Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-07-15

snow white suit He waves his hand,
and there comes floating in the air
white wand. which he clutches. A wave
Of the wand and a table appears On his
right; another wave, and another table
on his left. Again, and two large vases
are seen upon the tables They are shown
to be empty. The magician drops into
one of the vases a few orange seeds. A
wave of the wand, and the receptacle is
filled with oranges, which, on being pour
ed into the second vase, disappear.
A human skeleton suddenly arrives and
begins to dance. 1t becomes dismember-
ed. the separated parts floating about, but
presently they join. and the dance is re-
newed. Next white rabbit is taken by
the performer. and in his hands it be-
comes two rabbits, which are tossed into
the air and disappear. An unseen assist
ant is on the stage all the time. Being
dressed in black. with black gloves and
black velvet mask, he is invisible to the
audience. The oranges are poured into
the vase from a black velvet bag by the
assistant, and they vanish when he emp.
ties them again into the sack. 1t is the
same way with the rabbits. which are
caught in the open mouth of the bag
when they are tossed up. The skeleton is
of papier mache, painted white and fas-
tened upon thin board, sawed to shape
and covered with black velvet, one arm
and one leg being joined so as to be easily
removed.
The tables and vases are white. and,
like the skeleton, are made to appear by
rem -ing their black coverings.
There is another way of producing
spectral effects, says the New York
Press. On the stage is seen man seat
ed at a table. dining composedly. The
stage suddenly is darkened, causing the
man to disappear from view, but at the
same moment a skeleton appears sitting
on the opposite side of the table. The
skeleton is painted with zinc sulphide,
which has the property of becoming lu-
minous under the Roentgen rays. The
apparatus for producing the latter is
concealed, and the rays are communi-
Gated to Brudder Bones through the
body actually of the living man at the
table. BY the same means the decanter
and dishes on the table are caused to
glow brilliantly. The skeleton is con-
cealed by black velvet cloth at first,
while the stage is Illuminated.
Peppers ghost depended chiefly upon
the well known refecting power of plain
glass. People walking on the street Of
ten pause to look at themselves in the
windows of the shops. and it was by the
use of the same property of ordinary
glass that Peppers amazing results were
obtained. For example, a figure clad in
Il white robe, but concealed from the d.
rect view of the audience, was brilliantly
Illuminated and SO placed that a bright
reflection Of it was thrown upon large
Iheet of glass. The glass was not OBJ
served by the spectators, and from their
viewpoint the ghost, for such it seemed,
appeared in obedience to a familiar law
of optics to be as far in the rear of the
glass as the real figure was distant from
the latter. Thus the specter stood ap-
parently well back on the stage, and its
was made evident by Pro-
fessor Pepper walking through it repeat
edly.
If one looks out at night into the dark
ness through the glass of a window of a
lighted room, there will be seen the re-
Elected images of objects in the room,
which seem to be exactly as far beyond
the window pane as the objects them
selves are distant from the glass on the
inside. Ones own face, for instance, if
a foot away from the pane, will be repro
duced by another face foot beyond the
glass. II is upon this optical principle
that Icpner's ghoSa depends