St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-19
IN WEIRD MAGIC.
The Wizard Hermann Holds a
Newmarket Audience SPELL

The wizard hermann hOiuS d
Newmarket Audience Spell
bound.
The Newmarket held the largest house
which has invested it Tor many weeks
last night, when the mysterious Herr
mann and wife entertained with their
tricks and jugglery. Hermann is very
Justly acknowledged to be the king of
living observation-disclosures. Not confined
to this branch of the deceptive art
which would limit his manual to the
hands and arm, he combines the
knack and ability to bring into
play, for enigmatical conclusion,
all parts of his dress and person. His
preliminary introduction, which he is
wont TO practice when he first views his
audience, Is bewildering. and taxing
the ingenuity of the most vague the
orist. This half hour of Introductory
work consists of the most incOnceiVable
movements, Elusive and deceptive, now
extant in the realm of Sleight-of-hand.o or
prestidigitation. The usual threadbare
and applause shattered card shuffling is
interesting anew by its absence, and
the spectator is at once dumfounded
with new and startling trick and SOphis-
try. The dexterity of Herrmann's hands
is simply wonderful, and when one cCn-
SiderS that wrist movement can be
executed in One-SiXteenth of the time
required for the eye to respond to the
voluntary contraction, it adds interest
to and appreciation of the skill and easy
movement of the magician'S hands and
arms. The entertainment is complete,
apd the audience, which was unusually
select, evinced more than ordinary TEL
ish of the Hermann Seance. The scene
which surrounds the magician's work in
the first. and part of the second. acts, is
comparatively cheerful; but when. in
the second, he begins the plan OF human
cremation, prevalent feeling of horror
takes hold of the fairer portion of the
audience. Darkness shroudS in deeper
mystery the acts of the uncanny figures
on the stage, when Hermann appears
attired i'm the robes of the Roman exc
cutiOper. The scene is presented in
the crematory vault, IN the center of
which, and, seemingly on stone floor,
stands the vessel, made of cold, hard
iron. Into this. after mythical and
silent movements by Madame Hermann
who is brought to her mock fate clothed
in beautiful white robe, the chastity
and texture of the funeral shroud, the
fair victim is placed and chlor0formed.
Sinking thus into unconscious sleep, the
oil and ointment are poured upon the
folds of her lace-like covering, and the
devils bearing torches appear-as re-
flected through huge mirrOr-tO ignite
the exterior furnace jets of the entire
vault. Hermann himself applies the
torch to his unconscious subject, which
is licked up by the flame and purges be-
fore the appalled, and uneasy audience.
The sight is CHASTITY one, and for the
moment shocking to the most indiffer-
ent natures-the untruth of the realism
only allaying panic and horror. The
spirit Of the cremated appearing in
scene tableau above the vault enacts
such haunting of the executioner as
adds much to the uDfathomable and
mysterious mechanism of stage set
ting.
''Florine, the child of the air." while
it apparently perplexes the most in
credulous, is yet mystic feature of
Herrmann's programme which adds but
very little TO the whole. The spectator
is led to conclude that the fair lady. SO
buoyant in the freighted breath of the
audience, is actually unsupported, be-
cause she jumps through an ingenious
contrivance-a tasselated hoop. The
audience must have marveied at this
performance, for their applause was