed the lady reappeared from the side of the stage. This was soon followed by others, Prof. Powell making use of a similar method ; but his table had four legs instead of three. Prof. Kellar then adver- tised a Cremation of his own invention, which was at once followed by Prof. Herrmann doing the same. Kellar's was made up for him by his assistant Robin- son, who afterwards went with Herrmann. This Cremation was evidently not a success as it was not produced in any of our large cities while that of Herrmann's was. Both these magicians depended upon the ingenuity of their assistants and their talent in working it out. Herrmann's was gotten up by his co-laborer, D'Alvini, who was the main-stay and life of the illusion. The success obtained with it, came entirely from his genius and talent ; sad to say, he did not live long enough to enjoy the results of his invention. The illusion of "She" was first introduced by Prof. Hercat, in London, who called it " The Mys- 170 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. ten r of She." He used a raised platform about a foot high. Around the two sides and the back of this platform he placed a red screen, resting on the floor, the platform carpet as well as the stage carpet being the same color as the screen. On the platform was placed a small brass stand, and a large bowl shown empty and some ashes put in it was placed on the brass stand. After showing to the satisfac- tion of the audience that no mirrors were used, he took a large silk cover or curtain and stretched it with an assistant across the front of the platform between the sides of the screen, letting it reach to the floor ; in a moment this curtain was either pulled away or dropped, and a lady dressed in white stood on the platform who came out and spoke, and as soon as the curtain was held up in front of the plat- form again she disappeared. We should say that as soon as the bowl was placed on the stand and before curtain was stretched across the front, the ashes were set on fire causing quite a smoke through which she appears. Just as soon as the curtain touched the floor of stage in front of the platform, two mirrors placed together at an angle exactly the same as in the old Sphinx table, were shoved up from beneath the stage, reaching to the under side of the platform, and, of course, reflecting the screen. At the same time a trap is opened behind the mirrors in the stage and a corresponding one in the floor of the platform, which enables the lady to come up quickly and make her appearance. As soon as she has made her disap- pearance, the mirrors are dropped back again into THE "LADY FROM AN ENVELOPE. 1 ' 171 place beneath the stage, and the platform and screen can be easily removed. This same illusion can be just as well worked by using a screen which conceals the lady all the time, thus doing away with the trap in the stage and platform. Similar to this is the production of a lady from an envelope. This was also first introduced in England, whose conjurers seem to have a fancy for traps, some- thing that the quick-witted Americans will not use, because their audiences can at once tell when a trap is used, and then, the principle being solved, it has no attraction for them. In this production the performer appears on the stage with three large envelopes, one inside the other, and states that he carries his wife in the envelope to save transportation, as, owing to the Inter-State Commerce Bill, heavy weights pay heavy freights. While talking he opens the envelope and finds another one, opens that and finds in it still another, which he opens, and discovers a large silk shawl neatly folded up; he opens this, letting one side of it drop down on the floor, and holding the other side up in front of him, he almost immediately drops it on the floor and the lady appears standing there in front of him, she having come up through a trap just at the moment when the silk touched the floor. She can also come through a screen as explained in the trick of the vanishing lady. Produced this way alone, the trick has a weak effect, but is quite effective if used in some other combination or production. The only person who used it to good advantage was Prof. Becker, who produced it in Germany some eighteen 172 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. years ago. After the ladj T had made her appear- ance from the trap behind the shawl, he ran to and fro across the stage, she being behind it all the time and keeping step with him ; he did this so well that everybody thought there was nothing behind the shawl till he suddenly pulled it aside and revealed the lady. It is well known to nearly all conjurers that Mr. Maskelyne, of London, has introduced, during the past decade, more electrical effects than any other magician. A few of these effects have been almost identical with the following illusion, invented by Prof. Alkahazar, of Ohio. This is an electric illusion, but so arranged as to make the spectator believe there is no electricity used. The table is small, like those known as gueri- $on stands, having one center pillar for leg, and three feet. The top is of very thin material, and by means of a flange screws onto the leg. At the middle of under side where the flange is, there is an orna- mental knob, ostensibly the flange ; this knob is hol- low, and in it is placed a small, clear-sounding bell, with an electro-magnet to sound the same. The current of electricity passes up one of the feet to the leg up which it passes to the magnet which strikes the bell. The " run down " from stage to audience has a groove in it, under the carpet, through which the wire from behind stage runs; at the end of the "run down " are placed the copper connection plates. The feet of table are made so as to pierce the carpet and rest on the plates, thus forming the direct connec- tion. Another bell, the perfect duplicate in tone of THE "AMPHITRITE ILLUSION. m the one in the knob, is shown to the audience and placed on the table ; it then rings, answers questions, tells cards, fortunes, etc. Then the performer, speaking to the audience, thinks that some present may think that electricity has something to do with it, but will Fig. 1. prove to the contrary. He takes a large sheet of plate glass and places it on the table, and puts the bell in the center of the glass, thus showing it to be an impossibility to get sound from it if electricity was used. Nevertheless the bell rings the same as before. In the language of the inventor, it " takes well, as all intelligent people know that glass is a 174 MODKRN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. non-coiiductor of electricity.-' An illusion that has attracted considerable attention, and one of very pretty effect is the one generally known as the Amphitrite Illusion. There are several ways of work- ing this on the plan of the ghost-show illusion. Per- haps the best method is the one patented in this country and England by Mr. Gustav Castan. His Fig. 2. XL S. patent is dated September 11, 1888, number 389,198. The mechanism employed consists of a horizontal, rotary disk of glass, which is supported at each edge, and serves to receive the person or other object to be exhibited, and also of a mirror arranged at an angle of forty-five degrees to the glass disk. The mirror reflects the image of the person or object on the glass disk, but not the edge of the same, or the rings carrying and surrounding said disk toward the audience, and as the transpar- THE ''AMPHITRITE ILLUSION. 175 ent glass disk is not reflected in the mirror the per- son or object on the former appears to be floating in the air, and when the glass disk is rotated the per- son or object appears to make various movements. When the edge of the mirror is appropriately deco- Fig. 3. rated and the light properly arranged, the mirror is not to be detected, and the audience is led to believe that the image is in realit}^ the person or object on the glass disk. Figure 1 is a view of the apparatus as seen from the space occupied by the audience. Figure 2 is a top view of the apparatus without the 176 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. mirror. Figure 3 is a vertical section of the appara- tus arranged at an angle of forty-five degrees to the glass disk. The frame work, the mirror, and other parts of the mechanism are appropriately decorated in order to obtain the best possible results, and it is evident that the glass disk must be so operated that the reflected apparent movements of the person on the glass disk appear as natural as possible. In order to increase this effect the person can move his arms and legs, and these movements will of course be reflected in the mirror. The lights employed for illuminating the glass disk and mirror are so arranged that the glass disk is not reflected in the mirror.* *For particulars regarding the application for a Patent on a " Spirit Room," see Appendix, Note 2. CHAPTER XI. PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. The St. Louis Genius — The Impatient Albany Man — Some Remarkable Letters— East Indian Fakirs — What Barnello Saw — The Sailor and His Parrot. There is perhaps no other business which presents such a variety of aspects and brings together such a different class of people as that of making conjur- ing apparatus, hence it is not to be wondered at that such a person is in a position to meet with many peculiar experiences. For the benefit of those who may adopt the profession of a conjurer, and also for the amusement of our readers, we will chronicle a few of the peculiar happenings that have come under the observation of a certain manufacturer in the past-few years. It is astonishing, the amount of ignorance to be found among a certain class of superstitious people. The following is the verbatim copy of letter received by the gentleman, from St. Louis: " St. Louis, Feb. 12, 1887. "JDir Sir: "Please tint entclosed 2 cent stamp for one of jour Conjuring Apparatus Catalogue. Please let me no ef jou have some Boocks on Handt wehre jou kan it macked so jou kan win in Lotterie 177 178 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. every Time. Answer sun & let me no the Prize of them. Let me havest in Germania if possible. ' ' Yours very respfully, It is more than likely that if the manufacturer could always tell the winning number in a lottery, he would keep it to himself, and not sell it. The carelessness in correspondence of the ordinary side-showman is something extraordinary. A very usual occurrence for them is to forget to sign their names. The most common mistake is that of forget- ting to give their address, and the receiver has to puzzle his brain over an illegible postmark. These, however, are surpassed by the man in the mining regions of Pennsylvania, who cut the advertisement inserted by our friend out of a paper, enclosed it in an envelope with a ten-cent silver piece, both the advertisement and the coin being wrapped in a piece of letter paper, with nothing else whatever in the envelope, not even the scratch of a pen or pencil. No doubt that man to this day imagines that ail parties advertising catalogues are frauds. A man in Albany, N. Y., once ordered a small pocket trick costing seventy-five cents, that being the amount he remitted. It was a mechanical piece of apparatus that only an amateur with no particu- lar skill would make use of. The person addressed, having none on hand, and being occupied with more important orders, wrote that in a few days some of them would be made up and one sent on. A few days thereafter the manufacturer received a dis- patch reading as follows: " When do you intend to PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. 1^9 ship goods?" This was signed by the Albany man and was followed a couple of days later by a letter from him in these words : " If you are doing a skin business let me know so I won't be wasting my time." This had no preliminary address nor end- ing, but was properly signed. He was immediately advised to look elsewhere for such great quantities of "goods" as he desired, and his money returned to him with the advice that he had better try and learn something befitting a man and not. act like a fourteen-year-old school-boy. This reminds us of a man in the country, who saw a toy steam-engine advertised for sale in the col- umns of one of the " patent inside weekly " news- papers, for $1.50, and wrote to the advertiser, asking if the machine was strong enough to run a buzz saw ! He was, however, not quite equal to the countryman who ordered of a novelty house a three dollar steam-boiler, and, not receiving it at once, wrote back asking when his machine and boiler would be shipped, as he had been three times to the train with two men and a team to haul it away, and he had got tired of waiting for it. Another most interesting correspondent of our manufacturer was a resident of Avon, New York, who, like many other mistaken mortals, imagined he could be a professor of magic. His manner of ask- ing prices was very interesting; for instance, if any- thing was offered for sale at from five to ten dollars, he would write and say, " If you will take fifty cents for that trick, I will send you the money ; please answer quick." If anything struck his fancy that 180 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. was worth twenty-five dollars or more, he would write and say : " That is a good trick, but it is too dear; if you will take $2.50, please let me know quick, or I will have to order it of New York parties." When he first received a letter that had been written on a typewriter, he wrote back : , " You need not wait to have your letters printed, I can rede ritein." It is suggested that it would have been a great advantage to him if he could have remembered how " ritein" looked when he read it. One of the most peculiar and interesting letters our manufacturer ever received was from a con- jurer who is quite well known throughout the small towns of the East. As a good example of what a man can do, and what work he can get out while running single-handed on the road, we give the let- ter in full : " Clarence Centre, N. Y., November 5th, 1887. "Dear Sir: Your advertisement is before me. I am very anxious to know what Buatier's Cocoon and the ' Original Egyptian Black Art' mean, as they are both something that I have never either seen or heard of until reading your 'ad.' I am giving little shows in little towns, and am making a little, very little money. But am not having to walk, or leave any bag- gage for debts. I even can spare a little money, a wry little money, to* pay for anything that would have a tendency to induce more people to patronize me. I mix magic tricks, spiritualistic tricks and idiotic expressions all together, and deal the mixture out to the eager, grasping few who pay me ten cents for the privi- lege of being humbugged. So, if you can add anything to this mixture to make it more palatable to my patrons, just sit down and tell me about what you have, how much it will cost me to get it, when I can get it, etc. ' ' For a few years back, many professionals, and several amateurs I have met in the rural districts that have been blessed with my PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. 181 ' 90 laughs in 90 minutes,' have all and each added their mites to my conglomeration ; that is to say, I have bought and paid the cash for several of their cheapest tricks, and I have been enabled to make a little, a very little, interest on the amount invested wilh each of them, ana am ready and willing to patronize you a little, a very little, if you have anything I want, and will name a price that will not bankrupt me. "lam not a rival of Heller, nor Keller, nor no other feller of any magnitude. I am a poor little country showman, that has neither the big head nor big pocket-book ; but I know I am a small fish and I stay in the small streams and bask in the sunshine with the other little minnies, and am enjoying life. I don't owe anybody and nobody owes me. I do not want to be tedious but I make these explanations, so that if you make apparatus only for such men as Herrmann, Kellar and the great magicians, you will not waste any time on me at present. I hope to be great some day, but that day with me has not arrived. The most I ever paid for a trick in my life was ten dollars, but I would like to buy five more at the same price to-day, if I could get as good ones as the one I mention. It is an apparatus for lifting tables, chairs, stools, and other articles of furniture, a la spiritualism. "I want your unrivaled catalogue, and, rather than have you make fun of my little descriptive bill, I will enclose you ten cents for the catalogue and request you to send it by return mail, as I am en route, and only stay in a village long enough to work up my own advertising, give my show, and pull out for another town. I am my own advance agent, programmer, business mana- ger, treasurer, property man, door-keeper, usher, stage hand, car- penter, scene shifter, scenic artist, actor, lecturer, humbugger, and sheriff dodger. I am all combined in one. "If you think it worth while to send me one of your catalogues for my ten cents, I would be glad to get it; if not, keep the ten cents anyway to pay for reading this long letter. ' ' Very respectfully yours, "C. W. Starr." It is almost needless to remark that a catalogue was sent by first mail. Another letter to the same manufacturer, from " way down East," we also give in full : 182 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. " Hampden, Mass., December 16, 1888. " Dear Sir: All my cuts and electro-plates were burned last week. What have you? Send sample and oblige. " Yours, &c, "F. L. 'Higgins.' " Care of ' Durand,' 150 Orange St., New Haven, Ct. "P. S. — This is my 13th year about these parts. 