The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-09-02
ANCIENT TR|CKSTERS.
Queer Conjuring Feats of the
Seventeenth Century.
SOME QUAINT OLD RECIPES.

Little Experiments In Which Boiling
Heads OFF Living Animals Was an
Incident-How They Killed a Horse
and Cured Him Again.
Conjurers in ancient times were not
very respectable members of society.
When successful they enjoyed the rep
utation OF having sold their souls to the
evil one, and when OF inferior ability
they gained notoriety by being either
drowned or burned. The medieval
magicians as well as the Egyptian
magi and the Chaldean sages were only
a strange mixture of chemist, conjurer
and charlatan, and as these gentlemen
were in the habit of using their sup
posed occult powers TO their own ad-
vantage they were naturally unpopu-
lar. The feats of jugglery performed
by these craftsmen were intended for
the mystiflcation and not the amuse-
ment of the public, and for centuries
conjuring had to it only black side.
The amateur conjurer Of today is not
always a popular individual, save with
children and the ursophisticated yokels.
To the general public he is merely
bore Of greater or less magnitude,
whose performance Is so obvious as to
deceive no one. 1t Is hard TO realize
that this person is no mere mushroom
growth Of modern society, but in point
Of fact his role is one of a respectable
antiquity, for he Is to be found tread
ing close upon the heels OF the magi-
clans and In the days when witchcraft
was still rampant This Is significant
of his reputation even in those early
times, for had any one taken his tricks
seriously he would doubtless have been
run to earth and done to death as a
wizard.
In the middle of the seventeenth
century, In the earliest years of the
restora tfon. a number of tricks were
published in one of those facetious
books which seem to have occupied
the press to q great extent at this time.
but which owing to their popularity
have for the most part persisted. The
chief recommendation of the greater
number Of these tricks is that no ap
paratus beyond the utensils of every
day life IL necessary; also it is sug
gested to the performer that he can
make some small profit out of his en-
tertainment by prevailing on his audi
ence to bet with him on the result of
the trick.
ITO set a horses or an asses head
upon a mems head and shoulders"
seems impossible out Of the land of
Faery. but we are Informed that by
boiling the head cut off a living
animal "the flesh boyrd may runne
into oyle." and then by mingling the
hair beaten into powder with this
standers-by they shall seem to have
horses or asses heads'-a costly ex
pertinent and fearsome II successful.
But. besides this. one can make peo-
pie seem headlesse," and this without
blocdshed and by the following simple
recipe: Break arsenick very fine and
boyle 1t with sulphur In a cover'd pot
and kindle it with new candle. and
the standers-by will seem to be head
Jesse" Doubtless strong magma
ton is necessary for success.
Some of the tricks are such as would
cause the performer to be
to put itomildly. For instance,
have a nut flied with ink and give
this unto another and bid him, crack it
md see what he can find in that"
which being done Twill cause much
laughter"
To keep. a Tapster from frothing his
pots" must have been an amusement
to the ways Of the period, and for this
provide in readinesse the skin of a red
Ucrir-. ard s"a the Tapster is alb |