The Yellowstone journal., 1894-09-25
MAGIC EXPLAINED.
THE STAR TRICKS OF HINpoO CON-
JURERS MADE EASY.

- Mango Trick Explained BY Kellar, the
lGagieian-It IL the Same Which Globe
1sssssr Stevens Claims IL AGir.culoasly
PsrSssnsd by Yogi Men.
Tho sleight Of hand performances Of
ofS. Naskelyne. . remarkably clever
5ueglef, have excited great deal Of in
taest In London. Not only arc his
xicln skillfully done. but his explana-
tious Of other tricks have attracted much
attention among class Of men who
seldom visit the halls where feats Of this
oort are preoented.
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 a
leaf spring out of the ground; did make
1t grow into a 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 it 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, ana 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 1t was exposed several years
ago by Kellar, the prestidigitateur. -Four
or five years ago Kellar publicly offered
81, 900 to any one who would perform a
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 the trick themselves
they did not compete for his money offer,
and therefore they were not publicly
answered.
Kellar, however, gave me personally
. full explanation not only Of these
tricks, but of several others which have
long baffied the cleverest of the occi-
dental Investigators. The magician has
spent more than 15 years Of his profes-
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
~ l can recall it:
THE first time / saw the mango
trick" said he, was in Bombay in
1879 or thereabouts, and the man who
did it was the most skiilful conjurer L
ever saw in India. Even after l had
learned the secret q his illusion could
not help admiring its ingenuity and the
dexterity with which it was performed.
The juggler and his two comrades chose
q spot before the Prince of Wales stat
NE ON the plaza. He first laid down a
bag on the hard ground and then drew
from ii large bandanna handkerchief.
Digging small hole in the ground
with one finger, he buried pineapple
seed, and over this he placed his hand
kerchief 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 JRe handkerchief, while his COM
rad-s beat industriously upon their
ig,ms and blew upon their pipes.
Suddenly, to my surprise, / saw the
handkerchief begin to slowly rise in the
center and gently sway from side to side
as though a plant were really sprouting
to life from the seed which he had
planted beneath the cloth. When the
handkerchief had risen like tent to a
height of about 12 inches, the conjurer
stopped his incantations and cautiously
lIAb0u tuc hdnh COAhCA Va VIC
oover and peered beneath it. Then,
plunging both hands underneath to the
accompaniment Of loud and discordant
music. he threw aside the cloth and
showed full grown pineapple plant.
'"This is the way he did the trick, As
- afterward admitted to me:
In smoothing out the cloth he reach
- into the bag, the mouth Of which
was conveniently placed near the hand
ksrchief, and whisked out q hooded CO.
Ha snake The moment the reptile was
Laid down it began to coil That made
- handkerchief rise When it had
ssached its full height. its angry hiss
Ing meanwhile being drowned by the
music of the assistants, the performer
looked under the cloth, taking care to
draw the corner close to the mouth OF
the beg. Then he adroitly whisked out
. hollow pineapple from the bag under
noath the cloth. 1t was now the work Of
. minute only to force the snake into
A. Il kxa nd no