'I'm a Rhuben but no Jay.' Slicker than a polecat. lama Magician, Ventriloquist, Punch and Judy, Marionettes, Negro (Specialities), 29 Farces, 2 and 3 people in them, Good Singer, Dress Well, Look Well, and I feel well. This cuss that *s acting out around with me is Howard W. Durand, the New Haven, Ct., Costumer, and where six people would all starve to death, we go and stay 3 to 6 days, change of show every night, 2 hour show. " Yours, &c, " HlGGINS." The ending of this letter reminds us of the old saying, that " the pith of a lady's letter is always in the postscript." One person who saw the trade mark of the word " Resurgam " used in our friend's advertisements, wrote for the price of his new illusion " Resurgam," and a description of it, because if it was good he wanted it " right away ; " and this from a man who did not have a dollar to spend, either. Another interesting letter was one received a few years ago from a gentleman writing from the Astor House at Shanghai, China, who wrote thus : " Dear Sir: I have inclosed ten cents. Please forward cata- logue and sample. I am just the man you want, traveling all over the East with my show. Anything and everything takes well out here with the natives of the East. Want your lowest net price; and hoping they are low, I remain, ' ' Dear Sir, " Yours truly, " L. T. Watson. " U. S. P. 0., Shanghai, China." PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. 183 Evidently the Chinamen had not seen a very high class of conjurers. This reminds us that more nonsense has been written about the skill of the East Indian fakirs and jugglers than any other class of conjurers. We have seen and read elaborate articles on the wonders of their performances that were written by men who had never witnessed a conjurer perform, to say nothing of a skillful one. Of what value is such testimony as to how a thing was done? Their feats have been exaggerated to an enormous degree, principally from the fact that they are being written about by persons who have no conception of modern conjuring or sleight-of-hand. It seems almost time that some lucid explanation should be given of these numerous feats that we hear and read so much about and which we never see. As showing how people who have no knowledge of the art of conjur- ing can be deceived, and at the same time be made to believe they have seen something they really did not see, we will state that a resident of Chicago recently spent his vacation at a resort not far from that city, and was prevailed upon by some of the old residents, w T ho had known him " in the days of his youth," to give a little entertainment. Our amateur not being prepared for any performances, simply showed the company a few sleight-of-hand tricks with common objects that he found in the house. One of the gentlemen present, now past his three score years and ten, but still apparently in his prime, and noted throughout the States as a prominent teacher in the educational walks of life. 184 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS, and whom the amateur remembered as having taken much pains with him when under his watchful and fatherly care a good many years ago, remarked how much he had read of the wonderful doings of the East Indian fakirs. He called special attention to a trick he had often read about, and which was beyond his comprehension. It was to the effect that a fakir produced a large number of balls, and then stated that he would throw them in the air one at a time when the audience would see them disappear one by one, till all had gone. After waiting a few moments the fakir would commence calling them down, and they would come one at a time, and the ground would again be covered with balls. Being asked to explain it or duplicate it to their satisfaction, the Chicago amateur agreed to do so. Assisted by a young lady, he made a tour of the well-filled cellar and store rooms and found a large quantity of fine apples, selecting only half a dozen, all about the same size, say two inches in diameter, he returned to the parlor with them, and placed them on the piano. He then requested the audience to note that one apple would be taken at a time and thrown in the air three times, disappearing at the word three. The conjurer rolled up his sleeves and commenced. In a moment the apples had all disappeared in regu- lar order, one by one. Then stepping out into the middle of the room, his hands were shown empty and all present were requested to look up in the air and they would see the apples coming down at the Avord three, one at a time, while the performer counted as before. This occurred to their fullest satisfaction. PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. 185 This little trick, which is common to all skillful conjurers, puzzled the good people of Geneva exactly in the same manner that the East Indian fakir did the gentleman who wrote the wonderful account of what he saw. Now for the best part of the story. While our amateur was taking his daily " constitu- tional " the next day, he met one of the gentlemen who had been present the evening before at the little entertainment. He is a very shrewd person, and was in company of another old resident, to whom the Chicago man was introduced, when he remarked to his friend and some other gentlemen present : " You ought to have been at the party last evening to have seen the wonderful thing we saw. This old school-boy of ours took half a dozen apples and threw them up into the air, one by one, and they all disappeared, and then in a minute he commenced calling them down, and they commenced coming down out of the air again, falling on the floor till he had over two bushels of apples there? Here is the secret of all the extraordinary work of the East Indian fakirs. This gentleman described the trick just as it appeared to him, which was not by any means the way it was performed. Barnello, the celebrated fire-eater, who does proba- bly one of the neatest and most original fire-eating acts of the present time, tells of the following pecu- liar occurrence which he witnessed in Memphis, Tenn. While he was standing outside of the theatre in which he had been performing, he was approached by a negro, who said, "Hullo man, you's a queer man to eat fire. Fse kindah o' article myself, too. I 186 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. ken drink a 'hull pail o' water." Barnello states that he took it all in, as you might say, and, having a few moments to spare, made the man believe he would hire him, but first wanted to see him drink the water. The " gentleman of color" agreed, and they stepped inside the theatre; Barnello, mean- time, posting the proprietor. A pail of water was procured, also a tin cup to drink out of. Without any preparation whatever, the negro commenced to drink the water, and inside of fifteen minutes he drank the entire pail empty. Although the colored man was lean, Barnello says " that his paunch pro- truded like that of an Alderman." He had not had the water down long before he said that he could not stand it for any length of time, and that it must come up again. Stepping out on the sidewalk and standing close to the curbstone, he worked his left arm out and back from his left shoulder as in the act of pumping, and the water spurted out of his mouth like a stream of water from a small hose. This is surely one of the most peculiar freaks we ever heard of. The following story has been described in a num- ber of ways ; but clothed in this garb by a friend of ours in Boston, it looks pleasing and is like an old friend in a new dress : It was in a town on the coast of England where a magician was advertised to give a performance. It was a sea-faring town, and being so much out of the way, it was not often that any performances were given there. The town did not even boast of a hall, let alone a theatre. The only room to secure was a large storehouse. At the time PECULIAR HAPPENINGS. 187 of the advent of the magician a quantity of powder was stored in kegs in the large room of this ware- house. The proprietor had fixed up this room the best he could, and had placed boards across and on the kegs for seats. He exacted a promise from the magician to keep his eyes on the men present and not allow them to light their pipes in the place. When the magician made his appearance, he found the room well filled with sailors, to whom he ex- plained the matter and requested them not to light their pipes in the place, as he had promised the proprietor of the room that it would not be done. Of course the Jack Tars agreed and promised not to light their pipes. The conjurer then went on with his performance, which proved of great interest to his spectators. One of them perhaps felt more interested than the others and was very much pleased with every trick the magician did. This particular sailor had with him his pet, a very tame parrot, which w T as quite a good talker and seemed to learn very easily. After every good trick the sailor would say, "That's pretty good, I wonder what he will do next." This he repeated several times and the parrot came very near repeating it over after him. The sailor was thoroughly wrapped up in the tricks he saw, and after a little while became so much excited that he quite forgot himself, and, tak- ing out his pipe, filled it with tobacco. Taking a. match from his pocket, he scratched it on one of the kegs when whiz, bang, went the powder and the whole place was blown to pieces by the terrific explo- sion which followed. Our sailor finally came to his 188 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. senses and found himself out in a field. Looking up he saw his parrot sitting on a fence with his large feathers missing, one eye out and his whiskers gone. Turning his one eye on Jack, he looked down on him and said, "That's pretty good, I wonder what he will do next." CHAPTER XII. MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. Dr. Holden's Adventures in Egypt, Algeria, and India — Deaf men at a show — Frazer Coulter's Failure as an Assistant — The old trick of ' ' Prof. Hume " — Baron Seeman's wit and ingenuity, His Russian Experience — Old Bamberg's arrest, his skill — How D'Alvini broke up the sharpers — Foreign and home audiences— Lady Professionals— The Future of the Art. In a previous chapter we have spoken of the pop- ular and well-known Dr. Holden, of London, who is also known as the " Bohemian Magician." Not only is he a clever conjurer, but quite a talented writer, and from his " Wizard's Wanderings'' we take the following interesting descriptions of remarkable occurrences, in each of which he was the leading actor : "On arriving at Cairo, a rather amusing incident occurred, which may not be out of place here. In the delightfully cool room of the Eoyal Hotel, which is situated on the Boulevard Esbekich, Cairo, and is about as comfortable a hotel as you can well find out there, we were chatting together, enjoying the fragrant weed, when I thought I would play a joke during the evening on W , and mentioned to one or two present that I would do a trick with his 189 190 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. scarf-pin. An hour or so later the chance presented itself. ' You might show us a trick before you go to perform at the theatre, Dr. Holden,' said one. I Do, mon ami,- said another. ' Gentlemen,' I said, I I never perform a magical experiment except on the stage, but as you are so yevy pressing, and if it will relieve un mauvais quart dlieure, as I see the ladies have all left, I will just show you a feat I saw performed out here. Will any one kindly lend me a scarf-pin ? ' I asked. W , after a little hesitation, said he would. ' Do not let me touch it, nor even see it,' I replied, ' but take this envelope, place this scarf- pin inside, and seal it up with wax, a stick of which I beg to hand you.' By this time all eyes were on me, but by a dexterous move I managed to get hold of the envelope, and instantly changed it for another one, sealed up like the other, and containing a dummy scarf-pin. Having 'rung the changes,' as it were, I now felt secure, and prepared to sit upon poor W . The airs I gave myself (Englishlike) none can tell. Before now, gentle reader, have you not often felt inclined to hurl the soup-tureen or the spittoon at the head of some egotistical, self-con- ceited fellow-countryman abroad, as he makes him- self a lineal descendant of Balaam's Ass before a com- pany of sensible foreigners? Well, had you been present that evening at Cairo, you would not have even drawn the line at the sofa itself, I fear, as far as it concerns me. I gave myself more airs than all of Gatti's waiters put together. I not only sat on poor W , but pulverized the fellow. He bore it, I must confess, like a lamb. ' Observe, gentlemen, MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 191 what a marvelous feat I am about to demonstrate. Waiter, bring me in three lemons, please.' He did so, and I managed to get "W 's pin out of the envelope in my back pocket, palm it, and insert it in one of the lemons 1 had carelessly taken up. ' I shall now command the scarf-pin to leave my hand,' I said, as I took up the sealed envelope by the tips of my fingers; 'and pass into either of those lemons.' One was selected — of course the one with the pin in it. That I placed in the center of the table, in a borrowed hat, and vanished by a sleight-of-hand the dummy pin and sealed envelope. 'I'll bet you a level "pony" my pin is not inside that lemon in the hat,' said W . 'And champagne round as well for the good of the house?' I added. 'Done,' said W ; and done I was. I cut open, bombast- ically, the lemon, and there was a pin in it, right enough, but it was my pin, not "W 's. Some kind friend, it seems, had told W of the 'sell ' I had prepared for him, and he had gone to my room and exchanged pins, they being very much alike, but inside his was his name and where it was pre- sented to him. So I had to pay up. I think prac- tical jokes are silly things. " One morning, sauntering into the open space used as a market place at Fez, with fancy bernouse thrown carelessly over me, I had a look around on the qui vive for ' something to turn up,' as poor Micawber used to say. In traveling through Morocco, I always dressed in the Oriental style, and, when necessary, passed myself off as a native. My readers may easily imagine, without too great a stretch of the imagina- 192 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. tion, the bright, picturesque scene presented. Wild, swarthy men from the Atlas slopes bargaining for one thing or another, yelling and shouting .and cheapening what they wanted — no such thing as ' prix fixe ' seeming to be in vogue at Fez. I used to think Naples the queerest spot under the sun to strike a bargain in, but it is ' nowhere' compared to Fez. Slaves were led through the crowd, in batches of three, or four together, and contented enough they looked, poor souls. You see, the unfortunate wretches had had no school-board education crammed into them, neither had they — poor benighted ones — ever had the advantage of attending Exeter Hall ; the consequences were that they, knowing no better, were quite satisfied with their lot, and seemed to take things as they came. Piles of juicy fruit, many of them unknown to dear old Covent Garden, lay about, watched over by bright-eyed Moorish women, who seemed to work like beasts of burden. There is very little poetry about them, and they are all as ignorant as well can be. The bazaars around were full of people chatting and yelling, who were pushed aside as the Sultan's body-guard strode along in all their glory. And what magnificent looking men they are. They walk along, glancing first on this side, and then on the other, nodding to their friends, with all the grace of Salvini himself. These Moors bronzed, it is true, but it is not the sooty hue with which our tragedians depict the ' Swan of Avon's' Othello. At one stall were hanging a number of partridges, quails, some queer-looking unknown birds, and hares, presided over by a MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 193 brigandish - looking - penny-plain - two-pence-colored- looking mountaineer, with a fierce moustache and armed cap-a-pie. ' What will you take, not what you are asking, Ali, for this wretched, half-starved, heaven-forsaken hare?' I asked him, in Arabic. ' Salaam, aleikoom ' (so and so), was the reply, ' and it's worth double. I shot it myself,' he added, with a proud chuckle, ' the day before yesterday ; miles from here.' 'Reach it down,' I said, 'and tell me no more of your lies, Ali. Shot it the day before yesterday. It's pretty high, then?' 'Yes,' he answered, 'I shot it up a tree.' 