Another variation of the illusion of the “Decapitated Princess,” which will be described later on, is obtained without the aid of mirrors. A young girl appears before the audience, accompanied by an executioner clad in red, and armed with the traditional axe of his profession. The curtain then drops, and rises in a few moments, the stage being somewhat darkened. Near the executioner can be perfectly distinguished the girl’s head lying on a round table at the back of the stage. The body is seen lying on the bed a few feet from her head and at her side is the fatal block that had served for execution. The trick is the same as the preceding one; it requires, however, two persons of the same size, wearing the same costume, to carry out the illusion successfully. One of these, the one who shows herself to the public, makes the head, her body being hidden behind the cloth in the rear of the stage, which is in darkness, as has just been explained. The other, who makes the body, has her head bent far back and hidden in a sort of box, a false cardboard neck contributing to increase the illusion.

“BLACK ART.”

To the Yogi and Mahatmas of India, the magicians and illusionists of Europe and America are indebted for the ideas of many of their best tricks and illusions. While the published reports of many of the alleged marvelous effects produced by the “wonder workers” of India must be taken with a very large amount of salt, yet we must give these people due credit for being the originators of many tricks from which the modern magician has taken principles on which he has founded and created several of the grandest and most successful illusions of modern times.

Take, for instance, the illusion known as “Black Art,” or the “Midnight Mysteries of the Yogi,” made famous in this country by those master minds of magic, Harry Kellar and the late Alexander Hermann. The weird illusion is founded on an idea advanced by the Yogi of India.

No doubt nearly all of the readers of this article have seen “Black Art” presented by one of the above named magicians, yet the number who could advance a plausible explanation of how it was done, are very few, because as soon as one thinks that he has discovered the secret, the performer produces an effect in direct variance with the principle on which the illusion appears to be founded.

In this illusion the entire stage from the first groove to the rear is hung with black velvet, the floor covered with black felt, and the top is covered with black velvet, thus forming a large room lined entirely in black. The regular footlights are turned out, and a special set are used, that consist of a row of open gas jets placed on a line with the boxes, and carried up the outside of the black room, as shown in the large engraving.

The lights throughout the entire house are either turned very low or put out, with the exception of the special lights mentioned above.

The curtain rises, disclosing the black chamber. In a moment the magician appears, dressed in a white suit; a wave of his hand, and a white wand appears floating in the air, which the magician secures. A wave of the wand, and a table appears on the right, then a second table appears on the left. A large vase appears on one of the tables, and a second vase appears on the magician’s outstretched hand. Both of the vases are shown and proven empty, and in one is placed a few orange seeds, and the wand is passed over the vase, which instantly becomes filled with oranges. The oranges are poured into the second, then returned to the first vase, when they disappear as quickly and as mysteriously as they appeared, and the vases are again shown empty, and again placed one on each of the tables. A borrowed watch is placed in one of the vases, from which it disappears and is found in the vase on the other table. A life-size skeleton now appears and dances around the stage, becomes dismembered, the separated parts floating about, but they finally rearticulate themselves, and the skeleton vanishes. Now a rabbit is seen in one of the vases, from which it is taken by the performer, and in his hands it becomes two, which are tossed in the air and disappear.

The number and style of tricks performed in the mysterious black chamber are almost unlimited, but an explanation of the ones mentioned above will suffice to show how “Black Art” is performed.

While the stage is draped in black, everything that appears is painted white, and the magician is dressed in white. There is an assistant on the stage all through the act, but as he is dressed in black, with gloves on his hands and a hood over his head, made of black velvet, he is not seen by the spectators, whose sight is somewhat dazzled by the open gas jets. The tables are on the stage, but covered with pieces of black velvet, rendering them invisible. The second engraving shows how the assistant removes the piece of velvet and causes a table to appear at the magician’s command.

The vases are also sitting on the stage, but covered with pieces of black velvet. By picking up the covered vases the assistant can cause them to appear, by removing the velvet, one on the table and the other on the performer’s hand. The oranges are in a black velvet bag, from which the assistant pours them into the vase. To cause the oranges to vanish, the magician, instead of pouring them into the vase, pours them into the open mouth of a large black bag held by the assistant just over the lower vase. The transposition of the watch from one vase to the other is just as easy. The assistant merely removes it from the vase in which the performer placed it, and places it in the second vase. The manipulation of the rabbit is equally simple. The assistant places the first one in the vase by means of a black bag in which it was concealed, then places the second one in the performer’s hands from a second small bag. In vanishing the rabbits the performer merely tosses them up into a large open-mouthed black bag held by the assistant.

