Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-07-23
BLACK ART HARD
ON POTATOES.
Boston Herald.

Adelphia since early manhood, and un-
til only recently, has followed the voca-
ton of magician, and his wanderings as
such with various theatrical and yaude-
vile companies have taken him over the
United States several times and into
many foreign countries. In 1901 he and
his own company toured Alaska and
northern British Columbia, giving per-
formances at every way station where
little dust" could be gathered together
as a reward and while on this jaunt
Adelphia says he crossed the circle into
the frigid zone and startled the natives
with his tricks in legerdemain.
Il shall never forget" said Adelphia in
describing his northern trip to a group
of friends recently, ''the time | performed
before Chief Isaacs and bunch of his
subjects at Moosehide, a typical northern
Indian village few days before Christ
mas, 1901. | had given a performance
the day before at Dawson, and an ac
quaintance / had made there suggested
that we could have some rare sport by
invading Moosehide with magic.
Accordingly, accompanied by my new
friend, drove over there the next day
in a sled. The wonderment of the ST.
washes was first excited when two mys-
FERROUS looking trunks were unloaded
| from the sled in front of the chiefs hut.
A few words to the chief by my friend
put us in good with him and he invited
us inside with our trunks, summoned the
savages from the outside and introduced
me in his crude way as the white medi-
cine man
Il had things all my own way, and
during the performance / was able to
resurrect old tricks that / had had to
| drop from my repertoire years ago be-
cause they had become so common that
white audience would laugh me down
should / have the nerve to exhibit them
in this day and age.
81 started off with the old threadbare
stunts, such as palming cards, turning
water into wine, etc, and it was not
many minutes until was looked upon
by my ignorant audience as a veritable
devil
what did those poor children of ma
ture know about the double compart
ment pistol, the mysterious egg basket,
the loaded hat or the traps in the tables
A chair to them was chair, nothing
more. The old chief was nonplussed
when, after ] had manipulated the egg
bAS lOA a hiAuubS; dohCu W bC etltVWO0
to feel inside it, and he found it was
empty. Again he felt and it was full of
eggs, eggs were everywhere-on the floor,
under the table, in the folds of mis- gar
ments, and he was given a great laugh
when l even plucked couple from his
mouth | guess he is still trying to fig
ure out whence they came and where
they disappeared.
THE abject simplicity of the natives
was forcibly shown when l grabbed one
of the youngsters by the nose and told
him to blow through that organ He did,
and | told him sharply to blow hard
This he did as ] commanded, and
thought he and all the rest would drop
dead when a whole pack of playing cards
shot out apparently from his nostrils
and huttered to the ground This trick
was repeated by request upon another
young native and another deck of cards
was blown from a Siwash nasal append
age and scrambled for by the youngsters
| looked out of the door of the hut few
minutes later to see three or four OF the
little fellows outside holding each others
noses and blowing for dear life in an
effort to produce more pasteboards.
MY potato trick though, brought the
show to speedy climax. If ] hadn't
stopped when | did I'd have been bank
rupt. | asked old Isaacs if he had
potato The chief ordered his squaw to
| bring one, which she did. / then called
| for knife, and with the knife | started
to cut the potato in halves. The sayages
crowded round me to watch developments
and were amazed when the knife struck
sonnet hing hard in the center of the tu-
| Der. | could cut no further but finally
worked around the obstruction, and
when the potato was divided. there was
bright new half dollar. / tossed the
coin outside and you should have seen
the scramble for it.
II didn't have to ask for second DO
tato; the trick what repeated and an
other half dollar given the Indians as a
souvenir A third time / was prevailed
upon by wondering hosts to open po-
tato, but by this time every buck,
| klootchman and papoose in the crowd
was armed with potato and eamoring
| to have it opened. l saw my finish loom
| ing up and not very far ahead / saw
| the seasons profits dwindling and it did
not require great stretch of Magma
tion to picture certain long haired
wizard stranded in the far and frozen
northland, mushing his way out to civ
| llEatloh with Sauht famine uogglng his
| tracks.
Lets duck-beat it, l whispered to
my white companion, and while divert
ed the attention of the scrambling and
insistent aborigines, my pal hustled our
kits of paraphernalia to the dog sled and
at the psychological moment I made a
dash for liberty and we were off.
Il heard since that our visit was fol-
lowed by a potato famine in Moosehide.
for no sooner had we left the village
than the inhabitants in their mad quest
for silver half dollars, ransaeked the
camps for potatoes and cut them into
bits. cursing their luck and the white
devil for their disappointment There
wasn't a potato left in Moosehide. -
| Tukwila iAlaska) Cor. Seattle Times.
Fall of a Historic Tree.