The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-10 00:00:00

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___ 7th Dec., 1855.

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LIST FEW DAYS.
ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. - THIS
EVENING, and every evening during the
week, the GRAND ELEUSINIAN SPECTACLE of MAGIC
and MYSTERY, by Professor ANDERSON, the Great
nrizard 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.
7ging distinctive characteristics and peculiar phases of
Amusement, It is not a monologue, for the audience them-
Sel
.vos perform their parts with the principal actor, some of
„-ere en the stage and others in front ; it is not an exhibition,
though everything becomes metaorphosed befre the
eYell of the visitors no one can be positive that he sees any
e'te thing; but it is a comedy really performed by the sons-
"T,3' ; a melodrama replete with startling positions and unex-
Potted denouements ; a magnificent spectacle, with 2,000 of
;he Public every night to appear as auxiliaries ; and an cx-
',ralraganza, in which all that seems to be is entirely beyond
the bounds of probability.
Professor Anderson returns his thanks to thronged an 1
fashionable
~ audiences which have nightly filled the Lyceum
Pleatre to overflow, and by means of whose generous aid ho
114 been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
tinuous repetition. Ile believes that no professor of his art
l'as at any time or in any place been honoured with an
!mount of success so extensive, so decided, and so unusual.
!To would attribute that success to three causes; first, that,
11 his present entertainment ho has placed before his visitors
the results of a life sedulously devoted to the attainment of
Perfected skill in one peculiar art, and to perfect which he
T'as 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,
Ll'at, while endeavouring, to provide amusement for those
who honour him with their presence, he has not forgotten that
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
:ierirtiag to the conjuror's arts, in an illegitimate manner,
e designing have succeeded in making dupes of the
credulous.

