The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03
TRICKS OF MAGlCIANS
AMATEURS MIGHT BECOME WIZ
ARDS WITH LITTLE STUDY.
How to Cut OF Heads, Burn Women,
Eat Fire or Make Ghosts Walk
Simple Enough After Explained.
New York Herald.

| 1871 bhAOuSh d SollQ ulliIOIs SldUuS d man
up in a coffin and then, before your very
eyes, changes this man into his own skele-
| ton; conjures up nymph from the depths of
the sea ard causes her to float and frolic,
without support in midair reproduces the
cremation scene of Rider Haggards She,
burning beautiful woman down to a skull
| and a little heap of charred bones; how he
| accomplishes the aerial suspension of Trilby
producing an effect OF hypnotism that would
have startled the satanical Svengah him
self; how he places a human being against
a board, and, throwing knives at him from
across the stage, outlines his, or, more usu-
ally. her, figure on the board in flashing
steel?
If you would see all of this come with me
behind the scenes of a magician's exhibition
and behold all the curiously contrived APP
paratus which makes, so to speak, the tricks
of his trade. Then if you have a mechani-
cal knack yourself, you can. after have mi
tiated you, reproduce most, if not ALL of
these contrivances and give an exhibition of
marvellous magic in your own parlor, be-
coming second Cagliostro, Houdin, Heller
or Hermann yourself And you'll do it ''ac-
cording to Hopkins for I'm sure Albert A.
Hopkins the author of Magic" the stand
| olO WIN Oll ills SuDJSCl, anu a. Contributor
| along this line to the Scientific American
will vouch for what is here said.
Some Of these contrivances have here
| tofore been kept profound secrets, so far as
the public is concerned, although, of course,
| magician skilled in his own line of con-
| juring is usually able to work out by in
ference the tricks of a rival. But the aim
| of every magician is to keep what he knows
| to himself, and Heller carried this so far
| that when he died he left instructions that
| all his apparatus should be destroyed
| magician usually begins his performance
with a series of straightforward tricks pro-
| duced wholly by dexterity. These lead up
| to what may be called his ''set pieces for
| which specially contrived apparatus is re-
| CURED These depend on prearranged ma
| chinery and it is in the construction of such
| contrivances that a prestidigitateur shows
| his genius. One of the most effective of
| these set pieces is called VANITY Fair" and
presents the disappearance of lady
| through solid looking glass The lady
| stands on little bracket near the foot of
| the glass. There is nothing unusual in the
appearance of the mirror. Even the wide
| panel across the top of the frame seems
| solely for artistic effect The magician
| places a screen about the lady and for
| moment all is quiet To make the trick
more mystifying. the screen is so narrow
| that a considerable portion of the mirror
| shows on each side of it. The screen is
| taken down; the lady has disappeared.
How? In a manner so simple that when
| you are told of it you wonder that you were
| ever deceived. So much of the mirror as is
| above the bracket on which the lady stands
moves up and down in frame like win
! dow sash, and that large ornamental panel
| at the top is designed to conceal the upper
portion of the mirror when it is raised. 1t
! is through the opening thus made that the
| lazy slips out as through CIen window.
! NOAH'S ARK TRICK.
Another trick of this kind is called aft
err the Flood A Noah's ark rests on two
trestles. The magician opens the sides and
! ends to show that there is nothing inside
| of it. Having closed it up again, he pours
| pail after pail of water into it, until you
| feel it must be brim full. Then he opens
| two panels, and out come little pig, rab-
| bits cats, dogs and various fowl, which en-
| liven the proceedings by scampering around
| the stage. After this he lets down the front
| and, reclining in the ark is a beautiful
Eastern woman.
How is all this done? The animals are
| hidden in the bow and stern of the ark and
| when you see the trick again notice that
| when the magician opens the ark for in
| spection he let's down the back lid first.
Down with it goes the woman, who is at
| tached to it, and remains out of sight
| OF the audience The magician is careful
| in closing the ark to first raise the front
| lid; then, after the ark has been closed and
| the animals have been let out through the
panels the front lid can be dropped and the
| woman shown in position.
| Now to that grewsome decapitation
| act. You have surely seen it. Why, when
the circus is in town the poor clown has
| his head cut off, and the trunkless head
smokes a cigarette twice a day twelve
times a week. fellow. must be a good
| deal of q cigarette tiend to have his cut
was the head really cut off? Well, you
! think so while the trick is being done, if it
| is well carried out, for the charm of all
| these illusions is that, although you know
| they are only tricks, they affect you for
| the moment like real occurrences. Now,
| suppose the clown is condemned to die be-
cause his chestnuts are not fresh roasted.
| On to the block he goes. His head is COW
| cred with black cloth. Harlequin APP
| proaches, cleaver in hand. Swish the cloth
| is removed; Harlequin holds up the severed
| head by the hair. After carrying it about
| he places it on the block and, in malicious
| sport, places a lighted cigarettes between
| it's lips Horrors! The cigarette begins to
| glow, smoke comes out of the nostrils and
| the eyes roll. The Mortified Harlequin
throws the cloth over the head again, seizes
it. puts it on the shoulders of the, victim.
Suddenly the clown rises, bows to the audi
| ence and bounceS out
1t takes three men and four heads to do
| this trick for there is an assistant inside
| the block, and he has a dummy head be-
sides his own, his own and the dummy
head being made up to exactly resemble the
the cloth having been thrown over him,
ducks his head through an invisible opening
IN the top of the block through which the
assistant also passes up the dummy head,
which is the one seized by Harlequin. APP
parently placing it on the box he really
passes it through another opening in the
block, and the assistant thrusts his own
head out, and 1t is he who gets the benefit
| of the cigarette. When the Mortified Har-
lequin throws the cloth over the cigarette
smoking head the assistant vanishes into
the box and thrusts up the dummy, which
Harlequin grasps and sets between the
shoulders of his victim. Down goes the
dummy and up comes the real clowns
head-and the clown has come to life again.
THE HANDCUFF TEST.
favorite trick with magicians (and also
with fraudulent spiritualistic mediums) is
the so-called "handcuff test" The per-
former, using any pair of handouts fur
nished by the audience, puts them on, and
they are locked by any one in the audience.
The magician retires into a cabinet. His
coat is thrown out and when he appears
the handouts are still on his wrists. He
retres again. When he comes out he has
taken the handouts from his wrists and is
holding them, still locked, in his hand.
II this man were ever really arrested and
handcuffed could he do likewise? l am
afraid not. But you can do the trick at
home You see, there are only few styles
of handouts made in this country, and all
you have to do is to procure a set of keys,
one for each style of handouts, and conceal
them abouts your person or in the cabinet.
Then, with the aid of fingers and teeth, fit
the proper key, and, presto, off go the
handouts.
Mirrors are supposed to exist to crafty
the vanity of the human race. But, as an
adjunct of the magician, they may be used
with horrifying effect. BY employing mir
rors the famous old-time wizard, John
Henry Pepper, produced an illusion known
as Peppers Ghost, and most of the
blood-curding optical tricks produced by
modern necromancers are variations of old