The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-03-21
SOME MIRACLES EXPLAINED.


two or three times They are hard o
manage outside their own country, and
Mr.. Rood is the only man who has ever
succeeded in doing anything with them.
They struck recently in New York. all
but the faithful Nathoo, and so Mr.. Rood
concluded to go out Of the business.
That is why he happens to be in Bos-
ton at present and the other evening at IS
Columbus avenue he removed the veil
from Indian occultism for the bene fit
Of Globe artist and reporter.
First Nathoo performed the tricks, and
after he left the room Mr.. Rood repeated
them and showed the hocuspocus in
each.
Mr.. Rood says that the reason why the
Hindoos are such expert pal1nsters is that
their hands are formed unlike those of
any other human beings, the base of the
thumb being so large and high that they
can hold any article in the palm, from
pea to an egg, without contracting a
muscle. SO that when the back of the
hand is turned toward you 1t in impos-
sible to see that any article is concealed
in the palm.
THE TURBAN TRICK.
The first performance was one that has
always been poser to the amateur Jug
gler. 1t was the famous trick Of cutting
and burning the turban. Only in this
case the turban was very long strip of
muslin cloth.
Nathoo first cut several pieces about
five inches long from one end. Then the
strip was folded, and he appeared to cut
through the folds thus making three or
four pieces of the strip.
In reality, however, as Mr.. Rood SUBJ
sequently showed. he only cut off a
small piece of each end. But in order to
accomplish this he gave the cloth a twist
which brought the end in the desired
position to be removed
As the small pieces were cut off they
were secured by a knot, which gave the
appearance of having been cut into three
or four distinct parts. The pieces were
deftly rolled into a ball, palmed, and
finally dropped into Nathoo's bag in a
.
Is attracted elsewhere.
Then the ends of the cloth are set on
fire, apparently, although they are held
in such manner that in reality it is on =
~ the little pieces that are burned.
When the cloth Is unrolled it is, OF
course, found to be intact. and no one
ever thinks of measuring it to see wheth-
er it has lost any of its length.
Then came the "lota" or water trick,
in which small metal vessel, look. ng
something like a cuspidor, seemed to
contain an endless amount of water
The deception is caused by a partition
around the inside of the "lota" d.
which has small hole at the bottom to
allow the water to pass through, and
when the vessel is upside down the water
remains around the side. By blowing
through very small hole drilled in the
side at (2), Nathoo could cause foun-
tain-like flow from the mouth of the ves-
sell
Mr.. aud Mrs. Rood then held an ordi-
nary white sheet for Nathoo to perform
his popcorn trick on. "Any old sheet will
do, j." said Mrs. Rood In an aside, when
Nathoo seemed dissatisfied with a piece
of black cloth.
He then threw some dried raw corn up
on the sheet, and taking the "suplee, u
which somewhat resembles a dustpan, he
began stirring the corn, all the while re-
peating his incan tations.
Apparently the corn began to pop, and
Mr.. Rood subsequently showed that Ma
thoo's ''suplee" had double bottom (2),
by opening which the nicely popped corn
which had previously been placed there
came out upon The sheet.
Nathoo was immensely tickled by the
success of this trick.
A MIRACLE EXPLAINED.
He then treated his spectators to tht