PROFESSOR JONAS'S GHOST.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1761, 11 October 1879, Page 2

PROFESSOR JONAS'S GHOST.

A private exhibition, by invitation, was given in the Oddfellows' Hall last night of Professor Jonas' Spectrescope. Most persons have either a theoretical or practical knowledge, more or less, of the modus operandi of the celebrated optical illusion known as Professor Pepper's Ghost, but it has not until now that this clever scientific feat has been shown to perfection in New Zealand. The methods in which the principle is carried out are various, but Professor Jonas has so far perfected his particular system that it appears to be scarcely possible for any improvement to bo made upon it. Phantoms appear and disappear, change their forms, become duplicated and reduplicated with lightning-like rapidity, and these feats are so deftly done that it is a marvel how itjis accomplished. It would be manifestly unfair to enter into any explanation of how Professor Jonas' ghost " walks," and it would detract from the interest that is enhanced by unsatisfied curiosity. The performance last night was divided into three parts. The first consisted of negro minstrelsy by three male performers, who disappear out of their chairs in a most mysterious manner, their places being taken by elderly phantoms, who mimic their antics in the most grotesque manner, until the climax is capped by such a mix up of material and spiritual bodies as fairly to bewilder the spectator, and cause him to doubt the evidence of his senses. The second part is a musical melange, in which the performers appear out of space, go through their song or dance, and then fade away, to be succeeded by another artißte in the sume weird and ghostly manner. Another very clever feat is that of the enchanted chair, which is alternately tenanted and vacated by the samo incomprehensible means. The concluding spectral monologue, entitled the " Ghost's Revels in the Haunted House," must be seen to be appreciated. The vagaries of the phantoms bb they gyrate over one another, svrarm up walls and become inextricably mixed up, resemble a first-class nightmare after an indigestible supper, more than a reality, scientific or otherwise, and brought down tumultuous applause. The artistes who impersonate the ghosts are each clever in their way. The singing of Miss Annie Milner, and the dancir g of Miss Sally Lloyd, were highly appreciated and heartily applauded, while the Irish songs of Mr Patsy Gill, and the ditties, sentimental and comic, of Meters Young, Brown, and Miller, diversified the entertainment in an agreeable manner. The entertainment will be repeated this evening and until further notice, and is well worthy of a visit.