The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-24
Magic Mystifed Old Sea Captains
at HOngkOng.
From the New York Times.


prentice on the China tea clipper Spoon
drift of London. 1t was part of my duty
to act as sort of factotum to Capt.
Eagles, the commander of the clipper.
and some queer sights | saw in his
company. The strangest incident, per-
maps, was one that happened at Hong
kong.
Our ship was famous for her fast
passages and the officers were very popu-
lar ashore. Capt. Eagles had a wide
knowledge of the Chinese He had no
vulgar prejudice against them as a race.
On the contrary, he appreciated their
many virtues. 1t was, however, one of
MS hrm convictions that a Chinese
! compredore" Is the wickedest being the
deVll ever made. A "compredore" is A
! sort OF major domo in the house of the
"hlte men In the treaty ports. He takes
charge of the servants, leYies black
mail on the tradesmen, gets his little
cumshaw, or commission, on every bill
| MS employer pays. He is the most in
valuable thieving rascal in the world
he robs you all the time, but you can't
| get along without him The "compredore"
! VINO hgures in the following story was
quite innocent and guiltless to nook at
! put my Captain, who was a shrewd
! judge of yellow men, assured me that
| ne mad Satan's trade mark in his ex-
| pressionless face. The way we fell in
with him was this:
one thing that our skipper had heard
many yarns about was the skill of the
Chlhese Jugglers who had the reputation
| or being superior to the Hindus in their
| peculiar feats and manifestations The
high-class magicians are generally az
tached to the houses of the rich man
darins, and are 10th to exhibit their art
before the 'red-headed barbarians" of
| Foreign lands. Our skipper, however, had
| good deal Of influence with the big
| merchants of Hongkong, and to crafty
his wish a famous juggler was induced
| to take a trip from Canton and give his
| exhibition in the house of Mr. Rough
garden, an Englishman of wealth and
| high position. Invitations were sent out
to the shippers of all the ships in the
harbor and the gathering was large.
Our host was a skeptic; he believed
not jot in necromancy or the black art,
| but he was well aware of the devilish
cunning of the Chinese in everything
| they undertook. Therefore to make things
as difficult possible for successful de-
ce1tion he removed all the furniture
from the spacious apartment in which the
performance was to be presented. The
mating was taken up from the floor
were placed against the four walls of
the room, and on these the spectators
were seated
Presently the juggler made his appear
ance He was just an ordinary China
man, with all the characteristics Of his
race. He wore a blue jacket and trousers,
cotton stockings, and thick-soled shoes,
and was bare headed There was moth
ing to distinguish him from thousands
| 90 \ to
of facial expression or attire. A coole
followed him bearing a small box, which
he placed on the floor in the middle of
| the room. and then took his departure.
The juggler made a little speech, which
was translated into ''pigin English" by
| the "compredore" of our host 1t was
to the effect that he was the grandfather
and emperor of all the jugglers. without
a peer in the world; that this was his
| first appearance before an audience of
barbarians. whom he beseeched to keep
the matter a secret from the high and
mighty mandarin to whose court ne was
| attached. This bombastic utterance was
| the preliminary to the show. The COM
| predore quilted the room. AS he passed
through the door my Captain whispered
to me, Jack, my lad, that 'compredore
is a precious scoundrel. 1 can tell by
the cut of his jib.'
The jugger threw off his Jacket, show
ing himself naked to the waist. which
| was girt with a white cloth Then he
| twined his long black pigtail round his
shaver scalp and was ready for bust
ness. His skin was a light golden yell
| low.
| All eyes were fixed on him. He had
no accomplice visible to the observers
in the company. Opening the box, he
took out a porcelain vessel similar in
! shape and size to common washbowl
! This he carried round the room, allow
ing each to examine it with eye and
| hand He placed the basin on the bare
floor five or six feet away from the box,
unwound his waistcloth. and with it
covered the basin, which so far as our
| senses of sight and touch could distin-
| guish was empty. All the time he had
been mumbling to himself in a sing
song tone what was presumably an in
cantation to joss. In a minutes time
he withdrew the cloth. The basin was
full of water and lively fish three
inches long was swimming in it. Each
spectators satisfied himself that there
was no deception. The water was real
water and the fish was a living fish!
| His second performance was the fami-
| liar feat of growing a small tree from
seed This is common i'm India, but the
Chinese wizard surpassed any Hindu
fakirs l had ever seen. Out of the box
he produced a flower pot. passed it
! around allowed it to be prodded with a
! stick in order that we might be convinc-
| ed that ii contained nothing but earth.
He planted the seed and covered the pot
with the cloth. In twenty minutes the
| seed had grown into a plant. Half an
| hour later the plant had become a shrub,
| and after an interval of about the same
| length the shrub was in bloom. the flow
| ers resembling those of an aster. At
no time except when covering or uncov-
ering the pot did he approach 1t nearer
| than five feet.
! The third trick was stranger still and
| took much longer to perform. Out of the
| box he produced a large blue dish, on
which he placed a pound or so of UNI
| boiled rice. All of US handled the disc
| and the rice According to our tests there
was nothing abnormal about the platter.
and the rice was Enthusiastically raw, II
munching a few sample grains between
! the teeth was any criterion. The lid OF
/ the box was closed. The dish Of rice was
/ laid upon the floor. and the magic cloth
/ concealed II from view. Then squatting
on his launches, he barred his hands and
arms up to his elbow. and to the accom-
painment of his Incarnation performed a
number of quaint manlpulations under
! the shelter OF the cloth. After a while
queer movements of an undulatory kind
were visible beneath the cloth at a
| distance apparently beyond his reach. In