The record-union., 1896-10-26
or change itself into something quite
different at any moment.
A COMPLETE TANGLE OF MYS-
TERTES

or change itself into something quite
different at any moment.
A COMPLETE TANGLE OF MYS-
TERIES
In one corner of the storeroom there
is little stage. like the stage Of q thea
ter, only about as large as a good sized
office desk. This is where illusions are
exhibited to possible buyers, SO that
they can see just how far an audience
is likely to be deceived. Over in one
corner of the stage two little orange
trees are leaning against the wall, tired
OF life. They are the ones that Mr.
kellar caused to grow from flower
pots in the presence of the audience last
season. In another corner of the room
is a trunk, said to contain the cannon
out or Which Mr.. Hermann used to
shoot his wife. And all about are boxes
OF feathers, scraps of ribbon, glass
tupes, TIN cups, tables with velvet
glasses that look as if they were full of
bran, which is really only piece Of tin
with bran stuck all over it; chatting
olshes Tor the famous omelet trick, bird
cages that fold up as small as small
books, without hurting the birds; paper
flowers, inexhaustible bottles, and every
conceivable sort of thing to put things
in."
This is the nature Of place that does
no business except in magical appara-
tus. The shops that deal in it on a
smaller scale do not generally do any
manufacturing. They buy what they
think they can sell, and make it mere
ly incidental to q more general busi-
ness. Mr. Bancroft tells a story Of
finding some small articles for the per-
forming Of tricks in a little Chinese
shop in San Francisco. He picked up
some of them and began to do the
tricks, greatly to the astonishment Of
the shopkeeper, who did not even know
what the things were made for before
Then he took some pieces of paper out
of his pocket and began to do trick
of his own with them, and the Chinese
was more and more bewildered. He
wanted ito know how to do the trick
with the papers, but Mr.. Bancroft did
not think that it was judicious to tell
him. The next day, as he was passing
the shop again the shopkeeper made
him come in and do the trick for him
once more, but again he refused to tell
the secret of it.
The next time that he passed, the
shopkeeper begged him to come In
aHa1n, and then made him do the
trick for some half-dozen Of his coun-
trymen who were gathered. The shop
keeper still longed to know how to do
it, and at last the magician asked him
what he would give him for the secret.
He said that he would give anything he
had in the shop. Mr.. Bancroft had been
looking at a beautiful pair of vases, and
wishing that he had them, and he asked
the shopman If he would give him
those. He said that he would, and so he
learned the trick, and the magician
went away feeling that he had much
the better Of the bargain, for the vases
were really fine and the trick was
childish one which anybody could learn
in a minute and make the apparatus
for in five. He afterward learned that
the shopman had made some two or
three hundred dollars by teaching the
trick to his countrymen at a dollar
each. Magic may be amusing, but it
does not compare with business ability
az means of life.-New York Tribune.