Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-01-26
From the CHICAGO Record-Herald.

ISM" mind reading is a myth;, SO
called Hindu magic is either cheap
fiummery or science cleVerly applleu'
and all alleged evidence of superhumah
interference in the affairs of men IS eN-
plainabl under purely physical laws.
The greatest of mystihers, there Is
probably no man living more brutally
iconoclastic in shattering the mys-
teries of the seemingly supernatural
than Harry Kellar. In public lie the
master of trickery n of all that Is
mysterious and uncanny, Kellar, over
his bowl of milk and bread after one
of his cOnfounding performances at
McVicker's, tore the shrouds from
ghosts. robbed spirits of their spooki-
ness, made buffoons of the east INDIANS
of mystic romance, and otherwise
turned mystery into light. It's all very
simple as he tells livery simple IN
deed-until the conjurer is led up to his
own tricks.
All" said the magician, grasping the
hand OF the interviewer, your palm
indicates inquisitiveness-great inquls-
ftiveness. Yes, the cabinet trick can
be done in the open. No stage is neces-
sary. Mirrors in the deviation act?
Oh, we used them in the old deviation
that is different"
So the talk turned to the tricks of
others, especially of the Hindus and
the demonstrations Of spirit mediums
and to these subjects the conjurer
warmed rs he ordered his second bowl
of milk and bread.
The world looks to India as the
fountain of all conjurers' wisdom he
said. India is synonymous with mys-
terry. probably because Of the great age
of the art in that country. Weird tales
of the tricks of the Hindu fakirs are
brought to us by travellers; and the
student Of the occult and the supposed
-. - Ii, "a
grimage as surely as the homing pigeon
finds his loft. Naturally, it was to In
dia I went when I felt 1 had learned
all the conjuring that Americans had
to teach, and no man ever visited that
country in p more receptive frame of
min or more anxious to learn. 1t was
to be my postgraduate course, and !
was fired with the stories of magic j
had read.
What did / learn? Just this: That
America eXcels India in the develop
ment of the goetic art. If l did not
a q horror of the venomous cobra !
could duplicate every trick known to
the Hindus. But / draw the line on
snakes. The cobra is an important
part of many of the indian tricks, and,
while I know how the tricks are done,
I decline to d a lot of cobras to my
properties.
There are two distinct classes Of
magicians in India, the street fakirs
and the priests. The former are clever
sleight-of-hand men-yes, I'll tell you
how their tricks are lone presently
while the priests are conjurers of much
skill. When the prince of Wales visits
India or the quadri-centennial Moham
medan feast is held, the religious con
jurers gather from all parts of thu
country and all the best of their trick
are to be seen. At the last of these ]
saw the deviation trick. 1t took a goo6
deal of study, but / got the secret "a
last and improved on it, for the Hindu
raise the body of the subject with Their
hands and "a it suspended in mid
air, while / raise the subject withou'
the application of hands at all. That is
the best trick they do. Accounts O
deviation carried to the point where
priests walk from mountain peak tC
mountain peak OF air had reached me
and / tried to run them back to au.
thentic sources. / never succeeded. ]
never found a person who had seen this
phenomenon. / did, however. find per
sons h said they had seen other per-
IONS who had seen it.
did you ever see a ghost? No? Well
you've probably seen people that had
but IL / went to them they would refer
me to someone else. It's the way with
the cloud-walkers. If nyon will tell
me where I can witness such a phe-
IlOIIS1U1l Il II start lOlilSnl. l. iiluoI bS
remembered that in India all scientific
knowledge is in possession of the
priests, some of whom are very learned.
But imagine, If you can, the effect ]
could produce on an audience that
knew nothing of electricity, physics or
n other science. That's the sort Of
audience a Hindu priest performs be-
fore, and he uses his knowledge to mys-
tify and control the ignorant masses.
The street fakirs accept money for
their services, but the religious fakirs
do not: and this very absence of appar-
ent motive gives them a stronger hold
on the i~maginations of the masses.
''The most startling tricks of the
street fakirs are the basket, pineapple.
mango tree, snake charming and duck
tricks. In the first a boy is placed in a
basket, run through with a sword,
made to vanish n Their to reappear
uninjured. The fakir that does this
trick wears a long shirt-like cloth about
his waist. After placing the boy, who
is very light and agile, In the basket,
the fakir passes a big napkin over the
basket and the boy whisks himself
from the basket, follows the napkin and
hides himself unseen the legs
of the fakir. Then the sword is run
into the basket. a red fluid like blood
being squeezed down the blade OF the
sword. The walls of pain supposedly
from the basket come from the boys
hiding place, and as the fakirs always
form half a circle around the basket
and the audience the other half. 1t is
difficult to tell where the cries come
from. Besides, with every eye fixed in
on the basket, the spectators nat
urally imagine the cries to come from
that source. The boy is whisked back
to the basket under cover of the big
napkin. 1t is clever sleight-of-hand
work, nothing more.
at took me longer to figure out the
growing pineapple trick. In this the
fakir spreads a cloth over a stone. n
suddenly the center of the cloth begins
TO rise. A few passes are made, n
when the cloth is taken off there is a
small pineapple plant, which is made TO
vanish as mysterioLsly as 1t appeared.
All the street fakirs carry their prop
critics in a bag, and in doing this trick
the bag is within arms reach of the
stone. AS 500 as the fakirs were seat
ed, or sQuatted. they began 'choo-choo-
ing and kissing, and l wondered hat
1T was for. / soon und that in MAX
ing a pass under the cloth the fakir
whisked a cobra from his bag n
placed It under the cloth. As soon as
the fakir grabbed the snake 1t curied
for a spring and began to hiss. and 1t
was this noise the fakirs drowned by
making a similar noise themselves. The
coiled snake, as soon as placed under
the cloth, began no raise his head,
which caused the cloth 10 rise up TO a
ueak. as though the plant