The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-06-07

'IlMO s
Carl Hertz
nightly transforms man, bound down to a
plank, into a beautiful girl. A Star man.
anxious to be turned into glorious golden
haired creature whom the men would take
to the theater and to dances and things.
sought out this magician of the music halls,
The result OF the interview left him still a
mere, lOng-legged. uninteresting male per-
son. but his notebook had been changed
from number of blank sheets into a record
Of some entertaining experiences of this
famous illusionist.
II was born in San Francisco" com.
menced Mr. Hertz, land | went to school
therr-by the by, with friend of yours,
Harry Dam, whose play, Diamond Deane,'
was recently produced at the Vaudeville
L can't recollect when | first caught my
craze for conJuring, but it was probably in
my cradle. My people endeavOred TO make
pro@alc citizen OF Inc by putting me into a
draDery store, but as l displayed too great
tendency
TO LARK WITH THE CUSTOMERS CHANGE,
Making II vanish from the counter aud ap-
pear III their bOnnetS, and so on, | iapidly
made 1t clear that did not possess suffi-
cient capacity for the great drapery indus
try. 80 l went into the conjurng profess
sion there and then, and have practiced
deception ever since"
you made your name in London first by
your canary trlckY'
Yes, but that very trick came near to
SuppreSslng ME at one time. The Society
for tile Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
were given to understand that in making the
bird and cage vanish | either killed or
manned the bird. Their representations
frightened the muSic-hall managers, who
stopped me from performing the trick |
Rfatf ION f,h a "A
in that way, and l therefore went to the So
ciety and performed the trick with one of
their own birds, which, | afterward learned,
they had marked to make assurance doubly
sure. Ihereupon they gave me certificate
declaring their satisfaction. and have eX-
hibited this pretty feat ever since"
when you have to take a lady into your
confidence, the lady with whom you per-
form your Illusion, | mean, are you not
afraid OF the weakness Of the sex Tor talk
ing?"
"Oh. no. believe there have been at
tempts TO learn my secrets from my lady
assistants, but they have been very loyal to
me always. As precautiOn, | invariably
take them to sign a statutory declaration
before letting them know anything which
they could do harm by diyulging In my
next sensation, however, l shall be able to
trust my complete without any oath of
secrecy, for it will be horse. l shall make
lady vanish.'
Have you ever applied your conjuring
proclivftes to private life?"
Rather. Many practical joke have |
brought off. At Berlin hotel, at the re-
quest Of one Of the company, | abstraeted a
pGcket-book containing large sum of
money from tho possession of
A WEALTHY, MISERLY OLD GENTLEMAN
And secreted it III the pocket of the officer
who was called in to investigate the case
The denouemcnt was farcical in the ex-
IRENE. At Manchester, when a clergyman
was railing against card-playing in tie com
pany of some eight or ten commercial
travellers, Wagered couple of bottles of
wine that his reverence always carried a
pack about with him, and that he had some
of the picture books" in his pocket at
that moment. He was very indignant, but
he found the cards there when at length he
was persuaded to iee. Al little town in
the States once | went into a dairy shop
and pretended to discover fve-dollar gold
nieces in the first three eggs | broke open
The Old lady would not sell any more of
her eggs at any price, and was reported to
have broken open the remainder of her
stock In her quest for more five-dollar pieces
She considered herself compensated, how
ever by an order for my show in the even
ing. On the City Of Rome, when crossing
to America once, / cleaned out some fraud-
ulent poker-playeTs by arrangement with the
captain, who badly wanted to have a lesson
taught to the rOgueS. / returned them their
money and their jewelry, or l should be in-
habitng a coffin at this moment; but the
captain., gave them into custody when we
landed"
Il suppose you have been in an awkward
predicament now and again through failure
in your elaborate arrangements?"
'0nce or twice, yes When l was quite
young at the line | was sold by a little negro
to whom l had beforehand intrusted a
marked dollar Just when he should have
produced IT, 10 prove that | had that mo-
ment passed 1t into his pocket, he gave me
clean away by announcing that he only had
80 cents OF it lett, having got thirsty while
waiting for the doors to. open. That was at
Mississippi City. At Buda Pesth used to
do the cabinet trick, letting my man slip
through the floor, run behind, tear through
the street and get up into the gallery ready
to answer
DIRECTLY I OPENED THE CABINET
And asked where he was But one night.
seeing him running so madly. policeman
stopped him. lie couldn't speak the lam
guage and therefore couldn't account for
his violent haste L had to ask long time
that night, Where are you, George?" for
he was locked up until / went and got him
released. | could tell you lots more funny
experiences have had, but more interesting
than any is this unique circumstance. that
was, couple OF years ago or so, called
upon TO c0njure in court of Justice i'm New
York. You wouldn' have thought coniuring
could be evidence, but it was. A bogus
spirltualist, Miss Amelia Diss Debarr. was
on trial for swindling wealthy LAWYER
named Marsh, a man who was thoroughly
astute in everything except this spiritual
istic matter, and a man who was as much
looked up TO as Sir Charles Russell might
be here. Thousands and thousands of dol
lars had this woman got out of him by pro-
ducing spirit messages, spirit paintings, and
so on. Messrs. Howe and iHummel, the
prosecuting lawyers, subpenaed me as an
expert, and | had TO prove by performances
in open court that what the woman alleged
to be done by spiritualism could be
done by me by trickery. | did the
tricks in open court, although this
woman was shouting out instructions
as 10 how my movements should be watched.
and she got put away for two years. So even
conjuring can serve a thoroughly utilitar-
ian object. Ii is against the etiquette Of the
profession for one c0njurer to expose the
tricks of another, but In this instance. where
the woman had made so base a use of her
trickery, did not hesitate to deliver her
over to the Philstines. | never witnessed
so violent scene in court as she made.
Had she got at me she would have torn me
into as many pieces as there are cards in a
pack. But you never know your luck. and
am still intact London Star.