JUGGLERS.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 75, 16 December 1875, Page 7

JUGGLERS.

The following extract from the London ' Times' describes the feats practised by certain professional jugglers, who are repeating and eclipsing the best performance of the professional'spiritualists, for the benefit of London audiences :— " The ' materialisation' feats of Eddys are greatly surpassed: by Dr Lynn, who. first dernaterialists a man, whom he has cut into small pieces, and then materialises him in a welllighted room. The cabinet tricks of the Davenports and the 'reading' feats of Foster are better done by these jugglers than they are by any professional medium. And yet, when vulgar imposters claim, that tricks of the same nature as those performed by Messrs Lynn, Maskelyne, and Cooke, but requiring much less skill are the works of spirits, there are thousands who actually admit the claim. ■ The Egyptian Hall remains the abode of. mysteries suitable to its name. After ruling ancient kingdoms, the jugglers have taken up the much more honest trade of amusing holiday folks. But the wonders worked at ttie Egyptian Hall explain the history of tha .power, which once belonged to the workers of legerdmain. Dr Lynn, for example, who lately filled the large hall at 3 and ag-ain at 8 o'clock, breaks a watch to pieces and>returns it unhurt to its owner, pulls v to fine "eggs' out of a spectators ■ beai'd, decapitates a pigeon and then makes/the bird .fly put : of a bottle of sherry. From a flowerpot he produces any flower a fastidious audience chooses, to name, and : repeated the trick with a hat, -which, -by a liberal definition of ''flower/ was allowed to respond to the request .0f ...a pertinacious listener <fbv, cauliflower. ' The, cleverest - tricks is one ; in v. r hich. .jJr, Lyiiii reads of proper ■names , written ; by any . person atnong the audience on pieces of paper which' are folded up 'and kept on the stage in. a hat. In "Palingenesia" a gentle-; man oomes.on the stagfe to be cut upand put together again, and will; we understand continue to. be .put up twice a day during* the Tn this •trick one know, whether,toiadmire more the 'endurance 6f the victim or .the-, coolness, ofi the ; ppei!ator. Messrs Maskelyne and Cook begin by causing six china dessert plates to stapd up on a table on tbVeir edges" 'like iUr] little :oysters standing; in a, row in A Ti'eiuo-h .the, Looking:glass,' then to walk about on the table, and then to roll up a sortof spiral staircase. '*' After this comes tKe ' indescribable phenomena seance/ • smfc we liave not the intention' of describing it In includes an-effori-of ora|toiy by Mr .Maskelyne, and wonderful feats by f Mr Coot, who is tied up hy a committee and then encased in a box. ; The, committee are volunteers from among the audience, and, directly, he is- tied up Mr Cook, does a nurn ( ber of thingjs all I ordinary people would' find to do when perfectly free, -He-cuts out I figures 1 in- paper, drives la^nap neatly into a board and so on, and- finally conies out of his bonds without! any appearent disturbance of them. ;The entertainment'concludes'.with a sort of pantominefiallecL",_Will the Witchi and ..the- W.atclL"_ '.." .The "skilful j uggl&rs have in thiM. s.een-B) the ; ad va.ntagequsT; assist-, ance of Mr>HaSßrde and Mrs CrotoDtpn;. an'^'MV^Hasarde'm'alces everyone la'ugh,~ while Mr Maskelyne and Mr Qooke •makes every one»si?arei -Theientertajners, are put in- ttievstocks, locked up in. a' brassbblind Wunk] ehclpß'earni a cabibett which is 'raised- ~oti pedestals above; the ground, i Of course, 'Jnonejbfjthest? res-train-ts 7 causes' avmomentfs delay to!*;hejr ,pawex. T v of 2 eYasibp^_ W^en r .Mr Gqoj&e; 'bias Heen put '^nH]iie l Qspmktlfou r know in /the a., orchestra '.sitaifeV J When . M^sk4yfl6 l^V 9^ vp,\ n a Do^ an^-tKe 1 jDpXiJpljace^.initQe larger cabinet he cbm.esion 'in:"sbihe c: 'entirely : fre^h'> character and : „;j.:v :vi -■"■• ■■■ ,*■!...■ *,'■.'',■ ■ ? ■ " : ■'-''', costume. , . ' ; ■ "