The skeleton is made of papier maché, painted white, and fastened on a thin board that is sawed to shape and covered with black velvet. One arm and one leg are jointed so as to be readily removed and replaced by the assistant when he is operating the skeleton. The last two illustrations fully explain the method of construction and manipulation of the skeleton.

The tables are made either of wood or papier maché and painted white. The vases are made of papier maché, painted white on the outside and black on the inside. The reason the inside of the vases are painted black is to prevent the hand of the assistant beings seen when he places it in the vase.

This is one of the most expensive of stage illusions, costing several hundred dollars to properly stage it with the best drapery and accessories, and unless such are used the proper illusory effect is lost. In magic as well as in other business, cheap apparatus is dear at any price.

THE TALKING HEAD.

Probably the most common of all of the illusions which depend upon mirrors is the Talking Head upon a table. The illustration is almost self-explanatory. The apparatus consists only of a mirror fixed to the side legs of the table. The mirror hides the body of the girl, who is on her knees and seated on a small stool, and reflects the straw which covers the floor so as to make it appear continuous under the table; likewise it reflects the front leg of the table so as to make it appear at an equal distance from the other side and thus produce the illusion of the fourth leg. It also reflects the end of the red fabric hanging in front of the table and thus makes it appear to hang down from behind. The visitor stands only a few inches away from the table and head. Such proximity of the spectator and actor would seem to favor the discovery of the trick, but on the contrary it is indispensable to its success.

This illusion is a very ingenious improvement on the “Talking Head.” On entering the small booth in which it is usually exhibited, we perceive an elegant little room decorated with flowers and lights and hung with tapestry. In front there are two railings and the floor is covered with a carpet. In the center is seen a small table on which rests a kind of three-legged stool supporting a cushion and the half body. The lady shows she has arrived by moving her arms and head and speaking and singing. The visitor can see the four legs of the table and can perfectly distinguish the space under the stool, the whole scene being brilliantly lighted, contrary to the usual custom in any such illusions. The secret of the illusion is as follows:

The stool is formed only of a hollowed out disk whose supports are connected by two mirrors that make with each other an angle of forty-five degrees. These mirrors rest on the top of the table which was decorated in regular designs in mosaic and reflect the latter in such a way that they seem to continue uninterruptedly under the stool. The table presents an analogous arrangement, its side legs being connected with the middle one by two mirrors. These mirrors reflect not only the designs of the carpet which by their continuity produce the illusion of a vacancy, but also two table legs located on each side behind the railing, as shown in our small engraving: the mirror to the left transmits to the spectators on that side the image of the leg placed on the left and this image seems to them to be the fourth leg of the table. The mirror to the right plays the same rôle with regard to the spectators on that side. These mirrors in addition hide the lower part of the girl’s body.

“SHE.”

In this scene a beautiful young lady mounts a table arranged in an alcove formed by a folding screen. Above the victim is suspended a cylindrical cloth screen. The screen is lowered to the level of the table, completely inclosing the subject. The table apparently has four legs, and four candles shown beneath it indicate that the space underneath the table is open and clear. The cylindrical screen is shown to be entire, with openings only at the upper and lower ends, and no openings are seen in the folding screen which partly surrounds the table. Upon the firing of a pistol the occupant of the table is ignited, and smoke and flame bursting from the screen indicate that the work of destruction is going on within. When the fire is burned out the screen is lifted, and nothing remains upon the table but a few smouldering embers and a pile of bones surmounted by a skull. Close observation does not reveal any way of escape for the young woman. It is, however, obvious that the magician cannot afford to sacrifice such a subject every evening, and the spectators are forced to conclude that the whole affair is a very clever trick. In fact, it is simply a modification of the beheaded lady and numerous other tricks based upon the use of plane mirrors. The table has but two legs, the other two which appear being simply reflections. The central standard supports but two candles, the other two being reflections. Underneath the table, and converging at the central standard, are arranged two plane mirrors at an angle of 90° with each other and 45° with the side panels of the screen. By means of this arrangement the side panels, which are of the same color as the central or back panel, are reflected in the mirror and appear as a continuation of the back panel. The triangular box, of which the mirrors form two sides, has a top composed in part of the table top and in part of mirror sections for reflecting the back panel, or with a covering of the same color as the back panel.