'Why, it is alive, you dog,' I said. Taking it up by the ears, I showed it to the crowd around me, and sure enough, alive and kicking it was. I then let it jump off the board, and off it bolted down the street, pursued by a number of on -lookers and all the mongrel dogs in the city. Ali's face was a stud}^. Shall I ever forget his look? — I think not. He thought I was Yama himself. Like wild-fire the tale spread, how the magician had put life into a dead hare — which in due time was run to earth just inside the garden of the palace, and the tale was told to the Sultan himself, who was passing out at the time on his way to the Mosque. "That afternoon, I remember, I was sent for to come to the Palace, and it was arranged I should give a display of my powers the following day before the court. For the evening, I had already announced my intention of giving a public performance in the then empty bazaar of Aboulhassen Ebn Becar, which my readers may remember if they have ever visited Fez, 194 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. is, or was, situated close to the Mosque. I need hardly remark that, before publicly anointing myself that night with what the audience took to be Meemi-ke-tale, I had the satisfaction of seeing the place crowded to almost suffocation, scarcely allow- ing me room to grow the mangosteen in. So full, indeed, was the place, that numbers failed to obtain admission. Over twenty performances did I give there, and all through the simple device I practiced. " On my way to Fez from Fighig, after crossing the Atlas range of mountains, my dog caught a hare, which I carefully attended to, and on the morning I have just mentioned this hare was carefully con- cealed in a pocket, very -get-at-able, just underneath my bernouse. As I took the dead hare from Ali's hands, I substituted the living one and pocketed the dead hare in a far shorter space of time than it takes to tell. The fanatical, ignorant people about though t I was possessed of supernatural power. " During my last professional tour from China to Peru, I happened to find myself, one fine day, at Hyderabad. I had given my magical performance at the Nizam's City Palace before a large company of Muslim court officials, dignitaries and ladies from the garrison at Secunderabad, when, a day or two afterwards, I was sent for, with a request that His Highness wished to confer with me. I was ushered into his presence, wondering what was on the tapis. He is of less than middle stature, with dark, expressive eyes, and a mild countenance, and was attired in a black coat crossed by the azure riband of the Star of India, a diamond-studded sabre MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 195 swinging at his waist. His get-up, in the words of Talleyrand, 'Je le trouve Men distingue? A brilliant staff of officials stood around, each of whom, in approaching the greatest Prince of India, made six several and profoundly low salaams, acknowledged from the throne by a slight wave of the hand. " Turning affably to me, he remarked, ' I was very impressed with your " Mind-revealing," I think you called it,' — I bowed low to indicate he was right — ' when you appeared here yesterday, and I want to see you if you can — but our Minister, Salar Jung, will explain matters more fully to you, Doctor Holden,' said His Highness, with a pleasant and gracious smile, as he took his departure. Here is an adventure, I thought, and tried to look grave, to be in harmony with my character. What is it ? I wondered, as I inwardly took in the magnificent surroundings, as I hoped, presently, to take them in! Only a short distance from where I was, stands Golconda, noted for its diamonds and Sinbad's story of the eagles and the joints of mutton in the ' Yalley of Jewels.' Here the cele- brated Koh-i-noor was found. The last famous dia- mond found here was the 'Nizam,' I believe, which, after a peasant had rashly splintered it by a blow on the apex, still furnished a fragment valued at seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds. I could not help thinking of this as I stood on the platform of marble, under that exquisite pillared portico looking over the vast, well-lighted quad- rangle, surrounded by the white palace buildings. " How little we ' who live at home at ease' know 196 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. of the glories, in the way of palaces and temples, of India. How different from all our preconceived ideas do we find the reality. Thus I mused as the Nizam slowly walked away, leaving me a most pecu- liar and unprofessional duty to undertake, as I shall now try and explain. I was surrounded by all the notabilities of the Court, all quizzing me, I fully believed, but all as courteous and gracious as only Moslem gentlemen can be. Salar Jung, a very tall young man, of thoughtful and intellectual counte- nance and graceful manners, and Syed Ali, Director of Public Instruction to the State, who, besides talk- ing English with fluent accuracy, and the Hindu- stani of the Deccan, is a proficient in Persian, Ara- bic, and Murathi, as well as Sanscrit, between them, explained that His Highness had lost a rare and magnificent diamond from the hilt of his scimitar, some famous stone handed down from — well, whether he said Vehchaisravai, the Divine Stallion, or some- thing or somebody else, I could not catch; at all events it was evidently highly prized. " < Could I by any means find the thief; or, if not stolen, could I find where it lay perdu f ' "Well, this was a poser for me. ' Give me twelve hours in this palace,' said I, 'and I will see what can be done.' I was made right royally welcome, enjoyed a banquet in a private room served upon gold, I remember, the cooking being quite European, except for the profusion of the pillaus and curries, in which the Mogul chef of the palace excels any rival. I doubt muchly if the genius of Soyer, of Francatelli, and of Baron Brisse, all combined, could MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 19 T have concocted such an appetizing, highly-flavored repast. I had carte blanche to do things, I suppose, no other European ever did there. I set my wits to work and inquired here, inquired there, and still could see no way of solving the problem. Poor old Thucydides would have been shocked had he lived in Hyderabad to-day, as every one seems armed to the teeth ; even in the palace it was the same. Does he. not say, in his First Book, that no civilized .citizens should carry iron ? If the Nizam had taken the sage's advice, this would not have occurred. ' Well, I won't carry iron, but u brass," instead,' I said to myself. An idea had struck me ; arms are never carried into the presence of ladies of the court here, so it must have been when outside those sacred pre- cincts the stone was lost. "I sauntered to that entrance and found it guarded by a black-faced Sidi, whilst a Eohilla, with blue caftan and blunderbuss, lounged close by. Eight men formed the guard of tjiat par- ticular part of the palace, and they had not been changed since the stone had been lost, but had all been searched and thoroughly -examined when the loss was discovered, as here the Nizam was in the habit of throwing off any superfluous article he might have on his person, depositing the same in an alcove near by. I minutely examined the pesh-khats, and those little villainous knives named bichwas or 'scorpions' to see if their points had been broken by unsetting the missing diamond, also each sher bucha, ' tiger's child,' and saf shihan^ ' line sweeper,' as they call their wretched blunderbuss, to see if it might 198 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. not be concealed therein. All to no purpose. At last a happy thought inspired me. I got the minis- ters and other officials to witness this, my last test, trusting to the chapter of accidents to pull me through. " At the bottom of the staircase were drawn up a body of well-mounted short and square Arab troop- ers, with drawn sabres and silver-bound match-locks, which they advanced as His Highness and his court- iers came toward where I was standing, shaded by the royal color, or flag of Hyderabad, which is yel- low with a circular disc in its middle (if I remember rightly), a sort of Kultcha. ' And now, Dr. Holden, let us see what we shall see,' graciously remarked the Nizam. I bowed, and they sat about on cushions of silk and gold, or carved alabaster benches, on the very spot I had a day or so previously 'fooled them to the top of their bent.' It is a scientific fact, of which you may not possibly be aware, that fear and anxiety diminish the digestion of any one, and stop the secretion of the gastric juice ; this fact I had often heard of before, and now determined to put it to the test. "And what a scene presented itself ! What color, what effect ! How well it would look, I thought, on one of our best metropolitan theatres. In the dis- tance, peering through the gates, was the black-faced Sidi, the Rohilla, with blue caftan and blunderbuss; the Pathan, the Afghan, dirty and long-haired; the Rajpoot, with his shield of oiled and polished hide ; Persians, Bokhara men, Turks, Mahrattas, Madras- ees, Parsees, and others. The suspected ones were MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 199 marched up, and appeared to me to show more ser- vility than one notices even in the effete courts of Europe. They seemed to have a weakness ' to crook the pregnant hinges of the knee ' with a vengeance ! "I procured eight brass dishes, each containing a few handfuls of dry rice, and had the eight guards placed in front of me. Being a mesmerist, I saw, at once, I had them under my control entirely. But that would have been no use in detecting crime, you say. True, it would not, but I was going to apply the simpler test, but combined with the magnetic force or will-power. Putting on Cato-like sternness I looked into each man's eyes, and never saw such unflinching, dare-devil subjects. The interpreter was then called for, and was told to explain to these eight men that I, 'Dr. Holden, Magician to the Queen-Empress,' was possessed of supernatural power, and could read men's thoughts. Let each man take a handful of rice and chew it, spitting it on to the plate he held in his hand, when told to do so. They did as requested, without a muscle mov- ing. JSTow, somehow or another, I felt the guilty man was amongst these eight, and possibly I put forth will-power to a greater extent than 1 should have done, had I not suspected one of them. "'If the guilty man is amongst you, he can not chew his rice,' I said, looking them well into the face. ' Spit out on your plate what you have in your mouths,' I said. They did so, and there, sure enough, amongst those eight plates of chewed rice, was one dry mouthful. Placing my face against that man's, I glared at him and accused him of the theft. I 200 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. was right. He confessed his crime, and showed us where the concealed stone was. As a lady was mixed up in this affair, and as these lines may very possibly reach Hyderabad, it might be considered, possibly, a breach of confidence if I said any more on this strange subject. The President, Mr. Cordery, will understand my motives for so doing, I have no doubt. Amongst the presents made me is one I shall ever revere. It was a magnificent abbassis, a sort of Persian rapier, on which was engraved the Gayatri, or ' Sacred Yerse ' of the Brahmins. " Of course, my success got bruited about, and made my sojourn in that hospitable country most enjoya- ble ; so much so, that it was with considerable reluc- tance I tore myself away from Hyderabad — the Mohammedan Capua. Some believe it was here Cupid played 'Campaspe,' a game of cards for kisses. However that may be, I shall always con- sole myself with the thought that I played my cards pretty well here." Many conjurers, especially those performing in our large cities, know how difficult it is to get a person in the audience to assist them. Those who have experienced this will appreciate the following, clipped from an Eastern paper : " Jones and Gibbs," says the Washington Star, " went together, the other night, to see a celebrated conjurer prestidigitate at a Washington theatre. You know how deaf Gibbs is ; he can't hear a word you say, unless you shout into his ear ; and Jones is nearly as bad. To hear them try to talk to one another you would suppose they were engaged in MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 201 violent altercation, judging from the elevation of their voices and their gesticulations. "But, as it was about to be remarked, Jones had secured two orchestra chairs, through the medium of a bill-board, and he took his friend Gibbs along with him. Gibbs paying Jones only one-half the box-office price for his seat — a bargain exhibiting Jones' characteristic generosity in business matters. Jones had managed to get the places in the front row, so as to secure as much for the money as possi- ble. They sat next the aisle, and it was not sur- prising that the magician should have applied to Jones on the first occasion when he desired to per- form a trick through the medium of some one in the audience. He walked down from the stage into the orchestra by an inclined plane arranged for that pur- pose, and when he came to Jones said : "' May I ask you, sir, to give me your aid in this little matter?' "Now, it happens that the conjurer does not speak English very perfectly, and it thus befell that Jones, without having in any manner caught the purport of the question addressed to him, grinned amicably and nodded an assent. Whereupon the magician pro- ceeded to rapidly explain what was required, not dis- covering" that he was not understood at all until Gibbs leaned over and said : "'My friend is deaf: I don't believe he hears you.' "'Oh!' replied the prestidigitateur, the situation dawning upon him, and immediately he placed the pack of cards he held in Gibbs' hand and bade him do thus and so. But Jones, who had himself waked 202 MODERN MAGICIANS ANp THEIR WORKS. up by this time to the state of affairs, plucked at the magician's sleeve and said : " ' It's no use talking to him ; he's as deaf as a post.' " The conjurer looked astonished for a moment, and then, addressing the audience, most of whom had already perceived the difficulty that was making a pause in the programme, he asked : " ' Ladies and gentlemen, is there any one here to- night who has ears to hear with ? ' " There were at once a number of responses to this appeal and the performance was continued. Gibbs and Jones say that it wasn't their fault ; they went to see and not hear — that being the great advantage of a magician's show from their point of view." The following story is told by the manager of the Turn-Over Club, of Chicago: " I fell in the other day with Frazer Coulter, who has been over at the Haymarket with .Duncan Har- rison's ' Paymaster,' " said the actor, " and he had along with him his old friend, William Luske, who forsook the profession to settle down here in Chicago as a broker, and who occasionally dabbles in the drama to the extent of private theatricals. The two were talking of past days, and Coulter told of the time he was a confederate — not in war, but the con- federate of an amateur magician who participated in a charitable entertainment at a fashionable Eastern watering place some seasons ago. This entertain- ment was to open with a little comedy, and then the audience was to be astounded by the young prestidig- itateur. The latter was a wealthy young fellow MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 203 who had purchased all of the magical apparatus he could find, and he had spent a great deal of time in training his brother to act as his assistant. The brother was expected down on the afternoon train, but he failed to show up. The magician was wild. He told Coulter that he would have to assist him. Coul- ter kicked and said he knew nothing about magic, but he finally agreed to do the best he could. In ten minutes he tried hard to absorb the teaching of months, but he was a little uncertain when he went into the audience as a confederate. " The first trick he essayed was that of burning up a borrowed handkerchief and then finding it in good shape wherever the audience wanted it found. The handkerchief was borrowed and the 'dummy' was burned all right. Then blank cards were passed about in the audience and people were asked to write where the handkerchief should be found. These cards were returned to Coulter and placed in a box on the end of a long stick. As confederate he should have pressed a button on the end of the stick and turned the cards so that a prepared one, on which ' A loaf of bread ' was written, should be pulled out by the disinterested person asked to make the draw. Coulter remembered from his hurried instruc- tions that he must do something, but what it was he could not recall. Well, he did not press the button, and the man who drew the card read in a clear, loud tone : ' In a lemon.' The amateur magician nearly had a fit, and he glared at Coulter like a madman. He had to give up, however, and the trick was tried over again. Coulter pressed the button this time 204 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. and the ' loaf of bread ' card came out all right. The prepared loaf had been left at the hotel and the waiter was sent for. He mixed his dates and brought the wrong loaf. The magician tore it open with a triumphant air, found no handkerchief inside, and wilted. Then the right loaf was sent for, and the waiter who brought it carried it down the aisle so that every one saw the square plug which had been cut out for the insertion of the cambric. The magi- cian was wild. Everything went wrong with him. Flowers absolutely refused to grow in a plug hat because Coulter forgot to pull the string, and a muss was made of every trick until the magician gave up in disgust. Since then Mr. Coulter has absolutely refused to act as any one's confederate." Some years ago an anti-spiritualistic performer, generally known to the profession as Eddie Powell, gave a large number of exhibitions throughout our country. He was noted particularly for the facility with which he changed his name to Hume, Home, Slade and other shining lights of the spiritualistic fraternity. His performances were all alike, al- though the tricks' he introduced were quite skill- fully executed. He has not been heard from for some time, but is no doubt carrying on the same class of performances which, under such manipula- tion, tend so much to confuse many spiritualists and persons who call themselves investigators. The following account of the doings of a certain "Prof. Hume" expresses the estimation in which such performances are now held, and which is only one of many just such criticisms that have often appeared : MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 205 "Attracted by the announcement that 'Professor' Hume, the unrivaled medium, prestidigitateur, necro- mancer and general dabbler in the mystic arts, would outdo all the tricks of Heller, Kellar and Herrmann combined, a large and fashionable audience assem- bled in a hall at 814 Geary street, and shivered throughout the performance of about as gigantic a swindle as ever was perpetrated upon a credulous pub- lic. The ' Professor's' many colored handbills stated that ' a small admission fee would be charged to defray the expenses of the hall.' The 'small admission, fee' was half a dollar, and the ' performance ' must have netted Mr. Hume about $150. " Shortly after 8 o'clock the ' Professor,' who is a talker of remarkable volubility, appeared upon the platform and announced that his pianist (one of the finest musicians in the State of California) had failed to materialize, and that he would have to supply ' chin music 'instead. He then selected a committee of four gentlemen, who stepped upon the platform and looked becomingly wise, serious, pleased or mys- tified, as occasion demanded. " The ' Professor ' then resurrected from the grave the time-worn cabinet trick performed by Noah before the animals in the ark, and rang bells and slung around tambourines, to the great delight of the Investigating Committee and to the manifest disgust of the really intelligent audience. u He then very clumsily attempted the slate-writ- ing trick, calling up such back numbers as Ben Franklin, Christopher Columbus and other faded- out spirits. Finally he succeeded in moving a little 206 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. 