The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-02

performances for the guests. One of
these men tackled me and / told him
that did not want to see any tricks.
"'That is a fine cane you have, sir,
he said, taking my stick and admiring
it. He twirled it round his head very
fast and handed it back to me. ...
"Wow! I dropped it in hurry. 1t
had become huge cold, clammy, wrig-
Cling snake.
What do you mean, you rascal!'
began.
"He picked up the snake and whirled
1t about his head again.
"'Why, it's a very good cane he
said, and presented my own silver
headed stick to me. The next day
met the same man and asked him to
turn my cane into a snake once more.
He shook his head solemnly and said:
cannot do that to-day What
have you been drinking? Brandy and
soda, like the other English? You have
all my snakes He began to pull
snakes out of my boots and pockets.
He took off my hat, and showed it to
me filled with Kissing green reptiles.
On another occasion he showed me his
empty hand, made few passes with it,
closed it, opened it again, and there,
sitting upon the palm was great
snake, it's head erected two feet, and
kissing like mad. OF course, it was all
slight of hand, but 1t was superb-ever
SO much ahead of anything we western
people can do. The east is full of great
sleight- hand men.
when I first went to India to study
tIa Ioi, oft Io IaI fob rive
gathered from far and wide to give me
exhibitions They showed ordinary
tricks, and when the performance was
over I told them through the interpre-
ter that | Twas very much displeased
with the childish things they had
shown me, and intended to strike them
with lightning. They said they had no
fear. They were in the business them
selves, and 1 could not brighten them.
l made some passes, and they stood be-
| fore me boldly till I made furious
| pass and shouted, and their clothing
burst into flames. Then they fled in
terror, casting off their light robes. and
my reputation as a wonder worker was
established in India. The trick was a
| very simple one. / had discovered a
| fluid which ignited spontaneously and
| burned quite fiercely after being ex-
posed to the air for minute and a
| half. A few drops of this, scattered on
the clothing of the fakirs by my con-
! federate, did the trick.
After 1 got my reputation among
! them the Indians trotted out the best
they could do. I found out that the
| mango trick is done by substitution.
AS I have said they are far ahead of
| us in sleight of hand. Then they have
cloths that help them, as they are much
| bigger than the handkerchief used by
our magicians. They begin by planting
mango seed and covering it with a
| cloth. They work under the cloth with
| their hands, and then remove the cloth
at intervals, showing you the mango
bush growing larger and larger At
| last they show you a large bush that
has fruit on it. 1t appears to have
| grown from the seed, but it Is all q
trick, done by substitution The man
go is as tough as whalebone, and can
| be crumpled up In any old way and
packed into very small compass.
| Working under the cloth with his
hands, the magician straightens the
| leaves out
| II stole a trick from an Indian fakir
one time. He threw brick dust in a
! pail of water. took some of it out and
blew it away. He did the same with
sand. Then he stirred the brick dust
up and made it thick. Then he took en
eggshaped piece of brick from his
pocket and scraped it with his knife to
| show that it was genuine He put it
in the pail and standing back began
an incarnation.
Rance Samc,! Rance Samee of
Bombay he cried. Come to me and
Sahib give me FIVE rupees Out
jumped the egg straight at him. 1
could not make out how that was done.
NOW, one of the rules of our profess
sion is never to play the same trick
twice in succession, because spectators
are watching very sharply, but these
| fakirs would sell their grandmothers
| for a dollar. The man played the trick
over again for me. Still 1 could not
see how it was managed, and insisted
on seeing it a third time.
| "'You have an invisible thread I
said. You wave your arms about and
| pull the thread and the egg comes to
| you
1.-THE old fellow laughed at me and
| did the trick again. / sat close by the
pail craning my neck over it, Sudden
! ly I made a die in the pail with my
hand The magician made a dive for
| me, but my attendant headed him off
I fshed up the egg seated on a sort #
catapult made of an iron spring held
back by a bit of rock salt When the
salt dissolved t loosened the spring and
that threw the egg out While I was
studying this out the magician was
making an awful clamor about the act
of robbery I had committed. 1 ac-
knowledged that had done very I'M
professional thing and asked how much
| he thought 1 ought to pay him. He
said that five rupees would make it all
| right. I gave him ten and he went
away very happy.
"For a long time Travelled about the
states exposing spiritualists' tricks. I
claimed to be able to duplicate by nat
ural means all the tricks of the medi-
ums. While doing this had some very
strange adventures that made me feel
like leaving people alone to nurse their
decisions as they pleased. There was
man named Sawyer who was a great
spiritualist. He was interested in my
performance, but said that it did not
come up to the doings of the mediums.
D