The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-11
TRIcKsTERs TRICKED.
INTERESTING STORIES OF HOW
MAGICIANs HAVE BEEN FOOLED.

Grisy Compelled to Pay a Crook
For an Imaginary Ring-The Fatal
Card-HOv John Anderson Came
Near Losing His Life In the Bullet
TrfcIx-The Wizard of the North
Confined in JaiI-HeIIer's Loss of a
Hundred DOIIars-The Late Herr
mann Fooled with Counterfeit
Money in "a Game of Poker.
New York. April 10.-There are some re-
Elections in life, humorous by reason Of
their entity. Their very utterances seem
negations of their statements. They are
fallacies too plain for detection and all
the more puzzling on that account. For
instance. how hard it is to realize that
physician himself can be ever sick, when
his study in life is the preservation of
| other peoples health And how quaint
! the thought of lawyers death, when his
mission of perpetuating the wills of dead
men, is considered. Equally grotesque is
/ the idea of magcans themselves being
tricked. when they live to deceive others.
And the joke is all the more enjoyable on
this account. A few instances of practi-
cal jokes played upon magicians may
prove interesting to your readers, because
of their very rarity.
| Breslaw, a celebrated magician of the
last century, was on one occasion accord
/ ed the honor of giving an exhibition be-
fore the royal household of England. His
best Illusion was the production of a
seemingly live swan floating on real
water, and he reserved it as his best trick
70 he
worked well in the production of the swan
and water, a creation apparently of space,
but alas, the swan would not float but
sat stationary as though in terror of its
aquatic surroundings. No efforts on
Breslaw's part could produce the move
ment in the bird At last he realized the
cause of the swans sloth. The secret of
the trick was known. 1t was performed
by magnetism and the counteracting
agency was a magnet in the pocket of Sir
Francis Blake Delaval. Poor Breslaw!
He was Inundated. and never performed
the swan trick again.
One of Pinetti's favorite tricks was the
Incarceration of a live bird in a box and
its escape therefrom while the box, se-
curely locked. was held in the hands of
one of the spectators. On the death of
Pinetti London journalist evolved the
following witty, but ill-timed, squib in his
paper as an obituary:
Poor Pinetti. laid in his coffin, finds
death is no conjurer, and that he never
suffers to escape, by slight of hand, the
bird, which he once confines in his box"
De Grisy, the great French magician,
received two stage discomfitures which
well nigh ruined him. One of his tricks
was the firing from a pistol, a ring, Dor
rowed from one of the audience and dis
covering it afterwards in the mouth of
a live gold fish. OF course, the ring was
always the same one, necessarily so for
the purposes of the trick, and was made
of gilt copper set with paste gems. 1t
was always selected out of a number of
rings offered and of course was in the
hands of a confederate. The confederate
on one occasion was not selected with the
prudential foresight that should have been
displayed in his choice, and proved to be
a crook. When the ring was returned to
him after the completion of the trick he
arose in the audience and claimed he had
been swindled.
What is this, monsieur" he angrily
demanded, regarding first the ring and
then the performer; Il gave you gold
ring set with brilliants, and you return
me worthless copper and paste"
Not only did De 'Grisy suffer the humili-
alton OF the discovery of his imposition,
but he actually had to pay the fellow a
large sum of money equal in value to the
suppostious ring to hush the mat.sAc up.
A more signal discontinue to the same
magician was the joke played on him while
ne was performing before the King of Ma
pies. There was a card trick in the per-
Torrance, wherein a card was to be
forced" as the manipulation Is termed,
upon the king. Some one substituted for
the card to be forced" an ordinary play
ing card, one of the same size, inscribed
with an epigram most insulting to the
| king. De Grisy unconscious of the per-
| petration upon him, performed the trick
to the point of compelling the king to re-
| ceive the obnoxious card. The king imme-
| diately left the salon, accompanied by the
| royal retinue, and flight alone saved the
magician from arrest on the order imme-
| diately issued.
Millers faux pas in the trick of cooking
pancake in the hat is an amusing anec-
dote.
lie was performing before a private par
ty at Kelso. and among the company was
| an elderly gentleman, who sat close to the
| operating table, and caused some discom-
posture to Miller and his attendant by the
closeness of his observation of their mo-
lions, and the grimaces and chuckiings
| in which he INDUCED whenever he dis
covered, or thought he had discovered, the
| mode in which any of the tricks were
performed The pancake trick is done by
secretly introducing into the hat a ready
| cooked and not pancake in tin dish and
above this a gallipot. The batter is pre-
pared, in sight of the spectators, in a
similar gallipot just as much smaller than
the other as to fit closely into it. The
contents of the smaller gallpot are pour
ed into the larger one, and both are with
drawn together; and the conjurer, after
pretending 10 cook the pancake over a.
lamp or candle, presents 1t on the tin dish
Millcr's attendant was so much confused
and distracted by the watching grimacing
and chuckling of the old gentleman that
he omitted to place the gallipot in the
hat which a gentleman of the party had
i lent for the purpose. and Miller poured
the batter upon the pancake before he
discovered the omission. He was not so
ready witted as Robert Houdn showed
himself on similar occasions, nor was his
| attendant so equal to the emergency as
the French conjurer's ministering INN
proved in the face OF such a disaster. They
could only stare in bewilderment at the
spoiled hat until Miller, recovering from
his confusion, confessed his failure, ex-
planned the manner in which the trick is
done, and threw the blame upon the in
quisitlve and chuckling old gentleman
he - Af,.1 -