8x4 table a few inches from the floor, and when the hall had been suitably darkened summoned up an Indian rubber ghost, which was so poorly con- structed that it couldn't be induced to move a step from the cabinet. He then announced that his entertainment was over, and slid smoothly from the stage. " The audience sat and looked at each other for a few moments, then a buzz of excited and indignant conversation arose. There were cries of * Fraud ! ' and ' Give us our money back ! ' but the humorous Hume had performed a little spiritualistic trick on his own account and vanished. The whole perform- ance did not take over half an hour, and a more badly-fooled audience it would have been, difficult to find anywhere. " Quite a remarkable coincidence over the name of Taylor appeared one day in a Chicago daily paper. On one page in its advertising columns appeared the announcement that Prof. C. T. Taylor, the - clever magician, was appearing at a certain dime museum. On another page of the same paper appeared a short article, relating how a certain conjurer called Taylor had advertised to perform and then expose the wonderful Indian Box trick at a town. in Texas. The preliminary performance was a very tame affair, although he had a well-filled house. At last he pro- duced the box trick. Before getting inside the box, he requested the audience to keep their seats for five minutes after the box was tied up, and he would then show them how the trick was done. He got into the box, which was then securely tied up. The MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 207 audience waited the proper time and even longer, still no professor put in his appearance from the box. It was turned over, and they discovered that the conjurer had gone through the bottom of the box, through a trap in the stage and was off for other fields with the receipts of the theatre. Perhaps no magician who has circled the globe has had as many interesting things happen to him among the highest class of people, as occurred to the late renowned Professor Baron Hartwig Seeman, during his long and interesting career. The two following examples of his wit and ingenuity are from his own lips : "It was during one of my tours in Sweden that I put up at the Gotha Kallare, the best hotel in Goth- enburg. In the parlors of this hotel I found a gen- tleman waiting for me, who said : ' Now, my dear Seeman, this time you must give your best private exhibition at my house and not at Liedman's, as I can pay as much as he can.' This was the richest whole- sale merchant of the Hebrew persuasion. Of course I expressed my willingness to do so, and he then said : ' You must come right away now and look at my house. We can then perfect the arrangements.' Taking me in his carriage we drove out to his villa. As we alighted we saw an elegantly dressed lady enter the house. ' My wife; so much the better,' said the gentleman. I was introduced and invited to join them in a glass of wine and a piece of cake. This being the custom, I of course did so, and we then made all necessary arrangements concerning the private performance I was to give, except- 208 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. ing the most important point — the price I was to receive. I lingered intentionally with them some time for this reason. At last the moment arrived when I could not with propriety remain any longer. Taking leave of my hostess, her husband accompanied me to the door, but just before we reached it he was called back by his wife, who said to him in my presence in English, ' Do not speak to him about the salary until after the performance. It will be cheaper that way.' Poor woman, in her innocence she did not know, — but — her husband then accompanied me out into the hall where I remarked : 'You know, my dear sir, that when you close a bargain with anybody you always settle on a price. I am something of a business man myself, and will be pleased to have you fix the price I am to receive.' He replied: 'Please, Mr. Seeman, say how much it shall be.' ' Three hun- dred,' I replied. 'Very well,' said the gentleman, ' good-bye ; ' and with a good-bye from me, I took my leave. The performance was given at the time appointed. I was afterwards-invited to appear, and later we had music, after which we talked on all possible topics and finally the guests began to leave. Then the gentleman said, ' Mr. Seeman, will you not look at all of our rooms ? There are many of them which you have not yet seen. You have amused our guests very well, and now you must see our house, especially my bed-room, as it is furnished in 'the very latest fashion.' Just at this moment somebody in a silk dress passed by us. It was the hostess, who joined us in her husband's bed-room, where he MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 209 said he wished to pay me at once for my performance, preferring to do it in his wife's presence. As he said this he laid before me on the table three hun- dred single Swedish dollars (now crowns). I did not touch them, but said to him that this was one hundred and fifty dollars less than we had agreed upon. He then said: 'But, Mr. Seeman, you said three hundred.' 'Quite right,' I replied; 'but I meant three hundred Banko.' (One Banko is one and a half dollars.) They both looked at each other, and the lady said she thought it was dear. Here was my chance, and I said in English : 1 Madam, if you had first spoken about the pay it would perhaps have been three hundred dollars, but now after the performance has been given, I need three hundred Banko, so I can give a hundred and fifty dollars to a poor family of this city in your name.' The gentleman paid the amount without a murmur, and the next day they read in the papers that a poor family had received a present of a hun- dred and fifty dollars from a well known lady who did not wish her name to be mentioned. I think that if her name had appeared, perhaps she would not have been quite so angry." " The following episode from my career as an artist through Russia, comes to my mind at this time when everybody's eyes are attracted toward the political horizon in that country. I am fain to say that I tell it, as I do all of my little stories, with unvarnished truth. It was in November, 1876, that I had advertised my ' Grand Soiree mysterieuse,' in the hall at Helsingborg. The next day I was to have 210 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. embarked on board of a steamer, which I had chartered for six hundred Finnish marks to take me through the Gulf of Finland to Eeval, where I expected to appear, but it happened otherwise. The captain of the steamer came and told me that so much ice had formed since four o'clock in the afternoon, that a voyage across the Gulf could not be thought of. However, a large English steamer had been signaled, and it would arrive at six o'clock to take on freight for Hull, England. After talking with the captain of this steamer, he agreed to take me to Reval for one thousand marks. It was mid- night when I got my baggage on board. To my surprise, I was then told that they could not think of starting on the voyage on account of the severe cold. Of course I could do nothing else but go by rail. I had to go first to St. Petersburg, and from there to Reval, and in this manner I would be com- pelled to go along the coast around the entire Gulf of Finland at an enormous expense. Taking my family with me, and wrapping ourselves up well with furs, we left Helsingborg the next day on the train. On arriving at Abo, the first city in Finland, I had the good fortune not to be bothered with many formalities by the custom-house officials. This was also our good luck at St. Petersburg. They were very polite. The examination was short, and I was happy. It was extremely cold and we were all trembling from the effects of it. We were glad to see a sleigh approaching, drawn by two horses. I had with me a card of the hotel where I intended stopping, and requested a passing officer to tell the MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 21 1 officials in Russian, which I did not understand, where to drive us, and he did so. My son was in the first sleigh, my wife and myself were in the second. During the winter there, when there is no work in the country, it is the custom of the farmers to go to the cities with their sleighs and horses and, securing a license from the police department, make their living as teamsters or drivers. They are no more acquainted with the streets in the cities than foreigners are, and the only way to arrive at your destination is to know where you want to go and then tell the driver in this peculiar manner: You tap him with a cane or umbrella on the right or left shoulder, or point straight ahead, according to the direction you want him to go. Unfortunately at that time I knew nothing about this. The sleigh occupied by my son flew rapidly out of sight, our sleigh followed slowly. We must have ridden nearly an hour, still the Hotel deTEurope was not reached. It certainly could not be so far. I could not talk to the driver, but I knew a way to express my wishes; so, grabbing him by the collar, I shook him violently. I showed him a ruble, and gave vent to the only Russian word I knew, and exclaimed with vehemence, 'Paschol.' We drove on for half an hour longer. We were suffering intensely from the extreme cold, and, notwithstanding our furs, we soon began to freeze. Again I shook the driver up, this time more severely, when he stopped, and for the first time I noticed that we were outside of the city, and had halted in front of the only house, a most wretched saloon. The driver got out and entered 212 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. the house. "We of course thought he was inquiring for the right way and would return quickly, because it had begun to grow dark. I waited a long time, and finally losing all patience, got out and entered the house. Imagine m}^ surprise when I saw the man sitting at a table behind a samovar full of tea, and a glass of vodki. The room was filled with the most terrible odors that ever offended my nostrils. Ascertaining that the landlady spoke German, I had her tell the driver what I wanted. I again got into the sleigh, accompained by the driver, and we returned to the city. I suspected nothing good from his actions, and accordingly was on my guard. My precautions, however, were unnecessary, for in about an hour we arrived at the hotel after making many inquiries. I related my experience to the head por- ter and asked him to pay the driver. He replied that he knew what he had to do in such a case, and instead of paying him in rubles he gave him a sound thrashing, which the driver received very meekly and departed in a very humble manner. I found awaiting me a telegram from Re val, relating to my engagement. What surprised me the most in the telegram was the date of it. It was dated fourteen days before the one I had seen the day before in Helsingborg. My curiosity had to be satisfied, and I found that I had forgotten the difference in time they have in Russia, which is not like that of the rest of the Christian world. What should I do? I concluded it would be best to spend a fortnight in St. Petersburg, and look out for some engagements later on. I had with me a number of excellent MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 213 recommendations, and in four days I managed to have an audience with the Emperor of all the Rus- sians. He ordered a private performance in the Winter Palace. I should remark that during this performance I was very much disturbed by two splendid greyhounds, one of which jumped and pranced around me continuously on my impro- vised platform. I accidentally stepped on his foot and he howled most pitifully. I immedi- ately apologized for my awkwardness the more, I said, because I am very fond of dogs. ' You shall have one for a present soon if you stay here,' said the Emperor, smiling, ' and now take the dogs out.' I proceeded with the performance and gave my best tricks, or, as my wife said, ' played like an angel.' (May God pardon her! ) This performance at the Emperor's caused considerable excitement and I received several other invitations. The Emperor kept his word, and at the end of eight weeks the promised greyhound was sent to me at Reval. He was a splendid animal, and I have him with me still. He is very intelligent, and is a dear souvenir of that unhappy monarch. I traveled through the Baltic provinces, and was undecided whether to go further, when I received flattering invitations to go to Berlin, which I decided to accept. There Avas one more city I had to visit ; it was Goldingen. In this city there are many families of the nobility who are very poor. In every city in Russia there is a casino for the noblemen, one for the students and one for the citizens. The one for the students only where there is a university. Of course there is also 214 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. a casino for the noblemen in Goldingen, and it hap- pened to be in the very hotel where I wished to stop. On my arrival 1 went into the parlor, showed my passports, registered and talked to the landlord as usual. I was very much surprised when he requested me to go to my rooms, adding: ' You have not been introduced to the members of the noblemen's casino, and as these are the club rooms, strangers can not sta}^ in them after six o'clock. It will be better for you to request one of the noblemen to introduce you.' Nowhere in the world had I met with such inhospi- tality, and I made up my mind not to humble myself or lower my pride. I was as proud as an Arab, or, if you prefer, as a Spaniard, and hence only went to see the members of the press. These gentlemen con- firmed what the landlord had told me, and added that but few rich merchants in the city had the honor to be members of the casino, and that the noble members were very poor, and most of them deeply in debt. The next morning, as I was looking out of the window of my room, I saw three gentle- men crossing the street. They did not go to the door, but came to the open window, and I heard them ask the question very plainly: 'Is anybody there ? ' Just as plainly I heard the answer of the landlord, who said, f Eo.' Then the three gentle- men went away. The landlord had lied, because I knew positively there were four men in the lower room. I wanted to know the reason of this bare- faced lie, and went down stairs, for at this hour I need not ask anybody's permission. There by the window sat four men. and I could not refrain from MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 215. asking the landlord why he had answered ' No.' He smiled and said : ' My dear sir, do you not see the gen- tlemen in there are business men, those outside were noblemen, and by " anybody " they mean naturally their equals. We are used to it.' The next evening I gave my performance. The theatre was crowded, and just as I was about to give the signal to raise the curtain, several firemen appeared on the ex- tremely small stage and took their positions. Nobody had given me notice, as ought to have been according to law, and I refused to have them on the stage. Eight minutes passed. Out in the parquet were many students and boys who began to stamp their feet. I took the bell to give the signal when the chief of the fire department appeared. Three min- utes more elapsed, he went away. More noise out in the parquet. I was again on the point of begin- ning when the director of the police appeared on the stage. He was a very pleasant gentleman and told me he had given orders for the firemen to take positions in the orchestra. I thanked him. A regular storm now broke out in the parquet. I rang the bell and the curtain rose. Some of the boys continued the noise with their feet. I felt annoyed, and in a few words explained that the delay had been caused through no fault of mine, and, there- fore, for the sake of good manners, the stamping could have been omitted. They became quiet. The performance passed off to the satisfaction of all. I gave two more performances, but did not take a step toward being introduced to the casino. Some one belonging to the press told me that some of the 216 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. members felt offended, but I kept my own counsel. On the morning of the day I wanted to go away, somebody knocked at my door. I called out, ' come in ; ' a strange gentleman entered and stood before me. Without any introduction, he addressed me as follows : i The first evening of your performance you insulted in your speech the audience, with whom I and several members of the noblemen's casino were sitting. If you do not apologize immediately before several witnesses down stairs, you will bitterly regret the consequences.' ' To whom have I the honor to speak, and what right,' I began, when he interrupted me by saying : 'I am the Circuit Judge, and if you do not immediately give the required satisfaction, I shall have your passport and luggage seized, and hand in a report against you.' Had I not owed my family some consideration, I could easily have discomfited the poor wretch, but now I was in doubt what to do. My wife's opinion was to send a report to the emperor, but there would be much delay and annoyance. Again there was a knock at the door, and the good-natured face of the director of police looked in. 'This is an ugly affair, Mr. Seeman. What are you going to do? They have sent me to ask you for a decision. I advise you to apologize. You have really done no wrong, but the noblemen have decided to annoy you, and by bringing suit they can keep you here from two to three weeks. The judge will, of course, acquit you, but think of the inconvenience. I speak as your friend and am entirely on your side.' I could not possibly humble myself to do as those poor stuck-up MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 217 noblemen wished, and refused point blank. 