The Portland daily press., 1882-01-30
PRICE 8 CENTS.
An IRdian Juggler's Tricks.
THE University MaRaxiue.1

There is nothing very remarkable in the ap-
pearance or dress of our conjuror. An elderly
man, short and sparely made, dressed in din
gy, white cotton, with very tight legs to his
drawers, he might have been respectable
servant out of place, but actually was a small
land owner who had taken to conjuring 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 a chair nearly in the mid
die OF the room, 1 was sitting on sofa near
the door, the Parsee merchant stood in the
door about an arms length from me. The
servants stood about in groups, the largest
group being between the door and conjurer
AS soon as he had settled himself he turned to
the Parsee and asked for the loan of a rupee.
The peddler at first demurred little, but on
being guaranteed against loss, he produced the
coin. He was going to put it into the conjur-
or's hand, but the latter refused and told the
Parsee to hand it to Mr.. Smyth's bearer.
The bearer took it, and at the request OF the
conjuror, looked at it and declared IL to be re-
ally a rupee. The conjuror then told hilsa to
hand it to his master. Mr.. Smyth took it, and
then followed this dialogue:
Coniuror-Are you sure that 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 thoughts
Then the conjuror ran over the names OF
several countries, such as France, Germany,
r assis, Turkey, and America,-for the native
of India is under the impression that America
is in Europe. After msment's pause, Mr..
Smyth said he had thought of a country.
'"Then open your hand" said the juggler;
"see what you have got and tell me ii Ii Is q
coin of the country you thought Of" 1t was q
five-franc piece and Mr. Smyth had thought
of France. He was going TO hand the coin TO
the conjuror, but the latter said, "No, pass II
to the other sahib." Mr. Smyth accordingly
put the fve-franc piece into nay hand; /
looked closely at it, then shut my hand and
thought of Russia When opened it l found
not Russian but Turkish silver piece about,
the size of a fve-franc piece or Of our own
crown piece. This handed to Mr.. Smyth and
suggested that he name America, which he
did, and found Mexican dollar in his hand.
The coin, whatever it was, had never been In
the conjuror's hand from the time the rupee
was borrowed from the Parsee merchant. Mr..
Smyth and his bearer had both of them
closely examined the rupee, and Mr.. Smyth
and turned over several times the fve-franc
piece, the Turkish coin and the dollar; 80 the
trick did not depend on a reversible coin. In
deed, 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 form and therefore only about half the
weight OF fve-franc piece. The juggler per-
formed several other tricks that day, but they
were of a commonplace kind, and in no way
comparable to the coin trick, which have
never seen rivaled by any coDjuror in India
or Europe.