The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1894-09-26
MAGIC EXPLAINED.
THE STAR TRICKS OF HINDoo CON-
JuRERS MADE EASY.

The Mango Trick Explained by Keiiar, the
Magician--It Is the Same Which Globe
Trotter Stevens Claims Is MiracuIousiy
Performed by Yogi Men.
The sleight of hand performances Of
Mr.. Maskelyne, remarkably clever
juggler, have excited great deal Of in
tricks skillfully done, but his explana-
tions Of other tricks have attracted much
attention among class Of men who
seldom visit the halls where feats of this
sort are presented.
The Mail and Express recently pub
lished an article from the London Spec
tator in which the writer describes one
or two tricks which he saw in India
and which mystified him greatly. Here
is one, which, by the way, is described
by Thomas Stevens, the globe trotter,
who says that the Yogi men, who per-
form it, are aided by an occult force that
the world is as yet ignorant Of.
A juggler placed cloth over the pave
ment of the street, and presently he
removed it, and there was a mango
growing between the stones "The jug
gler," adds the writer, lone Of the he
reditary caste. did undoubtedly make
leaf spring out of the ground; did make
it grow into dwarf mango, and did
hand the mango from it to be eaten. 1t
looked wonderful because Of the appar-
ent simplicity Of the juggler, but he per-
formed his feat in four processes, and
between each he shook out his chudder.
or muslin wrapper, so that 1t passed for
an instant between the spectators and
the plant. The writer had no doubt
then and has no doubt now that this
was done not to conceal anything, but
to distract attention momentarily; that
the first leaf, the upgrowth Of leaves,
the dwarf mango and the mango on it
were all of wax or other carefully made
imitation, and that the whole miracle
was marvelously rapid sleight of hand"
To Americans who are interested in
this sort of thing this mystery is almost
amusing. It was exposed several years
ago by Kellar, tbe prestidigitateur. Four
or five years ago Kellar publicly offered
81, 900 to any one who would perform q
trick which he could not duplicate and
which he could not prove to be done by
wholly human aids. A number Of per-
sons who had recently visited India i'm.
mediately deluged him with descrip-
tions of this and. other specimens of
oriental jugglery. OF course as they
could not perform tho trick themselves
they did not compete for his money offer,
and therefore they were not publicly
answered.
Kellar, however, gave me personally
q full explanation not only of these
tricks. but of several others which have
long baffled the cleverest of the occi-
dental Investigators The magician has
spent more than l5 years of his profess
sional life in India and the far east, and
he has closely studied the tricks of the
native jugglers with more or less profit
to himself. This is how he explained
the mango or pineapple trick as nearly
as oan recall it:
''The first time I saw the mango
trick, said he, Twas in Bombay in
1879 or thereabouts, and the man who
did it was the most skillful conjurer
ever saw in India. Even after had
learned the secret Of his illusion Icould
not help admiring its ingenuity and the
dexterity with which It was performed.
The juggler and his two comrades chose
spot before the Prince of Wales stat
ne ON the plaza He first laid down q
bag ON the hard ground and then drew
from 1t large bandanna handkerchief
Digging q small hole in the ground
with one finger, he buried a pineapple
seed. and over this he placed his hand
kerohief. He carefully smoothed out
the cloth, rubbing swiftly from left to
right. After this maneuver was ended
he made several passes with his arms
over the handkerchief, while his COM
rades beat industriously upon their
drums and blew upon their pipes.
Suddenly, to my surprise, I saw the
handkerchief begin to slowly rise In the
center and gently sway from side to side
as though plant were really sprouting
to life from the seed which he had
planted beneath the cloth. When the
handkerchief had risen like tent to
height Of about 10 inches, the conjurer
stopped his inoantations and cautiously
lifted up the left hand corner Of the
cover and peered beneath 1t. Then.
plunging both hands underneath to the
accompaniment Of loud and discordant
music, he threw aside the cloth and
showed O full grown pineapple plant.
Ia. Ia L.. 4 4 A~s