The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-06

either. X
 The three alleged fssts sf the East h. dian conjurers which are usualiy related as evidence of his vonderfui skill are the basket trick. the aerial repe trick and the mango tree trick. The arst. as-
 The conjurer places boy in an obloHg wicker basket and the boy is doubled up in order to 20 into the hasket and ts tight At. The Id of the basket ts then strapped up. Then. Of course, e.e con jurer holds some conversation with the boy tn order that the audience may be quite sure that he Is actually within. Next he runs the basket through with . sword in several directions. Blood ling screams are heard, and some ver- sions TO 90 far as te say that blecd rune freely. Of course. the audience ts iutense- ly horriied. Not,so the ccnjurer. With . calm and triumphent sznile he opens the basket and shows it empty. wbils the audience gives expression te its wonder he throws out his arm for silence and ap- pears to be listening intently. Suddenly he gives cry. and he boy who was sup posed to be h the basket rushee sipto the room, and-here follows the collection.
 This Is truly . marvslous perfcrmarce. but has anyone ever seen 1t performed? It is to be doubted. One b inelinea to be- iieve that it Is only performed ,ih the hu- man imagination. The mild and ingen- ious Hindu has heard of this faat. Eos sibly the substitpte for. or rsther sne sentsd toeii;. its rise from the ipqniries for
 The real psrfcrnance Is as fcIlews: The conjurer puts his boy Into the basket. which in this spurious fest is a rccnay one. The said boy. by curling htuqqen around the edges of the basket, ailews plenty of room for the sword to PeNs l.. n Anpa body. Tne conjurer, with abunAapee ef deliberation and cautious ain, makes hig stabs accordingly, and the 4ueience Is supposed to be overcome with wonder that the boy is produced from the basket alive. The dictates of pruaenes and hu- rnanity alike point out to the conturer the advisability of allowing nobody but himself to use the sword. and thts cir- cumstanee probably accounts fer the fact that the performance of even the first part of the trick Is quite rare.
 The second trick of which one hears so much is the aerial rope" trick. Briefly if is as follows: The ccnjurer has coil of thin rope. Keeping hold of cne end Ae throws the coil into the air. The rope. instead of falling down cnts his head again. as one would naturally suppeee, 1T 1t obeyed the law of gravity. remains standing up in the air, as if 1t were an iron rod Then the eonjuref's eonpanien swarms up the rope aMd whsn he gets to the top absolutely disappears.
 The conjurer who could perfoyD this fest to large audiences copld not fail to make an enormous fortune. sThe4 east ern eonjursrs are net indifferent tc none. tary considerations is neterious.' Nsither are they averse te visiting other lapas' if it is made worth their while. There is some evidence to account fer, if not tc Justify, the tradition of this trick. Here and there man ie met with whe sass that he has seen it. Generally he web alone. On occasions two fereigHefs were. present, and one declares that he has seen 1t, while the other has not. It ie said that the men who prefess to have seen the Inarver are often henest, trust worthy, hard-headed and skePttcal pes- pie; not likely either. to dsceive or to De deceived. -. .4 7 ,., xs,- N.',s 2ts
 The third is the ''mene0 trick. Tn actien this is q sight worth seeing. A mango stone is planted and is grown into q small tree in few lnemehts under the eyes of the audience, regardless of tha season; ripe mangoes are only, withheld from motives of ecohoHay, eleanltness or perhaps fFem desire net t0s excite traae jealousy iR the fruit market. e g.
 Alasi this trick. ss performed iin South- ern India, is quite beneath the dignity of h once iE enough, for. it explains itself as 1t goes along. The eeniurer ehas three bags and abundance of batter. If oniy the batter could cover the bags, 50 that we knew not what the bags eeyeFed! First of all, the eonjurer splsHenIy plants the mango stone This he eevers ever with the smallest of th ethfee begs, which of course, eonkains ths maAEo, bush in It's infancy. How hard he ,pattefg Aa F- with his fingers inside that bag; plaptiAg the sapling in its little @pateh ef sarth and dsEtly arranging the laaves that 1t may look fresh aud natural whsn the bag. is lifted: oh, e carefully lest ths mango plants come with it. Httlal there, you are. wonAerfuH Needless to @ on. The next bag contains . larger edition of the mango plant: and the thirA . larger stin. PEebai&y the only bag which at the beginning contains nothing and at the ens tis occupied ie the coiiec. ton bag An admirable. feature of khis pefrormance is the neat dsftness Aisplay- ed in the planting. It must require good deal of skin to extrteate and aF- rance the plants so that they stand se- eureiy upright when the bag lp removed and do not look stale or Tumpled.
 Te Hindu Is very expert at palr4ing and his feats gain in force from the eiFcum-
 
 his body is generally naked. The neat ness with which he produces eggs or rupees from his elbows, armpits and ears is quite pretty to see. f
 One bit of palming generally raises . laugh If one has not seen 1t befere. After palming a couple of rupees into your hsnd from nowhere in particular. yeu suddenly find on your hand a heary old scorpion. Your jump of terror is exceedingly amus- ing-to your friends. Of course the seer pion's sting has been previously extracted.
 The Hindu is quite match fer the orD nery amateur juggler. It is most anus ing to watch him while the amateur Is firing of his feat. The inamemorial ceur- tesy of tho east preseElbes face of won derfng difference. The amateur pauses flushed with pleasure and anticipated triumph. The Hindu never abates his air of deferenec nor allows the air of Oriental equivalent of rats" te escape him. He merely does the trick infinitely more neatly and generally with some variation that leaves tho amateur writh- ingtng with innpotent envy. The feel ing one has about the Hindu juggler or conjurer is first that he is exceedingly expert, but probably not go expert as either the Chinaman or the Japanese. Secondly he is unfortunate in having his really creditab:e performances discounted In advance by misinferEaed, erSduIous or untruthful travellers. Sc. ..