One of Mr. Kellar’s recent illusions is what he is pleased to call “The Queen of Flowers.” Our first engraving represents the stage as the audience sees it, and the last cut will help to explain it to the reader. The background, set against curtains, is about ten feet long and eight feet high, and represents a mass of flowers and bushes indiscriminately thrown together, with blue sky above. There is a little flat roof which projects out about three feet from the bottom of the screen and is supported by four red poles. The bottom is a floor raised about a foot from the stage, and in front of each of the three divisions made by the poles between the stage proper and the floor of this improvised summer house is placed an electric light. The audience usually wonders what these lights are for in this strange place; but as audiences always accept anything shown them by the prestidigitateur, these lights do not disturb them very much except by dazzling them, as they are meant to do. So much for the setting. There being no doors or screens or curtains of any kind, the spectators have the satisfied feeling that there is no deception there, for they can see all there is to see. They can, that is true, only they don’t realize how much they are seeing.

Mr. Kellar next brings a semicircular stand which he places in front of the middle panel at the height of the floor. At the roof is fixed a brass rod in the form of a semicircle, from which hangs a curtain inclosing the little stand. This, however, cannot do much good, for, as Mr. Kellar says, those on the extreme right and left of the audience can still see quite behind the curtain, through the summer house, and they believe him, not only because he told them so, but because they can see with their own eyes. What could be more convincing! In a moment the curtain is withdrawn and a beautiful lady surrounded by flowers is seen standing on the little platform.

The last engraving will explain matters. The lines extending from the two center poles to the background represent double mirrors; that is, each mirror consists of two mirrors back to back, running from the floor to the roof of the summer house. On account of the indefinite arrangement of the flowers painted on the back scene in monotonous design, the spectators do not notice the mirrors. These, of course, form a passageway through which anyone can walk from behind the scenes to the stand behind the curtain, while the audience is still keeping guard with its ever watchful eye.

“THE DECAPITATED PRINCESS.”

In this illusion the exhibitor states that it is the head of an Egyptian Princess who was accused of treason and beheaded. The head is exhibited in a curtained recess and it reposes upon two swords lying across the arms of the chair. The chair is upholstered in red plush and is placed close to the curtain at the back of the recess. At the back of the chair is an opening just below the level of the tops of the chair arms. This opening is not seen from the front, as it is concealed by a mirror that is placed between the arms of the chair at an angle of 45°. The ends of the mirror rest in folds of the fan-shape upholstering on the inside of the chair arms. The lower edge of the mirror is resting on the bottom of the chair and the upper edge is concealed by laying one of the swords on it, as may be seen in the other illustration. At the proper angle the bottom of the chair is reflected in the mirror, leaving the impression that one is looking at the back. The folds in the upholstering of the inside of the arms effectually conceal the ends of the mirror. There is a hole in the rear curtain directly opposite the hole in the chair back, through which there passes a board supported at one end by resting on the seat of the chair and at the other end by a small box or any convenient article.

The following illusion is similar to the “Decapitated Princess.” A small stage is partitioned off by curtains. In the center of the stage, suspended in space, is a young girl’s head, the neck of which starts from a satin collar. This head is isolated on every side. One sees the rear of the stage, the sides, the top and the bottom, and the brilliant illumination leaves no portion in shadow. The head speaks and smiles and finally blows out a lighted candle. The exhibitor then disappears behind the side scenes with the candle. He now, as it seems, draws out a panel in the back of the stage, and through the aperture thus formed the spectator very distinctly sees the top of a table and upon it a candle which the head has just extinguished. Now this aperture is directly under the head, but much farther off, and is in the direction the body would occupy if the head possessed one. The absence of the body is therefore apparently demonstrated to the visitors.

The illusion was obtained by means of a simple mirror which starting from the upper part of the back of the stage descended obliquely to the front. In the center of this there was an opening which was concealed by the satin collar and through this the young girl passed her head. The inclination of the mirror was, in fact, indicated by a gold rod designed to hide the junction of the mirror and the side. The arrangement will be better understood by reference to the annexed diagram, which belongs to the same illusion, only the clown is substituted for the girl’s head.

