The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-06
MECHANISM OF MODERN MAGIC
The Designer of the Apparatus Tells How
Stage Tricks Are Performed--Many
Secrets Are Withheld.

in business will not divulge in. Every
such mar will now and then have a
humor Of his own. and every now and
then a man is found with a humor tina,
he remains in during his whole life. For
example. there is a seasoned business
man In this town whose business is en-
tireiy foreign to a~eronoutics, and vet
who spends all his spare time. year in
and year out. in the study of balloons
and. generally. the science OF aerial
navigation. He acknowledges to no ul-
terror purpose in this disposition of his
spare time. 1t is for his f~requen
amusement only.
There IL another mar of business in
this town who is greatly taken with
magic. What natural relation there Is
between magic and. say. the making
and sale of pig iron 1t would be hard
to say. This man is not in the pigiron
business. but in something about as
substantial. and yet he is regarded far
and near as an authority on the SUBJ
5ect OF magic and magic properties.
once or twice. in this country md Eur
ope. he has made a dash on the road
with his own properties in order to
satisfy himself that he knew about all
there was to be known OF the practice
of the black art. When he was thus on
the road he dropped his real name and
toook up another. His real name is
Burlingame. and he is a nephew of the
once famous Arson B~urlingame of Mas
~sachusetts.
This rather strange man. III. j. Bur-
hngame. is a native of Manitowoc. Wis,
and was partly educated in the schools
OF that town, but a short time before
the Chicago fire of 1871 he came to
Chicago and hired himself out as a
clerk in a mercantile house of that
day. Immediately after the fire he was
X into the service Of the Relief
and Aid society, where he continued till
the stress upon that society was over.
Then he determined to go TO Paris,
France. where a relative of his resided.
and begin again his education I'm a for
eign country. He studied at schools
both In France and Germany. but the
most of his time abroad was passed in
Paris, and for a while in the family of
Pere Hyacinth. the former Catholic
priest. who had married a sister Of Mr..
Rurlingame's mother They were mar
ried by Dean Stanley in Westminster
abbey. Afterward. for some months,
Mr. Burlineame lived with these rela-
tves in London. The doing of tricks
by mechanism-in other words. the
practice If magic-was then very fire.
ouent and popular in London and Parts.
and he diligently sought the magicians
and learned Of them many secrets of
their art. But he seems to hav had a
business head all the time. for he
soon planned to return to Chicago and
engage in a regular occupation. Here
he has continued ever since i'm business,
except when for a few weeks at a time
he has. under an assumed name. been
m the road. as stated above. to satisfy
himself that he really did know some
thing of practical magic. Whenever
the great Hermann. who lately died,
was In the city. he would call on Mr..
Burlingame-they were much together
and now this Chicago business nan
has become the lead magician's COM
petent biographer. He is the author,
besides, of several books on the differ
ent branches Of the magic art or on
different devotees of the art and so has
become very widely an authority.
Many writers. i'm many different ages.
nave occupied themselves with arrang-
ing and publishing of magic
In the earliest times. as IL was in those
times existent. believed and practicad.
Thus. from being a traditional science
of the secrets II nature, IT became a
series of printed formularies that had
alone 10 do with the secrets of nature.
Adopts i'm the art of exercising prefer
human powers by means of occult vir-
tues were developed from a knowledge
Of these formularies. This practice was
first known in the east before Noses
time. as those that know their bibles
are aware. He prescribed the practice
in several Of his books. II played an
important part I'm the religious doctrine
and ritual of the Persians, and among
tire laws of nna narfn1 10 fS Ipnr-a ,hat
Persian ideas were n~aturalized and
Persian magic practiced in secret in
violation Of law.
There were two kinds OF magic. ac-
cordinP to the accounts-one the genu-
fne and practiced by priests. the other
the imitation and practiced by mere
~pretenders And thus il is held To be TO
this day. The modern coniurer will per-
form you tricks. and call them tricks.
that so closely resemble the evocations
NJ the spirit cabinet that you cannot
distinguish them. These tricks. the
spirit mediums and their supporters
contend. are not the real ghostlv thing.
but something very different. They do
not themselves lay claim to magic. |
though that they might well do. as
magic was originally only the name for
knowledge of an occult nature possess
ed by the priests. This knowledge. IL
claimed. was not of this world. !
for everybody's use. but consisted of
secrets Of nature which only priests or
mediums" had acquaintance with and
employ. In the old time there was
equal jealousy between the priests and
the non-priests engaged i'm the practice
Of the magic art. One ancient writer
a white or divine magic. and
black or internal magic. In white magic
the devil devotes himself 10 the maei-
In the black. the magician devotes
himself to the devil. In nearly the
terms believers in modern spirit
are sometimes heard to attri-
butte the success OF maPicians on the
stage. In bodily materializations, etc.
Ia the evil influences of degraded
spirits. The bible would ppear to be
on the side Of the modern spiritualists.
for u Is full of accounts Of spirits re-
turned to this world. m probably
would be on the side of modern spirit
had not Christianity renewed
the Mosaic Introduction Of magical arts.
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