A MODERN MAGICIAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

A MODERN MAGICIAN.

NEW YORK'S ENCHANTED WOOD. MODERN CREDULITY. Revelations of credulity made in a Hoboken court recently recall the wildest legends of " magic' carpets" and Eastern miraculous lore. Hoboken is on the " Surrey side" New York, and is chiefly occupied by citizens of Teutonic birth or descent. It is about as fairylike as Bermondsey, but here, according to the evidence given. Professor Theodore Sikorra exercised his magic art, '' like Merlin in the forest grove.' So at least said prosecuting counsel for Mr. Gregory Pickle, who sued Professor Sikorra to recover £5, money paid, and.£loo damages for breach of contract. Six months ago Mr. Pickle was a happy toiler in the silk mills of New Jersey, but he desired riches and c wife, so he sought Sikorra,' who advertised in the newspapers his qualifications as a " magician, enchanter, necromancer, seer, pundit, Eastern mystic, and osteopath." Mr. Pickle paid £5 as a fee, and was promised. £40,000 and a rich wife. First, however, he was' to get into the enchanted forest which lies all about the crystal city of Hoboken. Coming into the depths of the gnarled wood, he was to-listen for the call of the she wolf," and then seek the nest of the "sacred wild bird." From this nest he was to abstract, and bear away one egg. He was to place it in his armpit and cany it night and day. Also he was to eat nothing but apples, This treatment was to continue for 'five weeks, and every day Pickle was to go into the enchanted forest of Hoboken and see visions. The plaintiff says he was assured by the professor that he would see the Pope and the Kaiser communing, whereupon his course was simple. He was to cry out, " Give me £40,000 and a rich wife," and, hi the two men would Vara, votes Aaowsrj Vwd. \fe» •«&«. ' I Amidst roars of laughter Pickle said he had obeyed the instructions to the best of his ability, but not to the letter, as in Hoboken you cannot see much, " because I of the houses in between," ■ and for the egg of the "sacred wild bird" he had substituted a mere plover's egg. , Judge Blair v said the whole thing belonged to a past century, and awarded Pickle only the £5 he had paid to the modern Merlin.