The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1879-04-17
An Indian Jurlers, Tricks.


There was nothing very remarkable
in the appearance or dress of our con-
jurer. An elderly man, short and
sparely made, dressed in dlngy white
cotton, with very tight sleeves TO his
robe and very tight legs to his drawers,
he might have been respectable SER
want out of place, but actually was a
small land owner who had taken to con-
turing for his amusement. When he
entered the room he spread 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 disposed of In the
following fashion. Mr.. Smyth sat on
chair nearly in the middle of the
room, ! was sitting on sofa near the
door, the Parsee merchant stood in the
door way about arms length from me.
The servants stood about in groups, the
largest group being between the door
and the conjurer. AS soon as he had
settled himself he turned to the Parsee
and asked for the loan of rupee. The
peddler at first demurred little, but
on being guaranteed against loss, he
produced the coin. He was going to
put 1t into the conjurers hand, but the
latter refused and told the Parsee to
hand it to Mr.. Smyth's bearer.
The bearer took il and at the request
of the conjurer, looked at it and declar-
ed it to be really a rupee The conjur-
er then told him to hand it to his mas
ter. Mr.. Smyth took it, and then fol-
lowed this dialogue;
Conjurer-Are you sure that is ru-
pee.
Smyth-Yes.
Conjurer-Close your hand on 1t and
hold it tight. Now think Of some coun-
try in Europe, but do not tell me your
thoughts.
Then the conjurer ran over the
names of several countries, such as
Frace, Germany, Russia, Turkey and
America-for the native of India is un-
der the impression that America is in
Europe! After moments pause, Mr..
Smyth said he had thought of a cOun-
try.
"Then open your hand, ''said the Jug
ler; "see what you have got and tell
me il it is coin of the country you
thought Of" 1t was five-franc piece
and Mr.. Smyth had thought of France.
He was going to hand the coin to the
conjurer, but the latter said, "nO, pass
it to the other sahib." Mr.. Smyth ac-
cordingly put the fiYe-franc piece into
my hand; looked closely at 1t, then
shut my hand and thought of Russia.
When opened it found, not Rus
sian but Turkish silver piece about
the size of a five franc piece or of our
own crown piece. This handed to
Mr.. Smyth and suggested that he name
America, which he did, and found a
Mexican dollar in his hand. The coin,
whatever 1t was, had never been in the
conjurers hand from the time the rupee
was borrowed from the Parsee mer-
chant, Mr.. Snyth and his bearer turn
ed over the five franc piece, the Turk
ish coin and the dollar; so the trick did
not depend OH reversible coin. In
deed, it could not, for the coin under
went three changes, as has been seen.
/ need only add for the information of
those who know not India, that ru-
pee is only about the size of fiorin
and therefore about half the weight
of five franc piece. The jugler per-
formed several other tricks that day,
but they were of commonplace kind
and in no way comparable to the coin
trick, which have never seen rivalled
by any conjuror in India or Europe.