The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-11 00:00:00

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
Wizard of the North, in 12 acts, with ever-changing variety
°f incidents, continuous surprises, novel and extraordinary
erects.
Magic and Mystery is an entirely now entertainment, pos-
esging distinctive characteristics and peculiar phases of
l'inusement. It is not a monologue, for the audience them-
selves 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 Qom-
lanY ; 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
Tashioua.ble audiences which have nightly filled the Lyceum
Theatre to overflow, and by means of whose generous aid he
as been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
tinuous repetition. Ho believes that no professor of his art
has at any time. or in any place been honoured with an
!Amount of success so extensive, so decided, and so unusual.
Re 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
Perfected skill in one peculiar art, and to perfect which he
Las 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
uf the first mechanicians and artists of the day ; and thirdly,
that, while endeavouring to provide amusement for thoss
Who honour him with their presence, he has not forgotten that
tit is possible to afford information also, and that the oppor-
ltlitY should not be neglected of exposing conjuring wher-
ever it has been used for nefarious purposes, or whenever by
!'esortig to the conjuror's arts, in au illegimate anner,
°le den signing have succeeded in makingit m dupes of the
Credulous. • -
s The 937 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pro-
Lessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
theatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
terest taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
zany of them bear melancholy evidence to the dangers which
attend
a belief in the superstitious 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-
rso a mischievous and impudent juggle. It is impossible
or Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
!ointeunications 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
easily susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
e'"lling, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions oo
Pirit-rapping aro expressed, and every evening, within th
41ceum, how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
and elucidated. It is respectfully requested that thi4
P,4blie exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to his
multitudinous correspondents. Be regrets that ths
,itarnes of the great and learned of the land should
ne;
rave been made to figure in the documents emanatironl the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
,.tacted from the Morning Advertiser of Thursday, Septem-
-20, and taken by that journal from the New York Spirt-
Telegraph. It purports to emanate from an American
B?irit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume Sir David Brewster
sr?riirly confesses that he is sorely puzzled' at what he has
naessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
t'eroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted mon brought
" Whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
lelntion ef the phenomena; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
,sl°,ll° thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
objects about the room, proved to bc too much of a Ties-
'°4 for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
above, Las recently left England, and the following account of
"°O. and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 645:
.'s" This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and now
In Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
itli'llout apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
Anglo-Saxon world as splendid hubug„ offered him ,00
illars per annum if he would perform m
at his museum in 2 Ne 0w
berit Barnum then took it for granted that mediums could
Mused,
bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
;fs''tled. Hume, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
-tu honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
neieentable to him, for he was poor, young (under 20), an or-
of "an, and in very bad health : but ho would have been afraid
hi losing his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
sse inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, ono of the
cue
humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
V4'le of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is eer-
sl.l4Y surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of an established journal, the editor of whom
1711 ht be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believt
gut accession to
BPirapping—does spirit-rapping gain or lose b
its adherents I and, with Barnum's endorse
Itllent to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likels
Ebe negotiated T Professor Anderson would believe not ;
when he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
*land have the temerity to subscribe their names to so gross
Itswindle, when ho finds that the incumbent of Wortley (the
N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts Lis belief in it, and
hi a book on the subject, he considers it t, be time for
444 to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
D 4 ected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
c'tlttng Advertiser of October 3 appears a letter from Sir
bit' Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel,
qq°l3lPany with Lord Brougham. He distinctly states that
leh the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
, -rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
QrPoses. In the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
~rrever, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
4°o Was present when ho and Lord Brougham had their
V‘,ce with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
ta
(a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
(,'aordinary manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
shrlion was conveyed by au invisible agency to my hand and
s. en. to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
0-ight hand, apart from any person, it played an air through-
• With such a statement, printed for the edification of
the
People of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
toe most talented men of the day are permitting themselves
be deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
~,,'"atest novelist of the age is now engaged iu making it the
Oect of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"
actually been advertised to be hold in St. Martin's-hall,
rifessor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
be of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
t received by the people of England as genuine honest at-
isell'Pts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual
s, In the course of the last five wee 100,017 persons have
tTilted the Lyceum Theatre,—a largerks number, it is believed,
°4-11 has ever before been assembled within its walls in so
7.10 rt a period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every even.
ill:, the programme being continually changed. Grand
.;ahionable Day Performance, on Saturday, December 15, at
4'cloCk ; the programme being thus arranged ;
s, Part Mesmeric Couch Clinical
OPabilition of the Atmosphere : in which tho Wizard will do
" Magic that which some suppose to be effected by rand illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported in
the air,
Act 2. The Aqua-Avial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
t6hr Producing animated nature from fire and water only, and
sse Possibility of eliciting from the simplest elements tho most
Plex forms of ornithological existence.
4et 3. Le Vivre des Reeueile Choisies or, Puck's Own
"cket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying the
,"ening's entertainment in the production of the very volu-
n''''uous from a small volume, in the extraction of magnitude
fof minuteness, in developing bulk where no space appears
isr,ite existence, in discovering odd things in odd places, and
cringing forth unexpected wonders from the most unlikely
"lee for to be found,
t, Act 4. Magical Locomotion ; -or, Transition without Troll.
Iu which will be comprised—the Adventures of a Wed-
,..14 Rings the Peregrinations of a Bank Note, the Transfer-
atiefi—black into white, and the Discovery of every Article
the position which would seem the most inappropriate.
~Act 5. L'Ecrin de Verre; or, the Casket of Crcesus. Into
k though made entirely of glass perfectly transparent,
the suspended so as to be visible to the eyes of all ,
-Le Wizard will cause the money of his visitors to transport
is7lf. and rain into the casket, though its lid be closed,
"e!'ed, and the key in the possession of the audience.
Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary ; or, the Transparency
s
OPacity.
Ithri Act. 7. A Now Bottle of Bacchus ; sr, the
.Novel Wine
I-- Spirit Store. An improvement upon the " inexhaustible
"ettle," inasmuch as the Wizard's bottle will nat only be in-
Illaustible, but will change its contents, ad infmitum, at the
of command, producing soda-water, butter-milk,lll lA° salts, Port, Sherry, brandy, gin, rum, whisky,
°Yeau, or any other wino or spirit required; and si
proving to be filled with pocket handkerchiefs
perfectly dry,
`11(1 occupying the whole space when tightly packed.
'
s, Act S. Half an Hour with the Spirits ; or, an Expose of
Writ-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
gaud, into the flats of victory—the banners of Eng
France, Turkey, and Sardinia.
Act 10. The Enchanted Chair of Comus, in which he who
lseats himself will bo under the magic spell, and appear to
}le audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
'len as peculiar as perplexing.
Act. 11. The Mystery of the Charmed Chest ; or, the
Nucleus of the Night's Wonders. To comprehend which the
l"nlionce will have the goodness to observe, in an earlier part
r tile evening, the chest suspended (like Mahommed's coffin)
mid.air, into which all things will travel, and out of which
MI will be produced.
Act. 12. The Homological Evaporation ; or, the Slicstest
'elite to the Antipodes. Illustrating the easiest mode of
r'(lfling ourselves of a troublesome friend, and tho advantages
el the newly-discovered dia-terrestrial passage from the west-
°fll to the eastern hemisphere.
Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at S.
b'liVato boxes, If. 118. 6d. and 1/. be obtained at the
'OX-office, or at the principal libraries ; stalls, 4s. a dross
circle, 3s. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gallery, 6d. The
Ilex-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction
,!'t Mr. Chattcrton, jug. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
-I°teanee on Saturay, December:ls, at 2 o'clock. Doors open
4t Lalf•pant 1,