The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-14
A MYSTERY EXPLAINED.
secret of the HindOO Magician's Seed
Planted in the Flower Pot.
From the Chicago Record.

From the Chicago Record.
Science is making plain, one after the
other, all the mysteries. old and new, of
the world, while il is devising on its own
account feats more marvellous than le-
gerdemain or theosophic precipitation
ever thought of. The last mystery TO be
revealed and to have the cold light of
science thrown upon it is the famous old
trick. or conjuring, of the Yogis, the as
celtic adopts of India, of planting seed
in pot full of earth IN plain sight of a
curious audience and causing It to grow
within an hour into a fourshing plant.
from which the blossoms, could actually
be plucked. Scores of people of a veracity
not to be doubted have seen this feat per-
formed, and have been baffled at his Won
ders. Some have tried to explain the
mystery by claiming extraordinary sight
OF hand on the part of the Yogis, and
others have insisted that the trick was
the perfection of hypnotism. No one who
ever witnessed this seemingly marvellous
growth could be induced 10 believe the
plant they finally saw had actually grown
within this short time from the seed 1t
was either that they had been hypnotized
bound by the viii of the operator and had
imagined that they had seen the plant
grow from moment to moment under the
thin cloth thrown over il, or else that by
some superb skin OF legerdemain the pot
containing the seed had been spirited
away before their eyes and a new pot
with a blossoming plant set down in its
place at lightning speed
A clear-headed, cold-blOoded scientist
however, demolished these theories a short
time ago, proving conclusively that. what
ever else 1t might be. the plant-growing
marvel was no fraud. At a recent Yogi
seance, to which he went prepared the
| aged magician planted the seed and COW
cred the pot with its CLOTH and the man
with turn for science snapped" his
detective camera at 1t. A moment or two
later ne TOOK another snap shot, and 9TH
ers at regular intervals of about three
minutes each, until the Yogi showed the
Towering plant. 4 he shutter of the ca
| mera,. set by clockwork, performed it's
| duty faithfully
With painstaking care he then developed
each plate. In each the cloth covering
! the pot was clearly visible. In only two
the first and the last, was there sign Of
any human figure. These two plates
| showed the planting Of the seed and the
| throwing off of the cloth, exhibiting the
| already Powered plant. On all the others
| there was simply the image, without a
! blur of the covered pot Only showing
/ amazingly that in some strange way the
/ plant had been really forced to grow, the
/ cloth, as I was seen on each succeeding
negative. was raised plainly little high
err In the series Of plates there was a
constant rise.
Thus it was made evident to all Of
/ British India that the plant trick" was
| no delusion, buH some incomprohensible
marvel 50 far much was gained, but it
remained for clever French SaVant NJ
/ Raggoneau, TO dig out the secret and to
discover precisely TIE way it was done
| The series Of photographs convinced
/ him that there was no fraud As q pre-
| limnary to his study, he set about exam
] lining closely every detail Of this SEEM
ing miracle. There must be some science
/ about 1t II there is no trickery, he rea-
| soned; some hidden principle Of nature
| or some chemical combination mixed with
/ the earth, not known TO modern science
as yet, and locked in the breasts of these
| adopts for centuries
He observed, first Of all, that the Yogls
never attempted the trek unless they
/ had brought along, carefully guarded,
| some special earth or SOIL At once Il
! struck him that the secret might lay
in this peculiar earth. But the Yogfs
he pleaded, or divuige to him where it
came from. More and more was he con-
vinced that some strange quality of this
earth was what made the miracle pos
sibe. Finally. by system of bribery that
loosened. at last, the tongues of the cor
rupt Bindoo servants of the Yogis he
earth from ant hills. Puzzled more than
ever, Raggoneau persistently experiment.
ed with ant-hill earth that he collected at
great trouble, ignorant Of what proper
ties 1t might reveal, but sure that he
was on the right track.
A chance that was the result Of care
Iessness pure and simple laid fbe whole
mystery bare TO him. While experiment.
ing he got a small quantity Of the earth
and several ants at the same time, into
his mouth. 1t was an unpleasant mo-
ment. but 1t gave him the solution Of the
problem. He detected, on the instant the
presence of a n enormous quantity of form
ic acid in this earth, worked into ii by
the tiny bodies Of thousands of ants pass
ing over and through It. The soil was
charged with formic acid, in fact, direct
from the ants.
A few experiments showed him that
this formic acid was the mysterious, sub
tie power compelling the marvellous
growths After a little he found himself
perfectly able to do the Hindoo trick
The entire secret proved to be that formic
he. HaaH
surrounding a seed. Then, coming into
direct contact with the germ itself Il
stimulates beyond all credence its growth,
bringing about in mere moments what un-
assisted nature would require weeks for.