Morning journal and courier., 1885-05-04

They begged for the secret, and before | left |
exchanged it for the trick showed you on
the thumb nail
AFTER l had finished the doors were closed
and only those admitted who paid a regular
admittarce fee-a small sum-and soon, the |
apartment being filed, the magicians began
their performance. The audience sat on the |
noor about tho fakirs, that they had no
way of conceaIing themselves or of hiding
anything. At their request examined them |
and satisfied myself that they had nothing |
about them. Then one of the women |
stepped into the enclosure, the rest remain |
ing behind the spectators, who formed Gloss |
ring about them. The light was now turned |
down little and in moment the woman's |
face began to be illuminated by ghostly |
light that extended quickly over her entire |
body. She then moved round and round, |
uttering low murmuring sound the while, |
gradually quickening the pace until she was
whirling about like top. moment of |
this. and the light that had clung about her |
seemed to be whirled off by centrifugal force
and assumed pillar-like form beside her
AS soon as this was accomplished she stopped,
turned and began to mould the light with
her hand, and though I could distinctly see
her hands move through the light, as if it
were a cloud, it began to assume human
form. We saw the arms, hands and legs all
moulded, and finally a face and head-gear.
She next called for light, and. the candles
relighted, there stood utter stranger q
native, seemingly evolved out of cloud-land.
He stepped forward and grasped me by the
hand; his hands were moist, as if with per-
spiration, and he was very healthy spirit.
After he had talked and drank a. glass of
rack he took his place beside the woman
again and began to whirl about.
The lights were dinmed, but not so that
we could not see, and in few moments the
figure began to fade, assuming the ap-
pearance of q pillar or form of light and
han att hI3NCy teal In tha
seemingly being absorbed by her. All this
was done in very short space of time, Ee-
fore tie eyes of at least fifty people and Eot
ten feet from myself. The girl appeared
greatly exhausted afterwards Now this
would be explained by the Spiritualists as a
naturalization, and by the Psychological So
ciety as some now sense of power, ETC., bat
between you and me, who know that all things
can be explained by cold facts, it was merely
clever trick, so skillfully done that 1 did
not discover it in any way OF shape.
'The man next took his place in the ring,
and, handing me large, highly ornamentcd
sabre, he said In five minutes by the
clock l wish You to behead me- [ objected,
of course, but he insisted and said it had
been done dozen times, so l finally agreed
He was searched, and il the dim light began
to contor6 himself i'll strange positions until
he seemed to grow percertihly smaller, and
GnalIy stood before US so gauzy that l
thought could see right through him. 1t
was now five minutes, so took the sabre
and struck light blow, only sufficient to
knock the man over, when to my horror tie
blood spurted into my face aud the head
dropped with q thud upon the floor. As
soon as it fell the body stopped and picked it
up, held it in the air aud then placed it upon
the shoulders The full light being turned
on, there stood the giant, grinning and warm.
''The hlood2 That had faded away by the
time the light was turned up, and, you must
~ 41. 1.-1.4
dim, it WAS not sufficient to prevent our
seeing everything, and seemed to be used
only that we might observe the figures of
fight that were evolved so cnriously from the
mediums, as our Spiritualists would call
them.
''Ihe next trick was equally mystical. All
the party now stepped into the ring and be-
gan to chant and move about. In few
minutes they ceased and we observed that one
was missing, though no one saw him go. A
moment after the whirling was repeated, and
another was found to have disappeared, and
so on until in fifteen minutes only the giant
was seen. More light being given us, noise
was heard at the door, and, upon some one
going to it, there stood the mystic five clam
oring for admission That ended the per-
fornfance for the night, and I sat up the rest
of it, or well into the morning, trying to fig
ure out how it was all done. The natives
accepted it as magic without debate, and l
began to think that was about the easiest way
out of it.
"The following day another performance
was given at midday that was even more
wonderful. The giant, I called him.
caused the audience to sit on grass plat,
leaving circle of about twenty-five feet
across, and in this the jugglers took their
places, the giant opening the entertainment
by taking roll Of ribbon and by dexterous
toss sending it up fifty feet or SO, where We
distinctly saw small hawk dart at it and
u; ~,
of it, 1t then seemed to enter cloud that,
1 assumed, was caused by something burning
IN the ribbon; but from the cloud came
sliding down, first dog, then snake-a
good big one, tco-that wiggled off the
moment it touched the ground and HGs
captured by one of the men. Then lar
ger object was seen sliding along, and one
Of the women, leaping forward, received
and held it out Of the crowd, laughing
native baby. The giant had all this time
held the end of the ribbon, and releasing
it, it seemed TO disappear in the air; at any
rate, We saw it no more few moments
later they all joined hands and began 10
move about rapidly. When they moved to
the right I. distinctly counted twelve per-
sons in the circle; when they changed the
movement we only eight, and some
one appeared to be standing in the center
"These are only samples of the marvels,
as I might say, that they went through;
but the last one puzzled me much
ever. The party left except the giant, and
he, taking large native parasol, asked if
would carry it bacl, to the inn for him.
I assented and he then politely requested
me to take it in five minutes by my watch,
and, mind you, he was surrounded by
dense throng. Proceeding to the center of
the plot, he squatted upon the ground and
drew the umbrella down over him like cone
over dice, thus hiding himself completely
In five minutes lifted the covering and to
my amazement he was gone.
eyes, it was empty and the sod was solid
under it. The crowd looked up in the air
and yelled. I shouldered the umbrella, and,
going directly to the inn, found my friend,
the giant, smoking cigarette on the verah-
dah He greeted me with smile, thanked
me for the umbrella, opened it with quick
motion, and, pulling down seeming inner
lining motioned nie to lock in. Doing so, l
saw hanging on hook my watch and chain,
that had not missed.
1--WE parted the next day, much to my re-
Rret, and l learned only a single trick, as you
see,'' and the SPEAKER held mp his thumb,
where the Arabic figure stood out III bold re-
lief on the nail and slowly faded away be-
fore the eyes of>the astonished witness.