The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-29
FAMOUS BRITISH AUTHOR EXPOSES
 TRICKS OF SUPERNATURALISTS

who saw the trlck performed on the diffused light of that day.
 The Woman In the Sack.
 But there are other tricks which only Indians have performed, so far as I know, which are almost as amaz- ing as the rope trick. For example, there is the woman in the sack which I do not think as yet has ever been
 successfully performed or satisfac- torily explained.
 The juggler took an ordinary iute sack and through it on the ground. He then brought it round to us-this happened in Natal--and invited us to examine it before he again placed it on the ground and trampIed all over it, piercing it with the point of a sword in about 20 places.
 He then opened the mouth of the sack and blew into 1t. It immedi- ately began to swell as though it were a large balloon and airproof, though
 this it could not have been, since the
 bag was of loosely-woven fibre After it had swollen to it's fullest capacity, we observed strange writhings and
 twistings going on as though some body was inside. He then opened the
 mouth of the sack, which hitherto he had held tightly in his hand, and a
 girl crawled out. After making her sheepish bow to the audience she crawled into the bag, which in the
 meantime had been handed around
 for our inspection. The mouth of the sack was then tied, and the sword was thrust more or less indfscrimi- nately into the sack, this performance being accompanied by blood-curdling
 shrieks the part of the lady ins. :.
 The bag was again opened, and this time the woman crawled out--with baby in her arms!
 I have not troubled to investigate this trick, which was performed in the full light of day in large garden, the property of my host, an Angle-Indian. who took a tremendous interest in na- tive magic. But there is no doubt whatever that simple explanation
 could be offered. Very often an Anglo Indian will take as great a delight In
 mystifyfng the globetrotting stranger as the jugglers themselves, and in that case one often finds that the Eu- ropean Is in the mystery, and renders some assistance in bringing the ex-
 pertinent to a successful conclusion. Birth of the Orange Tree. Another trick very commonly seen by all who have visited the East is the birth of the orange tree, which is first a heap of dirt collected between
 the conJuror's hands, then sprig and then when the cloth is placed on it
 and removed a blossoming tree, and finally a tree bearing one orange Here undoubtedly is a case of sleight- of-hand, and my experience has been that the orange, which the conjuror picks off and brings to the audience that they may test 1t and try for themselves, is not the orange which is eventually opened by any member of the audience, but one which is sub stituted by sleight-of- hand whilst the conjuror is making his way to the bewildered spectators.
 The Indian juggler trains for days and weeks and months before he per forms the simplest trick. One form of training is to carry and manipulate a glass of water filled to the brim
 without spiling a drop. It is extra ordinary how men are able to per form this sort of balancing. One of the great Brahmin Rajahs told me that he had seen an Indian juggler amputate his own leg in full vlew of the audience and replace II,
 Most Amazing Trick Ever Performed. To my mind one of the most amaz- ing tricks that has ever been per formed is the trick of the rose.'' The performer takes a big rose, and lay
 
 the rose apart, leaf by leaf, until not q thing but the stalk is left. The rose-1eaves he cruShes in a mortar before he twists them into a sheet of thin paper and burns them. The stalk he sticks in the ground. Over this stalk he invites one of the au- dtence to place a paper cone, which is passed round for inspection, whilst another cone is placed over the ashes of the burnt rose-1eaves.
 In this experiment the man stands some distance from the object of his som mething in a low voice, and in stantly both cones begin burning from the bottom upwards. When they have finished burning they represent black paper, which a memb Der of the audience is invited to remove. When they are lifted you find under one the perfect rose slightly shrivelled by the burning of the cone, and under the other a neatly folded piece of pa per.
 This experiment is remarkable be- 1 cause the juggler does not go any
 where near either the rose stalk or 1 the paper cone. The burning of these 1 cones may have simple scientific ex- 1 planation. The rest, however, is not 1 so easy to explain.
 Again and again have I seen the : basket trick, where boy is put in