Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-06-01

Copyright 1883 by Horace Townscnd.l
Houdin, SIS | have said before, fairly
,evo,utiontred the profession of the con
uTer Ee proceeded on the principle that
The trnest srt is that of concealing the
4rtihte and so dispensed entirely with the
d aborate paraphernalia which had form
ed the gtock-in.trade of his predecessors.
q few performers have depended more
lpor ingenious and complex mechanical
apparatus than Robert Houdin. The bent
IF his mind indeed was inventive aud me
,hanlcal, sud think he was prouder of
he recognition obtained by some of his
electrical devices at the hands of scen-
tit,c men than of his fame as Il coniurer.
The con OF a matchmaker of Blois, he was
born IN E5l5, and took to the construction
Of ingenious mechanical toys as naturally
as duck to water His father articled
MIN &c a. awyer, but soon found that the
ad Was only wasting his time, and subse-
luertly aprenticed him to a relative,
gystchma'zer like himself. The lad was
apt az his trade, but the chance acqulsi
~ior of cook upon sleight-of hand led his
thoughts in new direction, and when he
Was about % years of age, he met under
leCu ia, circumstances the great TOrrini,
? celehrs ted conjurer, and by him was in
,truLteG in the rudiments Of the art.
Ebe r 3ry trick by which Houdin mysu-
led ne Arab marabout was the result of
COr~ipi's teaching, and the latter, by tn
KAY. vos,essed sad Significance, as, by
e failure at "A critical nom mt, he killed
his only son, and broke his wte's heart.
ta ~ iaf
.rsris lies in its simplicity. When Houdn
old the fanatical Arab that he had to
-pt n the night in prayer and fasting in
Jrie: to procure another talsman to re
plsca chat he had left in Algers, he, of
courle. merely wanted time to make fit
.inE preparations. AS soon as he was
3lone in his room he took his bullet mould
and with piece of candle and little
lamp black, made hollow bullet, of wax,
which closely resembled one of lead. A
second o.e, made in similar manner, he
illed with some of his own blood, drawn
painlessly from his thumb. To substitute
his two sham bullets for those chosen by
-he Arab was to conjurer such as Houdin
the simplest of tricks, and merely meant
little simple palming. When the first
-cfstol was loaded he crushed the first bali
% atoms, while the second was merely
'ne!d in its place by the wad Hence when
wax disappeared entirely. while in the
second case the blood-hlled bullet had
sufficient solidity to carry. itself and its
contents 10 the wall and produce the
startling patch of human gore.
After leaving Torrini, Houdin returned
20 his watch making business, and mar
lied the daughter of a fellow craftsman.
whose name he assumed and added to
mis- own, being thereafter known as
Robert Houdin. Soon after his marriage
=. IL. g.,.l. 4
carried out a long cherished scheme of
setting up small establishment for the
sale of mocha nical figures and automatic.
She Invention and construction of which
ne took peculiar delight.
Automata have always, from the days
Of Appolonius of Tyana, played an impor-
tant part in the magician & comedies. AT
iirsi they consisted of little more than the
talking heads which brought fame to the
Egyptian sOrcerers, and later to Roger
WAGON, the English monk, but in Houdin's
lay they had become vastly more com
0lex, and in his hands they advanced still
further in ingenuity. He brought into
play various devices which had hitherto
been unknown, or at any rate unused in
connection with these toys. One of his
lirst successes in this direction was the
writing figure, a life size autOmaton that
wrote names, sentences, aud, on occasion,
could make a rough sketch in obedience
O its creator. In this piece OF mechanism,
as in the equally famous autOmaton con
structed by the Swiss mechanician lie
Droy and the Frenchman Mailardet, the
pencil or pen points We're led along the
oath to be traVersed by tracers which
rested against the perpheries of slowly
revolving circular cams, or barrels on
which were made ndeutations and wav-
ing elevations Of such II nature as to be
cInformable to the lines or letters to be
Jraced on the card. The mechanism WAS
ngturallV exceedingly complex and it
took Houdin nearly IS mouths, during the
whole Of which time he secluded him self
rom his family, to bring his Sosia, as he
named the figure, to perfection. When a
year or two later Houdin definitely aban-
ilOned his mechanical profession, and ap-
peared before a Partisan audience for the
Grst time on July 3. 1915, in what he
cermed his "Soirees Fantastique,n his
automata occupied a prominent place on
mis- programme. There were harlequin,
who performed all manner of acrobatic
eats, q pastry cook and other ingenious
little figures whose actions seemed to be
inspired by human intelllgence-and so
they were. These figures were as rule
operated by device invented by HOudiD
and 70 which he gave the name of "pis
ions which has not yet received an Eng
lish equivalent Houdin's manner of eX
hibiting these automata was practically
~ fellows. The figure stood on little
stand, and after being handed round fol
examination was placed apparently care
aessy on a little table, which, from its siz,
could evidently contain no mechanism
At the word of command Che manikiI
would then begin TO perform The mOdu
GDGrdndi was "a follows: Rising almos
imperceptibly above the surface of tn
title table are three studs arranged thus
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