The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-09-08
A PERPLEXING MAGICIAN.

A PERPLEXING MAGICIAN.
wonderful Feat Of Newly Arrive
French PrestIdIEItatcur.
New York World.
NJ. Marius Cazeneuve is a small ger
tleman with a large head and finger:
whose dexterity would shame the mos
energetic shuttle in any wooden mill tn
country boasts of He is owner of innu
merable gold badges and testimonials o
his art, five of which he exposed on hi
nimble person last week. He appear
even to deadheads in full evening costume
and combines in his department tn,
grace of Frenchman with the volubili
ty of Yankee. A small table having
been arranged directly under the noses
of the investigating audience. NJ
Cazeneuve appeared smiling behind il
with nothing in his looks to warrant 6
belief of his league with the devil, though
a hundred years ago, he would certainly
have been burned ere the evening was
over for just some such doubtful rela-
tionship.
Picking up a pack of neat, French
playing cards, he first began his dew
iltry by holding them under the nose OF
reporter, and while yet their fresh,
clean smell was in the nostrils of that
gentleman, causing them to disappear,
subsequently extracting them from the
inside of his coat. This was only child's
play, however. One or two reporters
| being found willing to touch the cards
after some persuasion, a few were drawn
from the pack, looked at and replaced.
A salver containing dice-box and dice
was next passed around. and as these
gentlemen threw the dice it became a
! horrible reality that the total numbers
of their throws recorded exactly the nu-
merical position from the top of the
cards they had drawn and replaced. A
gentleman who was said to represent the
Daily Witness handled the dice-box in
an agile manners but, shake it as he
would, he could not avoid the supernat-
ural result.
The next demonstration was even more
perplexing. A blank card was handed
the spectators upon which they were re-
quested, one after the other, to place
four numericals; the total amount thus
set down amounted to 1851, upon
which the reporter of the World opened,
not without trepidation, a sealed envelope
| that had previously been intrusted to
his care, and 10! the self-same product,
! 1e.547, appeared written in plain charac-
! ters within. At this point there might
have been a wholesale conversion to
spiritualism or almost any doctrine pro-
posed, had not the MAGICIAN candidlv
informed his audience, in excellent
French, that he claimed not to do the
mysterious or unnatural. The slight-of-
hand tricks of NJ. Cazeneuve are not how
ever, his only stock in trade. He has
tolerably good memory, which serves him
in some stead; to illustrate He handed
to three gentlemen in the audience three
books, the "Chronologie University"
"Cours AstrOnOmie," and "Tablette
Chronologiques de L'Histoire Univer-
selle," volumes each of several hundred
pages to several other gentlemen he
next intrusted a dozen or two playing
cards, to others lie gave dominOes and
lotto counters. Having distributed these
good gifts, he begged the gentlemen with
the books to open n page each at random,
upon which he gazed pensively for the
space Ofa moment, and then visiting the
other holders was allowed a momentary
glance at the faces of their cards, their
dominoes and lotto counters. Shaking
his head then several times, as ifto shake
into the several cells of memory the va
riOus inventories of his outstanding stock,
he begun recital of the list, first re-
peating the entire pages that had been
opened to in the books, and next, telling
accurately the cards and dominoes. etc,
held by each of the gentlemen by whom
they were held. This did appear a trife
perpleXing, as the gentlemen who held
the cards, dominoes, ETC., had been al
lowed to draw them from the box and
pack themselves, and as the nature and
-, of4 = H. I-o L., IL - -
the average mind a life study to commit
to memory any portion of them.
After this little recess was taken, the
audience having the pleasure of realizing
that at any given date in the future NJ.
Cazeneuve could without difficulty in
form them or their friends of the precise
number beer glasses emptied and cock
tails consumed.
The second portion of the entertain
ment introduced a simple little trick.
one of the audience was given a sealed
envelope to held, while another gentle
man proceeded to unwind ball of string
which was presently cut by the shears of
the magician; in the mean time cards
and dOminOes had been passed around,
various people helping themselves, and
behold after all this, when the sealed en-
velope was opened, there appeared
written statement of the exact length of
the cord cut at random and list of the
cards, dOminoes, etc, chosen among the
audience. After this it was no matter
of great surprise when another double
sealed envelope was found to contain
paper upon which various parties had
written whatsoever they pleased, and
which they had subsequently seen de-
stroyed in the flames of sulphur match.
The performance concluded with the
celebrated box mystery. Nine Cazen-
euve under cover of a screen, succeeding
in getting inside of trunk, which, tied
and sealed up, was placed inside of an
other also secured, in the space of forty
seconds, several seconds quicker than the
best time ever made by any spiritually
assisted performer. NJ. Cazeneuve pro-
poses soon to appear before the public,
whom he intends to e'nvert finally and
forever from all belief in spiritualism.