, 1888-11-05
MODERN MAGICrANS.
WONDERFUL TRICKS SHOWN A GER.
MAN WHILE IN CAIRO.

A Performance in the Open Air-Myste-
rious Disappearance of Transparent
Bals-A Necromancer's Method OF
killing Dogs Strange Death.
When Frederick Gerstaecker accom-
panied the Duke of Coburg to eastern
Africa, the incognito of his sovereign
friend was dropped at Cairo, where a
German banker treatgd them to a dinner
of fatherland fare, followed by an nib
ton of local talent: fife 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 a series of similar pre-
liminaries invited his audience to an open
terrace, and in the plain light of the even
ing u 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, SNAPPED
somewhat hk a short handled dipper,
and leaning back till his outstretched arm
nearly touched the ground, the wizard
then flung them straight up in the air,
where they could be seen glittering for a
momen like icicles or large glass pearls.
WHAT BECAME OF THEM2
But nobody ever saw them fall down
again, though the scene of the experiment
was surrounded by u large, level lawn;
the air seemed to have swallowed them
like globes of dissolving vapor. Could
they nave evaporated or exploded into q
spray of minute particles after the man
of tgprinpa RrnartfG drpnc11l3
sleight of hand trick was clearly out of
the question, but q more enable explana-
ton of the phenomenon would have uz-
zled a chemist as much as an optician.
Gerstaecker tried in vain to bride the
wizard into a hint on the composition of
his missiles, and was not much luckier
in Batavia, where q Parsee juggler treated
the Dutch residents to a novel matauza,
or killing show, in the circus Of the old
city bull ring.
His victims were q number of worthless
ours, 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 possi-
bly, a tube), 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. A lank
hound, almost hairless with mango,
opened the festivities by making a rush
round the ring, but stopped short on find
ing his way barred by the still tanker
professor, and retreated, after displaying
his few remaining teeth. The NEGRO
mancer held his staff at arms length,
still facing the dog, who presently began
to stagger, and two minutes after had ex-
pired in commissions. A second cur man
aged to run the blockade by leaping over
the extended staff, but soon after began
to show signs of distress, and before the
end of the third minute had shared the
fate of his predecessor.
A POST MoRTE INQUEST.
Dog after dog entered the ring in quick
succession, some of them stopping in sur
prise and shifting at the corpses of their
doomed forerunners, but all finally ap-
preached the possessor of the fatal secret,
or even snapped at his naked shins, and
not one of the thousand spectators saw
him strike a direct blow or defend himself
in any way suggesting a mechanical eX-
PLANTATION of the uniform result. He
would merely lift his staff with a men
acing gesture, or permit n blockade runner
to touch it in darting by, but in no in
stance was there occasion for repeating
that touch. The victims had hardly time
to 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
then roll over and die in the commissions
characterizing the effects of certain viru-
lent drugs. They had evidently been
poisoned; but now?
A post norton inquest failed to reveal
as much as a scratch or a puncture. A
poisoned arrow could not nave entirely
disappeared, while a gaseous poison would
have betrayed itself by its odor or by its
effects on the person of the performer.
After the conclusion of the matanza, Mr..
Gerstaecker secured a private interview
with the artist, and in vain offered him a
liberal inducement to explain the modus
operandi of his trick. The Parsee seemed
bride proof, but at last 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 a two
legged SUBJECTIVE amount of the prof
fered 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.
Paints That Are Dangerous.
Il