The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-14

All. long will poets tell
How rode and tell
This brave young messenger.
Mary Ainge De We're, jim Youths Companion.
Some Incidents in Merry Masician's Life
Signor Antonio Blitz, who recently
died at Philadelphia, was born of Pol
ish parents in Deal, England, June 81,
1910. HIS father was merchant, toll
erably well-to.do. He left his home at
the age of thirteen, having become
enthusiastic over the success of
sleight of hand tricks there exhibited,
and which he had acquired from hints
given him by band of strolling gypsies
and, child as he was, started out i'm.
mediately as public performer, ap-
pearing at Hamburg first, under the
care of a family acquaintance known
in his autobiography only as Gabriel,
and then at Potsdam, Lubbock, and
other cities on the continent. At the
aGe of Is he made his first perform
ance in England, at Dover, and at the
age of eighteen he came out in London
at the Coberg theatre. He made a ten
months stay in London, which was
thoroughly successful, then he made
an extended tour through Ireland and
Scotland, returning afterward to Eng
land, where he remained till 1884. In
that year he took his wife and two
children on board the Columbus pack
ct ship of the old Black Ball line, at
Liverpool, and with them came to this
country. His first appearance in this
country was at the old Masonic Hall in
Broadway ; afterwards he fulfilled an
engagement at Niblo's in company
with Mr.. and Mrs Watson, Messrs.
Howard, Dempster, j. A. Kyle and
other well.knOwn musical performers,
and subsequently he visited Boston, zap.
pearing at the art gallery in Summer
street, then occupied by Abner Knee.
land and the Society of Free Thinkers.
From Boston he made the tour of New
England and of the west, returning
thence to New York, where he entered
into partnership with Mr.. Maeziel, the
proprietor of the "Automaton Chess
player" and the ''Slege of Moscow"
After an extended stay in New York,
Signor Blitz and his ally performed in
Philadelphia, made tour through the
south and west, Canada and Nova Scotia,
and thence went to the Barbados and
the West Indies. Upon his return he
settled in Philadelphia, where he has
resided for many years.
Signor Blitz married twice. His first
wife he married in Scotland at an
early age; she was the mother of the
prima donna, Nine. Jenny Van Zandt.
He had three children in all, and one
son is living at present in Philadelphia
and one daughter in Brooklyn. He
has also brother living in England.
The anecdotes concerning him, his
ventriloquism, and his marvellous dex-
terity, are innumerable. Very often
endowed by the superstitious fancies
of those who had witnessed his re-.
remarkable feats of legerdemain with
supernatural powers, he carefully
makes it evident in his autobiography
that it was only to his manual dexter.
ty and close observance of character
that he was enabled to so marvelously
deceive the senses of his auditors. In.
deed, he takes occasion to say in this
Interesting volume that Spiritualism,
''the professors of which pretend to
hold intercourse with the dead, and
record the thoughts of those within
the realms of heaven, protesting to re-
ceive and convey communication be
tween families and friends, is of a
character as nonsensical to the un.
derstanding as it is offensive to moral
appreciation of the divine law His
motto was Laugh, laugh and be hap
Ply. Live above the thought of wrong
and it will not exist in action" He
quotes many instances of the super.
stitious regard in which he was held.
To his boyish tricks in his native vii.
lage his neighbors ascribed the loss of
their sheep, mishaps to their cattle,
and unusual occurrences within twenty
miles of the town. Indeed the good
priests and burghers of the town held
a solemn council to consider what
should be done with this uncanny boy.
. No result seems to have come of
their deliberations, '.yet," says the
author, ''the villagers might be seen
standing long way off gazing at my
person and alleging that they saw
most mysterious sights of beings pass.
ing in and out Of the chimneys, through
the windows, and of red and blue fires
burning round the house at mid
night, s...,--..
At Exeter, England, in the early
part Of 1926, he was summoned before