WIZARDS’ WEIRD TRICKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21360, 13 June 1931, Page 16

WIZARDS’ WEIRD TRICKS

SKELETONS THAT SMOKE. ' : ■There are certain undergraduates at Cambridge University who refuse to play cards because if they, won their opponents might accuse them of cheating. . The reasons are: Because they can out-sharp any card sharper; produce aces from their clothing; are masters of the three-card trick; and can identify every card in the pack after a deal has taken place. These card experts are among the members of the queerest club at Cambridge—the Tentacle Club, which exists for promoting magic. Members who are qualified in any branch of magic are entitled to wear a tie with a five-pointed star. One member took to the club the esoteric lore of making skeletons walk out of, cupboards, smoke cigarettes, and even talk. Members of the club meet during term in each other’s rooms. One shows how he can sit blindfold in a corner and tell four bridge players what cards they should play. Invariably they find the cards he mentions are in their hands, and that the combination he dictates provides an exciting game. Hours of private practice before a mirror are undertaken by members of the club in order to perfect illusions they have invented. The secretary, Mr J. A. Cope, of Trinity College, can produce liandfulls of billiard balls out of the air. Another member makes a heavy metal ball float about until he releases the spell, and the ball falls to the ground. * ■' “ Some of our fellows are better than many professionals,” t a member of the Tentacle Club said lately. “ Why, one of the tricks planned by us even baffled members of the Magic Circle, which includes all the most famous illusionists. It was a demonstration of telepathy. In absolute silence an undergraduate sat blindfolded. Two strangers chalked numbers on a blackboard, and lie read them out. They chalked up numbers together. He gave the totals. “ Another member, who makes delicate scientific instruments in the daytime, has invented a ghost burglar. The burglar, wearing a white cloak, is confronted by the ‘ householder,’ who shoots him with a revolver, whereupon the cloak collapses—empty. “ Our joining up a divided footman also aroused astonishment. We show a cupboard with the head, body, and legs of a liveried footman on three shelves. Tresently, when the doors are opened again, the footman walks out.”