The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-05
MAeIcIANS AND BULLETS.
BANCROFT, THE MAGICIAN, EX-
PLAINS HOW THE FEAT i
PERFORMED.

I began my long pilgrimage on that eN-
] cellent steamer. the mpria- And mere i
am at sea 10 the calmest sort o. weather
making my way on the FIRST lap " tl-s
long trip that is ultimately 90 take me
throughout India, and perhaps teac1 me a
great many things Of which may be sI-.i
ignorant had the good fortune 10 meet
a telloW passenger, an eN-captaln from the
British army, now on the retired list, VINO
mad passed number OF the best years
OF his life N various garrisons Throughout
Hindostan, and who. like nearly all those
whom had met, still persisted IN recount
Ing 10 me many Of the marvels accomplish
ed by the fakirs Of that ancient land. But
the captain. Ike most Of those who laud
| these performances, is naturally a layman,
and Is satisfied to be surprised AZ appar-
ent mysteries that would perhaps hardly
defy the scrutiny Of a practised magician
for even a minute. He told me Of the man
| go tree and Of the burial OF a man six feet
under earth and his resusc.tation after
days OF suspended animation. Being a
man Of evident veracity, l could not i'm
peach what he said.
And IT Is for that reason more than all
others, that want to see it myself, and
| possibly. in the near future. display 10
American audiences the genuine secrets
Of these eastern marvels. / am going to
India in no seeptical spirit, however.
| There must be something remarkable in
tricks that have been handed down for
| hundreds, yes thousands Of years, and
| which have surprised and even amazed
| countless generations of men. IL has been
| the habit Of various necrOmancers 10 pooh-
pooh uhese mysteries. j am not IN lhdt
frame or mind. On the contrary, WINE 1
know there is no occult effort in their Wo. X.
| they must at least be marvelOus4y dexter
Gus to have deceived SO many.
know Of course, at the start that
/ shall get no explanation from thems
| the fakirs themselves. They have kept
| these hidden mysteries to themselves for
| 50 long that II is not likely they VIII snare
their knowledge with any western bar
| barian, no matter what the price oHefeu.
/ But l have a hope that by frequently
watching them, may ultimately discover
| their secret. At any rate, the knowl-
| edge is worth the trip, and can do me no
| harm II 1t does no great good.
| have had one fund of amusement since
1 left the Cunard pier at New York, ana
/ that has been the reading OF the exploits
| described as marvellous OF a certain ma
/ gician-who shall be nameless-but VINO
| seems to have been taken seriously IN his
| alleged invention of what may be called
the gun trick" l say gun trick, because
/ that is the name it has gone by for more
/ than a hundred years back. Al Is being
/ shot at by either one or several men, ana
the catching OF marked balls fired from
rifles, without INJURY to the performer.
| l am not depreciating the trick 1t Is a
very good one in its way, and has been,
/ at times, attended with certain amount
/ of danger
But there Is nothing new under the sun,
| and I merely mention as record that
| this trick was first publically done, so far
| as known, by an Italian necromancer
/ named Pinetti in 1885. To be sure, in those
days, II had not received the elaboration
/ 80 70 a
SURPRISE of tus people Of those days
| was probably just as great when one gun
| was fred or one pistol as 1t IS now When
! half dozen are employed.
| In other words, the trick Is the same.
| Thomas Frost, in his History OF Magic
| Art mentions Pinetti as one of the cele-
| brated men of his time, and then a;knoW J.
edged to have no superior.
| The gun trick was an invention Of pure
! accident. Pinettl had two college mates,
| who became officers in the army. They
| quarreled and provocatlon 70 duel
was the result. Pinetti, then in his youth
and long before he thought Of making a
| profession OF magic, was very fond OF
both men, and wanted no injury to come
| to either. His ingenius mind conceived
| the idea Of so fixing the pistols with which
| the duel was to be conducted that no
harm could possibly result The second
| Of the other party readily Joined in his
! scheme to make the duel harmless.
| And this is the way in which Pinetti
went to work He pounded in the charge
| of powder but he had two hollow tubes
! which he inserted in the pistols. In these
| tubes the balls were placed in the pres
| ence of the combatents. The seconds then
went apart to apparently discuss the
| terms OF the fight, and secretly withdrew
the tubes, leaving nothing in the barrels
| of the pistols but the charge of powder.
| Then the principals took their positions
and fired harmessly. The bullets were
| already gone.
1t is related that the duellists were so
| angry at their failure TO hit one another
| that they insisted on no less than three
| shots being fired on each side. But it was
just as easy to repeat the performance
| of the withdrawal of the bullets as at
first. After that, honor was satisfied, and
1t is said that the two men afterwards
became firm friends, though Pinetti never
related to either how 1t came about that
they fired such bad shots.
This simple device has been greatly i'm
| proved upon since. The celebrated Prof.
Anderson, who was known as the wiz
ard of the North" and for many years
| the most famous man in his line, made
the gun trick one of his specialtles. And
| he adopted even simpler method than
that of the tubes He was in the habit OF
palmirg the real bullet, and substituting
in its place It's exact counterpart in black
lead. He allowed any one in the audience
to pound the bullet down. The more he
| pounded, the more certain IL was to be-
| come powder in the barrel of the mus
ket that he employed. Of course, when
! tue charge eAplOueQ lue bldck leaQ lie W
out like dust, and then he exhibited the
| leaden bullet in his hand.
| Even this device has been improved
upon; but as l have said above not al
| ways without accident. A gentleman
named De Grisy, the son of an exiled no.
! bleman of France, who, in his youth. was
| sufficiently fond of necromancy to give
amateur performances to his friends. fin
| ally, upon the decadence of his family.
| and the poverty of his father, at length
determined TO adopt prestidigitation as a
! profession. Though, at first, he made a
| failure in Naples, he persisted, and ulti-
| mately became very famous, travelling
| about Europe for some fifteen or twenty
years. He was even a favorite of one of
the popes, who greatly admired his per
| formances, which / may advert to later.
All wish to mention here is the unfor-
| tunate end to which he came, by over con
! fidence in performing his familiar gun
trick. He did it in different wav. He
called his act that of William Tell: and
he employed his wife, a very beautiful
| Italian girl, as the boy who was to hold
| the apple on her head at which De Grisv
would apparently shoot. The leaden bui-
| let would OF course be found in the annie
He did this with unvarying success for
a great many years But, on one occa-
sion in Switzerland, by some fatal error
h., Lea h. L., Nx,TT -,