The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-28
MAGIC AS GOOD AS INDIA'S
OPINION OF THE LATE CHARLES
 BERTRAM, THE CONJUROR..

Could Not Do as welI-some Dexter Ous Feats. Charles Bertram, the English con jurer, whose death was recently an- nounced in The Sun, made three trips to India, where he studied the rticks for which the Indian jugglers have long been famous. He came back with the opinion that travellers had exag- gerated their skill.
 T have no hesitation in saying" he said to a friend on his last visit to this country, that after seeing 176 different Hindu conjurers, who were gathered in various parts of the coun- try by the different Rajails before whom I performed, there is not a single trick which the Indians perform that the European or American magi- clans cannot do as well, and even bet ter.
 They are clever at swallowing long chains, which are made to slink in their stomachs, and skillful at swal- lowing swords, eating fire, chewing glass and eneircling the body with red hot chains, but they are really no more adept at these things than the ordin- ary freaks and human salamanders that play the dime museum circuit.
 ''As for the rope trick, the throwing up of a rope into the air, up which man or boy chambers hand over hand and is seen no more, all that l can say is-moonshine. There Is no such trick.
 During my tours of the Far East asked for that special trick, and not a single soul did find who could do 1t or who had even seen 1t. I heard of men who had heard of others who had seen it; but I could get no direct evil dence.
 "All that I could discover about it from the Indians themselves was voic- ed by one man, who said to me in his curious English: All in imagination, all in travellers tales; I've been all over India looking for tricks; would not I have that if could get it?'
 "There is a rope trick that the In- dian jugglers do and which is very dexterous. It consists in taking a coil of rope several feet long, tossing it in- to the air and balancing it on the open palm. The rope, however, has a very thin wire running down the mid dle, so as to enable it to remain stiff for nine or ten seconds, during which 1t is balanced and that is how that trick Is dUne, although great deal of delicacy Is involved in throwing the rope up with the exact amount of force to straighten out the coils, for anything a shade under or over would interfere with the success of the feat, which at it's best is only juggling in terlude
 "Tfe other two great tricks of the Hindus are the basket trick and the mango tree trick. In the first trick a boy is put into a basket, sword is passed through it in various directions ...sesa- slne g5oyais seemingly killed, while later on he appears either from the basket or else is discovered some dis tance away, perhaps up a tree
 ttThe secret Is simple. The basket is peculiarly shaped, being much larger at the bottom than at the top. There is plenty of room in the bottom of the basket for 8 wiry Hindu lad to curl round it eelwise. The perfffiormer in driving the sword through the basket takes excellent care to miss the boy, although to the spectators it seems as 1t the sword penetrated every part of the basket.
 '"The mango trick Is even more simple, and the reports of travellers that they had witnessed with their own eyes the growth of the tree is as absurd as their tales of Hindue lads who climb up ropes and disappear, la Jack and the Beanstalk, in thin air. the mango tree is really a small twig, not more than eighteen inches high, which is deftly introduced into a can of dirt while the latter is being cover- ed with cone made of cloth and bam- boo
 "The most startling trick saw in the Far East was performed by a mendicant in the Malay Peninsula. While waiting for the mango tree to grow he did few Hindu hanky panky wrinkles.
 He took a little ball of rought cot ton about the size of a walnut and threw it to a woman who formed one of the party that were assisting him. The jerk unrayelled about three yards, and she broke the end off and kept the ball.
 '"The conjurer placed the end which he held into his mouth and by deep breath the cotton flew into his mouth, and he appeared to chew it. Then he borrowed penknife from me and with the big blade made a motion as If he would stab himself in the throat the woman preventing him with a rather artistic stimulation or horror and excitment.
 Presently she turned her back and the man seized the opportunity to plunge the knife into his abdomen. That part of the trick he did so real isttcally that I confess I felt rather faint. He then put his hand under the loose linen shirt he was wearing and began to draw out the piece of cotton.
 When he had drawn out nearly as much as the length of the piece that had been broken off he lifted his shirt slightly and showed the end of the cotton apparently embodied in the. skin. He then took the knife and nov ed 1t upward against the skin, as if he were pressing out the last bit of thread which was tinged with red as if with blood.
 This was an admirably executed little trick, although by no means diff
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