The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1879-04-04
ANECDOTES OF .iELIEa.
SOME OF THE GREAT MAeIcIAN's EXPERT
! ENcEs WITH JAPANESE JUGeLERs.

/
lsoME OF THE GREAT MAeTc1AN's ExpER1-
ENCEs WITH JAPANESE JUGGLERs.
| A reporter OF the New York Star had a
chat recently with Haidee Heller, the sister
Of the late Robert Heller, in which she re-
lated several interesting stories about her
brother.
% Why" she said, Gin five years we
visited California, Mexico, st. Thomas !;
all through Australia, Van Dieman's
Land, South Australia, New Zealand; in
the various parts of India, Bombay,
/ Jutthpore, Allshabad, Calcutta; through
the Island of Ceylon, Point du Gale, Co.
lou1by and Handy. Then we went to
China and played months in Hong Kong,
/ Shanghai. and Macao-back again to
Singapore, and thence to the Island of
Java. We had splendid success in that
lovely island, playing in such nice, easy
named places as Ambarawa, Soerakarta,
Djokj kjakarta, Samarang and Hatiekembang.
A third time we went back to Singapore en-
route for Bombay. From Bombay to Ad-
en-, up the Red Sea into Egypt, staying a
long while in Cairo, where fell i'll. Then
on to Alexandria, Malta and Gibralter.
After an awful passage through the Bay of
Biscay, we brought up avel-stained,
weary, but itch in pocket and wealthy in
mind from all our wanderings.'
II suppose while in India you saw the
famous jugglers of the East 2" suggested
| the interviewer.
Many times. Robert was very much
interested in all foreign conjuring. re-
member on the street in Hong Kong one
day he discovered little, sleepy old Chi
| naman at the corner doing the ring trick,
and doing ii better than he could himself.
He stopped, paid the Chinaman to give
him a lesson, and the following day
hunted up the China conjurer and showed
him combinations and improvements on his
| own trick that made the pigtail on his as
tonished head vlbrate with admiration.
"And about the Indian jugglers ?'
| 81 could tell you hundred stories of
those strange creatures. Robert used often
to mystify them and expose their tricks, to
their great rage. We were laying off some
miles from Madras, on the steamship Su-
matra, which had broken her shaft just as
we left Madras for Ceylon, when boat put
off from shore with party of natives to
sell us some fruits, and among them was
one of their most famous men of mystery.
He came on board and it was suggested
that he perform there. 1
"Spreading some sand on the deck, he
planted in it a mango seed, from which he
produced mango tree some 1S inches in
height.
sT'hen he did some surprising things
with venomous cobra, which he carried
rolled in the cloth about his loins, conclud-
ing With very clever trick, in which two
pigeons, one black and one white, we're
made to vanish at the will, to change from
onssbaskeF to another. The captain urged
Robert 10 do something to bother the man,
who was very much conceited about him
self.
$50 Robert 81 ldeniy asked to look at
onc Of. the pigeons. He took the. white.
one. With movement like lightning he
pulled the head off the bird He held the
head in one hand, the quivering, struggling
dying bird in the other, then threw them
overheard.
"The commotion was frightful. The
poor native shrieked and cursed, and gave
vent to his rage in the choicest of th Ben
galese.
"The mighty white magician looked
with merry eyes at the juggler's distress.
Then when the row was at its height and l
begen to feel uneasy about the issue of the
prank, Robert suddenly raised his hands
oh, those beautiful, white. wonder working
hands. He mysteriously beckoned, as if
summoning the dove from it's watery grave,
and pointed upward. (No one had looked
overheard after the first dart of the bird
into the water.) There was the white dove
c1rcling round and ro und in the air; in one
moment it alighted on the bit of carpet in
front of its despondent owner, unharmed.
Curses gave way to profound salaams and
prayers that the great white magician
might never die.
80 And how did he do it? Why, simply
by having in his hand ONE of his stage
properties-a white doves head-which
had figured in hundred tricks. Quick as
thought he had turned the living doves
head under its wing. AS we were so far
from land, though set free, it returned to
the ship Tt is not SO much that which is
done, believe me, Mr.. Star, as it is the dex-
terity with which the thing is done. This
is my silver thimble, is it not?''
The interviewer, who has excellent Vis-
ion, promptly says Yes" for the slender
white palm of Miss Heller is extended, ,and
the truncated cone, seni-perforated with
indentations," lies alone in its glory upon
the outstretched surface.
tsSee how mistaken you are ?" laughs
the lady, as she shuts and opens her hand
with the rapidity of a winking eye; the
thimble is gone, and in place is m ugly
g.:... e -, t,t,a,. tha ran0rtpr had INST laid