The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-01-28
SOME OF HIS TRICKS.
HOW THEY WERE PERFORMED BY
THE GREAT HERMANN.

The Confederate IN Important Factor In
Many Feats Of Mseic-How tho Myste-
rious Shooting Trick Was Done-Herr-
mann Looked His Part Perfectly.
Hermann was q shrewd man at know
Ing what was for his own advantage. One
Of the clever things that he did was to cul-
tivate the likeness of Mephistopheles. It
was not deep enough to alarm anybody.
His aspect was not forbidding, but he had
the thin face and the sharp eyes naturally,
and he added to these deliberately the lit
tic pointed beard, the heavy mustacbe
turned up at tho points, and the short hair,
with respect to which nature aided him
again by making 1t curly. Then he wore
close ting dress of black satin, and the
momer anybody saw him he expected
him s-do magical things as matter of
course
1t may not be out of place to remark that
pretty nearly all magicians employ confed-
crates for some of their tricks This state
ment does not quito come under the head
OF state secret, though the confederates
are not much talked about smong laymen.
They are necessary for some tricks. And II
the magician Is SO morbidly high minded
as to object to employing them, he will
have to omit good deal that other ma
gicians do. The sad admission has to be
made to a disappointed public that the rab-
bit trick Is no trick at all and has no ele-
meDt OF magic or sloight of hand about it.
1t just consists I'm the oonfederate's sitting
in his seat and holding the rabbit under
his coat till the magician Is ready to take IL
out. But there nre other cases In which
the confederate Ia employed In a more le-
gitimate way. He may be required for
nothing more than to lend q hat and to re-
tain his composure when he sees 1t crushed
out of recognition.
One of the most effective uses that Herr
mann ever made of a confederate was in
connection with his trunk mystery" In
this trick girl Is put into a trunk, and
the trunk IN closed and then opened again,
and the girl is found to be gone. There Is
more to It, but that Is enough for the pres
ent purpose. When the trick had been
done, man stood up at the back of the
house and asked Hermann If he had to
have a trunk specially prepared for that
trick. Hermann answered that ho did
not. The man then asked il he could do 1t
with his valise Hermann said he could.
The valise was brought to the stage, and
the trick was done over again, to the great
delight Of the audience. The confederate
carried out his part of the programme so
well that the policeman in charge at the
back of the house wanted to arrest him for
making disturbance, and the magician
had hard work to save his trick from being
spoiled by tho policeman's excess of zeal
OF course the trunk apd the valise used did
have to be prepared, but the declaration
that they did not involved no great danger
of another being offered by somebody else
who was not confederate, because few
persons come to a theater with a valse
large enough for even a small girl to get
into. When Hermann travelled, he usually
had about 90 people in his company, though
only half dozen or so were usually seen
on the stage.
1t takes something startling In the way
OF magic to make much impression on the
pampered taste of New York In these days,
but Hermann made decided impression
with his trick Of allowing himself to be
shot at by half a dozen soldiers and catch
ing the bullets on plate Hermann did
this twice, both times for charity, for he
said that he would do that to help the
needy, but not for his own profit. OF
course that sounded as if there was a good
Of q trick as nything else that he ever did,
and every sensible person knew that It
was, but for all that the performance was
decidedly creepy and not little exciting
1t proved SO much SO to one friend of the
magician's, who had fortified himself too
much for the ordeal, that when the SOL
diers came on the stage he could not stand
it any longer and got up, forced his way
through the crowd at the back of the ho1se
and escaped as fast as he could, exclaiming
with sobs as he went along, "Herrmann's
a good fellow, and / won't stay here to see
him killed!'
Any trick Is simple when you know how
it is done, and this one was even simpler
than some There Is probably no one left
now who cares to puzzle the public with
this particular illusion, SO there is no
further harm In telling the curious how
1t Is done. There are several ways of doing
most tricks. A famous French magician
used to do this one by means of gun
which was loaded with bullet and fired a
blank, or performed some other similarly
unusual antic, but Hermann allowed six
soldiers at once to fire at him and to use
the guns that were furnished to them by
tho state. But the soldiers were all In the
secret. Hermann brought out the car
tridges that were to be used in little
ornamental case and showed them to the
audience and allowed any one who chose
20 mark ono or more for Identification
The ornamental case had slide In it, and
on his way back to the stage he slid the
slide, and the ball cartridges were thereby
concealed and the same number of blank
cartridges wero revealed, but only to the
soldiers, who loaded their guns with them.
Hermann then went to the side of the
stage and gave the case to his attendant.
The attendant hastened to put each of tho
cartridges into wise, to wrench out the
bullets and heat them over lamp. While
this was going on Hermann was talking
to the audience and tho soldiers were
marching about the stage and getting into
position. Then Hermann went to tho
wing to get the plate to catch the bullets
in. He got the bullets at the same time.
AS soon as he got those he knew that his
life was out of danger, for he could not get
them till they were drawn from the car
tridges Then he held the plate before him,