, The g 37 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pre-
lessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
theatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
Lest taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
any of them bear melarscholy evidence to the dangers which
attend a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spiri-
tualists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
bruited, Professor Anderson's expose of spirit-rapping and
illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensation unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
Poso a mischievous and impudent juggle. It is impossible
ter Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
coinunications 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
been converts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and so
"stay susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
a"'ug, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions o
Lyceum
are expressed, and every evening, within th
',Yocum how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
'lt'd elucidated. It is respectfully requested that thi
Public exposition will, be accepted generally as Professes
Anderson's only --mode of replying at full length to his
ruultitudinous correspondents. He regrets that the
lames of the great and learned of the land should
,have beep made: to figure in the documents emanating
ir°lll the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
!saeted from the iforniv Advertiser of Thunslay, Septem-
ther 20, and taken by that journal from the New l'ork Spiri-
..oal Telegraph. It purportS to emanate from an American
;Pisit.rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
s,'!k,uklY confesses that lie is sorely puzzled' at what he has
messed,telit and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
'°roughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
the whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
"oltition of the phenomena ; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
Who thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
"al objects about the room, proved to be too much of a ques-
s)._
u for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
I°Ves has recently loft England, and the following account of
""0. and what he is, occurs in the Family herald, No. 945:
This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and now
jo Ital .
Maly is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
Without apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
'Pe Anglo-Saxon world as a splendid humbug, offered him 2.000
ers per annum if he would perform at his museum in New
h Barnum then took it for granted that mediums could
° bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refused. Hume, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
and honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
,IleoPtable to him, for lie was poor, young (under 20), an or-
s "au, and in very had health : but he would have been afraid
ef losing his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
hle life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
4e inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
greatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
cttrls of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
alilly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of an established journal, the editor of whore
iaright be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believe
41, spirit-rapping—does spirit-rapping gain or lose by
tars accession to its adherents? and, with Barnum's endorse
t:ent to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likely
t„?° negotiated ? Professor Anderson would believe not
Is", when he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
Z4gland have the temerity to subscribe their names to so gross
awindle, when he finds that the iucumbent of Wortley (the
Rev N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
Nh°,l•ltes a book on the subject, he considers it to be time for
"Is to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
;,Vs effected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
DD"n,n9 Advertiser of Octobei• 3 appears a letter from Sir
avid Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel,
company with Lord Brougham. He distinctly states that
Which the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
ambit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
CrPoses. In the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
~,,trever, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
,44"° was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
tato, ce with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
s,to (a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
:Atraordinary manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
t?lrdion was conveyed by an invisible agency to my hand and
ou to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
"gist hand, apart from any person, it played an air through-
-1:1t." With such a statement, printed for the edification of
he People of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
theto 'Most talented men of the day are permitting themselves
be deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
greatest novelist of the age is now engaged in making it the
hbiect of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"
isa actually been advertised to be held in St. Martin's-hall,
„,_r°fessor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
CI of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
te received by the people of England as genuine honest at-
•"allts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual
ugitlers.
s. In the course of the last five weeks 100,017 persons have
''lsited the Lyceum Theatre,—a larger number, it is believed,
,Stan has ever before been assembled within its walls in so
lin°rt a period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every even.
the programme being continually changed. Grand
4
Pg
',
°.o.oek Ishionable Day Performance, on Saturday, December 15, at
; the programme being thus arranged
Part 1. —Act 1. The Mesmeric Couch : or, the Clinical
;21_1:abilities of the Atmosphere : in which the Wizard will do
91 Magic that which some suppose to be effected by mesmer-
,,ul) and illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported in
Lae air.
°f Producing
2. The Aqua-Avial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
()t Producing animated nature from fire and water only, and
the Possibility of eliciting from the simplest elements the most
roplex forms of ornithological existence.
Act 3, Le Livre des Reeueils Choisies : or, Puck's Own
Pocket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying. the
"sseoing's entertainment in the production of the very volu-
'mous from a small volume, in the extraction of magnitude
tort Of minuteness, in developing bulk where no space appears
°r its existence, in discovering odd things in odd places, antl
to bringing forth unexpected wonders from the most unlikely
Place for to be found,
, Act 4. Magical Locomotion ; or, Transition without Tron.
ole, In which will be comprised—the Adventures of a Wed-
(ling Ring, the Peregrinations of a Bank Note, the Transfor-
roation—bla.ek into white, and the Discovery of every Article
the position which would seem the most inappropriate.
Act 5. L'Ecrin de Verve; or, the Casket of Crcesus. Into
Which, tlsough made entirely of glass perfectly transparent,
end suspended so as to be visible to the eyes of all present,
Wizard will cause the money of his visitors to transport
Itself, and rain into the casket, hough its lid bo
locked, and the key in the possession of the audience. closed,
Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary ; or, the Transparency
of Opacity.
Act, 7. A New Pottle of Bacchus ; or, the Novel Wine
bottle,"
Spirit Store. An improvement upon the " inexhaustible
'ottle," inasmuch as the Wizard's bottle will not only he in-
exhaustible, but will change its contents, ad infinitum, at the
Word of command, producing soda-water, butter-milk,
'Mom salts, Port, Sherry, brandy, gin, rum, whisky,
11°Yeau, or any other wine or spirit required ; and finally
Proving to be filled with pocket handkerchiefs perfectly dry,
1411 d occupying the whole space when tightly packed.
Act 8. Half en Hour with the Spirits ; or, an Expose of
eiPirit-rapping. Introducing the spirit-rapping table and
tocsin of the invisibles.
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 Eng-
land, France, Turkey, and Sardinia.
Act. 10. The Enchanted Chair of Comus, in which be who
'ilts 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
/queleus 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 Maltommed'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
ridding ourselves of a troublesome friend, and the advantages
of the newly-discovered dia-terrestrial passage from the west-
er/1 to the eastern hemisphere.
Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at 8.
private boxes, 11. Ids. 6d. and 11. ls., to be obtained at the
460 x-office, or at the principal libraries ; stalls, 4s. ; dress
circle, 3s. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gallery, 6d. The
Rsx-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction
Of Mr. Chatterton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
formance on Saturday, Docenber.ls, at 2 o'clock, Doors open
at Lalf.past 1.