Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-05-02
Houllin, the French Wizard.

Every one mas seen or ncaru speak on the
great Robert Houdin. Besides being the
prince OF conjurers, he is an able mathema'
tcian and mechancian, and his electric
clock, made for the Hotel de Vile Of his
native town of Blois, obtained medal ut
the Paris exhibition. 1t is not generally
known that he was sent TO Algeria by the
French government on mission connected
with the black art--probably the first time
thar conjurer has been called upon to ex-
ercise his profession in government employ.
Some details of his expedition have just
been published Its object was to destroy
the influence exered among the Arab tribes
by the marabouts, an influence often
mischievously applied. by few clumsy
tricks and impostures, these marabouts pass
themselves off as sorcerers; no one, it was
justly thought, was better able to eclipse
their skill and discredit their science than
the man of the inexhausiible bottle. One
of the great pretensious Of the marabout
was TO invulnerability. AT the moment
that loaded musket was fired at him, and
the trigger pulled, he pronounced few
cabalistis words, and the weapon did not go
off. Houdin detected the trick, and showed
that the touchhole was plugged. The ARAB
wizard was furious, and abused his
French rival.
You may revenge YOURSELF quietly re-
piled Houdin; take a pistol, load it your
self; here are bullets, put one in the bar
rel, but before doing SO mark it with your
knife.
The Arab did as he was told.
You are quite certain now said Hou-
din, that the pistol is loaded and will go
off Tell me, do you feel no remorse in
killing me thus, Notwithstanding that j
autI or;ze you"
You are my enemy, coldly replied the
Arab; 4 win kill you
Without replying, Houdin stuck an APP
PIC vi INC poiiit VI a hHhe, anu Cath'y gave
the word 10 fire. The pistol was discharged,
the apple flew far away, and there appear
cd on its place, stuck on the point of the
knife, the bullet the mrabout had marked.
The spectators remained mute from stupe-
superior.
Allah, is great he said Il am van
quished.'
Instead of the bottle from which, in Eu.
rope, Robert Houdin pours an endless
stream of every description of wine and
liquor, he called for an empty bowl, which
he kept continually full of boiling coffee !;
but few of the Arabs would taste, for they
Cade sure that it came direct from the
devils own cotlee-pot. He then told them
that it was in his power to deprive them of
all strength, and to restore it to them at
will, and he pre- duced small box, so light
that child could lift it with his finger;
but it suddenly became so heavy that the
strongest man present could not raise it,
and the Arabs, who prize physical strength
above everything, looked with terror at the
great magician, who, they doubted not, could
annihilate them BY the mere exertion of his
will. They expressed this belief; Houdn
confirmed them in it, and promised that on
a day appointed, he could convert one of
them into smoke.
The day came, the throng was prodig.
Gus; fanatical marabout had agreed to
give himself up TO the sorocerer. They
made him stand on fable and covered him
with transparent gauze then Houdn and
another person lifted the table up the two
ends, and The Arab disappeared in cloud
smoke. The terror of spectators was in
describe; they rushed out of the place,
and ran long distance before some of the
bodies, thought of returning to look after
the marabout. They found him near the
place where he had been evaporated blr
he could tell them nothing, and was like q
drunken man, ignorant of what had Mapped
ed TO him.
Thenceforwari Houdin was veneratet
and the marabouts were despised. The oh
ject Of the French government was com
pletely attained. The fashion of The "testi
MORALS having. it appears, infected ever
the Arabs, number of chiefs presented
the great French conjurer with piece o
Arab writing. wonderfully decorated, hyper
bolical, and eulogistic, and to which the,
were so attentive as to append Frencl
translation. Besides this memorial of hi
Aleerine trip, IIoudin has rosary which
he one day borrowed from an Arab to per
form trick with, ard which the owner
persuaded that Sneiian in person was befor,
him, refused to receive back.
"Some years ago says friend of ours
81 was pasSinu throuph Pannsvivan;a q,