The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-05-23
THE MAGICrANs PHILOSOPHY.

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Chicago Tribune.
THE MAGICIANs PHILOSOPHY.
| Ii you ask woman to choose one
of the four card suits, the selection
will be, nine times out of ten, hearts.
Ask woman to name one of the
thirteen cards in that heart suit, and
you will find the queen picked as
| often.
with men it is different. They
seem to have no unconscious prefer
ence but if there is any attraction of
one suit over another, the leaning is
in favor of spades. As for the par
ticular card, men evince no general
bias, although my experience has
taught me to expect low card"
The speaker was a veteran card
magician who has had years of ex-
perience in studying his audience and
the peculiarities of human nature
which bear upon his profession.
Suggestion is the keynote to sue
cess in card tricks, and indeed in all
illusions that depend for finish upon
quickness of touch and hand," he
went on. 1.-The man who can best
persuade his audience that they see
something which they do not see, is
the successful magician.
II toss an orange into the air to
make it disappear. I cry One, and
my arm flies up. The audience sees
the orange still in my hand. Two
and as my hand goes up the orange
is palmed. Three and the hand is
turned around to the audience empty,
but every one who watched the trick
would have sworn that he saw the
orange disappear upon the count of
three
81 place three cards side by.side on
table and ask some oneto choose a
card. BY an almost unbroken sue
middle card. lie does IL.
''I deal out three rows of three
cards each and again ask him to choose
one of the rows. With the same di-
rectness / am positive he will name
the middle row.
81 have made that same expert
ment with all sorts of things and have
never known it to fail. Once / had
discussion with a friend, who was
inclined to pooh pooh what he term
ed my superstition in regard to the
matter. let the argument drop for
several days, and then one afternoon
dropped into cigar store with him
and purchased three cigars.
II casually spread them out on the
counter for him to take his choice,
and when l called his attention to the
fact that he had picked up the middle
one of the three he was much cha
grined.
"Take the case of asking person
| to choose a number. Scores of times
have asked people to name num-
Der between I and 10, and with al
most no variation they have decided
on 7. When it has not been 7, it has
been S.
"Why? / do not know. There
is something mysterious about the
number 7. The ancients recognized
it, and the longer I live the more
convinced 1 am that 7 has some oc-
cult connection with humanity. I
have heard the suggestion made that
people persist in choosing it because
it is easy to say, requiring little effort
oftongue and lips to enunciate. There
may be something in that. "
The magician said that when it
came to explaining why women
should show such preference for
hearts and the queen of that suit, he
said he had never formed an opinion.
cit is one of these mysterious
psychological riddles which we meet
every day of our lives" he said.
"There are dozen reasons that
might spring to the mind, but who
can tell which is right or even prob
able? Sometimes I have thought
that the ancient connection between
that suit and the thoughts of love
and gallantry may have had some
thing to do with it, but / am rather
inclined to put that down to mere
fancy.
"To the uninitiated magic and card
tricks appear to be the result of deft-
ness of hand and lightness of finger.
The element of psychology is where
they fool themselves. AS much de-
pends upon that as upon the skill OF
the haHd
knowledge of ones audience,
skill in picking out the right subject
for q certain trick, a close study OF
mental peculiarities, all these things
count for much with the intelligent
magician. And I will lay down fol
you a rule which has no exception
In those other cases I qualified my as
sertions. Here l do not.
'The easiest person to fool IS th'
one whose intelligence is the highest
This sounds, on the face of it, like
paradox, but it is not. The elemen
of suggestion enters in powerfully
here, and the active, trained mind o
the intelligent man leaps to the die
tates of suggestion as steel filings d,
. up to the magnet.
"Your slow and stupid mind ha
{ to be led, and slowness is fatal to tn
magician. Stupid people and chill
dren 7 have found to be the hard es