Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-07-18
ANCIENT TR1CKsTERS
QUEER coNJURlRa FEATs os THE
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Little Experiments In Which Boiling the
 Heads or Living Animals Was NeoL>-
 sary Adjunct-How They Killed Horse
 and Cured Him Again.
 Conjurers ill ancient times were not very respectable members of society," when successful, they enjoyed the repu- tation of having sold their souls to the evil one, and when of inferior ability they gained notoriety by being either drowned or burned. The medieval ma gicians as well as the Egyptian magi and the Chaldean sages were only d strange mixture of chemist, conjurer and charlatan, and as these gentlemen were in the habit of using their sup. posed occult powers to their own adyan- tage they wero naturally unpopular. The feats of jugglery performed hy these craftsmen were intended for the mystification and not the amusement Of the public, and for centuries conjnrihy had to it only black side
 The amateur eonjurer of today is not always popular individual, save with children and the unsophistoeated yolel To the general public he is merely 9 bore of greater or less magnitude, whose performance is so obvious as to deceive no one. 1t is hard to realize that this person is no mere mushroom growth of modern society, but ill point of fact his role IS one of a respectable antiquitss for he Is to be found treading close upon the heels of the magicians and i'll the days when witchcraft was still rampant. This is significant of his reputation even in those early times, for had any one taken his tricks seriously he would doubtless have been run to earth and done to death as wizard.
 In the middle of the seventeenth cen. tury, in the earliest years of tho res. toration, a number of tricks were pub lished in one of those faeetious booaS which seem to have occupied the press to a great extent at this time, but which, owing to their popularity, have for the most part perished. The chief recommendation to the greater number of these tricks is that no apparatus be- yond the utensils of everyday life is necessary. Also it is suggested to the performer that he can make some small profit out of his entertainment by prevailing on his audience to bet with him on the result of the trick.
 To set 8 horses or an asse's head upon a man s head and shoulders seems impossible out of the land of Faery, but we are informed that by boiling the head cut off from living animal, '.the flesh boyl'd may runne into pyle, and then by mingling the hair beaten into powder with this oil and amounting the heads of the islanders by, they shall seem to have horses or asses heads "a costly experiment. and fcarsome if successful
 But, besides this, one can "mal1e peo- ole seem headlesse, !" and this without hloodshed and by the following simple receipt: Break arsenick very fine, and boyle it with sulphur in a cover'd pot, and kindle it with new candle, and the standers-by will seem to be head Jesse. :" Doubtless a strong imagination is necessary for success.
 Some of the tricks are such as would nowadays cause the performer to be disliked, to put it mildly. For instance, fhave nut filled with ink, and give this unto another and bid him crack it and see what he can find in that, !" which being done twill cause much laughter ''
 "To keep TapsJer from frothing his Pots" must have been an amusement to the wags of the period, and for this provide ill readinesse the skin of red Herring, and when the Tapster is absent do but rub little on the inside of his pots, and he will not be able to froth them, do what he can, in Q good while after.
 ITO counterfeit diamond with q white saphir" is most useful accom- plishment, but the fraud is likely 1n these days to be discovered and is more chemical experiment. than trick
 Several tricks are recommended which have animals as their subject and are for the most part brutal to our modern luGdS. Tcfudl)S tllo lesSG ODJGCI1OuaD1o is to seem to kill a Horse and cure him again. which may be thus accom- plished:
 s'Take the seed of henbane and give it the Horse i'll his Provender, aud it will cast him into such deep sleep that he will seem dead. If you will re- cover him again, rub his Nostrils with Vinegar and he will seem to be re- vived y The tseem to be revived sounds rather ominous, and it is to be noted that the correct quantity of hen bane is not mentioned, so that it might be best to try this experiment. on some one else horse.
 'sTo make shoal of Goslings draw q Timber logge" sounds interesting but unfortunately the directions are vague ITO make shoal of Goslings or Gag. gle of Geese to seem to draw Timber logge is done by the yerie means that is us'd when Cat draws fool through u Pond, but handled somewhat further