Gloucester County Democrat., 1908-07-16
Dan Cupid
Magician.
By HARRY HoUDINI,
Copyrighted, 1907, BY G. H. satcliffe.

In agony of apprehension Williams
started to arrange his modest conjur-
hg apparatus. A few hours earlier his
debut as a parlor entertainer had been
a matter of joyous and ambitious an
ticipation Now the brocaded walls
of Senator Morgan's music room fair
ly threatened to close in and choke
him, while the fragrance of hothouse.
flowers oppressed him strangely He
wondered how he had ever dared to
ask the vaudeville agent who supplied
Mrs Morgan and other fashionable
hostesses with talent to let him sub
stitute for Thorley, the eminent ma
gician who had fallen victim to la
grippe. OF course he would fail, Mrs.
Morgan would be furiNls, the agent
would never give him another engage
ment and his career would come to an
ignominious end The laughter and
chatter of the children, dancing on
the other side of the folding doors,
sounded like the deathknell of his long
cherished hopes
ssCan / help you in any way? l am
Miss Morgan The servants are all
busy with supper-and / thought-per-
haps'-
Young Williams had never thought
of needing help, but as he faced the
clear eyed, fiower-like girl and the echo
of her well modulated voice rang in
his ears he felt that his one hope Of
succeeding lay In her presence. Men
and women wiser in the social world
than Frank Williams had fallen under
the spell of Helen Morgan's rare SYM
pathy and charm and wondered how
this girl of high ideals and gentle man.
ners could be the daughter of Senator
Morgan, ponderous with the arrogance
of newly acquired wealth, and Mrs.
Morgan, who radiated commonplace
attributes as her recently purchased
diamonds scintilIated light.
AT Franks faltering thanks Helen
Morgan began quietly, but deftly, to
carry out his instructions, placing a
light gilt table here, a taboret there,
and where it would be within reach Of
the conjurer's hand a candle or q
cleaning revolver. And, though after
ward Frank Williams could not tell
how it had happened, before the set
tings for his act were prepared the girl
had drawn out his tale of half tragic
struggle, the prosaic, hard headed IA
ther storming over the visionary, mex
plicable nature of his youngest son, the
loyal mother secretly brooding over
and abetting this odd chick of her lit
tie flock, his constant endeayor to
learn the secrets of magic and then to
secure a hearing, even the rented dress
suit and the gold watch which had
been pawned that very afternoon to
buy bonbons and gilded trinkets to dis
tribute among his youthful auditors.
And as he finished it seemed to Helen
Morgan that she stood in the presence
of a struggling genius. She had read
such stories of poets, musicians and in
ventors. The tawdriness of the conjur-
ing world faded, and tenderly her hand
rested on the white satin cover of the
young mans seryante. 1t was a bit of
his mothers wedding dress, sacrificed
gladly to her sons art, rich fabric
yellowed with age and finished with
strips of rare old lace.
The performance was a great sue
cess. The children We're duly mystified
and more than delighted with the
showers of trinkets and bonbons which
apparently came from an inexhaustible
source. Mrs. Morgan had condescend-
ed TO express her appreciation, a foot
man had served supper Of such rare
delicacies that Frank had longed to
pack them all up with his parapherna-
liza and take them to his mother, and
now as he walked down the broad ave-
nue. leading from the house he felt as
II the house behind him was fairyland
indeed and Helen Morgan its princess.
But he was reused from his dream
by a grim faced butler. who came hur-
rying after him.
You're to come back to the house, .
was the brusque order, and, re-enter-
tng his fairyland, Williams faced Sem
ator Morgan, a glowering figure, In the
foreground and Mrs. Morgan, a hys-
terical one, in the background. But in
the eyes of the third he read pity, the
same tender pity which he had seen in
her eyes when Helen Morgan had
stopped to pick up his trick rabbit as
the frightened animal, escaping from
his pocket and trembling at the shouts
Of the children, had run to the girl for
protection.
"It's jail for you, young man, unless
you produce my wife's rings. She left
them behind the rock crystal vase in
the music room, and we don't propose
to have them disappeared as you do
handkerchiefs and rabbits
The scene which followed was hor-
rible nightmare to the young magician
his own protestations of innocence
drowned In Mrs. Morgan's Mysteries,
Senator Morgan's orders for an officer,
Helen's pleading for time to search
and finally the discovery Of the rings
by maid in Mrs. Morgan's dressing
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