The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-21
ART OF SLEIeHT OF HAND.
.,pcrON BECOMES An ADEPT
- PREsTIDIGITATOR.


.sp,e AmbidextrOus-APprentiee-
~ Hondin-The Marvellous
rricks Performed.
From the New York Times
y,s,ker was a grave, gray-haired
one with a reputation. for as
- he is as well known abroad as
=. Come. He stood before a glass table,
f7,,r feet long and two feet in width
--I -4. slab was supported by twin iron
-.,.r-rs You could see all over the la
NJ. under it. ana through it. II invited
,e,-3ush inspection. II was not fixed
- --- professor canted the table over,
.,o- il stood on two legs, and next
moved il backward and forward. II
v-a. positive that there was no commu-
rfs..ln with the floor beAw. for the
-.,,, was covered with narrow strips o.
oak
rs-turing to audiences the professor had
Lang practiced, so he never hummed
nor haNed before maybe, the twenty-five
man and women who sat in chairs some
twenty feet from him.
The audience was what the newspaper
man would call "elte," which, IN this
case would mean well-mannered people
of a fair amount of intelligence. The
men and women had come for amuse-
ment and not for instruction.
The professor began his Introductory
s9ssch in this way, and the accuracy OF
The transcription may be vouched for, be-
cause with the gentleman's permission a
shorthand writer took it down:
"lr may seem to you to be puerile on
FaH a
with sleight-of-hand tricks, bat may as
well tell YOU how. so far as l am concern
al, 10 came about. l was not born lett-
handed but with the incllna ton 10 use
my left hand more frequently than my
right one 1 suppose 1 got q great deal
@. Stumbling when l was a child ON that
account though / never could understand
eXacted why. l remember visit TO an
aunt. a Well-meaning relative, who, to
cure me of left-handedness, tied my left
arm to my body so that l could not move
il. Having my right hand free, 1 used il
10 smash up that aunts crockery, and on
that account was sent home in disgrace.
AS ] grew older, because / noticed how
unusual il was for my comrades TO play
marbles of ball with their left hands, 1
tried hard to cultivate my right hand, but
stiu, when not thinking about 1t, the left
hand would assert itself
"Do what i could, when half awake, as
orOWsy lads Will, / found / had dressed
myself with my left hand or at breakfast
il was period of uncertainty to me, try
ing TO substitute my right hand for my
lett and never was entirely cured, even
when later on l Joined military company,
where, i'm the manual of arms, the right
hand plays the more important part
II am not going to annoy you with cere-
bral functions, and tell you how the left
portion of the brain is supposed to work
ON the right Side of the body, or the re-
verse OF 1t, but this was what happen
ed 10 me. ! might have became by long
practice in measure ambideXtrOus-but
then / regrefully came to the conclusion
when i was nineteen or twenty years
that with neither my left nor my right
hand was ! as deft as most people I had
STUNNED my left hand and had not i'm
proved my right one
= " m i studied medicine and in a fen
latlVe way essayed dissections. 1 discov-
Sred now clumcsy I was with the scalDel
worked as hard, maybe harder than
Host men with my books. and stood well
H. IN my professors, and passed a credita-
uIe eNamlna1 on, but this terrible awk-
Warqness with my fingers, It seemed to me
would always act as a barrier to nv suc-
Cess' Ior wanted to be a surgeon-with
speciality. A'A
was graduated at twentv-tvo and IN
my cass was a man of only average abil-
ny VINO mad his diploma. One thing he nos
sgsSeu was a wonderful dexterity. if I
sur passed him in a diagnosis. If there was
al operation to be performed and had
CiGaGHea MIN, he showed the most unerrine
sh-L with mis- instrumental NAV saw thaP
~ N4y' 9y dnt Of hard work. ne stands AT
ers +i -,,"0 " me profession for certain op-
- " 'loHs Where deXterity in maniDula tion
- necessity and that with a "a 81 in 55is
tl,'i.u know my patient is safe Allow me-
Iuct this last sentence in this
rms r,@.eaIfy -IIFe years ago 1 would not
80 ny ser Tor the work, and wouId a
"@Ss SEND for him, but now | do MOI he
I."st nave every reason to s1nnosa +17e+
5S uInt OF practice l have ACQUIRED +bat
was yo,;u Wnlch 1 did not possess when I
v.,I low did do it? Why, by the hardest
80 n, by the education of each distinct
Ca1 i Idle niger. / am not very must
- put yet | learned how to NAV a sca1a
On me piano or the violin 1-e,S+ a. Ot cue
SC,.I54ue 1 noted the difficulties 10 he
1,.l eidG IN Inc third finger of the hand
nlanas.s stems 10 defy cultivation as to SIM
stand boU, sspt5lnslness. can even under
Isss INV NV Schumann went through a use-
~ - operation so as to 1ex the Hgot,1ro-
..f f,aI unfortunate finger. -
bas - musical exercises for a person vvho
oTtot much time to devote To s9cb 80
No.lHpIIsnments was bother1ne S"0A ao-
r.,,5 n, l dld was to take to sleipbt-of
&C. u tchs. w hen l was a student in Ta-
snv ' f~ known Houdin. I took little n
~ interest in his mechanical deSIfcas -
81 had the assurance from bin, 49, 80 -
49, u pracllce unless a mans arms
ISIS, hands and fingers were abno1,,, III
Gated i. eo could be systematically edu-
eIs 5otnl OF skill. I explained to him y1T,
49, conditions. You are he said .for
As sl,e dooVe.most men, for your left ban1
Nog ia !ed' your right hand partially So
erheir, oilhg up your right hand To he ss
+1ehl as your left Houdjn NO., =
saI scientist. Mechanical tricks, he
o. i, any Ounce can buy. but tbe e1ai,bt
~ INC ~ trick is the only thing When
MN MN. iSIlong the Arabs, to confound tbair
Toe ar hardly had any apparatus with
Too,e ana what did take was of tbe COM iril
r,ar y's1 KIND, such as is used at any I've
- - county fair. What / relied mo-,
"C,e my ten fingers U UpVh
rfhiVo1ollh lessons of Houdin. and was for
nj N CiuI,nsy at first, but he never js11ebad
a. nc II required a great dear of e 49,
ssern u. my part to keep up what Womb
bi,Irn 70 many a trivial business hut piq
ms on to 1t, always having IN ~,
sgrao+ Hllety Of touch which l consiiay, tba
for "a, tSdture of the operating sI1reaoI
Ie,it" i14 certainty there must come o.
fer f., , why should I make patient suf-
his III minutes when, if the surgeon To-,
fins "LoIe business down to his fingar
II oue or two minutes would s7f3ea9
CRY OF you have ever seen a ioS,or
= ~ ~ out operation in a hosnitai g
3 ',S4I suffering excruciating agoT11, fo1.
sta5j yer OF an hour you will 1I5d 1Tl
Gu what / mean, for there are ILL.,
MINIS, "Here an anaesthetic cannot he 81