'But think of it,' said the good-natured man, ' they only ask you to comedown stairs and simply say, " Excuse me, gentlemen." ' 'Don't they want anything more ?' I asked, as an idea flashed through my brain. ' No,' answered the polite director. ' Well, my dear friend if you wish to do me a favor, ask the gentlemen to give it to you in writing, then I will not have to go down stairs and make many words about it; I know you will do it, won't you?' 'Certainly, with the greatest of pleasure,' he replied. In about twenty minutes I heard steps on the stairs, and the police director entered the room with a paper, on which was written that the undersigned gentlemen would feel satisfied if I would only say, ' Excuse me, gen- tlemen.' I put the paper in my pocket and went down to the parlor. Six noblemen were sitting there. I went up to them, and while looking at one asked another: 'Is any of these gentlemen called Lehman ? ' All answered ' No.' I then said, ' I beg your pardon, gentlemen,' turned on my heel and walked out. Tableau. Nobody held me. I immedi- ately ordered the horses and smiling I entered the carriage, which drove off with us immediately." The same greyhound that Baron Seeman speaks of in above experience, was a most remarkable and intelligent animal. It remained in his family till the summer after the professor's death. Shortly after their return to Chicago it was so severely injured that they were obliged to have it killed. Baron Seeman was very fond of telling how, when they arrived at a town for the first time, he would 218 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. send his wife and daughter to the hotel, while his son and himself, accompanied by the dog, would go to the theatre, make their preparations, and when necessary would send the dog with a message tied around its neck, to the hotel for his wife and daughter, or for them to bring anything he needed, as the case might be. K~o matter how large the town, or how large the hotel, the dog was never lost, and nothing could stop him, as he was often seen to spring over large obstructions in his way. In a previous chapter we have spoken about the Bamberg family. Years ago in the days of Kobert Houdin, the favorite conjurer of the Netherlands, was that skillful performer, " Old Bamberg." The simple announcement that Bamberg was coming to town was sufficient to fill the house every night to overflowing, stay as long as he might. He was par- ficularly skillful with cards, and his favorite amuse- ment, when traveling, was to prevail upon some fellow tourist to play a game of cards with him, when Bamberg was always sure to deal himself all the trumps and his opponent got nothing. The following little adventure he went through with has been copied by nearly all conjurers since his time, as having occurred to themselves, although told differently in each case. He was making a short trip from Eotterdam to The Hague, by way of Delft. Seated in the same compartment of the car with him were two gentlemen, one of whom had entered after Bamberg. At Delft a dragoon in uniform entered. The train proceeded and in a little while Bamberg asked one of the gentlemen what MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 219 time it was. On looking for his watch it was missing. The other gentleman felt in his pocket and missed his handkerchief, and the dragoon missed his purse. An angry discussion arose, and in a few minutes the train reached The Hague. As soon as it stopped one of the gentlemen sent for the Commissionaire of Police, who is always on duty at the station, and demanded that Bamberg be searched, as they accused him of robbing them. Of course they were not aware that it was the con- jurer they were talking to. All went into the office of the Inspector of Police, who, on hearing the story each had to tell, insisted that the stranger, Bamberg, be searched to clear himself. While all the others were much excited, Bamberg- remained very cool, and now told the Inspector that it was unnecessary to search him, as he need only look in the dragoon's top boots, and he would find the handkerchief, the purse and the gentleman's watch, the chain of which was already hanging out of the top of one of his boots. The Inspector, who had begnn to recognize Bamberg, now saw that they were victims of his skill, and in order to preserve the good humor of all, Bamberg explained how he picked their pockets, showing that he had done so just as they were entering the compartment of the car, convincing them how easily it could be done. He had slipped them into the boot of the dragoon as the latter passed out of the car ahead of him. Many of our readers have no doubt seen the won- derful performances of the noted D'Alvini. He was a Londoner, yet was known as " The Jap of 220 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. 3aps." No other balancer or juggler has made such a wonderful success and reputation as he did. Al- though an Englishman, he fairly outdid the Japs, and although he had many imitators he has never had an equal in his peculiar line. A Chicago corres- pondent of one of the daily papers tells the follow- ing interesting story of D'Alvini's skill, and how he broke up some sharpers. D'Alvini was also a very skillful conjurer, and during one of his tours he was obliged to make a long voyage on a steamer. He was asked to join in a card party. Poker was the game, of course, and the stakes, at first small, gradually increased as the limit was shoved up and up toward the ceiling. D'Alvini played in misera- ble luck and lost steadily. No matter how good his hand was, some one held a little better one. This went on until our conjurer lost several hundred dol- lars, nearly all the money he had in the world. It was only at the last minute that he discovered that he had been " done up " by card sharpers. Suppos- ing all the time that he had been playing with gen- tlemen, he had taken no advantage of his skill as a sleight-of-hand performer, and as all good con- jurers do, played honestly through the game. Now, however, he determined upon revenge, and before going to bed he went to the purser and purchased every pack of cards that worthy had for sale. Then he sat up all night in his state-room doctoring these cards, and in the morning took them back to the purser along with a fifty dollar bill, and told him to put them back in his stock. The purser — who- ever knew a purser to refuse an honest penny — did MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 221 so, and after breakfast D'Alvini borrowed a hun- dred and fifty dollars from the captain by put- ting up his watch, and then he invited the sharp- ers to play. In a few minutes they were at it again! "Gentlemen," said D'Alvini, "I suspect that this game was hardly fair last night, and I am now going to make an effort to get even, and shall insist upon using a fresh deck of cards after every deal. Of course the gamblers had no objections, and the game commenced with that understanding. D'Alvini had every deck fixed, and the way that one hundred and fifty dollars of his grew was a caution. In addition to his doctoring of the cards, he rung in on them all his wonderful skill in sleight-of-hand, and though he was one man against three, he virtually cleaned out the crowd, getting all his money back, and quitting winner with over fifteen hundred dollars besides. Anent the skill of the original and renowned Carl Herrmann, the press of Paris tell how a practical joke was played on him in that city during the time when a Patagonian village was on exhibition there a few years ago. He made a visit to these aborigi- nes, accompanied by a number of prominent people, and astonished these raw natives by pulling apples, oranges and coins out of their noses, ears and abbre- viated excuses for garments. A short time after leaving them he was asked the time of day, and then discovered that, while he had been amusing these savages with his tricks and skill, they had pur- loined his watch from his pocket without being dis- covered. 222 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Many of the remarkable adventures told about magicians, and which have been circulated round among the newspapers for the last twenty-five years, are fully a century old, and nearly all of them have been copied from old works or histories of magicians who flourished nearly an hundred years ago. Of course these tales have been brushed up with new names and surroundings to make them appear original and modern. Professors Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar have made much use of these old tales redressed. One would naturally think that, from their extended experience and travels, they could furnish something more origi- nal in the way of adventures to dilate upon. This shows the great lack of originality of many modern professors. They have, with but very few excep- tions, followed in the footsteps of their predeces- sors. This lack of originality accounts for the lack of success of the many hundreds who have started in the art and very soon dropped out of it, being unable to devote the necessary time and study to the development of it, and not possessing sufficient genius or skill. There are very few professionals will- ing or even able to buy anything that is particularly new, striking or original. Those who have done so have invariably succeeded the most, and with very few exceptions have obtained considerable promi- nence. Another reason of failure of young men who start out in this line is that they are often praised by managers who hope to make something through their endeavors, and who are injudicious enough to praise their performances when the same should not be tolerated. MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 223 Another thing which, deserves condemnation from all persons interested in the art, or its success, is the exposing of their tricks by incompetent performers. We call to mind the performances of Prof. Zanzic, of whom we have spoken in a previous chapter, and who, while playing an engagement at the Eden Musee in Chicago, found his drawing powers on the wane. He, to lend an additional attraction, exposed all his tricks, and he had a large assortment. It is almost needless to remark that he totally failed in drawing any larger audiences. In fact, he did not draw as well as he did when he commenced his engagement. An American audience does not thank any person for exposing secrets, and they know at once that he is only doing it because he is incapable of performing them properly. The audience enjoys them much more when in ignorance of how the tricks are per- formed. This reminds us of a little incident which happened at DeBars Theatre, St. Louis, during the performance of the illusion known as "Prof. Pep- per's Ghost." An elderly, rather corpulent gentle- man positively "kicked" because "a knowing indi- vidual " insisted on explaining to him how the ghost was worked. Indeed, the said corpulent gentleman did not wish to know anything about it. He feared the enjoyment of the trick would be spoiled. He was a true philosopher, and such is really the case with mankind in general. It is a fact that perform- ers who have exposed their tricks have never attained any permanent success, and they never will. 224: MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Right here we might mention a few peculiarities of the four leading nations of the world as seen in the audiences from the stage of a conjurer. Ger- mans, and by this we mean audiences in Germany only, will, as far as possible, seek to discover how a trick is being done, providing the conjurer is working amongst them ; and should he make use of any assist- ants from the audience he is very likely to get into trouble, as they will endeavor to prevent the suc- cessful termination of the trick in their zeal to find out " how it's done. " In England, audiences as a rule look on with very little appreciation one way or the other — like the Jack Tar and his parrot, always waiting to see what will come next — but when they have once formed a liking for a performer, he becomes a great favorite. French audiences like a gentleman who is quick, strictly original, and above all, brilliant in his patter, and catching in his man- ner, and who can make things go with a dash. The Americans remind us of what the great Barnum, the emperor of modern showmen, has said, namely, that all Americans want is to be humbugged, and the greater the humbug the more they like it. This is true, and an American audience will invariably do all it can to assist a performer in carrying out his tricks to a successful termination with greater zeal than any other nationality. Conjurers from the continent of Europe have, as a rule, succeeded better than those from Great Britain, because they are noted for giving more time and study to their entertainments than the Englishmen do. Even many of the Dime Museum performers MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 225 here surpass their English brethren in skill. The conjurers in America are better posted on what is going on in different parts of the world in their line, than the artists of Great Britian are. No trick nor publication can appear in Germany, France, or Eng- land without being known in America, or repub- lished here in the course of two or three weeks. We have known tricks to have been on the market in Germany, France and the United States for many months, and even years, before they were introduced in England. We account for this by the old and well known saying that " large bodies move slowly," and an Englishman's mind is quite a cumbersome affair. We are now speaking of the ordinary class of performers, and are happy to state that there are a few brilliant exceptions. It is somewhat remarkable that during the past decade very ^ew ladies have entered the profession. It is one particularly adapted to a lady, and there is no reason why one with a fine outfit and proper schooling should not obtain the same and even greater success than the gentlemen. There certainly is a fine field in the art for ladies. There is no longer a mystery surrounding the performances of the modern conjurers. There seems to be no reason to suppose that conjuring entertainments of a high order, conducted in a proper and legitimate manner will ever lose their popularity. Future Conjurers must be persons of ability, education and skill, and be able to produce original and interesting effects in a pleasing and attractive form. APPENDIX, NOTE I. " What is the principle of memory ? " asks the writer we have quoted in Chapter VII. " It is," says he, "that a conception or an idea can only be caused by another when it is connected directly or indirectly with the latter ; or, to make it, perhaps, a little clearer, when there is a direct or indirect con- nection between the two." We deduct from this the general principle of memory, namely, every repre- sentation or idea to be repeated voluntarily must refer directly or indirectly to another which is already familiar. In this manner we arrive at our system, which, in short, is a code system. In it we represent the ten numbers or digits by a numerical arrangement of sounds or sound words, and key words. The ten numbers or digits, 12345678 9 0, we represent by the sounds of certain con- sonants, thus : 1 by T, or its equivalent D. 6 by sh, ch, ten, j or G (soft). 2 by N. 7 by K, G, ng, Q or c (hard). 3 by M. 8 by F or V. 4 by K. 9 by B or P. 5 by H. by S, Z or C soft (hissing sound). APPENDIX. W i That these are cognate sounds we can easily deter- mine by taking any word in which they occur and asking ourselves how a foreigner would pronounce it. For instance, the word " judge," it becomes " chudge," " shudge," or " tchudge." "This," is « dis." "Paper," is "baper," etc. Now, having once learned the sounds that represent the letters, we form words in which these sounds occur, once, twice or thrice, as we want them. These words it is best for every person to form for himself; but to help the reader towards this I will explain further : No. 1 is T. ea. No. 4 is R. ye. " 2 is N. oe. " 5 is L. ow. " 3isM. ay. " 6 is Sh. ow. And so on, and say 116 would be Toad Show. The vowels count for nothing. It is best to make the words, and understand that this list of words is arbi- trary, and must not be changed; something strong ; something you will always remember, even if ridiculous, as in the case of 116. Having once made the list of words, say to the extent of 100, and memorized them, a study of only half an hour, when your sounds are borne in mind, you are ready to apply them. They can be applied to almost anything that it is desired to remember. As we wish to speak particularly of instantaneous memorization, let us glance at the manner in which well known teachers of the art, and prominent conjurers apply it. When your 100 228 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. words are memorized you can have any person write on a slate a list of numbered words — say to extent of 100 — if possible the names of articles ; when this is done, have them read aloud, and, as each word is read, make a mental picture connecting it with the sound word in your vocabulary that corresponds to its number. These pictures must be vivid ; for instance, No. 1 is an umbrella, form a picture of a tea party in open air ; it commences to rain, so they hoist an umbrella over the group. If No. 5, in the list, should be a table, picture a low man on a high table delivering an oration. You first think of your key word, which, in this case, is Tea, No. 1, and your mind reverts to the tea party, umbrella scene. Again, No. 5, I see a low (5) man on a big table, etc., so you can run the list backwards and forwards, or in hap- hazard order, giving any number called for. As an introduction, you can speak of Lady Macbeth calling "Memory the warder of the mind," and must award her the merit of being up to snuff — Scotch snuff, pre- sumably. Then remark that we must not make light of such a dark subject, as, in your opinion, a man can not hold a candle to woman in the matter of memory, instancing the fact of a woman in church taking in at a glance and remembering every new article of dress her neighbors wear, etc. The following is a code that can be easily remembered when the letters representing the sounds are first memorized as mentioned above. APPENDIX. 