Now, by virtue of the optical law that “an object reflected from a mirror appears to be behind the latter at a distance equal to that which separates it from it,” every point of the line, M l, reflected from the mirror, P M, will appear to be situated upon the line, M L.

So, to the spectator located at O, the point, c, reflected at C′ will appear to be the point, C; the distance, c C′ equaling C C′. The point, l, reflected at L′, will appear to be L. And it will be the same for all the intermediate points. The spectator, then, will believe that he sees the line, M L, when in reality he sees only the reflection of M l. Now, as we have just said, he will believe that he sees the back of the stage, when, in fact, he sees nothing but a reflection of the ceiling in the mirror. In the same way, the reflection from the front of the ceiling will produce the illusion of the stage floor. This fact still further contributes to increase the illusion, for the spectators are not aware of the difference that exists between the arrangement of the place where the bust appears and of that of the place where the showman is walking.

HOUDIN’S MAGIC CABINET.

These apparatus were formerly much employed by magicians—Robert-Houdin, for instance. The following is an example of one of the scenes that may occur with them:

When the curtain rises, there is seen in the center of the stage a large, dark-colored cabinet, ornamented with mouldings, and mounted upon legs that are a little longer than those of ordinary cabinets, the object being to remove all possibility of a communication with the stage beneath. These legs are provided with casters. The showman turns this cabinet around and shows that there is nothing abnormal about it externally. He then asks some of the spectators to come up close to it, and lets them examine its interior, which is entirely empty. There is no double bottom, nor any hiding-place. When the witnesses have made themselves certain of this fact, they station themselves around the stage, and a certain number of them even consent to remain behind the cabinet and see nothing of the experiment. The cabinet being thus surrounded on all sides, and every one being able to look under it, fraud would seem to be an impossibility.

A young woman dressed as a danseuse then comes on the stage and enters the cabinet, and the doors are closed upon her. In a few moments the doors are opened again, when, lo and behold! the closet is empty, the young woman having disappeared. Then the doors are closed again, and then opened, and the danseuse makes her appearance; and so on. At the end of the experiment the witnesses examine the cabinet again, and finding nothing changed therein, are justly stupefied.

In another style of cabinet there is no bar in the center, as shown in our engraving, but there is observed on one of the sides in the interior a bracket a few centimeters in length, and, back and above this, a shelf. This arrangement permits of performing a few experiments more than does the one just described. Thus, when the woman has disappeared, the showman allows a young man to enter, and he also disappears, while the young woman is found in his place. This is a very surprising substitution.

The box into which the harlequin takes refuge, and which appears to be empty when Pierrot or Cassandra lifts the curtain that shields its entrance, is also a sort of magic cabinet.

In a series of lectures delivered a few years ago at the London Polytechnic Institution, a professor of physics unmasked the secret of some of the tricks employed on the stage for producing illusions, and notably that of the magic cabinet. The lecturer, after showing the cabinet, and causing the disappearance therein of an individual while the doors were closed, repeated the same experiment with the latter open. But, in the latter case, so quick was the disappearance that the spectators could not even then see how it was done. The illusion produced by the apparatus is the result of a play of mirrors.

In the first cabinet described, when the exhibitor has closed the doors upon the young woman, the latter pulls toward her two mirrors that are represented in our plan of the cabinet by the lines, G G. These mirrors are hinged at O O, and, when swung outward, rest by their external edges against the bar, P, and then occupy the position shown by the dotted lines, G′ G′. When the cabinet is again opened, the woman placed at A is hidden by the two mirrors; but the appearance of the interior of the cabinet is not changed, since the spectators see the image of each side reflected from the corresponding mirror, and this looks to them like the back of the cabinet.

In the second arrangement, which is shown in vertical section in our last engraving, the young man gets up on the shelf, c n, at the upper part of the cabinet, by the aid of the bracket, T, and then pulls down over him the mirror, b c, which was fastened to the top of the cabinet. This mirror, being inclined at an angle of 45°, reflects the top, and the spectators imagine that they see the back of the cabinet over the shelf, as they did before.

