The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-21

The average mortal views the magi-
can with a certain amount of awe.
With the same breath in which ne as
sures you that ne is not at all super
sut1ous, he is quite aware. to his way
OF thinking. that the peculiar power of
kismet" has something to do with
the magican's business.
Oscar Eliason, however, has exposed
ecic7.sh of his mysteries to quiet the
apprehension of the superstitions, and
satisfy his friends that he is a mortal.
moulded of common clay, like them
selves, and he will enter upon his pro-
lesSional tour without having resorted
20 a single trick Of the fakir; without
once having betrayed his friends by
resoa'tang to the arts of the impoSters.
Ii1ere rs great temptation for a young
man TO attribute his skill to some super
natural agency and by so doing give it
une air of greater mystery. And the
common run Of mankind is much more
ready TO accept such a solution of that
which they cannot explain than most
OF us are aware There is scarcely a
day passes but that one or more intel
Ggent persons drop into Eliason's
Store to enquire of him whether the
manifestation he produced at a recent
performance can be explained by
natural causes, and this in the face of
the repeated exposures he has made
OF some of the most perpleXing of his
work. There is another class of peo-
pie who, in this nineteenth century, will
insist that ans one who practices the
black art is in league with the devil
and the possessor of dangerous
power.
Neither has Eliason sought after SEN
saItional methods of advertising to win
favor with The public. Although there
are thousand schemes of taking flash
ing across his alert brain he has always
stood aloof from this species of cheap
notoriety, though it is, we are sorry to
say, too common with what are classed,
Legitimate" PLAYERS.
While Mr.. Eliason has never visited
India in person he has made a great
many trips there in the naTrations of
Journeys written by other magicans,
and scientific travellers. OF the Hindoo
juggler he has not a very exalted
opinion and believes that by the ten
dency of story tellers to elaborate on the
truth, these performances are made
much more marvellous than they really
are. To a man from the occident the
very air of the orient is laden with ten
thousand entertainments, and the wild
dreams of his early reading of the
Arabian Nights entertainments re-
vivify his lima gination. The picturesque
dress and costumes of the Hindoo, their
ignorance, supeTstitions and gullibility,
all have a tendency to impress the
traveller with a belief in some of
their Oft repeated tales of miraculous
magic. But most of the wonders at
trfbuted to oriental jugglers have never
existed anywhere outside of the i'm
aginations of those who tell them.
The impossible feat of throwing a ball
of Irvine into the air to form a sort of a
Jack-and-the-b ean-stalk, up which the
juggler climbs out of sight, pulling the
string after him, and that the pistol
shot of a companion conjuror brings
the aerial climber to the earth in frag-
-nents, which, when brought together,
become a living, uninjured man again,
is one of the widest of these oriental
smpositions, and more easily narrated
than performed.
Mr.. EliaSon does m rely on the
orient for his stock IN. trade but is,
himself, an adept originator of inven-
fions. He, however, in common with
Hermann and Keller imports an oc-
casional rare illusion and some of the
most marvellous Of these he will pre-
sent in his performances at the theatre
on Tuesday and Wednesday next.
After Julia Dean Hayne left the city,
IN the spring of 1866, the theatre re-
manned closed for the longest period in