2 1 Tea 26 Niche 51 Lead 76 Coach 2 Noe 27 Nag 52 Line 77 Cake 3 May 28 Navy 53 Lime 78 Cuff 4 Rye 29 Nib 54 Lyre 79 Cab 5 Low 30 Mace 55 Lily 80 Face 6 Show 31 Mat 56 Lash 81 Vat 7 Key 32 Moon 57 Leg 82 Fan 8 Fay 33 Mummy 58 Leaf 83 Foam 9 Bee 34 Mare 59 Lip 84 Fire 10 Dice 35 Mole 60 Chaise 85 File 11 Toad 36 Mush 61 Shed 86 Fish 12 Tin 37 Mick 62 Shin 87 Fig 13 Dime 38 Muff 63 Sham 88 Fife 14 Door 39 Map 64 Share 89 Fop 15 Tile 40 Rice 65 Shell 90 Baize 16 Dish 41 Rat 66 Judge 91 Bot 17 Deck 42 Rain 67 Chalk 92 Bone 18 Dove 43 Ram 68 Shave 93 Beam 19 Tube 44 Rarey 69 Chop 94 Boar 20 Noose 45 Rail 70 Case 95 Bell 21 Net 46 Rash 71 Coat 96 Bush 22 Nun 47 Rake 72 Can 97 Bug 23 Name 48 Reef 73 Comb 98 Beef 24 Nero 49 Rope 74 Chair 99 Baby 25 Nail 50 Lace 75 Coal 100 Disease. 229 After deciding on your key-word never change it. At first glance the above looks very formidable to learn, but as mentioned before, when you know the ten consonants and their equivalents it is child's play. In the Knight's Tour of the chess-board, as shown by Kellar on the stage, a code of sixty-four words similar to above is used. Dr. Adam Miller, of Chicago, gives one in his work on memory, as do the little hand-books on Parlor Magic published by Dick & Fitzgerald, of New York. NOTE 2. Application No. 1148 to English Patent Com- missioners in London. Provisional Specification left by Owen Grenliffe War- ren at the office of the Commissioner of Patents, with his petition, on the ( 2Jpth of April, 1865. "I, Owen Grenliffe Warren, of the City, County, and State of New York, in the United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention for 'PHILOSOPHICAL EXAMINA- TION INTO THE ALLEGED SPIKIT MANI- FESTATIONS, CONSISTING OF A LAMP AND A CLOSE ROOM,' to be as follows : " This invention relates to the use of means for determining the truth or falsity of alleged Spiritual Manifestations. -In order that the experiment of elucidating the matter may be carefully tried and definitely proved, it is expedient that the experi- menter be protected by Letters Patent for especial process. I construct a close room and use a peculiar light therein; I paint the walls, floor, and ceiling with care, and filter the light that is used. The room must be close, and have no open door or window ; it should be air tight, though some air may be admitted for ventilation, but it is better to have a reservoir of APPENDIX. 231 air held under pressure in a tank in the room to be allowed on turning a faucet to escape in the room for comfortable breathing ; .it will issue from the room through unavoidable apertures. The light used may be that from the combustion of hydrocarbon, but it should be made to pass through a liquid colored blue, black, or violet. So little light should appear through it (however much gas may be burned) that the room will seem entirely dark at first, but the person shut in will grow to perceive the light, and objects in the room will become visi- ble. In such a room with this light there is a chance, if any chance exists, that spirits may become dis- tinctly visible. For the reason that spirits are not seen it may be assumed that the light is too coarse; it passes through them, and does not reflect from the surface. In order to see them at all, it would there- fore appear the light must be exceedingly minute, and therefore it must be filtered. The kind of paint proper for painting the walls, floor and ceiling of the closed room is that which in chemistry is known as being akin to carbon. Dolomite or magnesia prop- erly prepared is good ; spirits of turpentine or alco- hol may be employed for mixing the paint." It is almost needless to remark that the Commis- sioners refused Provisional Protection. NOTE 3. La Stroubaika Peksane. During the past six months there has been consid- erable notice taken of the latest illusion, " Strobeika" in the theatrical papers, as well as the daily press. The following explanation of this illusion is taken from the New York Herald, of December 21st, 1890 : "At regular intervals, the mechanical geniuses of the stage and illusion halls produce a new trick, a new illusion or deception. " Starting with the London ghost show, which was the first, and ending with ' Strobeika,' which is the last, each has had its brief era of prosperity and then given way to a new trick. Those deceptions of the past seasons which now have only secondary places on the programme of the necromancer I will not write of in this column, but say something of the last one, which has been produced with the customary advance blow of trumpets and hifalutin stories from an energetic press agent. " Professor Herrmann, with the aid of much nicely painted scenery, grewsome green lights, and silken draperies, is responsible for the first production of this last marvel of mechanical trickery in this city and the United States. From time to time I have APPENDIX. . 233 told the readers of the Herald how all the promi- nent illusions, tricks, and automata are made, the manner in which they are operated, and who invented them, and where they were first exhibited, and something, generally, of their history. Professor Herrmann's ' Strobeika ' shall not be slighted, since it is quite clever, and simple enough to class with the best of the illusionary entertainments. " Since the trick is a new one, I will give a brief description of the way it looks to Professor Herr- mann's audience. " The double curtain opens slowly and discloses a scene representing a dungeon, the back of which is very dark, and the shadows on the stage are further heightened by a ghostly greenish light. In the cen- ter of the stage, quite near the back scene, stand four light upright metal posts or poles about eight feet tall and set about eight feet apart on the long way and four feet on the short. " A plank an inch and a quarter thick is suspended a yard above the stage by four double brass chains from the poles in full view of the audience. A man is stretched upon the plank, his wrists and arms are manacled and locked by a committee from the audience, his neck is enclosed in a steel collar and locked to the plank. At a signal a short curtain, concealing only the prisoner and the plank, permit- ting a full view underneath to the wall of the stage, is drawn, and in a minute or more is withdrawn again. In place of the prisoner is secured a beauti- ful young girl, clad in page's costume. At the instant of the girl's discovery, the man — the original 234 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. prisoner — is seen running down one of the aisles of the theatre. " That is what Professor Herrmann calls ' Stro- beika,' and he gives it that name so as to fit the trick to a very touching Russian legend about an exile of that name. " The trick, of course, is the disappearance of the manacled prisoner and the substitution of the girl, also securely manacled and locked in the position the man formerly was, the keys to the padlocks being still in the possession of a disinterested com- mittee. " Professor Herrmann's ' Strobeika,' under another name, was originally produced about eighteen months ago in Paris, at a place known as Houdin's Little Hal], and was invented and worked by two Germans, Herr Lutz and Markgraf. The illusion caught on right away, and Cinquevalli, the juggler, saw it and purchased the plans and right to work it in Berlin, where it also achieved success. A little later Carl Hertz, an American magician, bought the right and produced ' Strobeika ' under another name at the Alhambra, in London, and about the same time a New York man, who is interested in a cheap local entertainment, saw the illusion, brought it to America and sold the plans to Professor Herr- mann. " About the same time the Herald man, with his weather eye open for novelties in the illusionary line, heard of this particular one and made haste to get the plans, and idea from Paris as well. " To make sure they are about the same, I was one APPENDIX. ZdO of the committee of three that shackled Professor Herrmann's prisoner the first night, and locked one of his padlocks myself. "The solid ends of the iron manacles are hinged so that they open toward the center, in the case of the two used to shackle the arms. In the other two the hinges are on the left. When neck, feet and arms are in proper position the irons are bent down over a staple, which staple is set in a bed of metal. Just remember that staple bed, for it is there the princi- pal part of the trick lies. The padlocks are passed through the staples and are locked by the committee, who keeps the keys. " There is no deception about the keys, locks or manacles, since it is not at all necessary to the deception that there should be. A movable frame, concealed inside the board, which is hollow, and this frame is moved by a lever also cunningly con- cealed inside the board, which — but that's another story. " When the lever is moved it releases all the hooks which hold the staple beds firm, and, of course, with a little upward pressure, these beds lift out of their places in the surface plate and fly back, together with the padlocks, which, please remember, are still locked. " The prisoner is then, of course, free, and it is but the work of a moment to climb out through an opening in the curtains at the back, where the lady who is to take his place is now w.aiting on the end of a long board pushed out through an opening in the scene. The lady gets on the trick board and the 236 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. man slams the manacles into place, presses the staple beds home again, and goes away through the back of the stage and around to the front of the theatre to appear at the minute the curtain canopy is again raised. That concealed lever spoken of can be either moved by the manacled man or it can be moved by the substitute. " In Paris it was moved by the prisoner the minute the curtains were drawn down far enough to conceal his hands, and by the time the curtains had been let down far enough to conceal the board he was free and ready to leap out the back. " The little handle of the lever which moves the frame which releases the staple beds is a cunningly simulated screw-bolt head placed in the lower right- hand corner of the plate, to which the right-hand manacle is fastened. This screw-bolt runs through the plate on the board into the lever frame. A simple pressure of the fingers on the bolt-head to the right about two inches is all that is necessary to free the staple beds, and a similar movement back to the left locks the staple beds again. " The little runway of the bolt is so carefully fitted as to deceive the committee in the dim light given them on the stage. To provide against the commit- tee discovering the movement of the screw-head there is a small plate placed under the other plate. This holds the screw-head in position until the operator introduces a small piece of metal, which he holds in his right hand. By pushing this under the edge of the top plate he is enabled to slide the small plate *away from the screw, and the latter is now APPENDIX. 237 movable. While the committee are on the stage, of course the panel in the scenery is closed. " A plank, which is practically a bridge, is thrust through the hole and across the intervening space between the curtain and the scenery, and the prisoner and the substitute get out and in the curtained inclos- ure in that way, without ever having to put their feet on the ground. If they did get down as low as the stage level the audience would be able to see their booted legs. " There is, of course, a slit in the back of the curtain to admit the bridge. The four poles being set eight feet apart up and down the stage naturally cover a wide angle of vision, and prevent that part of the audience sitting in the boxes or sides of the theater from seeing the rapid transit of the two workers of the trick, and as all the committee, after they have locked the padlocks, are carefully re- quested to leave the stage, no one is apt to discover this part of the illusion." While the explanation given above is quite clever, it is scarcely correct in all its details, but close enough for a newspaper article. The true history of this illusion is as follows : Mr. M. Hermann, the well known manufacturer of Berlin, is the original inventor. He sold the first one to the Pinauds, who in turn disposed of it to Prof. Duperrey ; this gentleman produced it in Paris during the exposition, not giving the sensational ending to it of substituting the lady for the man, which was also Mr. Hermann's idea. Eeturning to Berlin, after seeing it performed in Paris by Duperrey, 238 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. he improved it in this manner and produced it there. He had considerable success with it and sold a large number of them, sending the plans of it at once to a manufacturer of conjuring apparatus in Chicago, who offered it for sale a year before it was produced in this country. None of the American conjurers would take hold of it, probably because they have not sufficient enterprise to start in with an original expensive novelty and be the first ones to reap the benefit ; they wait for somebody else to make a start and then they are willing and anxious to take hold. A Mr. Schwiegerling, who is well known as a clever manipulator of Marionettes, was the first to produce it in'this country, performing it in Chicago. Sometime afterwards a conjurer, unknown to fame, brought one to New York, and, not being able to produce it successfully, was obliged to give it up, and sold it to Prof. Alexander Herrmann, who pro- duced it at his theatre. His production of it called forth the expose in the New York Herald. The illusion was originally introduced under the name of "La Stroubaika persane," but Prof. Herrmann rechristened it "Kussian"and made up quite an interesting plot for it. Shortly after returning to Berlin, Mr. M. Her- mann sold one to the American conjurer, Carl Hertz, who took it to London. A number of imi- tations at once sprang up there and Mr. Hermann offered his for sale through the columns of u The Era," the leading theatrical journal of that city. In a short time he was greatly surprised to receive notice that Carl Hertz had taken out a patent on it APPENDIX. 239 in England and had published a warning to all per- sons not to buy nor make use of the same. To quote the words of one of the most prominent con- jurers abroad : " Such actions as this cause society to look down on the conjuring fraternity, and pre- vent many of them from attaining the success they deserve." No person could obtain a patent on anything like that in the United States after he had purchased it from somebody else, but the English patent laws are not so strict as ours ; therefore, Mr. Hertz was able to take out the patent that he was not entitled to, there being no rights in such an illusion, or invention, as this, unless it is fully covered in all countries by patents taken out by the original inventor, which usually costs more than a conjurer is willing to pay. Since taking out the patent on Stroubaika, Mr. Hertz has also taken out a patent in England on the suspension used and patented here by Will B. Wood. He re-christened it" " Aerolite." In case Mr. Wood desires in the future to produce his illusion in Eng- land, he can be stopped by Mr. Hertz unless some understanding was arrived at between them, in re- gard to Mr. Hertz patenting it there. Somewhat similar to " Stroubaika " is the Palanquin Trick. In an opera called "Les Amours du Diable," produced in Paris some years ago, says Chambers's Journal, there was a curious scene which puzzled all who saw it. A slight palanquin — constructed in such a manner that it was obvious that there was no possibility of its having a double bottom— was 240 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. brought upon the stage supported on the shoulders of slaves. The actress who occupied it withdrew the curtains and gave some orders to her attendants. Then the curtains were closed for an instant and again reopened. But the occupant of the palanquin had disappeared. What had become of her ? The feat had been executed close to the front of the stage and under a brilliant light, and the spectators could plainly see that it was certain that the lady had not gone down a trap. The mystery remained for some time unsolved. The explanation of the puzzle was simply this: The pillars of the palan- quin appeared to be very slight, but instead of being wood they were hollow metal tubes. Through these tubes ropes ran on pulleys at the top of the palan- quin, descending in the inside, and fastened to the frame on which was placed the silk cushion on which the actress reclined. To the other end of the ropes was attached a heavy weight which exactly balanced that of the lady. One of the slaves was imperson- ated by an expert machinist. As soon as the cur- tains were drawn he pulled a cord which released the counterpoise, and the frame, together with its burden, rose to the dome of the palanquin. There the actress lay quite comfortably, a wire gauze over- head enabling her to breath freely. Pains had been taken in the construction of the palanquin to make it appear frail, while in reality it was very strongly built, that the roof might bear the strain upon it of the weight it had to support. The bearers were men selected for their muscular strength, and they APPENDIX. 