The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-23
JUGGLERS OF INDIA.
How Male and Female Wizards
Work in the Land of BlavatSky.
HOW OUR NOVELS ARE PIRATED,
Madame Blavatsky and the Philosophical
Masters at HOme-The Basket Trick
and the Mango Tree.

BOMBAY, May "a, 1Ss9.-[Special Cores
pondence of THE HERALD. India is tn,
land of Madame Blavatsky, of Mr.. Isaac
and of the eight of Asia" 1t is here tina
the esoteric Buddhists look for their instruc
tion and many of the theosophical societies
of America have Indian teachers, witt
whom they correspond and from whom
they expect to get some of that
WONDERFUL SWEETNESS AND LIGHT,
which is supposed to exist in its pures
form in this land of mystical thought
Through them they would learn how tt
annihilate space to disembody their soul!
for the moment and send them on Rria
errands to other parts of the world. They
would master that wonderful concentra
ton of soul which enables its possessOr tt
dissolve matter into the elements from
which it was made by word, and by
another word ''Presto'' to turn it bach
into the solid or liquid form, from which
they decomposed it One of them who is
now travelling in india and searching fol
the masters, tells me he has heard of In
dian theosophists who, by a wave of the
hand, can change glass of water into the
oxygen and hydrogen, of whichitis formed,
and by the same motion dissolve the glass
particles into their original elements.
Another wave and the glass containing
TN TER REAPPEARs BEFORE YOUR EYES,
Just as full and in exactly the same ccndi-
ton as it was before. | asked this man
whether he had seen such a miracle per-
formed He replied mo- and upon fur
Their conversation ! found that he had as
yet seen nothing which could be called
superni 'ural.
Il have had several talks with the mas
tersn said he, land have been told that |
would receive a manifestation. 1t may
come within a few days and it may not
come for a week, and l hope there will be
no natural law to prevent it. l will wait
in India until l receive it
This was three weeks ago and at last &C
counts the man was waiting yet.
l have received several letters from
America asking me to look into this won
derful Indian theosophy. l have looked,
but it may be that l lack faith. l have
talked with several of the masters. They
are bright, intellectual acrobats, and some
of the greater of them are more gross than
spirituelle. | have also
DISCUSSED MADAME BLAvATsKY
with the English residents of India, among
whom she has lived, and / have yet to find
one who thinks her anything else than a
very clever fraud. 1t may be the case of a
prophecies being not without honor, save
in her own country, but give you her
reputation as | find it here. l am told that
an expose has lately been made of her
manifestations, and those tricks of hers
which she is reported as performing are to
me no more wonderful than the jugglery
which l see here on the streets every day
Might it not be that her study of Indian
philosophy was accompanied with the
teaching of Indian iugglers! l know not,
but l do know that the street jugglers of
these Indian towns could, by mixing
mystical philosophy with their slight-Of-
hand performances, easily humbug the eyes
of that large class of people in America,
who are ever praying Tor some new thing
in religion and in psychological thought.
Let me give you
PICTURE OF AN INDIAN JUGGLER!
One stands outside my hotel window as
write. He is performing his tricks in the
dusty road without table, cabinet, patent
boxes. or any of the accompaniment of
the American wizard His sole possessions
consist of three small baskets, ranging in
size from half peck to a bushel, a couple
of cloths and a tripod made of three sticks
each two feet long and held together by
string at the top. Three little wooden
dolls with red cloths tied around their
necks and each not over foot long are the
gods which enable him to do wonderful
things. He has a flute in his mouth and
little drum in his hand. He is black-faced
and black-beaIded, and his shirt sleeves
are pulled up above his elbows. His only
assistant is little turbane1 BOY, who sits
beside him, whom he will shortly put into
a basket not more than two feet square,
and with him will perform the noted basket
trick of India. This trick is one of the
WONDERFUL JUGGLING TRICKS OF THE WORLD.
The boys hands are tied and he is put into
a net, which is tied over his head and
which encloses his whole body so that he
apparently cannot move. He is now
crowded into this basket. The lid is put
down and tight straps are buckled over it.
The juggler now takes a sword and with a
few passes of these little Hindoodoll babies
over it and the muttering of lamentations
as preliminary, thrusts the sword again
and again into the basket. There is cry
ing as though someone was in terrible pain.
1t is the voice of a child and the sword
comes out bloody. You hold your breath.
and did you not know it to be trick you
would feel like pourcing upon the man.
After a moment the basket becomes still, |
the iuggler makes few more passes, un-
buckles the straps and shows you that there
is nothing within it. He calls, ''baba
bahia ~ and in distance you hear the
child's voice. How the boy got out of the
basket or escaped being killed by the sword
and where the blood came from | do not
know. 1 only know it was slight-of-hand
performance and wonderfully well done.
THE MANGO TRICK Is PERFORMED
with the three sticks in the shape of
tripod. The juggler takes a pot of water |
and pours it over little pot of earth. He |
then holds up a mango bulb about the size |
of walnut and putting this into the earth |
he throws cloth over the tripod. He now |
blows upon his horn, makes mysterious |
passes and after a few moments raises the |
cloth and you see the mango tree sprouting
forth from the soil. More passes and more
music follow and the cloth is pulled down
again, After a few moments during which
the showing of minor tricks goes on, he |
pulls out the pot, and the plant has grown |
about a foot above it. There is more |
watering and more incarnation and his
final triumph comes in showing you a bush |
nearly yard high, containing great leaves.
This he will pull up by the root and show |
you the seed at the bottom 1t is wonder
full trick and how the man is able to man
ipulate the different plants with nothing |
else but thin cotton cloth to help him, /
which, by the way he allows you to eX-
anime, is hard to conceive.
liz HAS DOZEN OTHER sLEIGHT-oFHAND |
PERFORMANCES
equally as wonderful. He puts little shell |
into his mouth and appears to choke as he
draws out coin after coin and balls of stone |
almost as big around as your fist He spits !
fire, as does the American wizard; pulls |
miles of string from his stomach, sticks