The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-02
ANCIENT TRICKS OF coNJuREas.
IncOnceivabIe That Such TrRnSpar-
ent Tricks Could Deceive.
From tho Toudou Standard

From the London Standard.
Conjurers in ancient times were not very
| respectable members of society-when sue
cessful they enjoyed the reputation Of hay
ing sold their souls to the evil one and
when of inferior ability they gained noto>
| riety by being either drowned or burned.
| The medieval magcians as we'll as the
| Egyptian magi and the Chaldean sages
were only a strange mixture Of chemist,
conjurer and charlatan; and as these gem,
t!emen We're in the habit of using their
supposed occult powers to their own ad-
vantage, they were naturally unpopular.
The feats Of juggelry were for the mysu>
ication and not the amusement of the
public, and for centuries conjuring had to
il only a black side. The amateur con-
jurer of to-day is not always a popular
individual save with children and the I'M
sophisticated yokel to the general public
he is merely a bore Of greater or less mag
nitude, whose performance is so obvious
as TO deceive no one. II is hard to realize
that this person is no muchroom growth
Of modern society. but in point of fact
his role is one of a respectable antiquity,
tor he is to be found treading close upon
the heels of the magicians, and in the
days when witchcraft was till 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 a wizard.
In the middle of the seventeenth century.
in the earliest years of the restorat ton, a
number of tricks was published in one of
those facetious books which seem TO have
occupied the press to a great extent at this
time, but which, owing to their popular
ity, have for the most part perished The
chief recommendation of the greater NUM-
Der of these tricks Is that no apparatus
beyond the utensils of every day life is
necessary; also ii is suggested 10 the per
former 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 ITO set a horses or an
ass head upon a mans head and should
ers'' seem impossible out of the land of
Faery, but we are informed that by boil
ing the head cut off from a living animal
The flesh boyd may rune into oyle,"
and then by mingling the hair beaten into
powder with this oll, and Amounting the
heads of the standers-by, they shall seem
TO have horses and asses heads'-a costly
experiment and fearsome is successful.
But, besides this, one can make people
seem headless," and this without blood
shed and by the following simple recipe:
Break arsenick very fine and boyle it
with surplur in a cover'd pot and kindle it
with new candle, and the standers-by
Will seem to be headless." Doubtless a
strong imagination is necessary for sue
cess.
Some of the tricks are such as would
nowadays cause the performer to be dis
liked, TO put it mildly; for instance, have
a nut filled with ink and give this unto
another and bid him crack il and see
what he can find in that" which being
done, will cause much laughter" ITO
keep a tapster from frothing his pots
must have been an amusement to the
ways of the period, and for this provide
in readiness the skin of a 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 a good while afar." ITO coun-
terfeit a diamond with a white saphir"
is a most useful accomplishment, but the
fraud is likely in these days to be discov-
cred, and is more a chemical experiment
than trick. Several tricks are recon-
mended which have animals as their sub
jects, and are for the most part brutal to
our modern ideas. Perhaps the least OBJ
jectionable is TO seem to Kill horse" and
cure him again, which may be thus ac-
COmplished Take the seed of henbaue
and give it the horse in his provender
and 1t win cast him into such a sleep
that he win seem dead; If you viii recover.
him again rub his nostrils with vinegar
and he will seem to be revived" The
seem to be revived" sounds rather omi-
nous, and 1t is TO be noted that the cor
rect quantity of henbane is not mentioned,
so that il might be best to try this expert
ment on some one else's horse. ITO make
a shoal of goslmgs draw a timber logge"
sounds interesting, but unfortunately the
directions are very vague ITO make q
shoal of goslings or a gasgle of geese
to seem to draw a timber logge is done by
the. vere means that is usd when a cat
draws a fool through a pond. but handled
somewhat further off from the beholders."