24 1 were drilled in the practice of taking up the palan- quin — after the disappearance of its occupant — and carry it off the stage at a sharp trot, as if it were empty. NOTE 4. Kobeet Heller's Second-Sight Code. A foreign journal gives the folio wing explanation : Robert Heller, or rather Robert Palmer — for the latter was the name under which he graduated at the King's College, London — got his idea of second-sight after witnessing a performance of the celebrated Houdin in England. The great French prestidigita- teur never imparted the secret to any save his son, who was his coadjutor, but Palmer, or Heller, as we shall call him, after witnessing the exhibition, dis- carded the then prevalent notion of animal magnet- ism, and at once concluded that the identification of the article by the blindfolded boy depended upon an alphabetical arrangement by which the question was propounded. After much study he succeeded in perfecting a system which, though differing in detail from that of the Frenchman, was theoretically the same, and he forthwith sought an apt pupil to assist him in presenting the mystery to the public. This, be it remembered, was not easy, for the interrogated party had a much more difficult task in the solution of the alphabetically put question than he had in APPENDIX. 243 propounding it, so that upon an average not one in a hundred was successful in sufficiently perfecting himself to appear in public. Heller's second-sight was, in fact, a much more complicated affair than that of Houdin's. It was considerabty enlarged, and comprehended at least double the number of questions and answers, embrac- ing in its range almost every conceivable article which could be presented by an audience. In the course of a long interview with Mr. Fred Hunt, Jr., the Times obtained the above facts and the follow- ing full and interesting statement : " I was twelve years of age when I became Heller's pupil, and intri- cate and perplexing as it may appear to those who examine the subjoined table, I succeeded in six weeks in so comprehending it that at the expiration of that time, we gave at Smith & Nixon's hall an exhibition, when I underwent a severe test without a blunder. It is not so long ago, but many who read this will remember the occasion. In the meantime, during the years Ave were together, Heller was constantly enlarging and perfecting his system. He is now gone, and has solved a greater mystery than that which puzzled so many thousands while he was on earth, and I believe that his sister, Haidee Heller, and myself are the only living persons in whom Eobert Heller's second-sight is vested. A short time since, a writer in a New York journal attempted an expose of the mystery, which was extensively copied by the press throughout the country, and reproduced in some of the English papers, but it was so tangled and inexplicable as to so confound the question that 244 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. it would be impossible for the party interrogated to come to anything near a correct answer. Heller had so simplified the system as to embrace every variety of article classified in sets, as will be shown in the accompanying table — one question, with a word or two added, sufficing to elicit a correct answer for ten different articles. The student must be first posted in a new alpha- betical arrangement, with which he must familiarize himself as thoroughly as a boy in learning his primer. This is the most difficult part of the business, but when mastered thoroughly it comes as easy as if the question were plainly propounded. FOR EXAMPLE, « you want the initials or name in a ring. Say it is Anna. By the alphabetical arrangement (see the appendix below) H stands for A, D for N. The exclamation "Hurry up" always means a repetition of the last letter, and again H will give the answer when put as follows: " Here is a name." "Do you see it?" " Hurry up."- " Have you got it ? " Attention is only paid to the first letter of every sentence, and it will be perceived that the name of Anna is spelled. Again, take Gazette, which is abbreviated in a phonographic manner in order to simplify the ques- tion. G is A, A is H, Z is hurry (not hurry up), E is F, T is P. The question would be — " Are you able to tell the name ? " APPENDIX. 245 " Here it is." " Hurry." " Find the name." "Please be quick." Here you have GAZET in short meter. The let- ters K, U, X, and Z being difficult wherewith to com- mence an interrogative sentence, the words " pray," "look," "see this," and "hurry" are used, as will be seen in the table. Care must be taken not to com- mence a sentence with either of these words, unless applicable to the word to be spelled. For instance, if Xenia is required. X is " see this," E is F, N is D, I is B, and A is H. Thus the question. "See this?" " Find it quick." " Do hurry." " Be quick." " How is it spelt ? " Again, for the initials U. S., you will say — " Look." "Now then." U is look and S is N. If you want Kentucky named thus, the question — " Pray name the State." " Quick." " Pray " is K, and Q is Y. After the alphabet, we have the numbers, which, it will be seen, are easily understood after a little practice. For No. 1 — The words used are Say or Speak. For No. 2 — Be, Look or Let. For No. 3— Can or Can't. For No. 4— Do or Don't. 246 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. For No. 5— Will or Won't. For No. 6— What. For No. 7— Please or Pray. For No. 8— Are or Ain't. For No. 9— Now. For No. 10— Tell. For No. — Hurry or Com e. " Well " means to repeat the last figure. Example — The number 1,234 is required; attention must only be paid to the first word of a sentence, thus — " Say the number." " Look at it." "Can you see it? " " Do you know ! " • Or say the number is 100— " Tell me the number." "Hurry!" A rather difficult number would be 1,111. The question would be put in this wise — " Say the number." " Well." " Speak out." " Say what it is." On a watch or a greenback there are sometimes eight or nine numbers, which can be followed as easily as the above. There are eight colors which will comprise the list as they are set forth in the table, and the solution of the numbers, as I have explained, will furnish the key; for example, the article presented is green, the question will be — "What is the color?" — green being the sixth color in the list. Blue is APPENDIX. 247 wanted, and as it stands third in the list, the word would be — " Can you tell the color ? " White is wanted, and as it stands first in the list, the question is — " Say the color." Understand that the words explaining the numbers, as given in the list, are applied to the articles enu- merated in each, of the subjoined tables. Take the metals, for instance. The metal presented is copper, which is fourth in the list. The question would be— "Do you know the metal?" Or steel, which is ninth in the list — " ."Now, what is the metal ? " ARTICLES IN SETS. It will be seen that the different articles are arranged in sets, numbering no more than ten. Each set has at the head a different question, worded very nearly alike, so as to make the audienee believe that the same question is being constantly asked. The question at the head of the set, which is always asked first, is the clue to the set which contains the article to be described. Each set is numbered, as in the cases of the colors and metals, and the word conveys each particular article. For the first set the question is — " What article is this ? " This gives the clue to ten distinct articles. The next demand may be — "Can you tell?" — which would be solution for " bag," it being the third in the list. 248 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. " Say the fabric," — the reply would be " silk," that being the first in the line of fabrics, and as I have before stated, " say " representing No. 1. If a leather bag, it would be — " Will you tell the fabric ? " « "W^ill " standing for No. 5. A handkerchief is presented, and the question is — " What article is this ? Say," which explains that it is a handkerchief, as that is the first article in the list. " Can you tell the fabric ? " " Cotton," cotton standing third in the list of fabrics. Then, again, if you want the color — say it is blue — " Can't you tell the color ? " " Blue," which stands third on the list of colors. A watch embodies a greater number of questions than almost any other article. If you want to describe it fully, it is first in the second set, the key of which is — " What is this ? " We will say that it is a lady's gold watch, double case, three hands, made by Tobias, No. 9,725, the initials "from B. C. to C. H." engraved on the case, the year 1860, and blue enameled, set with five diamonds. This is a complex question, and must be put and answered as follows: Question — " What is this, say? " Answer — " A. watch." Q. " Say the metal?" A. " Gold." Q. " Say to whom it belongs". A. " A lady." Q. "Yes?" A. " A double case." Q, " Can you tell the -number of hands ? " APPENDIX. 249 A. " Three." Q. " Will you tell the maker? " A. " Tobias." Q. " JSTow, the number ? " " Please tell me." " Be quick." " Won't you ? " A. " 9,725."" " Can you tell me the color of this enamel?" " Blue." " Tell the initials." " Say ? " " B. C." " Say to whom." "I want to know." " C. H." a Say these stones." " Diamonds." " Will you tell how many ?" " Five." If it is a double case, the simple word "yes" conveys the intelligence, after "to whom it belongs." If an open case, the word " well " is used. PLAYING- CARDS. These will be found in the sixteenth set, and the order of suits in the eighteenth. We will take the nine of spades as having been presented. The question will be — "Say, what is this?" " "Can you tell?" " A playing card." " Do you know the suit ? " 250 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. " Now, then." " Do" is four, which means spades, and "now" is nine. The cards are told as follows: — First the " playing card," second the suit, third the number or picture. If, after the preliminary question is put and answered, it is an ace, the interlocutor sa}^s "right;" if a king, "that's right;" if a queen, " good ; " if a jack, " very good." MONEY. This will be found classed in the eighth set, the key to which is, " Look at this." ~No. 6 of the set is described as a "piece of money," and is always of a less value than a dollar. We will take a silver quarter of the date of 1820. The question is — " Look at this." "What is it?" Ans. " A piece of money." Ques. " Let me know the amount. Will you?" Ans. " Twenty -five cents." As we know that "Let "is 2 and "Will" 5. If the coin is of this century, only the two last figures are asked ; if of a prior date, the three last. The question therefore is — " Look at the date." " Hurry." — which would bring the answer " 1820." A foreign coin is furnished, say of Rome. The question would be — " Look at this ; do you know what it is ? " The answer is, " A coin." " What country ? " " Italy," as Italy stands sixth in the list of countries, as will be seen by referring to the table. A Mexican dollar APPENDIX. 251 will elicit the question, " Look at this, now." "A silver dollar." " Tell me the country ? " The reply will be Mexico, as that country stands tenth on the list. A Treasury note is presented of the value of $50, the question is, " Look at this ; be quick." Answer — "A Treasury note." " Will you tell me the amount ; come," which means 5 and 0, or $50 — "come" being a substitute for " hurry." Again, a $2.50 gold piece is presented, and the question is as before, "Look at this, will you ? " Answer — "A gold piece." "Let me know the amount, won't you; come?" — "let," "won't" and "come" standing for "250." OTHER EXAMPLES. "Pray, what is this? " " Tell me." The answer is a "key," key being the tenth article of the set. Now, in order to tell what kind of a key, these simple words will explain — " " Yes " — a watch key. " Well " — a door key. " Good " — a safe key. "What is here?" "Say?" The answer is " pipe." Now, to ascertain what kind of a pipe as above, the words — " Yes " — a meerschaum pipe. " Well " — a wooden pipe. " Good " — a clay pipe. " Can you see this ? " " Please say ? " Answer is "comb"^ " Yes " — a pocket comb. "Well"— a toilet comb. " Good " — a curry-comb. " Can you see this ? " "Are you going to tell ? " The answer is "brush." 252 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. " Yes "—hair-brush. " Well"— clothes-brush. " Good" — paint-brush. If an article is presented which is not down in the sets, the alphabet will have to be resorted to, and the article spelled out. HOW IT WAS DONE WITHOUT ASKING- QUESTIONS. As soon as my back was turned to the audience, and a large, silk handkerchief thrown over my head, the stool on which I was seated, containing a hollow leg, was placed directly over a hole in the stage. A rubber pipe was passed up which connected with a tin tube running underneath the stage to the back of the curtain. The assistant saw through a hole in the curtains all articles which were held up, and con- veyed the intelligence to me through the pipe. None but large articles, such as hats, umbrellas, sticks, etc., were taken, and as this part always closed the second- sight part of the performance, it was clear to the minds of all " that it wasn't done by questions," and this concludes the second-sight mystery, which so perplexed the world, and which I never would have exposed, but for the death of my lamented friend, Robert Heller. THE APPENDIX AND KEYS. ALPHABET. A is H J is L S is 1ST B is T K is Pray T is P C is S L is C U is Look D is G M is O Y is Y EisF NisD Wis It F is E O is Y X is See this GisA Pis J YisQ H is I Q is W Z is Hurry I is B R is M Hurry up — Repeat last letter. NUMBERS. 1 is Say or Speak 7 is Please or Pray 2 is Be, Look or Let 8 is Are or Arrt #/t- 3 is Can or Can't 9 is Now 4 is Do or Don't 10 is Tell 5 is Will or Won't is Hurry or Come 6 is What " Well " is to repeat the last figure. COLORS. 1 — Is white. 5— Is red. 2 — Is black. 6 — Is green. 3 — Is blue. 7 — Is yellow 4 — Is brown. 8 — Is gray. 254 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. THE METALS. 1-Gold. 6— Iron. 2— Silver. 7— Tin. 3 — Brass. 8 — Platina, 4 — Copper. 9 — Steel. 5 — Lead. THE SETTING. 1 — Diamond. 6 — Garnet. 2— Ruby. 7— Emerald. 3 — Pearl. 8— Turquoise. 4 — Amethyst. 9 — Carbuncle. 5— Onyx. 10— Topaz. The Stone— Opal. OF WHAT. [This set to describe the sex, etc., of the pictures.] 1 — Lady. 6 — Group. 2— Gentleman. 7 — Animal. 3- -Boy. 8 — Drawing. 4- -Girl. 9— Sketch. 5- -Child. COUNTRIES. 1- -America. 6— Italy. 2- -England. 7 — Spain. 3- -France. 8 — Canada. 4- -Germany. 9 — Foreign. 5- -Russia. 10— Mexico. THE MATERIAL. l_Wood. 6— Rubber. 2— Stone. 7— Glass. 3— Marble. 8— Bone. 4— Bronze. 9— Ivory. 5— Lava. 10— China. APPENDIX. 255 THE FABRIC. 1— Silk. 5 — Leather. 2_Wool. 6— Kid. 3— Cotton. 7 — Buckskin. 4 — Linen. 8 — Lace. WATCHES. The maker's name ? Or what company's make? [This is to tell the maker's name of watches.] 1 — American Watch Co. 6 — Johnson. 2— Waltham Watch Co. 7— Swiss. 3— Elgin Watch Co. S— 4— Dueber Watch Co. 9— 5— Tobias. 10— FIRST SET. What article is this ? 1 — Handkerchief. 6 — Basket. 2— Neckerchief. 7— Beet. 3 — Bag. 8 — Comforter. 4— Glove. 9 — Head-dress. 5— Purse. 10— Fan. SECOND SET. What is this? 1— Watch. 6— Necklace. 2 — Bracelet. 7 — Ring. 3 — Guard. 8 — Rosary. 4 — Chain. 9 — Cross. 5 — Breast-pin. 10 — Charm. 256 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. THIRD SET. What may this be ? 1— Hat. 6— Muff. 2— Cap. 7— Cape. 3— Bonnet. 8— Boa. 4— Cuff. 9— Inkstand. 5— Collar. 10 — Mucilage. FOURTH SET. What is here ? 1 — Pipe. 6 — Tobacco box. 2— Cigar. 7 — Tobacco pouch. 3— Cigar-holder. 8— Match. 4 — Cigarette. 9 — Match-box. 5 — Tobacco. 10 — Cigar-lighter. FIFTH SET. What have I here ? 1 — Spectacles. % 6 — Opera-glass case. 2 — Spectacle case. 7 — Magnifying glas 3 — Eye-glass. 8 — Telescope. 4 — Eye-glass case. 9— Compass. 5 — Opera-glass. 10 — Corkscrew. SIXTH SET. Can you see this ? 1— Knife. 6— Toothpick. - 2 — Scissors. 7 — Comb. 3— Pin. 8— Brush. 4— Needle. 9— Thimble. 5 — Cushion. 10 — Looking-glass. APPENDIX. 257 SEVENTH SET. Do you know what this is ? 1— Book. 6— Pamphlet. 2 — Pocket-oook. 7 — Programme. 3— Needle-book. 8— Bill. 4 — Paper. 9 — Letter. 5— Newspaper. 10— Envelope. EIGHTH SET. Look at this ! 1 — Bank-bill. 6— Piece of money. 2— Treasury note. 7 — Bank cheque. 3 — Currency. 8 — Bond. 4 — Coin. 9 — Silver dollar. 5 — Gold-piece. 10 — Postage stamp. NINTH SET. Now, what is this ? 1— Stick. 6— Picture. 2— Whip. 7— Shoe. 3— Parasol. 8— Boot. 4— Umbrella. 9— Button. 5 — Umbrella-cover. 10 — Stud. TENTH SET. ' Tell me this? 1— Ear-ring. 6 — Fork. 2 — Locket. 7 — Spoon. 3 — Sleeve-button. 8 — Armlet. 4 — Hair-pin. 9 — Ornament. 5— Clothes-pin. 10— Check. 258 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORK.S. ELEVENTH SET. I want to know this ? 1 — Apple. 6— Candy. 2— Nut. 7— Popcorn. 3 — Cake. 8 — Lozenge. 4 — Orange. 9 — Grain. 5 — Lemon. 10 — Wax. TWELFTH SET. Fray what is this ? 1 — Screw. 6 — Knob. 2— Hinge. 7— Eule. 3— Tool. 8— Lock. 4— Nail. 9— Buckle. 5— Tack. 10— Key. THIRTEENTH SET. You know what this is ? 1 — Shot. 6— Percussion cap. 2 — Powder. 7 — Cartridge. 3 — Bullet. 8 — Surgical instrument. 4 — Gun. 9 — Musical instrument. 5— Pistol. 10— Tuning Fork. FOURTEENTH SET. Quick ! This article. 1 — Bouquet. 6— Toy. 2— Bouquet holder. 7 — Flag. 3— Flower. 8— Bottle. 4 — Wreath. 9— Game. 5— Leaf. 10— Doll. FIFTEENTH SET. Name this article. 1— Pen. 6— Case. 2 — Pen-holder. 7— Spool. 3— Pencil. 8 — Soap. 4 — Eraser. 9 — Perfumery. 5— Rubber. 10— Cup. SIXTEENTH SET. Say, what is this? 1— Card. 6 — Bunch keys. 2 — Card-case. t— Tablet, 3 — Playing card. 8_ Cord. 4 — Button-hook. 9 — Tweezers. 5— Key ring. 10— Cork. SEVENTEENTH SET. This article ? 1— Bible. 6 — Hymn-book. 2 — Testament. 7 — Music. 3— Tract. 8 — Smelling-bottle. 4 — Book-mark. 9 — : Yin aigrette. 5 — Prayer-book. 10— Strap. EIGHTEENTH SET. Playing cards. 1 — Diamonds. 3— Clubs. 2 — Hearts. 4 — Spades. "Right"— Ace. " Good "—Queen. "That's right "—King ;. " Very good "—Jack. NINETEENTH SET. Devices. 1— Masonic. 4 — Druids. 2— Odd Fellows. 5 — Musical. 3— K. of P. 259 NOTE 5. MRS. DAFFODIL DOWNY'S LIGHT AND DARK SEANCE. Dramatis Personce . Sir Everleigh Staid (a rich widower) — light tweed suit; flaxen wig ; patent leather boots ; eye-glass; masher collar. Dr. Blade a spirit medium) — long black frock coat ; gray wig and beard ; blue spectacles. Morsel (Dr. Blade's assistant) — seedy black suit; long black wig ; clean shaven ; red nose ; general groggy appearance. Mrs. Daffodil Downy — evening dress ; as attract- ive looking as possible. James — Mrs. Downy 's footman in livery. Female character for ghost. SCENE. Drawing room : small occasional table in center of stage ; piano at prompter's side ; spiritual cabinet in parts at opposite side ; chairs ; bells, etc. PROPERTIES. Yiolin and bow ; cane ; skeleton fakes ; dress and black robe for ghost, etc. (Curtain rises, discover- ing Mrs. Daffodil Downy playing and singing at the piano.) 