The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-01-26

IS NO MAGIC !
clumsy, but the operators of them are
secure on account of the deep n in
e%xplicable credulfty Of their audiences.
Edwin Booth was a devout believer
In %spiritualism. as was Joseph Jeffer-
son. Some years g 1 gave z seance
for Booths entertainment in hiladel-
phia. and before beginning the table,
lifting trick explained, merely to Inn
press him, n a sometimes h spirit
the furniture. No soone had I COM
.pleted the first test thar the table
split open with a loud report. 1t sur
prised me as much as 1t impressed him.
but the furniture man told me later
that cheap furniture exposed to heat
often did the same thing. n I had
had h table standing near h open
footlights. I never explained to Booth
the splitting of the table.
Private mediums do the most harm,
as they deceive their own families and
friends, there apparently being an utter
lack of motive for deception. Why a
man or woman should SO deceive their
relatives and friends I do not know I'M
less they thereby cater to their own
vanity.
THE apparently wonderful feats OF
strength performed by such fra.l women
as Lulu Hurst and Annie Abbott are mere
ly applications OF well known laws of
leverage which are extremely simple. but
which produce bewildering effects when
cleverly applied.
'"There is no such thing as mind read
ing. Sensational drives through crowded
streets in search of hidden objects are
based on the natural principle that a per-
son cannot concentrate his or her mind on
the location OF a given subject, keep In mo-
ton and not Involuntary go toward it.
This sort OF mind reading is muscle read
ing. Bishops feats were based on such
principles. I do believe, however, in tele-
pathy. as the manifestations of 1t are so
numerous as to compel belief. But tele-
pathy is involuntary. Aside from these in
voluntary expressions, the mind is a castle
in which no stranger may penetrate"
Mr.. Kellar was asked to explain the IA
miliar phenomenon OF four children rails
ing a heavy adult from the floor above
their heads with their finger tips without
effort, merely by breathing in unison and
/, concentrating their minds on the act be-
ing performed.
II cannot explain IT, he said, and I
never saw anyone that could. It is a real
ity more mysterious than the apocryphal
feats OF the Hindus, about which volume
have been written"
over matter of which his we'll known feat
is q manifestations
"I don know. 1 never heard a satisfac-
tory explanation of the phenomenon"
Can the future be told?"
"Fortune telling, TO use a favorite Chi
cago expression, is bunk Because we are
sometimes told things we know to be true
and the knowledge OF which in possession
or another person we cannot explain, we
come TO give fortune telling half cred
ence. Once In Manila I was caught with
my company in a'hotel during a hurricane
that took tho roof off and left US in total
darkness. Next to me was a man whom I
could not see, but who introduced him
self to me as a Mr.. Rose. who travelled for
an American iron foundry. He said incl
d%entally that he knew some theatrical peo-
pie then in Hongkong and told me who
they We're, the Victoria Lofts troupe.
With this company was a man who had q
somewhat sensational ~career-enough SO,
in fact, to cause him to change his name.
Rose told me his history. and 1t CHANGED,
when I arrived in Hongkong a little later
and met the member of this theatrical
troupe, that this particular man saw fit
to mako a sighting remark concerning
my professional abilities.
Instead OF resenting 1t. I proceeded to
demonstrate to him that I had superhu-
man powers. I told his past life. while in
a fake trance, and openly told him his
real name. He declared many thing 1 told
him no one knew but God. He forgot
about Mr.. Rose and probably many other
Americans. Unless he were to see this ex-
plantation no power could convince this
man that 1 was merely ar ordinary Amer
lean, and a Pennsylvania German at that
and III there is any less romantic stock
than the Pennsylvania German I don't
know it.
ut is true, however, that there is more
character in the hand than in the face.
and this fact has made the fortune tellers
who read the palm very successful in tell
ing the credulous a good many true things
about themselves. People cultivate arti-
fetal expressions of face by the use of
mirrors and otherwise; but thew can't
change the story told by the hand Palm-
istry, so far as it's being an index to char
acter is concerned, is almost an exact
science. 1 can read your true character.
but not you future-nor can any other
human being"
Keller ran away from the home of a min.
lister with whom he was living in New
York to become a conjurer. The minister
had taken him to SEE the "Fakir of Ava
an Englishman we'll up in his profession
forty years ago, and the performance SO
appealed to the y%oungster hat he decided
to follow it. He Joined the "Fakir of Ava
AZ bulltiio, aii0 tooh HIS liTSl lessons IN
conjuring from him.. In discussing the
mishaps that sometimes occur to the pro.
%fessional wonder-worker, Kellar tells this
instance connected with his early days as
a magician's assistant:
1.-The 'Fakir of Ava used the trick OF
borrowing a watch from some man in the
audience, smashing 1t to pices, loading II
In a gun and firing it at a mirror, where
after the shot, it was supposed to appear
intact. Behind the glass was a hammer
worked with a string that struck the mirror
when the shot was fired. Accidentally the
fakir trtpped over the string, allowing thu
hammer to fail and break the glass, leaving
only a plain black surface exposed, Ii
some way the mishap had to b. turned int
a part of the trick. I told the fakir to gt
on with another trick. and Iswrote a nam,
on an envelope and fastened around to tn,
audience with 1t.
..pro+ondinu "a soaL %hA mo rho.o ,o~.