CRICKERY EXPOSED.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 15, Issue 31, 19 April 1904, Page 2

CRICKERY EXPOSED.

A writer in the Ludgate Wetltly explains gome of the tricks of clairvoyants, hypnotisers, and thought-readers. The following Is one of his explanations The clairvoyant, apparently mesmerised < and being in a state of trance, is placed against a stand, with her left arm resting upon a pedestal, and there she remains completely unmoved. The conjurer, however, before leaving her, bares her arm to show that there is nothing upon it, and thereafter draws her sleeve down. The reason of this will be apparent shortly. He then calls upon the man who keeps the door to bring in a Webster’s dictionary, and he asks him to give it to anybody he likes in the hall. The book is received by one of the spectators who is asked to open it, and announce what it is. It is an ordinary dictionary. The conjurer has a second book in bis hand—a book of travels or any other book—and a thin ivory paper-knife. He goes with these to some other part of the hall, and says, " I have a book here and a paper-knife; 1 shall be obliged it you will take this paper-knife in your hand and place it in between the leaves of this book as I hold it to you, that the audience may see that you determine at what page I shall open this book, and that I do not open it at any page I choose myself.” The spectator places the paper-knife between the leaves of the book, and the conjurer immediately thereafter opens the place and displays the paper-knife. The gentleman who has put the paper-knife between the leaves announces that he did so at page 115, let us say. That having been done, and a note taken of it by any person in the hall who chooses, the book is placed on a desk in full view of the audience with the paper-knife in its place. The conjurer then asks the gentleman who holds the dictionary to be kind enough to open the book at the page which has been indicated—namely 115. - 1 He then goes into the body of the ball with a bag of counters with numbers upon them. He asks any lady or gentleman to take this bag of counters and look at them. A lady examines them, and finds that each counter bears a number upon it, apparently from one upwards. He then says—- “ Now you observe that the gentleman has indicated the page at which the dictionary is to be opened. The dictionary is , open, and now 1 have to ask this lady to j select the word.” { He then opens the bag to the lady, and, I asks her to take one of the counters, and I only one. She takes out one counter, bear- : ing, let us say, number 17. The counter is i held up to the audience, and the conjurer requests the gentleman who holds the dictionary to count down the first column of the page which he has opened, and to put his finger on the seventeenth word, and to be sure not to name it aloud, although he may communicate it to his neighbours to show there is no collusion. This having been done, the conjurer makes a few plasses towards the clairvoyant, and brings her from an apparently somnolent condition to that of an awakened subject of mesmerism. When she has recovered partially, he asks her to bare her left arm, and upon her doing so, the audiI encs sees to its amazement the word “mysj tery,” or some other word, written in blood, j which proves to be the word selected in the | manner described. | The way in which the trick is done is ‘ simple. The word is selected beforehand, and. a slip is prepared in blood-red ink, which, in the act of pulling down the sleeve of the clairvoyant is unrolled and pressed upon the arm, so as to leave an impression there in imitation of blood. The word having been selected beforehand and the impression on the arm having been arranged ior, the only thing neoessary to carry out the deception is to get the audience to select word 17 on page 115, or, rather, to think that it does so, for of course it does nothing of the kind. The first idea (bat occurs to one in this connection is a confederate, but there is no confederate in the case. There are two points in this trick that the audience knows nothing about. There are two paperknives and two sets of counters. When the conjuror takes the book to the auditor whom he asks to select the page by inserting the paper-knife in the book, he takes care to keep the second paper-knife already in the book concealed from view. He keeps the book closed and the second paper-knife disappears within the leaves. He next makes some commonplace observation and then opens the book at page 115, exhibiting the first paper-knife and keeping the second concealed. Obviously the auditor supposes he had inserted his paper-knife in the booh at page 115. The page of the Webster’; dictionary is thus very simply indicated at the place desired by the conjurer. Th< The next thing is to have the right word selected. This is also easy. The bag is a doubh bag having a division down the middle. In the one half are a number of counter! bearing different numbers, and this is the half from which conjurer asks the auditoi to take a handful. In the other half tlu counters are all of one number—in this in stance the number seventeen. The conjurer, of course, will not have or every evening in that side of the bat counters bearing the same number. Om time he will have 15, at another 20, at another 32, and so on. He will place in th( bag the number of the word which he hat already inscribed for the arm of the olair toyant. ■ 4 PUZZLE. Each horizontal line of this eryptogran represents a complete word ; and either d the two diagonals, read from left to right will give the name of a celebrated foreign statesman.

Answer. The name of the statesman is BismaVck The words to be substituted for the lethen in the puzzle are as followsßootjucV, Riddance, Miscarry, Animates, Topmasts, Restored, District, Billhook^