The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-28

held the apple in his mouth while his
father shot at it. The bullet was sup
posed to lodge miraculously in the
fruit. which had. of course, been man.
ipulated. The trick bullet was made of
a composition which crumbled on be-
ing rammed home: but by mischance
real bullet was used and the boy
was killed on the spot. A more tragic
case was that of a murder brought
about by the bullet trick. 1t occurred
about fifteen years ago in a then I'M
settled portion of Australia. A conjur-
er was announced to give an enter
tainment- one evening, the great turn
being the bullet trick The bullet was
selected and marked by one of the
rough men of the audience, dropped
into the pistol and extracted by means
of the ramrod in the usual way. When
the smoke cleared away the magician
was seen smiling, with marked bull
let between his teeth. lust as he was
bowling in acknowledgment of the ap-
plause, man jumped on the stage
and pointed a pistol at the conjurer's
head. If you are so good at catchin'
bullets, catch this!' he cried as he
pulled the trigger. The man fell dead"
Mr.. Watts also told of a case of de-
liberate suicide. A man named Sartelle
loaded the pistol himself with a real
bullet and took his stand at the end
of the stage for one of the audience to
IRE at him. He asked that his mother
should be informed of what had hap
pened if he were killed. which the
audience regarded as a good Joke. but
the significance of which they natural
ly understood when he fell dead. A
narrow escape from death was that a
magician named Blitly. He had
prepared the pistol and had asked a
stupid looking young man to come up
on the stage and fire at him. He
walked to the end and took up his po-
sition; all was ready when man cried
out "Stop!" and jumped on the stage
in an excited state. He declared that
he had seen the young man drop some
thing into the barrel. An examina-
ton revealed a brass button. which
would have done the work as deadly
as any leaden bullet.
The most sensational shooting trick
in the history of magic was introduced
by Alexander Hermann a year or two
before his death. He had a corporal's
guard of four soldiers march into the
hall to shoot at him. Four bullets
were selected and marked; the guns
were inspected and found to be in good
order. The bullets were placed on a
tray and handed to the men. 1t SEEM
ed that deception was quite impossible.
When the smoke cleared away Herr
man stood smiling on the stage hold
ing four bullets in his hand. While
this is a simple feat it is nevertheless
an extremely foolhardy one, and has
within the last five years caused the
death of at least seven performers. In
the novel method employed by Herr
mann the result of the experiment de-
pended entirely upon the cartridges
containing the solid bullets being ex-
changed for cartridges containing i'm
itation bullets. These imitation bull
let's were made. as in Houdin's feat, of
wax coated with plumbago. The Off
GER In command of the file of soldiers
was a confederate. He would take
the cartridges that had been exam
ined by the audience and exchange
them for the dummies, which were the
ones afterward loaded into the rifles.
The genuine cartridges were handed
to an assistant, who extracted the
bullets and gave them to the perform
err. who, when the soldier had fired at
him, would allow them to drop on a
plate that he held in his hands. The
danger in this method of performing
the great shooting trick lies in the liza
bility of the officer who handles the
cartridges not changing a sufficient
number or getting them mixed and
1t has been known that even the SOL
diers would substitute a real cartridge
for a dummy.