A MYSTIC MAZE.

We present an engraving of a very interesting optical illusion produced with only three mirrors. By multiplying the mirrors the large number of different effects can be obtained.

Let us imagine that three perfectly plain and very clear mirror glasses, as large as possible, form a prism whose base is an equilateral triangle. A person placed in the interior of this prism will see his image reflected a very large number of times. A very simple geometrical construction, and one which we recommend our young readers to carry out as an exercise in optics, by the simple application of the principle that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, allows us to see that the image of any point whatever placed in the center of this triangle of glass plates will be reproduced indefinitely by groups of six images distributed symmetrically around points regularly spaced in the prolongations of the planes of the three glasses.

A person, therefore, sees his image reproduced indefinitely in groups of six until, the successive reflections attenuating the intensity of the images, the latter cease to be visible. Three or four persons massed in one of the angles present the illusion of a compact and mixed crowd standing upon a sidewalk and awaiting the passage of a procession. The hats waving in the air convert the peaceful waiting into an enthusiastic manifestation, which is so much the more surprising in that it is made by but half a dozen persons at the maximum.

The accompanying figure gives an idea of this remarkable effect, and the three persons, whose images reflected ad infinitum produce the curious result that we call attention to, would have much trouble to believe that they were the subject of an illusion.

Upon the whole, the experiment is nothing more than an application of the principle of the old kaleidoscope enlarged and revived, in the sense that the observer has before his eyes the successive reflections of his own image, and that the objects are replaced with living beings movable at will.

Five or six persons may occupy, at the same time, the triangular prism, of which the sides are about six feet wide, and which they enter through a trap in the floor. When these five or six persons are walking about in all directions, they present the aspect of a tumultuous and agitated crowd commenting upon grave events.

PLATINIZED GLASS.

Platinized glass plates are no longer a novelty, but the illusion is very effective. The mirrors give an image in the ordinary way when looked at by reflected light, but are transparent when observed by transmitted light. The metalization of glass with platinum was discovered a great many years ago by the Messrs. Dodé. This property of transparency by transmitted light affords a very clever surprise. The mirrors are set in frames. In a panel behind the latter there is an aperture closed by a shutter. As the glass is transparent there may be seen through it, when the shutter is open, everything that is on the other side, so it occurred to the inventors to utilize this transparency by placing an image or photograph between the panel and the glass. On exposing the mirror to the light to look at one’s self in the ordinary way, if the shutter is open, the human head will disappear and may be replaced by the photographic portrait or a horned devil, which is placed behind the mirror. In the illustration we illustrate the head of the devil whose body is hidden by two mirrors inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees, as in some of the illusions we have already described. As he moves his head and smiles, the effect is rather startling. Electric light is used to illuminate the trick.

STATUE GIVING A DOUBLE IMAGE.

At the Italian exhibition held a few years ago in the Champ de Mars, Paris, there was a statue that attracted much attention from the visitors. It represented Goethe’s Marguerite standing before a mirror. This latter gave by reflection the image of Faust, as shown in our engraving. The artifice was well concealed by the sculptor. In reality, it was not a double statue, but the figure of Faust was skillfully obtained by means of the folds of Marguerite’s robe.

CHAPTER III.
MISCELLANEOUS STAGE TRICKS.

The tricks in this chapter are no less interesting than those which have gone before, but are rather of a more miscellaneous nature. The first trick which we shall describe, is called “The Illusion of Trilby.”

The late Professor Herrmann won for himself a firm place in the regards of the civilized world, representing the fin de siècle Houdin. His carefully executed work, with its perfect detail and finish, was a standard among performances of natural magic, and other exhibitions are referred to it as the gage of their quality. In Herrmann’s illusion of “Trilby,” hypnotism is supposed to play a part. As will be seen, it is really an ingenious application of mechanics.

A plank is placed upon the backs of two chairs. A lady performer who is supposed to represent Du Maurier’s “Trilby” enters and, stepping on a foot-stool, lies down upon the plank. She holds a bouquet in her hand, which bouquet, unknown to the audience, has its own part to play. The other performer, Herrmann, who is supposed to be Svengali, carefully arranges the drapery, walking around her as he does so. Then he makes some passes, and one by one removes the chairs, and the lady and board remain in the air. In response to his passes the lady, still resting on the board, rises, and the position changes to an inclined one and back to the horizontal one. Finally the chairs are replaced, the lady by passes is supposed to be waked from her trance and steps down, chairs and plank are removed, and nothing is to be seen further.

