The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-11-06
BLACK ART
.ONPOTATOES

and member of the town council OF
Tukwila, lays claim to having been
the first person to carry the black
art across the Arctic circle.
Adelphia since early manhood. and
until only recently has followed the
vocation of magician, and his wander
ings as such with various theatrical
and vaudeville companies have taken
him over the United States severa
times and into many foreign coun
tries In 1901 he and his own com
pany toured Alaska and northern
British Columbia, giving performances
at every station
81 shall never forget" said Adelphia
in describing his northern trip to
group of friends recently, the time
| performed before Chief lsaacs and
bunch OF bis subjects at Moosehide,
typical northern Indian village a
few days before Christmas, 1901.
had given a performance the day be-
fore at Dawson, and an acquaintance
| had made there suggested that we
could have some rare sport by invad
the Moosehide with magic.
Accordingly, accompanied by my
new friend | drove over there the
next day in a sled The wondermeni
of the Siwashes was first excited
when two 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 say
ages from the outside and introduced
me in his crude way as the white
medicine man.
Il had things all my own way, and
during the performance | was able to
| rcsurrect 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.
Il started off with the old thread.
bare stunts such as pa,ming 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
nature know about the double com
partTCnt pistol. the mysterious egg
| basket. the loaded hat or the traps in
the tables? A chair to them was a
chair, nothing more. The Old chief
was nonplussed when, after had
manipulated the egg bag for Il minute,
he asked to be allowed 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 his garments.
and he was given a great laugh when
\ even plucked a couple from his
mouth. ! guess he is still trying to
figure out whence they came and
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 told hin
sharply to blow hard This he did
as | commanded. and thought he and
all the rest would drop dead when a
Whole PACK or playing cares srot on,
apparently from his nostrils and flut
tered to the ground. This trick was
repeated by request upon another
young native and another deck oi
cards was blown from Siwash nasa
apperdage and scrambled for by the
youngsters looked out of the dooI
of the hut few minutes later to see
three or four of the little fellows out
side holding each others noses ant
blowing for dear life in an effort Il
produce more pasteboards.
my potato trick, though. brought
the show to a speedy climax. If
hadn't stopped when ! did I'd have
been bankrupt I asked old Isaacs il
he had a potato. The chief ordered
his squaw to bring one, which SHE
did. ! then called for a knife, ant
with the knife started to cut tn,
, potato in halves. The savages crowd
ed round me to watch development
and were amazed when the knit,
I struck something hard in the cente
of the tuber ] could cut no further
but finally worked around the obstruc
ton. and, when the potato was di
vided, there was a bright new hal
, dollar ! tossed the coin outside an,
you should have seen the scramble
for it,
II didn't have to ask for sccont
potato; the trick was repeated and an
, other half dollar given the Indians a
i, souvenir A third time | was pr,
vailed upon by wondering hosts I,
open a potato. but by this time ever
buck klootchman and papooso in tn
crowd was armed with "A potato an
clamOring to have it opened | say
my finish looming up and not very ia
ahead. ! saw the seasons profit
dwindling and il did not require
great stretch of imagination to pie
ture certain long-haired wizar
stranded in the far and frozen north
land. mushing his way out to civilizs
tion with gaunt famine logging hi
tracks
Let's duck-bcat it, ! whispere
to my white companion and while
diverted the attention Of the scran
; bling and insistent aborigncs. my pa
hustled our kits of paraphernalia {
the dog sled and at the psychological
moment ] made dash for liberty an
we were of
81 heard since that our visit wa
followed by potato famine in Moos,
, hide, for no sooner had we left tn
village than the inhabitants in thei
mad quest for silver half dollars, rar
sacked the camps for potatoes an