The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-05 00:00:00

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. - THIS
EVENING, and every evening during the
Week, the GRAND ELEUSINIAN SPECTACLE of MAGIC
and. MYSTERY, by Professor ANDERSON, the Great
Wizard of the North, in 12 acts, with ever-changing variety
of incidents, continuous surprises, novel and extraordinary
effects.
Magic and Mystery is an entirely new entertainment, pos-
leesing distinctive characteristics and peculiar phases of
amusement. It is not a monologue, for the audience them-
Pelves perform their parts with the principal actor, some of
them on the stage and others in front ; it is not an exhibition,
for though everything becomes metamorphosed before the
eyes of the visitors no one can be positive that he sees any
one thing; but it is a comedy really performed by the com-
pany ; a melodrama replete with startling positions and unex-
pected denouements ; a magnificent spectacle, with 2,000 of
the public every night to appear as auxiliaries ; and an ex-
travaganza, in which all that seems to be is entirely beyond
the bounds of probability.
Professor Anderson returns his thanks to thronged and
fashionable audiences which have nightly filled the Lyceum
Theatre to overflow, and by means of whose generous aid he
has been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
tinuous repetition. He believes that no professor of his art
las at any time or in any place been honoured with an
amount of success so extensive, so decided,-and so unusual.
11e would attribute that success to three causes; first, that
in his Present entertainment he has placed before his visitors
the results of a life sedulously devoted to the attainment of
I,erfected skill in one peculiar art, and to perfect which he
has travelled the globe in every clime ; secondly, that he has
}'Pared no trouble nor expense to put this entertainment on
the stage in the most elaborate manner, by the employment
of the first mechanicians and artists of the day ; and thirdly,
that, while endeavouring to provide amusement for those
Who honour him with their presence, he has not forgotten thee
it is possible to afford information also, and that the oppor-
tunity should not be neglected of exposing conjuring where
(ver it has been used for nefarious purposes, or whenever by
resorting to the conjuror's arts, in an illegitimate manner,
the designing have succeeded in making dupes of the
credulous.
The 937 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pro-
fessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
lheatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
lerest taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
many of them bear melancholy evidence to the dangers which
ttend a belief in the superstitions nonsense of the " Spiri-
tualists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
resulted, Professor Anderson's expose of spirit-rapping and
his illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensation unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
rose a mischievous and. impudent juggle. It is impossible
for Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of th
communications which reach him on the subject. He regrets
that many of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
Who, from their position in society and their well-known in-
tellectual attainments, he would least have expected to have
leen converts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and se
"sii.V susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions
E,Pyirit-rapping aretables exprcan beessed, and
made to every evenin
sg, within th
Lceum, bow rap i exhibited
end elucidated. It is respectfully requested that this
I üblic exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to hie
Inultitudinous correspondents. He regrets that the
names of the great and learned of the land should
Lave been made to figure in the documents emanating
ttoin the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
ll'acted from the Morning Advertise?. of Thursday, Septem-
ter 20, and taken by that journal from the New York Spiri-
b-tal Telegraph. It purports to emanate from an American
anirit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
Lankly confesses that be is sorely puzzled' at what he has
'witnessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
thoroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
Zile whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
solution of the phenomena ; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
'l,ho thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
rial objects about the room, proved to be too much of a ques-
tion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Brune, the author of the
*hove, has recently left England, and the following account of
I\4, and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 648:
" This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and now
ul Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
Without apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
the Anglo-Saxon world as a splendid humbug, offered him 2.000
dollars per annum if he would perfranted orm at
that medium could
he bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refused- Hume, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
011 d honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
acceptable to him, for ho was poor, young (under 20), an or-
and in very bad health : but he would have been afraid
of losing his power as a medium, and he would. sooner lose
his life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
lie inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
greatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
one of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
tainly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of an established journal, the editor of whore
!night be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believe
spirit-rapping— does spirit-rapping gain or lose be
this accession to its adherents? and, with Barnum's endorse.
blent to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likele
to be negotiated ? Professor Anderson would believe not ;
tut, whenhavefi the nds that educated cen of the Church of
flfeland he temerity to subscriblerge their names to so gross
a swindle when he finds that the incumbent of Wortley (the
J -"v. N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
Writes a book on the subject, he considers it to be time for
?jell to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
rt is effected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
;raming Advertiser of October 3 appears a letter from Sir
-David Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel.
in company with Lord Brougham. He distinctly states that
Which the Wizard. of the North proclaims every night—that
anirit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
turPoses. In the Morning Advertiser of the following day
'owever, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
no was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
"eauee with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
table (a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
extraordinary manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
cordion was conveyed by an invisible agency to my hand and
then to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
Fight hand, apart from any person, it played an air through.
eta." With such a statement, printed for the edification of
th people of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
the most talented men of the day are permitting themselves
to be deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
greatest novelist of the age is now engaged in making it the
subject of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"
has actually been advertised to be held in St. Martin's-hall,
Professor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
18t8 of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
De received. by the people of 'England as genuine honest at-
tempts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual
Jtgelers.
