The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-08-27

Lei AQelpnla, now a business HAL
and a member of the town council
Of TGkwila. lays claim to having
been the first person to carry the
black art" across the Arctic circle.
.Adelphia since early manhood and
until recently has followed the voca-
ti0n of magician, and his wander
ings as such with various theatrical
and vaudeville companies have taken
him over the United States several
times and into many foreign coun-
tries. In 1901 he and his own COM
pany toured Alaska and northern
British Columbia giving perform
ances at every way station where a
little dust could be gathered to-
gether as reward. and while on
this iaunt Adelphia says he crossed
the circle into the frigid zone and
startled the natives with his tricks
in legerdemain.
Il shall never forget" said Adel
phia- in describing his northern trip
70 group of friends recently, the
time performed before Chief Isaacs
and bunch of his subjects at Moose
hide, a typical northern Indian vii
lage, few days before Christmas,
1901. l lad given performance
the day before at Dawson, and an
acquaintance l had made there sug-
gested 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 sled. The wonderment
of the Siwashes was first excited
when two mysterious looking trunks
were 1nloadedN 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 in
side with our trunks, summoned the
duced me in his crude way as the
white medicine man."
had things all my own way and
during the performance was able to
resurrect old tricks that I had had to
drop from my repertoire years ago
because they had become so common
that white audience would laugh
me down should / have the nerve to
exhibit them in this day and age.
II started off with the old thread
bare stunts, such as palming cards,
turning water into wine, etc., and it
was not many minutes until i was
looked upon by my ignorant audi
ence as veritable devil.
What did those poor children of
nature know about the double COM
partment pistol, the mysterious egg
basket, the loaded hat or the traps
An the tables? A chair to them was
chair, nothing more The old chief
was nonplussed when, after had
manipulated the egg bag for a min
ute, he asked to be allowed to feel in
side it, and he found it was empty.
Again he felt and it was full of eggs,
eggs eVerywhere-on the floor, I'M
der the table, in the folds of his gar
ments, and he was given great
laugh when plucked couple from
his mouth. guess he is still trying
~ MSuT0 Out Wu0Hc0 Lu0y came ana
where they disappeared.
The abject simplicity Of the ma
tiVes was forcibly shown when
grabbed one of the youngsters by the
nose and told him to blow through
that organ. He did, and I told him
sharply to blow hard This no did
as ] commanded, and 1 thought he
and all the rest would drop dead
when a whole pack of playing cards
shot out apparently from his nostrils
and futtered to the ground. This
trick was repeated by request upon
another young native and another
deck of cards was blown from a ST.
wash nasal appendage and scrambled
for by the youngsters. l looked ont