The record-union., 1896-10-26
TOOLS OF MAGIC.
How Tricks Are Invented and Bought
and Sold.
Anybody Can be Something Of q
Observation-Disclosures for Sale
at All Sorts of Prices.

KNOW, IL you want to. You don't sup
pose OF course, that the men who make
their living by crushing tall hats and
then mending them by shooting them
out OF cannon, and by cooking eggs TILL
they turn into live doves with blue rib
bonS ON their necks have any natural
gifts for these things that you have
not. Nothing is needed for the making
or magician out of an ordinary intel
agent person except some money ana a
good deal Of time and an almost tnfi-
mite amount Of practice.
The amount of each of these conmo-
ditieS needed depends on how much OF
magician you expect to be. There are
some simple things that you can learn
to do very quickly and very easily, es-
pecially If you buy the apparatus, but
to practice magic extensively and pref
tily means a great deal of hard work at
it. AS to time, the same thing is true.
You can learn few little things in al
most no time, but if you want to rival
men who spend all their lives at it, of
course you must spend good deal of
yours. AS to money, you can spend
whatever you like, from the price of a
pack of cards to the whole of a lavish
income For instance, you can buy the
mortar that shoots the tall hat into the
roof, mending, ironing and polishing it
on the way, for S75, and you can get the
plant for the dove omelets a good deal
cheaper than that.
A good and complete magical outfit is
a pretty expensive affair. we'll
equipped professional magician, for in
stance may carry about with him on
his tour the value Of 900 or SO in
machinery for his smaller tricks, called
technically hand tricks" not counting
what he spends for the building of the
more elaborate illusions. In spite Of all
their boasts of originality and the repu-
tation Of Yankees for inventiveness, it
IS a sad fact that the American magl-
clans do not perform a great many
tricks Of their own making. The great
fountain head of the new tricks of
magic is Maskelyne & Cook of Egyptian
Hall, London. They give show OF
magic all the year round. and all the
other magicians Of the world watch
them to see what they do. They do not
make a business of selling tricks. and
they have no distinct ambition to sup
ply the world, but an expert magician
who sees a new trick two or three
times can usually see how it is done, or
at least how it might be done, and pat
ents are not of much use, because the
imitator usually contriveS to vary or
improve the trick in such a way as to
escape the charge Of infringement.
BETTER TO SELL A TRICK THAN
TO LOSE 1T.
The inventors of tricks are not always
magicians, perhaps not even usually.
They are oftener mechanics, who nave
clever notions and sell them to the near
est magician. A short time ago, Tor m
stance an American electrician invent
ed and sold to leading magician one
of the best systems Of second sight
that have ever been devised. The Amer
lean magicians carefully read the Lon
- don papers that report the new wonders
Of Maskelyne 6. Cook, and some of them
even employ agents to attend their ex-
hibitions regularly. The makers OF
magical apparatus are also watching
them all the time, and the other leading
magicians as we'll When one magician
sees another do something that he
thinks is worth copying he simply cop
les it for himself, If he can. If he cannot
he tries to buy it. If the owner OF it
is a dealer in such things it is Of course
only a question Of price, and If the
owner is a magician it is probably only
a question of price, too, for he knows
we'll enough that somebody will get the
secret Of the trick some time in spite
of him, and he may we'll sell it and
get something for it.
If 1t is a magician who is selling the
trick the price paid is for the secret
and the plans and designs of the ap-
paratus. Then the buyer takes the
plans to a maker Of magical apparatus
and has him build the machinery, or it
is built by his own men, if he has any.
IF the seller of the trick is regular
dealer in such things he may make and
sell the completed machinery, or he may
sell the plans and the magician may
have the machinery built for himself.
This is the usual way, in the case OF the
prominent nagicians Mr. Kellar, Mr..
Hermann and Mr.. Bancroft all have
shops of their own for the construc-
tion Of their apparatus. The last named
is a young man who is not yet well
known in New York, but who hopes,
with the aid of the results of tour in
India which he has just finished, to
make an attractive exhibition this sea-
son. Their men are carpenters. cabinet
makers and even metal-workers. though
much of the metal work is given to 9TH
ers When an elaborate piece of metal
work is to be done it is the custom to
divide it up among different shops. a
drawing of some one part is sent to
one shop, and the part is made there,
while the other parts are made from
drawings in different shops. and nobody
who works on the machine has the
least notion of what it is to look like or
what Ii is to be for when it is done.
THE GOOD OLD VANISHING
LADY TRICK
one of the simplest. prettiest, neatest
aud most effective illusions ever
brought to this country was De Kolta's
vanishing lady" \ woman was placed
on the stage. seated in a chair. a large
sheet was thrown over her and over the
chair and removed moment later, dis
closing only the empty chair To show
that she did not go through a trap In
the stage the magician spread down q
number of newspapers and then set the
chair upon them, and after the woman
had disappeared they We're seen un-
disturbed. In these newspapers lay the
secret One of them, which looked like
an ordinary newspaper spread out, was
really nasted on a board and had trap
in II, which fitted over a trap IN the
stage In pretending to unfold and
spread out the other papers the magi-
clan contriyed to uncover this one, or
the part of 1t where the trap was, and
then he placed the chair just over the
trap. The seat Of the chair was also a
trap. The sheet was fitted with wires,
so as to be self-supporting after the
woman was gone, and as soon as she
was covered with it, down went the
seat and the trap in the newspaper and
<t~x. +,--. E,, e -+o o.