In the course of the last five weeks 100,017 persons have
visited the Lyceum Theatre, —a larger number, it is believed,
than has ever before been assembled within its walls in so
Short a period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every even.
.Ing, the programme being continually changed. Grand
t.ushiemable Day Performance, on Saturday, December 8, at
Z O'clock ; the programme being thus arranged ;
Part 1. —Act 1. The Mesmeric Couch : or, the Clinica'
Capabilities of the Atmosphere : in which the Wizard will do
13, magic that which some suppose to be effected by mesmer-
-138
In, and illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported in
the air.
Act 2. The Aqua-Avial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
of producing animated nature from fire and water only, and
the possibility of eliciting from the simplest elements the most
complex forms of ornithological existence.
Act 3. Lo Livre des Reeueils Choisies : or, Puck's Own
oeket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying the
evening's entertainment in the production of the very volu-
minous from a small volume, in the extraction of magnitude
cut of minuteness, in developing bulk where no space appears
fur its existence, in discovering odd things in odd places, and
In bringing forth unexpected wonders from the most unlikely
llace for to be found.
Act 4, Magical Locomotion ; or, Transition without Trou-
ble. In which will be comprised—the Adventures of a Wed-
(ling Ring, the Peregrinations of a Bank Note, the Transfer-
Diation—black into white, and the Discovery of every Article
In the position which would seem the most inappropriate.
Act 5. L'Ecrin de Verre; or, the Casket of Creesus. Into
which, though made entirely of glass perfectly transparent,
mid suspended so as to be visible to the eyes of all present,
the Wizard will cause the money of his visitors to transport
itself, and rain into the casket, though its lid be closed,
locked, and the key in the possession of the audience.
Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary ; or, the Transparency
of Opacity.
Act. 7. A Nbw Bottle of Bacchus ; or, the Novel Wine
and Spirit Store. An improvement upon the inexhaustible
bottle," inasmuch as the Wizard's bottle will not only be in-
exhaustible, but will change its contents, ad infinitum, at the
Word of command, producing soda-water, butter-milk,
Epsom salts, Port, Sherry, brandy, gin, rum, whisky,
ZeYeau, or any other wine or spirit required ; and finally
Proving to be filled with pocket handkerchiefs perfectly dry,
and occupying the whole space when tightly packed.
Act 8. Half an Hour with the Spirits ; or, an Exposé of
Spirit-rapping. Introducing the spirit-rapping- table and
tocsin of the invisiblos.
Act. 9. Grand. Mystic Amalgam, in which the property of
the Wizard's patrons will undergo some strange metamor-
phoses, and, amongst others, their handkerchiefs become
transformed into the flags of' victory—the banners of En •
land, Prance, Turkey, and Sardinia.
Act. 10. The Enchanted Chair of Comus, in which he who
seats himself will be under the magic spell,
and appear to
the audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
tion as peculiar as perplexing.
Act. 11. The Mystery of the Charmed Chest ; or, the
Nucleus of the Night's Wonders. To comprehend which the
audience will have the goodness to observe, in an earlier part
of the evening, the chest suspended (like Mahommed's coffin)
in mid-air, into which all things will travel, and out of which
all will be produced.
Act. 12. The Homological Evaporation ; or, the Shortest
-Route to the Antipodes. Illustrating the easiest mode of
lidding ourselves of a troublesome friend, and the advantages
of the newly-discovered dia-terrestrial passage from the west-
ern to the eastern hemisphere.
Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at 8.
Private boxes, 1/. Ils. 6d. and it. ls., to be obtained at the
Box-office, or at the principal libraries ; stalls, 4s. ; dress
circle 3s. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gallery, 6d. The
Box-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction
of Mr. Chatterton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
formance on Saturday, December 8, at 2 o'olock„D_ oors open
at bat-past 1.