SECRETS OF A LIGHTNING “CARD-MANIPULATOR.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12535, 24 June 1901, Page 10

SECRETS OF A LIGHTNING “CARD-MANIPULATOR.”

. : (Tit-Bite.) Those who want to succeed in life must, undoubtedly, play their cards well. People who would like to know how to do this and to witness at the same time an extremely clever entertainment might do well to visit the Palace Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, where Mr Howard Thurston is exhibiting —probably the most bewildering “ cardmanipulator ” in the world. One of Thurston’s most successful tricks fa the following:—He takes a pack of cards Mid, selecting one card at a time, throws each singly, into the air, as it seems, until the entire pack has disappeared and his hands' are empty. He then recovers;the cards one hy one from the atmosphere, the curtains, etc., until ho has the complete pack once more in his hands. 53b© cards vanish. and re-&pp®3-r in full right of the audience. Another trick is to suJeO certain cards, chosen hy the andi«joe, rise from the pack as their names oaHcd. It’s simply sleight of hand, said Thurs-, ton, when the writer interviewed him at the Palace Theatre. The cards are never |ar away from me all the time—but I use Bo elastics, threads, or accessories, merely erdimary packs of cards. This is how it’s . done { It’s quite simple (and as he spoke a, pack of cards vanished: into space) t the cards are slipped through my fingers rapidly, so, and disappear. When I show the palms empty the cards are at the hacks of tar hands, and when I show the backs empty Tve slipped the cards round to the palms. That'S all Yes, it requires much practice. For the first five years I practiced seven hours per day. I now practise on© hour every morning before a large mirror, and again twenty minutes before my performance. To keep my hands lissom, i Lav©them, ■*-. MASSAGED THRICE PER WEEK. My first appearand© as a “ card-manipu-lator * was at Tony Pastor's Theatre, New York, in 1895. I have appeared three times before President M’Kinley and also many ©that notabilities. My salary _waa at first £144 per week; I now earn from £SO to £6O per week, which, as my nightly performance only takes ten of fifteen minutes, oomM cut at about £1 per minute, ,1m booked three years ahead, including three months per year for three years althoEmTih», London, beside 1 ' engagements in Paris, Borlin, Vienna, St- Petersburg, and in fact In nearly every country in the world. Ive a six-months’ engagement here at the Pal*°l mostly study new tijeks when travelling. I cannot he taught any, IVe got beyond that, and must invent any I want. My new tricks are invented through my always .being on the look-out for new ideas, or are suggested, hy accidents and unexpected incidents during my performance. You have to be wary not to overdo it, or it haunts you day and night—and you dream cards. I knew a oard-ponjuref who went mad through it, and he s in an asylum sow. “ Card-manipulating * can be acquired to some extent. I knew a young bank clerk who got dismissed because he married withx out his firm’s permission. He had a wife and child, and was out of a berth. Not knowing how else to help him I suggested 1 should teach him u card-mani-pulating.” I kept him practising one trick a whole day, and the next day another, and so on ; and, finally, I got him an engagement at 30s per week. He never went Jack to clerking, and he wrote me, a month *go, that he is now earning £6OO per year hy ** osrd-manipulating.'’ £vp hod some rougmsh times in my earBst days, performing in the American mining towns, ' ?yn one ocoadqn my profession stood me in cood stood, Out troupe, five in ell, had Jut etowed fjhe Itocky Mountains and pitched for tit* night not far from a mining aunp, when, without the rilghtest warning, ve found oursdves SURROUNDED BT SEVERAt INDIANS. An old Indian, whom I took to be the djurf demanded whisky and all too gold tfe had, evidently mistaking us for gold A#oepeotors. It was a case of “ gdd or our fives, " and thing* looked serious. It was . then that my “magical" resources proved pm, I couldn't find any gdd, but from •'mv'apparently empty hands I produced • Moured handkerchiefs, bead-strings, the tevel globe of. gdd-fiA, cage and canary, much to the Indians* mystification. ■ •’■A r»th©r one-sided aspect of the joke Wee that each article that I produced the chief immediately claimed as his property sod promptly confiscated. As, he grew Wore friendly I presently 1 produced a live rabbit from under his cloak. He was ttmdh astonished, but quite equal to the occasion, for'he took my rabbit and handed it to hi* squaw to be cooked for his supper. . I entertained the tribe with various tricks for, nearly an hour, when, fortunately, a, party of nearly a hundred miners came along and the Indiana quietly departed. I’ve sometimes had a good deal of fun playing cards at clubs and private houses where my profession was not known. We played whist at a well-known London baronet’s house a week or two ago, and in every hand my partner and I held all the trumps between us. * Our opponents were greatly mystified. A well-known American, millionaire, who has a veritable mania for card tricks, offered me £SO to teach him a certain trick he had seen me perform. He was terribly anxious to buy It* but I told him £IOOO wouldn't tempt me. “It’s yours,” ha said, and greatly to my surprise ho wrote me a cheque for the amount, and 1 showed him how the trick was done on condition of his never attempting to perform it outride of his own diuw :

tag-room. During one voyage I had an interesting adventure. On some of th© liners there Ire, ia jou may have heard, mOFESSIDKJO, CABD-SHABPKBS Who constantly travel backwards and forirwdt between America and Europe for the njrooM of plundering any young men going «to«i few hundred pounds capital to start finning or stock-raising. A Strict watch Is always kept for these rascal*, and if discovered they are port off |be ship «t tb« first port j often, however, they weep* recognition. 1 hadn’t been long flo'hoard, on the occasion I speak of, before I noticed two gentlemanly-looking fellows who played cards a great deal,’most f)f tlie thno with a young man, an Englishman, Who seemed to have very bad luck. They i*V«tal times ooufteoualy tavited me to Join Sem, but I declined. One morning the |WK«tiTrvm Introduoed himself to me, and lb| would like to consult mo. .Briefly £u ncKT was this. He was travelling fra tas nodus. I diamond merchant, and had brought nearly £2OOO worth of diamonds Wtttlhihn. Since he had been playing with Ibose “ gentiemon M 'they had won from him +nt £9) O and nearly story diamond he I*4, «od ta Addition had got-a ptomtamfy •eta from Win for £2OO. I meditated. X guewed the • eharpsra would still try to get me id play—and t wus rijfht. They asked me next day, and Iflooscntcd. 1 sat down to play cards with the young diamond merchant’s traveller and the two ■harpers. They were “dead sharps,” too! They cheated Systematically oil the time, but th*v hadn't a look in with me. I produced aces, kings, and queens from everywhere, and, to be brief, tov English friend and I gave the Sharpers such a plucking that they refused to continue playing. Then I rose and accused jbhem of cheatfug. A crowd got round, and’while some of them held the sharpers, I, in my best professional style, produced packs ,of cards from their pockets, sleeves, and even their oboes. Finally they were compelled fay the lap tain and the passengers to give up the Jewellery, money, etc., they had wrongfully obtained, and were put ashore. I gave them my card, and they stared at my name in hi ask astonishment. This diamond ring pros afterwards sent to mo by the English, jnan. It’s worth about £3OO.