Magic, Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography. Albert A. Hopkins
his manner was ever genial and kind. ‘Magicians are born, not made’ was a favorite paraphrase of his, and Dame Nature certainly had him in view for one when she brought him to this sphere.
“His success lay in his skill as a manipulator, in his witty remarks and ever-running fire of good-natured small talk. He was a good conjurer, a clever comedian, and a fine actor. His ‘misdirection,’ to use a technical expression, was beyond expression. If his luminous eyes turned in a certain direction, all eyes were compelled (as by some mysterious power) to follow, giving his marvelously dexterous hands the better chance to perform those tricks that were the admiration and wonder of the world.
“Alexander Herrmann’s pet hobby was hypnotism, of which weird science he was master, and to its use he attributed many of his successful feats. His great forte was cards; he was an adept in the ordinary tricks of causing cards to disappear, and reappear from under some stranger’s vest or from a pocket. With the greatest ease and grace, he distributed cards about a theater, sending them into the very laps and hands of individuals asking for them. On one occasion he gave a performance before Nicholas, the Czar of all the Russians. The Czar complimented the conjurer upon his skill, and decorated him, at the same time smilingly remarking: ‘I will show you a trick.’ The Czar tore a pack of cards into halves, and good-humoredly asked: ‘What do you think of that? Can you duplicate it?’ His surprise was great to see Herrmann take one of the halves of the pack and tear it into halves. Herrmann was as clever with his tongue as with his hands, having mastered French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, and English. He also had a fair knowledge of Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, and Swedish.
“He was decorated by almost every sovereign of Europe, and many of them gave him jewels. The King of Belgium and the late King of Spain each presented him with a cross; there was a ring from the King of Portugal, one from the Prince of Wales, and various other gems.
“At private entertainments and clubs Herrmann was especially felicitous as a prestidigitateur. I will enumerate a few of his numberless sleight-of-hand tricks: He would place a wine glass, full to the brim with sparkling wine, to his lips, when suddenly, to his apparent surprise and consternation, the glass of wine would disappear from his hand and be reproduced immediately from some bystander’s coat-tail pocket. He would place a ring upon the finger of some person, and immediately the ring would vanish from sight. A silver dollar would change into a twenty-dollar gold piece. A magnum bottle of champagne, holding about two quarts, would disappear, to reappear from under a gentleman’s coat. He was a capital ventriloquist, an imitator of birds, and quite clever at juggling and shadowgraphy, but he did not exhibit these talents in public.
“The lines in Herrmann’s hands were studies for adepts in chirography. There were three lines of imagination, instead of one, which indicates an imaginative faculty little less than miraculous, and denotes a generous heart, genius for friendship, a determined nature, and an artistic temperament. The accompanying impression of his right hand, taken a few days after he died, represents a short hand, owing to the fact that in death the fingers had curled inward somewhat. In life his hands were long, slender, and tapering.”
IMPRESSION OF HERRMANN’S HAND
Leon Herrmann, a nephew of the great Herrmann, is now performing in the United States with success. In personal appearance he resembles his uncle. He is very clever at palmistry—the cardinal principle of conjuring.
One of the most original and inventive minds in the domain of conjuring is M. Bautier de Kolta, a Hungarian, who resides in Paris. He is almost a gentleman of leisure, and only appears about three nights in a week. He is the inventor of the flying bird cage, the cocoon, the vanishing lady, and the trick known as the “black art,” reproduced by Herrmann and Kellar.
In England, the leading exponent of the magic art is J. N. Maskelyne, who has held forth at Egyptian Hall, London, for many years. He has done more to unmask bogus spirit mediums than any conjurer living. Apprenticed like Houdin to a watchmaker, Maskelyne became acquainted with mechanics at an early age. He is the inventor of some very remarkable automata and illusions, for example “Psycho” and the “Miracle of Lh’asa.” At the juggling feat of spinning dessert plates he has but few rivals. To perform this requires the greatest skill and delicacy.
One of the best performers in the United States of anti-spiritualistic tricks and mind-reading experiments is Mr. Harry Kellar, a Pennsylvanian, who at one time in his career acted as assistant to the famous Davenport Brothers, spirit mediums. Kellar is exceedingly clever with handkerchief tricks, and his “rose-tree” feat has never been surpassed for dexterous and graceful manipulation. Like Houdin, De Kolta, and Maskelyne, he is an inventor, always having some new optical or mechanical illusion to grace his entertainments.
Of late years he has made the fatal mistake of exposing the methods of palmistry to the audience, thereby offending one of the cardinal principles of the art of legerdemain—never explain tricks, however simple, to the spectators. People go to magical entertainments to be mystified by the pretended sorcery of the magician, and when they learn by what absurdly simple devices a person may be fooled, they look with indifference at the more ambitious illusions of the performer. Palmistry is the very foundation stone of prestidigitation. No magician, unless he confines himself to mechanical tricks, can do without it in a performance.
Last but not least in the list of modern fantaisistes is the French entertainer, M. Trewey, an exceedingly clever juggler, sleight-of-hand artist, and shadowgraphist.
VI.
In his advertisements, Robert-Houdin was extremely modest. His successors in the art magique, however, have not imitated him in this respect. We have Wizards of the North, South, and West, White and Black Mahatmas, Napoleons of Necromancy, Modern Merlins, etc. Anderson, the English conjurer, went to the extreme in self-laudation, but managed to draw crowds by his vainglorious puffery and fill his coffers with gold, though he was but an indifferent performer. The following is one of his effusions:
“Theatre Royal, Adelphi——. The greatest wonder at present in London is the Wizard of the North. He has prepared a Banquet of Mephistophelian, Dextrological, and Necromantic Cabals, for the Wonder seekers of the approaching holidays. London is again set on fire by the supernatural fame of the eximious Wizard; he is again on his magic throne; he waves his mystic scepter, and thousands of beauty, fashion, and literature, rush as if charmed, or spell-commanded, to behold the mesteriachist of this age of science and wonder! Hundreds are nightly turned from the doors of the mystic palace, that cannot gain admission; this is proof, and more than proof, of the Wizard’s powers of charming. During the last six nights, 12,000 spectators have been witnesses of the Wizard’s mighty feats of the science of darkness, and all exclaim, ‘Can this be man of earth? is he mortal or super-human?’
“Whitsun-Monday, and every evening during the week, The Great Delusionist will perform his Thousand Feats of Photographic and Alladnic Enchantments, concluding every evening with the Gun Delusion!!”
The Theosophical craze of recent years has had its influence on prestidigitation. A modern conjurer who does not claim some knowledge of the occult, or, at least, who has not traveled in the Orient, cuts but little figure in public estimation. Every now and then some enterprising wizard rushes into print and exploits his weird adventures in Egypt and India, the birthplaces of magic and mystery. Every intelligent reader reads between the lines, but the extravagant stories of Oriental witchery have their effect on certain impressionable minds. The magician Kellar is a reputed Oriental tourist. He has journeyed, according to his own account, in the wilds of India, witnessed fakir-miracles at the courts of Mohammedan Rajahs, hobnobbed with Mahatmas in