The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-20
COME OF HIS TRICKS.
.,ow THEY WE'RE PERFORMED BY
" THE GREAT HERMANN.
confederate an Important Factor In
w.nv reats OF Magic-How the Mystic
iona shooting Trick Was Done-Herr-
lam Looked His Fart PERFECTLY.


Hermann was shrewd man ut know
,,,hat was fer his own advantage. One
ne she clever things that he did was to cul-
.',ato the likeness of Mephisropheles. lt
not deep enough TO alarm anybody.
we we as,ect was not furbidding, but he had
~ 49,, thiu face and the sharp eyes naturally,
ga he added To these deliberately the lit
~. .' nointed beard, the heavy mustache
.,rred no at the points, and the short hair,
III rasneot To which nature aided him
aaain by making it curly. Then he wore
eclose 1tting dress OF black satin, and the
'noment anybody saw him no expected
hi,n IN do magical things as IA matter of
course.
II may not be out of place to remark that
,retty nearly all magicians employ confed-
rates for some of their tricks This state
,nent does not quite come under the head
If a state secret though the confederates
ore not much talked about among laymen.
rrhev are necessary for some tricks And if
tbe magician is SO morbidly high minded
"a 10 object to employing them, he will
have TO omit good deal that other ma
oicians do. The sad admission has TO be
made TO disappointed public that the rab-
bit trick is no trick at all and has no ele-
u Z,
II lust consists In the confederate's sitting
in his seat and holding the rabbit under
his coat till the magician is ready to take il
ont. But there are other cases in which
the confederate Is employed in a more le-
Ultimate way He may be required for
nothing more than to lend hat and to re-
tain his composure W hen he sees it 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 Ia found to be gone There is
more to it, hat 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 no did
not. The man then asked if he could do it
with his valise. Hermann said he could.
The valise was brought to the stage, and
the trick was done over again, Go the great
delight of the audience. The confederate
carried out his part of the programme so
well that the policeman in charge at tho
back of the house wanted to arrest him for
making "a disturbance, and the magician
had hard work to save his trick from being
spoiled by the policeman's excess of zeal
OF course the trunk and the valise used did
have to he 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 q theater with valse
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 n 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 no
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 trick as anything 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
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 10 lse
and escaped as fast as he could, exolniming
with sobs as he went along, "Herrmann's
good fellow, and l won't stay here to SEQ
him killed -
Any trick in simple when you know how
it is done, and this ono 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
it is done. There are several ways of doing
most tricks. A famous French magician
used To do this ono by means OF gun
which was loaded with bullet and fired q
blank, or performed some oJher similarly
unusual ante, but Hermann allowed six
soldiers at once to fire at him and to use
the guns that were furnished tn them by
the state. But the soldiers were ali in tho
secret Hermann brought out the car
tridges that were to DO used in little
ornamental case and showed them to the
audience and allowed any one who chose
TO mark one or more for identification
The ornamental case had slide in 1t, ana
on his way back to the stage he slid the
slide, and the ball cartridges were thereby
concealed and the same lumber of blank
cartridges were 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 FASTENED to put each oil the
cartridges into wise, to wrench out the
bullets and heat them over lamp. While
This was going on Hermann was talking
To the audie nco and the soldiers were
marching about the stage and getting INTO
position. Then Hermann went To the
wing to get the plate to catch the bullets
ID. He got the bullets at the same time
AS soon as he got those he knew that MS
lie was ont OF danger, for he could not gel
them till they were drawn from the car
tridges. Then he held the plate before nm
the soldiers fred and, under cover OF the
pun of smoke it was easy for him to pu'
the bullets into the plate and have them
ready to bring down tn the audience, st'i'