MAGICIANS.

Grey River Argus, 12 October 1922, Page 3

MAGICIANS.

FOOLINCr THB P’UiiLIC. HOW IT IS DONE. It. is occasionally healthful to be made feel a fool, says a wr::er in the Melbourne “Age.” It is a desirable corrective to a mind inclined to be unduly uplifted. And there is al\v;4yb one consolation. As long as a man is capable of feeling a fool he is still some way off from being one. Few things make ore feel so foolish as a clever display of "utgic. The practice of magi.- m m»w fashionable. It used to la called the Flack Art. The art survives in great perfection and profusion; the blackness has been rubbed oil*. Melbourne, for instance, has a Society of Magicians, whose respectability is even greater than their dexterity. They arc amusing men. who smilingly disclaim powers of sable origin. This style of magician Ts an honest person, lie docs not hide IT in you the fact that he is humbugging you. It is for you to find out how. And clever though you secretly think your self, you never can. You may loftily indicate that you are sure you know how the thing is done. But you are careful never to try it. Or if you do you are certain to foozle it. PUBLIC CREDULITY, There is a sense of pleasure in bo ing mystified even att-er all supernatural suggestion is eliminated. We r-o longer need regard, the a< t. with awe. but the skill displayed in performing it deserves admiration. Education, however, is never likely to dispel credulity. Evidently each generation has to carry its own quota of fools. Tin charlatan magician can find in every community some who are willing to pay him for performing acts of flagrant trickery and to put faith in hit occult pretensions. A service has been rendered to lion est magic by a book entitled: ‘‘The Life ami Mysteries of a Celebrated Dr. recently published by il'f Alexander Company, Los Angeles, CTI The writer explains that Dr. Q. was man of unusual personality and a ecu summate rogue, who had spent all he life performing one trick after another. When at J.mt he Lund him.-eli an exile mid outcast he describe many of his methods of operation a* well as the methods of many othei famous fraudulent mediums. The au thor is careful to explain that he nei ther affirms nor denies the existence of spiritual phenomena. His purpura is not to refute the scientists who ns sort the reality. He deals only wdl that which he knows to be center feit, so that it may help in the re search of the genuinely psychic. SO-CALLED 1 MYSTHRIEs EXPOSED The same old tricks suffice tomysti fy each new generation. Some nr-' dependent on complex mechanism, but usually it is of the simples: character. "With the help of diagrams Dr Q. makes perfectly (dear how many uncalled mysteries are performed. Tin* sight of a lady placed in a box and then sawn in two used to shock tin' simple-minded. Yet all it meant was that while she was being inserted at one end she projected from the other a pair cf legs shaped and •Iraja-d exactly like her own. JShe tucked up her knees to her chin an I the saw passed through in the vicimtv of her poles. Another old familiar tn-k i< the “handcuff act.’’ still one of the greatest drawing card.-, in the .-.how business. It owes its mystery 1o it. -n - plicity. The advertising bluff vi'U.cs, but it all ends in “Jones the n.vd Breaker” inviting th.? i <d:ee to place on him handcuffs, shack'.'-s or leg irons, from which he gim ranges to escape within a few seconds. And ho does it because he knows—what Ins audience usually does not, know —that in the entire civilised world there arc less than sixty different styles of handcuffs, leg irons and similar implements. It is only necessary for the performer to have secreted in his possession this number of keys. With a little practice the key that belongs to ,

i I each article can be sorted out in I few seconds. i < ESCAPE FROM STRAIT JACKET. I An escape from a strait-jacnet in full view of the audiemb looks an im l possibility; with ten minutes’ practiuv it can be accomplished by almost anybody. Usually the performer Ims Im own strait-jacket, but oven when louses an official one ii is. seldom placed upon him. in the regulation. manm'i with the arms interlocking across Inchest. It is placed upon him with tin arms folded straight, iit is then easy to throw the right arm up over the h-ft and over lhe head, to unbuckh' with the toe<h the straps that hold the ends <_>, ’ together, and then pull the jacket up over the head. The handculf king nev.r allows lii< | police to intufmek his arms across th' 1 chest, or to place the jacket on him with his chest inflated, Ho is a wil, i bird, and he knows the difference r . would make to the result. Then there is telepathy. The stng< variety may always be regarded si: »inciouslv. You know the sort of act.

| A committee of the audience is invi.w Ito blindfold the lady assistant tlo o uglily. The performer announces that, by telepathic process, the ]ady will describe whatever he has in lim | l ands. He passes through the audi- | ence; each article given him Hie gir describes promptly ami accurately Hundreds of people go home convimed as to the genuineness of telepathy Here is the catch. A third perse is standing behind a peephole in tlu wings with powerful glasses. He see; every object clearly ami transmits thin formation via a detect aphonc* con nected with wires running under th stage to two copper plates undur thI ground cloth, which again coaa-ecJ with brads in the bottom of the real chair legs to wires running through : sensitive receiver in the side of ii. chair. Every detail se-.-n through tin glasses is spoken into the duteuta phone and repeal I by the lady on tlu I stage. Ami again you are live simple ton.

AIDING THE CLAIRVOYANT. Clairvoyance is men*/ a variant of the same trick. Any question whis pered to the performer is instantly answered by Ct’.e assistant on th' stage. In this case the performer has concealed behind his handkerchief L his vest front a sensitive receiver connected by two wires to a brad in the heel and one in the sole of the shoe. The carpets on the aisle have twoinch strips of copper running up to the ground cloth on the stage; these are connected by tinsel wires to the assistant’s chair. A plug in the back lof the chair connects with ■wires at the lady’s waist-band that run up to I a receiver concealed in her hair. She | can hoar the question as soon as it | is whispered. i Mind reading is pure fake. Any intelligent person who troubles to memorise the code may set up in the j business. Yon work by figures; worth I stand for figures. The questions asked are amazingly similar; a list of a I hundred wil practically cover allthai I need be anticipated. Questions and numbers must be memorised. At the performance the question is whispered: “How many children will I have?’ The performer says to his assistant: “Please you try to answer this lady’s question.” “Please” and “try” are cues, they represent figures 6 ami 1 question 63 in your li t is the one the lady asked. I With practice, great ’efficiency can be I achieved. Probably you think you could ask countless questions not con ■ tained in any list. So you could. Pul ; the public mind when in bulk has t I curious sameness. Experience am i knowledge of human nature prove tha‘ ] questions likely to be asked can b'widely embraced in any carefully con coeted list. Of course you need t< supplement your work with your wits but quite a number of “Mind Read ers” and “Second Sigh tors” arc mak ing a good and* easy livin