860 APPENDIX. 261 Mrs. D. D. (after completing song, soliloquizes) : In five minutes they will be here. How will it all end ? It is a bold card to pla^v but the only one worth playing. (Rises and rings bell.) Enter James. James: Did you ring, ma'am ? Mrs. D. D.: Yes. Is everything in apple-pie order and the doctor ready to begin ? James: Oh, yes, ma'am. Mrs. D. D.: I hope the doctor has kept his head cool? James: Lor ? yes, ma'am ; but Mr. Morsel has eaten and drank more than enough for three per- sons. Mrs. D. D.: I do hope he will be in a fit state for the evening's work. Remember, after Sir Ever- leigh comes, to announce them as though they had just arrived. James: Yery good, ma'am. (Exit.) Mrs. D. D. (soliloquizing) : How will it all end? (Knock heard ; re-enter James). James: Sir Everleigh Staid. (Sir E. S. enters. at same time.) Mrs. D. D.: Dear Sir Everleigh, pray be seated ; (turning to James) leave us, James. (Sir E. S. takes bhair.) James (aside) t I suppose they want a little quiet spooning ; I was a master once myself. (Mrs. D. D. sits down at piano ; Sir E. S. toys with handkerchief and eye-glass; Mrs. D. D. sighs; Sir E. S. sighs — business. Mrs. D. D. moves her chair a little nearer to Sir E. S., who, at the same time, while sitting on 262 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. his chair, recedes from her; the same business re- peated.) Mrs. D. D.: Why are you so near and yet so far ? Sir K S.: Ah ! that is an advertisement ; (thinks) Oh, I know — free by mail for six cents. Mrs. D. D.: I hope, dear Sir Everleigh, we shall succeed in making you a convert to spiritualism. Sir E. S.: Oh, dear, no! I shall never believe in such nonsense. It is all very well for fools and im posters, but I flatter myself I know better than to be taken in by such rubbish. Mrs. D. D.: Ah ! you have such strength of mind ; but I think it is such a beautiful idea to be able to converse with the spirits of our departed friends. Now, would you not like to see your late wife? Sir K S. (starting and answering quickly): Oh, certainly not. Mrs. D. D-: Oh, why did you ever promise the late Lady Staid that you would not marry again? Sir E. S.: She said it would be impossible for her to die if I didn't promise, and I firmly believe she never would have died if I hadn't. Mrs. D. D.: Do you intend to keep your word ? Sir E. S. (indignantly) : Mrs. Daffodil Downy ! Mrs. D .D.: Well, but if the spirit of the late lamented Lady Staid were to appear at our seance to-night and relieve you of your pledge? Sir E. S.: I should think her disposition had changed considerably for the better. Mrs. D. D. (smiling): Well, slightly! (Hiding her face behind her fan) you know that I love you. APPENDIX. 263 Sir E. $.: And you know that I love you (pause) as a brother. Mrs. D. D.: My dear Sir Everleigh, I love you with the closest affection that the laws of society allow. Sir E. S.: But, on reflection, I don't think there is much love lost between sister and brother, as a rule. Mrs. D. D.: We don't love each other for the sake of wealth, do we ? Sir E S. (sarcastically) : Oh no ! we don't love each other for the sake of wealth nor for beauty, do we ? Mrs. D. D. (sarcastically) : Oh dear no! nor for youth either. Sir E. S.: Well, as we can cot marry, let us love each other platonically. Don't misunderstand me, my dear Mrs. Daffodil Downy. If it were not for that unfortunate promise, I would marry you at once. Mrs. D. D.: Well let us hope that the spirit will intercede for us. Sir E. S.: I never will believe in such sanguinary tricks. (During the last few words, they have been gradually approaching each other, and finally embrace; Sir E. S. kneels at her feet, takes her hand and kisses it, when they are interrupted by the entrance of James. Situation.) James: Dr. Blade and Morsel, ma'am. (Enter Dr. Blade and Mr. Morsel. The latter takes a chair at the back of stage. Exit James). Dr.: How do you do, Mrs. Daffodil Downy ? 264: MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Mrs.D. D.: Quite well, thank you. Dr. Blade, allow me to introduce you to Sir Everleigh Staid. (Sir E. S. and the Doctor shake hands and then walk up stage to Morsel.) Dr. (bowing to Sir E. S. and pointing to Mor- sel) : The medium, Sir Everleigh — he is rather deaf. (Doctor walks to piano and converses inaudibly with Mrs. D. D.) Sir K S. (to Morsel) : How do you do ? Morsel (solemnly) : Yery dry. Sir E. S. (to Doctor) : Yes, he is very deaf. (To Morsel) Shall we have a good seance ? Morsel: I like it cold, without sugar, if you please. Br. (turning towards Sir E. S.) : The medium is very deaf. Mrs. D. D. (aloud to Doctor) : Sir Everleigh does not believe in spiritualism. Dr. (to Sir E. S.): When you have the pleasure of being in the presence of the spirits, you will, no doubt, alter your opinion on the subject. Mrs. Daffodil Downy is a strong believer. Let us see what manifestation we can produce. (Doctor brings table towards foot-lights and stands behind it. Morsel takes a chair and sits at one side of table, and Sir E. S. at the other, close to Mrs. D. D., who commence to talk confidentially to Sir E. S. Doctor coughs to attract their attention, but with- out success. They continue flirting. Doctor coughs again and leans over Sir E. S., who at the same moment looks up, and their heads come in contact. Comic situation.) APPENDIX. 265 Sir E. S.: This is marvellous. Dr.: I shall have the pleasure this evening of invoking the spirits from the other world, to prove to us by their manifestations that they possess the power of communicating with the friends they have left on earth. The spirits have the faculty of materi- alizing. The whole universe is made up of atoms. One of the most wonderful of these atoms was that of the celebrated Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, when he exclaimed, " Up, guards, and at them ! " (During the foregoing speech, Morsel waves arms about in a mysterious manner and gradually appears to fall into a trance. The Doctor and Sir E. S. place their hands on table and the medium does likewise.) Mrs. D. D.: Now I feel the spirits here. (Haps heard in Tabled) Sir E. S.: Are the spirits here? Dr.: Sweet spirits, are you willing to communi- cate with us ? (Two raps.) Dr.: Yes, the spirits will speak to us. How many spirits are present to-night ? (One rap.) Only one ? Can you tell us your name ? (Two raps. Yes. May we use the alphabet? (Two raps,) Yes. (The Doctor commences to repeat the alphabet.) Dr.: "A." 266 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. (Bap.) All: "A." Dr.: "A" is the first letter, (The Doctor recommences the alphabet and another rap is heard when he reaches the letter "L.") All: "A," "L" (Sir E. S. looks frightened). (This business is repeated until the name "Algor" is spelled out, when Sir E. S. jumps up and exclaims : That is my wife's name ) (The table shakes violently, is attracted from the floor by the hands of the Doctor and finally moves about the room.) Dr.: We will now endeavor to produce more manifestations. (The Doctor and Morsel proceed to build up cabinet in center of stage. The table hav- ing been removed to back of stage. Sir E. S. seats himself on chair opposite side. Mrs. D. D. on chair at prompter's side.) Sir E. S. (to the Doctor) : Are any of your spirits young ladies ? Dr.: Oh, yes ; some are young ladies. Mis. D. D. (to the Doctor) : You will never allow Sir E. S. to be misguided ? Dr.: Mrs. Daffodil Downy calls young lady guides " misguides." (The Doctor and Morsel have now completed building up the cabinet.) Dr.: Now, I think, Sir Everleigh, it would be impossible to imagine a more simple structure — be good enough to step inside and examine for yourself. (Sir E. S. enters cabinet ; partly closes doors and thrusts his hands through the apertures in doors.) Sir E. S.: I think those are the only sort of spirit hands which we shall see to-night. APPENDIX. 267 Dr.: We shall soon convince you to the contrary ; however, first let me show you that there are no means of ingress or egress except the doors. (The cabinet is here turned round, so that the audience can see the back, and then reversed to its original position.) Dr. (to Sir E. S.) : Now I see your cane, will you lend it me for a moment ? Sir K S.y Certainly. There is no trickery about that. Dr.: Oh, no. I will now place it within the cabinet. (Does so, and opens doors of cabinet wide.) Sir E. S. (looking in cabinet) : There's nobody inside, certainly. Dr.: I court your fullest investigation. (Dr. closes cabinet, and cane immediately appears pro- truding from the top of cabinet. Dr. removes same and offers it to Sir E. S.) Sir E. S.: No, thanks ; I would rather not. Dr.: Why not? There is nothing wrong about it. (Dr. lets stick fall on the floor and then attracts it upwards by apparent mesmeric power, when the stick commences to dance. Business with stick. Morsel puts a chair on the left-hand side of cabinet, and seats himself on back of chair, with his feet resting on the seat ; apparently falls asleep, waving his hands as though playing an imaginary con- certina.) Sir E. S. (to Dr.): There is something wrong with your man. Dr. : Ah ! he is now with the sweet spirits. (Dr. passes his hands over Morsel's face, as though mesmerizing him.) 268 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. Mrs. D. D,: I am afraid the spirits have got into his head. Dr.: It is a very common practice when pro- ducing spiritual manifestations to place the medium inside the cabinet, but I shall endeavor to exhibit the same manifestations while the medium remains outside the whole time. (The Dr. again opens the doors of the cabinet to prove that it is empty and again closes them. Eap heard within.) Dr.: It is the spirit of the late Lady Staid. She has promised to be with us to-night. (Taking violin and bow from the table.) I will ask her to discourse sweet music on this instrument. (Dr. opens cabinet, hangs up violin and bow inside; closes doors; violin is heard to play. Sir E. S. attempts to open doors of cabinet, but he, the Dr., interposes and prevents him. Morsel makes movements of playing imaginary violin.) Dr.: I can not allow it, Sir Everleigh. It is against our rules. (Notwithstanding the Dr.'s inter- position, Sir E. S. tries to open the doors. Dr.: Pray, calm yourself, Sir Everleigh. Do you recognize the melody ? Sir K S. (agitated) : Oh, yes ; oh, yes ; it is the one of which the late Lady Staid was so passionately fond. (Yiolin suddenly ceases to play. Dr. opens doors of cabinet and exposes interior, showing violin and bow hanging up as placed at first. Cabinet otherwise empty.) Sir E. S. (excitedly): I am rapidly becoming a convert to spiritualism. Have you any more mani- festations to offer ? (Eap heard within the cabinet. APPENDIX. 269 A woman's face gradually becomes visible at one of the apertures. Sir E. S. looking on intently ; face becomes distinctly visible ; Sir E. S. starts up from his chair and exclaims : " My wife! my wife ! " Tries again, to open cabinet, and, while close to doors, a hand is thrust through the aperture, which clutches and pulls off his wig. Situation. Sir E. S. puts his hands up to his head, and, discovering his loss, rushes away in consternation,) ; Dr. (picking up wig and restoring it to Sir E. S.) : Calm yourself, my dear sir; there is nobody there. (Opens cabinet and shows it empty.) Sir E. S.: There is something very peculiar about this. (Dr. closes cabinet.) Dr.: The sweet spirit will now materialize, but only under conditions of darkness. You must, there- fore, excuse my putting out the lights (turning to audience). If the seance is interrupted by anybody striking a light, the manifestations will at once be stopped ! (Lights put out. Ghost gradually mate- rializes and floats towards Sir E. S., and in the dim light is seen to take his hands and rise above the stage.) Sir E. S.: I am floating towards you in the air, Daffy. The late Lady Staid has relieved me of my pledge. I am now indeed convinced. (Ghost slowly descends and releases Sir E. S., and finally disap- pears. Skeleton immediately becomes visible ; music ; business; skeleton dances; limbs and head become disunited; legs dance independently of body; head flies about hall; skeleton becomes reunited and dis- appears ; loud crash heard ; lights turned up ; cabinet 270 MODERN MAGICIANS AND THEIR WORKS. seen over-turned ; Morsel wakes up ; Sir E. S. and Mrs. D. D. embrace each other ; Dr. standing in center of stage.) Thank you, Dr., thank you ; we have had a most delightful seance, and I will engage you to produce your manifestations every evening, until further notice. The above farce is the one Maskelyne and Cooke produced so successfully at Egyptian Hall, London. INDEX. Abbott, Eddie 35 Ackerman, Wm 30 Adrien, Pere 8 Aerolite Illusion 239 Amphitrite Illusion 174 Astarte Illusion 81 Aristos, N. K. — 54 Alexandre, Herr ; 239 Alkahazar's Spirit Bell 172 Aime 131 Anderson, " Wizard of the North " 10-33-37 Anderson, Prof 46 Ansbach, Salo 55 Bamberg- Family 42 Bamberg, "Old" .' 218 Bamberg, David T 42 Balabrega, J. M 17-19-135 Barnello 22-185 Bacon, Roger 131 Baldwin, Prof . S. S 149 Baldwin, Clara 149 Basch, Prof 42 Bellachini 11 Beyersdorf, Louis 52 Becker, Prof 171 Bishop, Washington Irving 109-124-126 Blitz, Signor 37 Bosco U Brazy 8 Braid, Dr 91 Bridge, Charles H 76 Brendel. ... 129 Brown, J. Randall 108-lr:6-141 Buatier De Kolta 40-151-152-158 Burnham, Dr 32 Butler, Dr. G. F 116 Castilho, De Brothers 131 Carroll, Clever 22 Canaris, Prof 24 Castan, Gustav 174 Cazeneuve, Prof. 45 Cinquevalli. 23t Charcot, Prof . . 91 Charles the Great 130 Chalons. . . 8 Chase, Mr 21 Childs, Geo. W 46 Cook, Marion 27 Coulter, Frazer. 202 Comus 8 Comte. , , 8 Cocoon, The Illusion 158 271 272 INDEX. Courtois 8 Cremation Illusion 166 Cyrus 128 Cyneas 128 Curtis, Frank 71 Crookes, Dr. F. R. S 145 Darvin, Prof 45 D'Alvini 169-219 Davis, Dr. Alex 22 Davis, Dr. Charles G 105 Dase, Zacharias 129 Davenport Brothers .. 81 DeCastilho Brothers. 131 Decapitation, Vanek's 164 Decapitation Chair 160 Decapitation, Black Art 162 Decapitation Cabinet 161 De Gentry, Lucy 124 DeRovere, Jules 8 DeVere,Prof 43 Dexter, Prof 31 Dick & Fitzgerald 229 Dickson, Prof 46 Donati, Prof 104 Dobler, Prof 11 Downy s, Mid. Daffodil- Seance 260 Durand, H. W '.. 182 Duperrey, Prof 46-237 Dudley, Officer. 31 Erickson, 53 Fay, Anna Eva 141 Fillebrown, Charles F 21 Fox, Imro, Prof 20 Fulton, Mrs 106 Fulton, Robert 106 Gatchell, Dr. Charles 116 Garner, Charles. 109 Gentry, Lucy De 124 Goldberg, Prof 33 Growth of Flowers 86 Gustavus Adolphus 46 Hamilton, Miss 32 Hatton, Henry 33-133 Haslett, Charles I 52 Havemeyer, W. A 65 Hartz, Prof 19-41-85-86 Hartz and Levy 19 Harrington, Prof 24 Haviland, Prof 22 Hayden, Margaret 140 Hercat, Prof 169 Hertz, Carl 19-41-234-238-239 Heller, Haidee 37-243 Heller, Robert 15-19-34-37-53-135-242-252 Heller's Second-Sight Code 242 Hellis, Robert 53 Herrmann, Carl 64-221 Herrmann, Alexander 66-160-162-169-222-232-238 Herrmann's, Alexander, Cremation 82 Hermann, M 45-237-238 Houdin, Robert 11-38-46-135-218-242 Higgins, F. L 182 Holden, Dr v 39-189-221 INDEX. 273 Hortensius r 129 Hume, Prof 204 Hunt. Fred 243 Jacoby-Harms, Prof 43 Jacobs. Prof — 46 Johnson, Prof 106 Johnstone, Paul Alexander 115 Johns, Effie 28-29-32 Justus Lipsius 129 Kellar, Harry 39-66-72-169-222-229 Kellar's Growth of Flowers 86 Kerr, Thomas H 53 Kiralfy Brothers 27 Knudson, Jno. B 52 Kolta, Buatier De 40-151-152-158 Kudarz, Prof. Robert 25-39 L'Assommoir, Mongreni de 53 Lady from an Envelope 171 Lees, The 22-23 Le Tort, Prof 17-18 Little,JohnW 23 Little Pearl 29-30 Lischke, Oscar 45 Lola, Mile 28-29-32 Luske, Wm 202 Lutz,Herr 234 Lynn, Dr 39 Marvelle, Prof 22-14* Macaire, Sid 124-126 Martino's Sphinx 84 Macallister, Prof 37 Markgraf , Herr 234 Maskelyne, J ohn Ne vil 38-40-139-152-158-172 Mesmer 91 Merlins, The 139-140 Meinecke, Christian 52 Mithridates 128 Mimas ,.... 130 Miller, Dr. Adam - 229 MorrittsThe 140 Modesta Pozzo 129 Moderate, Fonsa 129 McDonald, Prof. Charles 166 McDonald's Cremat on 1«6 " Mystery of She " Illusion 170 Morphet, Prof 22 Nickle, Prof . Robert 24 Ober, George 146 Olivier 8 Orrin Brothers '., 29-75 Palmer, Robert 242 Palanquin Trick 219 Parshal, Mrs. John 29-32 Pastor,Tony 23-27 Patrizio, Prof 46-133 Pearl, Little 29-30 Philadelphia 11 Philippe 9 Pinetti 8 Pinauds, The 237 Pingree, Mr 143 Pliny. 128 Powell Brothers 21 'a/ 274 INDEX. Powell Prof 169 Powell, Eddie 204 Pope Pius VII 10 Prejean . . 8 Pythagoras 130 Pyrrhus 128 Quintilian 128 Ransom, Elmer P 23 Reno, Prof. Edward V - • : 15 Reed, Charley 34 Reventlow, Carl Otto 131 Robinson, H. M .20-105 Robinson, William 20-169 Roberth, Prof 133 Rohss,Prof 22-23 Roitair, Prof 22 Roucleres, The 136 Rovere, Jules De 8 Ryerson, George 71 Samuels, Prof 16 Samuels' Growth of Flowers 88 Scherzel, Vincent 131 Schwiegerling, Prof 238 Scipio 128 Second-Sight— Heller s Code 242 Seeman, Baron Hartwig 19- 46-169-153 207 Seeman, Prof. Adolph 51-153 Semon, Prof. Zera 14 Simonides 130 14 She "—Mystery of— Illusion 170 Spirit Bell of Prof. Alkahazar 172 Starr, C. W 181 Steen, Prof. Charles and Martha 149 Stodare, Prof , 86 Stroubaika Illusion 232 Stuart Cumberland 109-124 Taylor, Frank 54 Taylor, Prof. E. C 136 Taylor, Prof. C. T 22-206 Thompson, Den 71 Thorn, Prof 45 Torrini 9 Transparent Turk Illlusion 85 Vanek, Prof ■ 163 Vanek's Decapitation 164 Vanishing Lady , 17-154-155 Vanishing Lady in Verse 157 Vere, Prof. De 43 Vertelli, Prof 22 Verona, Prof 22 "Ward, Artemas 39 Wanamaker , John 35 Warren, Owen Grenliff e 230 Watson, L. T 182 Willio, Prof. Henry 26 Willmann,Carl 45 "Wizard of the North"— Anderson 10-33-37 Wood,WillB 22-72-50-239 Xenophon 128 Zamloch, Prof 20 ZaDzic, Prof .20-223 LIBRARY CONGRESS 029 714 ffiU m\ mm iflfflH ■ ■ Mir m m m sum in ill r ml m m Mm i ww m mm m m