The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1878-09-07
INDIAN JUGGLERY,
(From the Dublin University Magazine. /

IRON the Dublin University Magazine
There was nothing very remarkable in
the appearances or dress of our conjuror.
An elderly man, short and sparely made,
dressed in dingy white cotton, with
very tight sleeves to his robe and very
tight legs to his drawers; he might have
been respectable servant out of place,
but actually was a small landowner, who
had taken to conjuring for bis own
amusement. When he entered the room
he spread a white cloth upon the floor
and sat down upon it with his back to
the wall, the door Of the room being on
his right hand. His spectators were dis
posed in the following fashion: Mr..
Smyth sat on chair nearly in the
middle of the room. / was sitting on q
sofa near the door, the Parsee merchant
stood in the doorway about arm's length
from me. The servants stood about in
groups. the largest group being between
th- door and the conjuror.
As soon rs he had settled himself, be
'nrn to he Parsee and asked for the
loan nt u rupee. The peddler a.. first
d murred. but, on being guaranteed
aga INST loss, he produced the coin. He
Was going to put tho coin into the con-
jurors hand, but the latter refused, and
told th- Parsee to hand it over to Mr..
Smiths bearer. The bearer took it, and,
at th- request OF the conjuror, looked at
1t aud declared it to be really rupee.
The conjuror then told him to hand it to
his master. Mr.. Smyth then took it,
and then followed this dialogue: Con-
jusor-Are you sure that this is rupee?
Smyth = Yes. Conjuror- Close your
hand on it and hold it tight Now think
OF some country in Europe, but do not
tell me your thought. Then the con-
juror ran over the names of several
countries, such as France. Germany,
Russia. Turkey and America-for the
native OF India is under the impression
that America is in Europe. After a
moments pause. Mr.. Smyth said he had
thought OF country. "rhen open your
hand" said the jugggier; "see what you
have got, and tell me if it is a coin of
the country you thought Of" 1t was a
five.franc piece. and Mr.. Smyth had
thought Of France.
He was going to hand the coin to the
coDjuror, but the latter said "No pass
it to the other sahab." Mr.. Smyth
accordingly put the fve-franc piece into
my hand; l looked closely at it, then
shut my hand and thought of Russia.
When opened it found. not Russian,
nut Turkish silver piece about the size
II the five.franc, or of our own crown
iece. This handed to Mr.. Smith, and
suggested that he should name America,
W hich be did, and found MEXICAN dol
lar in his hand. The coin, whatever it
was. had never been in the coniuror's 8
hand from the time the rupee was bor-
,rowsd from the Parsee merchant. Mr..
Smyth and his bearer had both of them
closely examine the rupee, and Mr..
Smyth and turned over several times
the five-frano piece, the Turkish coin,
and the dollar; 80 the trick did not de-
pend on reversible coin. Indeed, it
could not, for the coin underwent three
changes, as has been seen.
need only add for the information of
those who know not India, that rupee
is only about the size of forin, and
therefore about half the weight of a five-
franc piece. The juggler performed
several other tricks that day, but they
were OF commonplace kind, and in no
way comparable to the coin trick, which
have never seen rivaled by any other
conjurer in India or Europe,