The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-15


solemnly and said:
Z" I cannot do that to-day What have
you been drinking? Brandy and soda, like
the other English? You have all my
snakes He began 20 pull snakes out of
my boots and pockets. He took on my hat
and showed it to me filed with kissing,
green reptiles on another occasion he
showed me his empty hand. made few
passes with It, closed it, opened II again,
and there, sitting upon the palm was a
great snake its head erected two feet,
and kissing like mad. OF course, II was
all sleght-of-hand, but 1t was superb
ever so much ahead of anything we West
ern people can do. The East Is full OF
great sleight-of-hand men.
when / first went to India to study the
doings of the Yogis, had fakrs gathered
from far and wide to give me exhibitions.
They showed ordinary tricks, and when
the performance was over l told them,
through the interpreter, that / was 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 busi-
ness themselves, and could not frighten
them L made some passes, and they stood
before me boldly till l made a furious
| pass and shouted and their clothing burst
| into flames. Then they fled in terror,
| casting off their light robes, and my rep
utation as a wonder worker was estab-
| lshed in India. The trick was very
simple one. 1 had discovered huid which
| ignited spontaneously and burned quite
| fercely after being exposed to the air
| for minute and half. A few drops of
| this. scattered on the clothing of the fax
irs by my confederate, did the trick,
after 1 got my reputation among them
| the Indian trotted out the best they could
! do. I found out that the mango trick 10
done by substitution. AS / 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 handker-
chiefs 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 10 have grown
from the Seed but it is all a trick, done
| by substitution. The mango is as tough
| as whalebone, and can be crumpled up In
any old way and packed away into very
small compass. Working under the clotn
with his hands, the magician straightens
the leaves out.
1T stole a trick from an Indian faklr
one time. He threw brick dust In a pail
| of water, took some of 1t out and blew 1t
| away. He did the same with sand. Then
| he stirred the brick dust up and made 1t
| thick. Then he took an egg-shapped piece
| of brick from his pocket and scraped 1t
with his knife to show that it was genu-
inc He put in in the pail. and standing
back began an incarnation.
Rance Samee! Rance Samee of
Mombay!' he cried Come to me and Sahib
give me rupees Out jumped the egg
! straight at him. I could not make out
| how that was done
Nov, 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 dol
lar The man played the trick over
again for me- Still could not see how
1t was managed, and insisted on seeing IL
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
The old fellows laughed at me and did
the trick again. l sat close by the pail
craning my neck over 1t. Suddenly made
a dive In the pail with my hand The
magician made a dive for me, but nv at
| tendant headed him off I fished mn tbe
egg seated on a sort of catapult made of
an iron spring, held back by bit of rock
salt. When the salt dissolved Il loosen
ed the spring and that threw the egg out
While | was studying this out the magi-
clan was making an awful clan1or about
the act of robbery | had committed 7
acknowledged that I had done very un-
professional thing and asked how much
he thought I ought to pay him He said
that five rupees would make IL all right
L gave him ten and he went away very
happy.
For long time Travelled about the
states exposing sparitualistsp tricks. I
RI he u1,1 Ia -
means all the tricks of the mediums.
While doing this had some very strange
adventures that made me feel like leay-
imp people alone to nurse their decisions as
they pleased. There was a man named Saw
yer, who was a great spiritualist He was
interested In my performance but said
that 1t did not come up to the doing of the
mediums. l only did tricks, they gave in
fallibe tests.
" My wife died some months ago. he
said. Now, II you can bring her up and
have her give me the private signal agreed
on between us and then show you did n
by trickery, 1 Will agree to renounce spir-
itualism'
II said would do that. I was not at
all sure that could, but chance threw the
right person in my way and got the in
formation 1 wanted. On the night of nv
next performance Sawyer was present
When the room was all In darkness a voice
called to him from the cabinet claiming 10
be from the spirit of his wife. A face was
shown looking from the cabinet. Scores
of people present in the audience recog-
nzed Mrs. Sawyer in the face and the
voice. But Sawyer himself said he did
not recognize either. He was called I'D to
the cabinet.
" Can you give the private signal he
asked.
" Certainly responded the pretended
spirit
Sawyer put out his banda hand in the
cabinet received it and tapped on the palm
three times, drew a finger straight down
the palm and tapped three times again.
Sawyer staggered Back as If struck by
lightning.
" People, hear me- he shouted. 7 am
well known here. / am known to Won ms
Honest John Sawyer. I would not lie to
you. This is fraud He pretends to ex-
pose mediums and is himself the very
greatest mediums. Not 90 single sound
but l knew the signal agreed on between
myself and my wife. He must have got ID
| from was INV rzrffa r crA,Ixo - A..