The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-02-18
FEATS or BLACK ART


ic simply mystlnes the sense OF slsht-
"Quickness of hand deceives the eye, is
the axiom upon which the ordinary ma
g:cian depends: but the power Of the mas
ter of the black art depends upon his
capacity to enthral and hypnotize, the
minds CT his spectators, to create halIu-
cinations in act. not mere illusions.
AT the first glance both are equally in
comprehensive but there is an impass-
able barrier between-one is accomplished
by manual deXterity, or by mechanical
contrivances, and needs often the cooper
alton OF colleagues for its receptions, be-
longs in fact TO the category of the con-
jurer; the other is a mental process en-
tireIy cubtIe occult and mysterious.
Whit, magic has had many remarkable
exponents. especially in America; Ander-
son will recur at once to the minds Of
thousands. and Kcllar today Is a marvel,
bat the art magique never had a more
proficient exponent than the late Profess
scr Hermann, who delighted and Devil
dered three generations Of Americans by
his dexterity and ingenuity. To the day
OF his death the methods by which some
of his remarkable feats We're accomplish
ed were never made known to the pubiic,
notwithstanding which it was always per-
fectly understood that they were expli-
cable, and purely mechanical
The secrets Of black magic, on the 9th
er hand, have baffled al! investigators for
hundreds, even for thousands. Of years.
and today they are as unfathomable as
ever.
Until recently the opponents of black
nc
belonging to the inscrutable Orient, either
in India or Africa, on both Of which CONT
nents there are Civilizations which go
back to a period safely to be computed
as six thousand years, and how much
longer no man viii ever know.
During all this long period there has
been no time and no nation in the East
in which there has not been an exclusive
class. priest 'fakir' magician
medicine man" or by whatever name
1t has been known, which has not had
possession of some secret method of in
huencing and holding in thraH other
mems minds in a manner absolutely in
explicable and impossible to be accounted
for by any ordinary process Of reasoning.
The principal modern school Of the ex-
ponents of the black art has, as far as
the public exhibitions Of 1t are concerned,
been confined TO India whore most Won
derfUl Illusions have been created. as it
were in the public market place. and
whole congregations Of educated white
people. and scopdcs, too. have been com
pletely, apparently, deprived of their
common senses. temporarily. For in
stance. hundreds Of reliable witnesses
h. bat ho faa HIT
they have seen a IIindoo fakir. out in
the open air. without apparatus and with
out colleagues throw wound ball of
silken thread upward into the air, retain
ing the loose end in his hand; and, after
the ball had disappeared in space before
their upward gazing eyes. they have seen
the Hindoo who drew il climb up the
thread hand over hand and disappear in
the sky. They have scarcely been CON
WINGED that this was a mental delusion
by the exhibition OF them of photographs
taken at the time. showing the. Hindoo
with feet resting firmly on The earth all
the while al their very side Indeed.
this Photographic contradiction has made
the enigma, if anything, more eXtraor-
binary.
1t is not so wen known that our own
Red Indian has, through all his history,
had school of the occult, quite as re-
markable as that of his dusky brother of
the East. I was first made acquainted
with the fact through Donald H. Mitchell.
who described one of their feats which
occurred in his presence of a journey
which he MADE up the Missouri river in
1881 With his companions he was the
guest of the Arickala Indians in one of
their villages. and the party was invited
to an entertainment given in their honor
by the tribe medicine men
The gathering was in al ordinary. but
rather large. wiswam in which there
was a little fire on the earth. After
series Of dances and incantations. which
did not appear to differ much from the
ordinary. except i'm their iuteuseness. a
wonderful thing happened. The head
medicine man took lump Of clay ana
kneaded it into piabliJy. from that he
nodded number Of small images in the
similtude of hunters on horseback. and
bufaloes: these he ranged in order on
the ground. and. at his command the
images seemed to become imbued with
life-one by one they Ealloped off. until
the whole We're in fierce retreat: one by
one the bufaloes fell wounded before
the unerrins arrows OF their pursuers.
Then, after every buffalo was slain. the
hunters were commanded 10 ride into
the fire. which they old. despite the I'M
Willingness of their horses. whom they
impened forward by beating After a
short while the medicine man raked the
little images from the fre pounded them
into GlSf and scattered II into The air