HOW SWORD TRICKS ARE DONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 31

HOW SWORD TRICKS ARE DONE.

A short time ago, in the course of a notice of the life of the late Lord Napier, an Engiish newspaper told, as a thrilling story, how that distinguished warrior, after much hesitation and no little misgiving, courageously allowed an expert Eastern swordsman to slice, with a sword of native manufacture, an orange lying in the palm of his naked, outstretched hand. Lord Napier is said to have acknowledged directly afterwards how supreme was the suspense during' the second intervening between the slow rise and swift descent of the keen blade of glittering steel, which touched his skin for an instant like a lancet of fire ; and it was further recorded of him that he at once issued to the officers around jhim imperative orders that the hazardous experiment should on no account be repeated. Really, however, whatever the hero of Magdala and his admiring etaff-attendant may have thought, there is absolutely little or nothing in such seemingly surprising swordsmanship — that is, when once you mow how it is done. The writer of this article has seen it performed in a dozen diSerent ways and with various weapons. But, differ as the various performers of the act'may 4n detail, they have only, two ways of doing it — as an apparently formidable feaVor as the most trumpery of tricks. The conjuror or " Indian " swordsman of the circus or musf c hall commonly, through ignorance, adopts- the Jatter method. He appears in the ring, or behind the footlights, 'Clad in some fantastic bespangled harlequin .-attire, with a table at his side bearing per'ihaps a score of naked swords. He begins by taking up one of these apparently at random ;and impressing his audience with its keenness by .cleaving bands of thin silken ribbon ; floating in the air, and cleaving clearly in Swain apples and oranges tossed up over his •head. • Then he .starts business. He wipes his sword, lays it carelessly down upon the table, among the others — aH, be it said, dummies — asVs somebody to kindly step out of the audience, and is quickly confronted by a confederate. This person either holds out -fcis ban£ or kneels down and lowers hia head.

and bares his neck. And then, hey, presto ! by a grand sweep of the bluntest of swords, the prepared orange or apple is instantly , divided upon its foundation of spinal vertebra or fleshy palm, amidst the loud plaudits of a sensation-stirred house. But let me come to the feat pnre and simple. Five or six years ago I witnessed its performance by an ex-body servant of the late Colonel Burnaby, under circumstances precluding trickery — in the presence of a large number of military and, therefore, presumably practical men — on the platform of a volunteer drill hall at the corner of Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich. In this instance, the «ame sword was used throughout, the orange (or lemon, I believe), prior to being cut up, was inspected by a committee, and the block upon which it lay for bisection was the neck of a boy of 12, the son of the leading actor in a scene that sent a shudder right through its spectators. Yet there was not the slightest grounds for anything like acute apprehension. Given sobriety and nerve, only a very moderate amount of swordsmanship was requisite, as I afterwards learned from a veteran non-com-missioned Indian infantry officer with whom I discussed the subject. " Faugh 1 " he cried, impatiently, as we sat in his snug back parlour, " I don't believe the story about Napier. If it is true, why, he must have been lamentably ignorant of his own business. Look here," he proceeded, getting up from his easy chair by the fire, and taking down a cavalry sword, suspended in a frayed black leather sheath over the doorway of the room in which we sat, " that's a bit of true Damascus steel for you," and dropping its point to the floor, he bent the blade until the hilt came within Bin or 9in of its extremity. I took the weapon out of his hand, nervously felt its sharp edge, and looked inquiringly at him. " Marj ," he cried to a servant girl in anotherroom, "bringin afei?potatoe3 or apples, and an orange or two." On these articles being produced he placed an apple in my hand, and saying, " Hold it steadily out," lifted the weapon in the air. Naturally enough I demurred, and so, without ahother word he recalled the domestic, requested her to hold out her hand and shut her eyes, and, upon compliance on the girl's part, he proceeded to rapidly slice apples, potatoes, and oranges upon her small white hand with the utmost indifference. " Now, are you satisfied ? Shall Idoit on the back of your neck ? " he asked at length, turning to me. "I would rather not, if it's all the same," was your humble servant's reply. " Well," he smiled, "as you like. I'll do it on Mary's." And he did, cutting, I found on picking up the apple operated on, though to a hairbreadth. "And now I'll tell you how it's done," he said, wiping the moist blade across his thigh, and replacing it in it's sheath and position. " You cut with a sword just as you do with another edged instrument. Of what sort of use, for example, would you find even ,the sharpest of dinner knives, to say nothing of the sort generally laid down to a fellow, were you merely to press with it vertically upon your chop or steak 1 You must exert lateral or horizontal motion before the blade begins to cvt — in plain words, you must saw your beef. Now it is the perfect avoidance on my part of any sawing action that makes the feats just shown to you of the easiest possible nature. My sword falls straight upon the resisting apple or orange, severs it, and then stops dead and motionless upon the soft living human cushion of palm or neck. Were I to draw it back then ever so little or were my assistant to flinch head or hand sideways at the moment of contact, injury would probably follow. Otherwise, the thing's as easy and as safe as eating my dinner with knife and fork." And so it is, though it would be far from the present writer to urge such experiments on the unskilled reader.