Year: 1879

There was nothing very remarkable
in the appearance or dress of our con
juror. An elderly man, short and
sparely made, dressed in dingy white
cotton, with very tight sleeves to his
robe and very tight legs to his drawers
he might haye been a respectable sery-
ant out of place, but actually was q
small land owner who had taken to
conjuring for his amusement. When
he -ehrered the room he spread white
cloth upon the floor and sat down
upon it with his back to the wall, the
door of the room being on his right
hand. His spectators were disposed
OF in the following fashion: Mr..
Smyth sat On a chair nearly in the
middle of the room, was sitting on a
sofa near the door, the Parsee mer-
chant stood in the doorway about
arms length from me. The servants
stood about in groups, the largest
group being between the door and the
conjurer. AS soon as he had settled
himself he turned to the Parsee mer-
chant and asked for the loan of a ru.
pee. The peddler at first demurred q
little, but on being guarante ed against
loss he produced the coin. He wal
going 10 put it into the conjurer't
hand, but the latter refused and told
the Parsee to hand it to Mr.. Smyth's
bearer.


The bearer took il, aud at the re.
quest of the conjuror, looked at it and
declared it to be really a rupee. The
coniuror then told him to hand it to
his master. Mr.. Smyth took it, and
then followed this dialogue:


Conjuror-Are you sure that is a
rupee.


Smyth-Yes.


Conjursr-Close your hand on it and
hold it tight. Now think of some
country in Europe. but do not tell me
your thoughts.


Then the conjuror ran over the
names of several countries, such as
France, Germany, Russia, Turkey and
America-for the native of India is
under the impression that America is
in Europe! After moments pause,
Mr.: Smyth said he had thought of a
country.


'Then open yonr hand said the
juegler; ssee what you have got and
tell me il 1t is a coin of the country you
thought of 1t was five-franc piece
and Mr.. Smyth had thought of France.
He was going to hand the coin to the
conjuror, but tho latter said, NO
psss it to the other sahib.' Mr.. Smyth
accordingly put the five-franc piece in
my hand; l looked closely at it, then
shut my hand and thought of Russia
When opened it found, not Rus
sian but Turkish silver piece about
the size of a five franc piece or of oul
own crown piece. This handed to
Mr.. Smyth and suggested that he name
America, which he did, and found 8
Mexican dollar In his hand. The coin
whatever it was, had never been in the
sonjuror's hand from the time the ru.
pee was borrowed from the Parsee
merchant. Mr.. Smyth and his bearer
had closely examined the rupee, and
Smyth and turned over several times
the five franc piece, the Turkish coir
and the dollar; SO that the trick die
not depend on a reversible coin. In
deed, it could not, for the coin under
went three changes, as has been seen
L need only add for the information o
those who know not India, that ru
pee is only about the size of form
and therefore about half the weight o.
a fl franc piece. The juggler per
formed several other tricks that day
but they were of a commonplace kind
and in no way comparable with thu
coin trick, which L have never seel
rivalled by any other conjurer in Indis
or EurOpe.-[ University Magazine.