Two of the cuts show the progress of the performance as seen by the audience. The third cut explains the mechanism. Behind the scenes is a strong frame, up and down which a movable slide works. Tackle is provided to raise and lower the slide; and a workman behind the scenes is intrusted with its manipulation. A bar carrying at its rear end handles, and in front a socket, shown in the upper right-hand corner of the same cut, is journaled in the slide, and can also be thrust in and out through the journal box.

When Trilby has been placed upon her board couch, the bar is thrust forward, drapery at the back having hitherto concealed its socket end. The fair Trilby with her bouquet now effectually conceals it as it emerges from behind the curtains. The performer, while apparently sedulously arranging the drapery, guides the socket and causes it to grip the board. The assistant behind the scene pulls upon the tackle and works the handle, so that Trilby’s weight leaves the chairs one by one, which are removed, and, supported by the bar, she seems to float in air. By manipulating the tackle she can be raised and lowered. By the handles she can be tilted about, giving a wonderfully good effect. Finally the chairs are replaced, and the assistant lowers Trilby upon them. During the waking passes the socket is detached and the bar is withdrawn. A close observer may notice a slight agitation of the drapery or curtains behind the stage as the bar is pushed out and withdrawn, but the attention of the audience in general is so taken up with the performance proper that this disturbance is overlooked by them.

The supreme happiness of sitting in a swing which apparently whirls around its points of support, giving the occupant what is most properly described as a new sensation, may now be enjoyed by all. It is termed the “haunted swing,” and has been in most successful operation at Atlantic City and at the Midwinter Fair near San Francisco. Those who are to participate in the apparent gyrations of the swing—and there may be quite a number who enjoy it simultaneously—are ushered into a small room. From a bar crossing the room, near the ceiling, hangs a large swing, which is provided with seats for a number of people. After the people have taken their places, the attendant pushes the car and it starts into oscillation like any other swing. The room door is closed. Gradually those in it feel after three or four movements that their swing is going rather high, but this it is not all. The apparent amplitude of the oscillations increases more and more, until presently the whole swing seems to whirl completely over, describing a full circle about the bar on which it hangs. To make the thing more utterly mysterious, the bar is bent crank fashion, so that it seems demonstrably impossible for the swing to pass between bar and ceiling. It continues apparently to go round and round this way, imparting a most weird sensation to the occupants, until its movements begin gradually to cease and the complete rotation is succeeded by the usual back and forth swinging, and in a few seconds, as the children say, “the old cat dies.” The door of the room is opened and the swinging party leave. Those who have tried it say the sensation is most peculiar and the deception perfect.

The illusion is based on the movements of the room proper. During the entire exhibition the swing is practically stationary, while the room rotates about the suspending bar. At the beginning of operations the swing may be given a slight push; the operators outside the room then begin to swing the room itself, which is really a large box journaled on the swing bar, starting it off to correspond with the movements of the swing. They swing it back and forth, increasing the arc through which it moves until it goes so far as to make a complete rotation. The operatives do this without special machinery, taking hold of the sides and corners of the box or “room.” At this time the people in the swing imagine that the room is stationary while they are whirling through space. After keeping this up for some time, the movement is brought gradually to a stop, a sufficient number of back and forth swings being given at the finale to carry out the illusion to the end.

The room is as completely furnished as possible, everything being, of course, fastened in place. What is apparently a kerosene lamp stands on a table, near at hand. It is securely fastened to the table, which in its turn is fastened to the floor, and the light is supplied by a small incandescent lamp within the chimney, but concealed by the shade. The visitor never imagines that it is an electric lamp, and naturally thinks that it would be impossible for a kerosene lamp to be inverted without disaster, so that this adds to the deception materially. The same is to be said of the pictures hanging on the wall, of the cupboard full of chinaware, of the chair with a hat on it, and of the baby carriage. All contribute to the mystification. Even though one is informed of the secret before entering the swing, the deception is said to be so complete that passengers involuntarily seize the arms of the seats to avoid being precipitated below.

THE “SCURIMOBILE.”