Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-02-25
MODERN MAGICIANS.
WONDERFUL TRICKS SHOWN A GER
 MAN WHILE IN CAIRO.

A Performance in the Open Air-Myste-
 rious Disappearance of Transparent
 BaIi.-A Necromancer's Method of
 Killing Dogs-A Strange Death.
 When Frederick Gerstaecker accom- panied the Duke of COburg to easteri Africa, the incognitO of his sovereign friend was dropped at Cairo, where L. German banker treated them to a dinner of fatherland fare, followed by an exhibi- tion of local talent: life concerts, Arabian dances and legerdemain. The exponent of the latter accomplishment produced a copper dice box and repeatedly emptied it on the carpet. alternating his throws with predictions that were lost upon the for eigners: but after series of similar pre- liminaries invited his audience to un open terrace, and in the plain light of the even ing sun flung up a number of transparent balls, that disappeared at an apparent height of some eighty feet above the foot of the esplanade. The globes were color less and pellucid like white glass, but as light as gum, and were repeatedly sub mitted to the examination of the specta- tors. After passing from hand to hand they were put in an open vessel, shaped somewhat like a short handled dipper, and leaning back till his outstretched arm nearly touched the ground, the wizard then flung them straight up iR the air, where they could be seen glittering for a moment like icicles or large glass pearls.
 WHAT BECAME OF THEM1
 But nobody ever saw them fall down again, though the scene of the experiment was surrounded by large, level lawn; the air seemed tO have swallowed them like globes of dissolving vapOr. Could they have evaporated or exploded into a spray of minute particles after the man ner of Prince Rupert's drOps'D' A sleight of hand trick was clearly out of the question, but more tenable eXplana- ton of the phenomenon would have pug zled a chemist as much as an Optician. Gerstaecker tried in vain to bribe the wizard into hint on the composition of his missiles, and was not much luckier in Batavia, where a Parsee juggler treated the Dutch residents tO a novel matanza, or killing show, in the circus of the old city bull ring
 His victims were number of worthless CUTS, which their owners or captOrs had brought along with the distinct under standing that their entries would not sur vive the incidents of the performance. With no weapon but a light stick Opossi- bly tubel, some six feet long by an inch in diameter, the performer entered the arena, and then invited his patrons to start their pets, one at a time. 4 lank hound, almost hairless with mango, opened the festivities by making rush round the ring, but stopped short on find ing his way barred by tho still tanker professor, and retreated, after displaying his few remaining teeth. The necro- manssr held his staff at arms length, still facing the dog, who presently began 10 stagger, and two minutes after had ex- pired in cOnyulsiOns. A second cur man. aged to run the blockade by leaping over the extended staff, but soon after began 10 show signs of distress, and before the end of the third minute had shared the late Of his predecessor
 A POST MoRTEN INQUEST.
 Dog after dog entered the ring in quick succession, some of them stopping in sur prise and sniffing at the corpses of their iOomed forerunners, but all finally ap- preached the pOssess0r of the fatal secret, )r even snapped at his naked shins, and not one of the thousand spectators saw
  n any way suggesting a mechanical eX- planation of the uniform result. He would merely lift his staff with a men icing gesture, or permit a blockade runner 70 touch it in darting by, but in no in- stance was there occasion for repeating that touch. The victims had hardly time so complete the circuit of the ring before their gait underwent a peculiar change; they would drag themselves along and stagger, or start as under a sudden blow .hen roll over and die in the convulsions ,haracterizing the effects of certain yiru- lent drugs. They had evidently been poisoned; but hOwg
 A post mortem inquest failed to reveal as much as a scratch or n puncture A poisoned arrow could not have entirely while gaseous poison would have betrayed itself by its Odor or by it's effects on the person Of the performer After the conclusion of the matanza, Mir. Gerstaecker secured a private interview with the artist, and in vain offered him a liberal inducement tO explain the modus 1perandi of his trick. The Parsee seemed bribe proof, but at Inst took his tempter aside, and in a whisper guaranteed the results Of his professional assistance if Mynheer should wish to try the efficacy of his art by an experiment on two legged subject-the amount of the prof tered compensation having evidently sug- gested a conjecture that the enterprising foreigner was contemplating the removal of some obnoxious fellow biped,-Felix w. Oswald in The Cosmopolitan.