Delta chief., 1884-09-10
THE JUGGLERS OF INDIA.
Two of Their Principal Tricks Very Gauzy
Frauds.

Frauds.
.sThe one class who interested me
particularly In India were the jugglers.
Lave always had fancy for prying
into the secrets of pres,idigitation, and
/ lost no opportunity Of seeing these
sl.ight-of- hand gentry at their tricks.
and found occasion TO witness many of
their performances IN different parts of
India. Ny Investigations lead me to
state positively that the most re-
markable stories told about them are
fictions. based upon the i!imsicst foun-
dation of fact. The great majority of
people like to be deceived in such mat
ters. and will shut their eyes to palpable
evidence of fraud, while travellers who
eagerly seize upon every chance to pad
their narratives with sensational points
naturally throw veil of mystery
around the tricks of the Indian jugglers.
Let us take. for instance. the two per-
formanccs that have been most fire.
auently and most marvelously written
up-that is to say, the mysterious bas-
ket and the mango-growing tricks l
have seen both of them over and over
again, and have found the same easily
detected f. auds to exist in every case.
The baskets - bell shaped and have a
false bottom, between which and the eS-
terror wall OF the basket there Is ample
room for very small child to stow it.
self away. The spectators are not al
lowed to touch. or even TO como very
nfar TO the basket, and in casual
glance Mt the interior one Is not apt to
detect the false bottom. The basket is
placed over the child. who squats upon
the ground. and after sufficient time
has elapsed for the youngster TO crawl
into its place Of conccalment, the
juggler horriiies his audience by pass
ing his sword through the basket. and
then upon ups,ttipg IL. shows that the
child has disappeared. Meanwhile n
duplicate child that closely resembles
the first one enters upon tie scene from
the background. and the wonderful
trick is completed. The famous mango
growing trick is even sillier than this.
You have o! course read how man OF
mysterious arts plants mango seed in
flower pot and then makes dwarf
ed fruit-bcaring tree spring tip from
that seed. The facts Of the case are
simply these; The seed is planted and
the pot is then placed under n sort OF
tent, whose voluminous folds must not
be touched by any but the juggler. The
latter then waters the earth in the pot
and does lot of manipulating while his
hands are concealed in the tent. Mean
while n fellowjuggler is performing a
series OF other tricks 10 smusc and dis
tract the attention Of the spectators.
When jugglcr number one has had time
TO change the pot for another that is
hidden in the folds OF the tent, he opens
one side Of the canvas n little and the
second pot can be seen with half
grown mango tree in ii. After another
intcrlude of the same SORT the tent door
is again opened and third pot Is dis
closed which contains little tree bear
ing mango. The whole thing is such
"a weak attempt nj deception that
person after studying ii once or twice
can only wonder If any ono BIAS ever
been really deceived by II. always
enjoyed the palming performances Of
the cleverer jugglors, for their skill
ksnd rapidity OF action were something
extraordinary, but their materialzing
tricks were such palpnble absurdities
that there was actually no fun in de-
tecting them.