The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-03-18
SOME OF HIS TRICKS.
HOW THEY WE'RE PERFORMED BY
THE GREAT HERMANN.

rious Shooting Trick Was Done--Herr-
mann Looked His Part Perfectly.
Hermann was 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. 1t
was not deep enough to alarm nybody. |
His aspect was not forbidding, but he had
the thin face and the sharp eyes naturally,
and he added to these deliberately the lit |
tie pointed beard, the heavy mustache
turned up at tho points, and the short hair,
with respect to which nature aided him
again by making 1t curly. Then he wore
q close fitting dress of black satin, and the
moment anybody saw him he expected
him to 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 quite come under the head
of state secret, though the confederates
are not much talked about among laymen.
They are necessary for some tricks. And If
the magician is SO morbidIy 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 disappointed public that tho rab-
bit trick Is no trick at all and has no ele-
ment of magic or sleigbt of hand about it.
1t just consists in the confederates sitting
in his seat and holding the rabbit under
his coat till the magician is ready to take 1t
out But there are other cases in which
the confederate is employed in more le-
Ultimate way. He may be required for
nothing more than to lend a 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 confederate was in
connection with his "trunk mystery" In
this trick girl is put into trunk, and
the trunk is closed and then opened again,
and the girl is found to be gone. There is
more to 1t, but that Is enough for the pres
emit purpose. When the trick had been
done, a 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 he did
not The man then asked If 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
we'll 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 the policeman's excess of zeal
or course the trunk and 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 theater with valise
large enough for even u small girl to get
into When Hermann travelled, he usually
had about 20 people in his company, though
only half u 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 good
deal of risk about it. 1t was just as much
of u trick as any thing else that he ever did,
and every sensible person knew that 1t
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 toe
much tor the ordeal, that when the sol
diers came on the stage he could not stand
1t any longer and got up, forced his way
through the crowd at the back of the ho1se
and escaped as fast as he could enchanting
with sobs as he went along, Hermann
a good fellow, and 1 won't stay here to sec
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 nc
further harm in telling the curious how
it Is DONE There are several ways of doing
most tricks. A famous French magician
used to do this one by means of a CUR
which was loaded with bullet and fired q
blank, or performed some other similarly
unusual antic, but Hermann allowed six
soldiers at once to fire at him and to ust
the guns that were furnished to them by
the state. But the soldiers were all In tho
secret. Hermann brought out the car
tridges that were to be used in a LITTLE
ornamental case and showed them to the
audience and allowed any one who chos,
to mark one or more for Identification
The ornamental case had a slide in it, unt
on his way back TO the stage he slid thu
slide, and the ball cartridges were thereby
concealed and the same Lumber of blanl
cartridges were revealed, but only to tn,
soldiers, who loaded their guns with them
Hermann then went to the side of til,
stage and gave the case to his attendant
The attendant fastened to put each of tn,
cartridges into wise, Ito wrench out tn,
bullets and heat them over lamp. Will,
this was going ON Hermann was talkins
to the audience and tho soldiers wer,
marching about the stage and getting int,
position Then Hermann went to tn,
wing to get the plate to catch the bullet
in. He got the bullets at the same time
AS soon as he got those he knew that hi
life was out OF danger for he could not &c
them till they were drawn from the car
tridges Then he held the plate before him
the soldiers fired, and, under cover of tn,
puff of smoke, it was easy for him to pu
the bullets into the plate and have then
ready to bring down to the audience, still
] hot, ready for examination and identified