A REMARKABLE TRICK.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 118, 7 May 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE TRICK.

There was nothing very remarkable in the appearance or dress of our conjurer. An elderly man, short and sparely made, dressed in dingy white cotton, with very tight sleeves to his robe and very tight legs to his drawers ; he might have been a respectable servant out of place, but actually was a small landowner who had taken to conjuring for his amusement. When he entered the room he spread a white cloth upon the floor and sat down upon it with his back to the wall, the door of the room being on his right hand. His spectators were disposed in the following fashion : Mr. Smyth sat on a chair nearly in the middle of the room, [ was sitting on a sofa near the door, the Parsee merchant stood in the doorway about an arm’s length from me, The servants stood about in groups the largest group being between the door and the conjuror. As soon a 3 he had settled himself he turned to the Parsee and asked for the loan of a rupee. The pedler at first demurred a little, but on being guaranted against loss, he produced the coin. He was going to put it into the conjurer’s hand, but the latter refused and told the Parcee to hand it to Mr. Smyth’s bearer. The bearer took it, and, at the request of the conjurer, looked at it and declared it to be really a rupee. The conjurer then told him to hand it to his master. Mr Smyth then took it, and then followed this dialogue : —Conjuror : Are you sure that is a rupee 1 Smith : Yes. Conjuror : Close your hand on it and hold it tight. Now think of some country in Europe, but do not tell me your thought (then the conjuror ran over the names of several countries, such as France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and America—for the native of India is under the impression that America is in Europe). After a moments pause Mr Smyth said he had thought of a country. Then open your hand, said the juggler, see what you have got, and tell me if it is a coin of the

country you thought of. It was a fivefranc piece, and Mr. Smyth had thought of France. He was going to hand the coin to the conjuror, but the latter said, No, pass it to the sahib. Mr Smyth accordingly put the five-franc piece into my hand; I looked closely at it, then shut my hand and thought of Russia. When 1 opened it I found, not a Russian but a Turkish silver piece about the size of the five-franc, or of our own crown piece. This I handed to Mr Smyth and suggested that he should name America, which he did, and found a Mexican dollar in hfs hand. The coin, whatever it was, had never been in the conjuror’s hand from the time the rupee was borrowed from the Parsee merchant. Mr Smyth and his bearer had both of them closely examined the rupee, and Mr Smyth and I turned over several times the five-franc piece, the Turkish coin, and the dollar ; so the trick did not depend on a reversible coin. Indeed, it could not for the coin underwent three changes, as has been seen. I need only add, for the information of those readers wbo know not India, that a rupee is only about the size of a florin, and therefore about half the weight of a five-franc piece. The juggler performed several other tricks that day, but they were of a commonplace kind, and in no way comparable to the coin trick, which 1 have never seen rivalled by any other conjuror in India or Europe.—From “Two Tricks of an Indian Juggler.”

A FOOLISH WAY OF SETTLING A QUESTION OF HONOUR.

A duel took place on the Belgian frontier between M. Waddington, son of the French ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, and M. The'ophile Berges, of the Republique dc Chateau Thierry. M. Waddington considered an article in this paper offensive, and demanded satisfaction of Mr. Berges, who aceepted the responsibility of it. The seconds met, and an encounter was arranged. Pistols were the arms chosen, the distance being thirty paces, and the combatants having the right of advancing ten steps each. The meeting took place at five in the morning. M. Waddington advanced ten steps, and his bullet wounded his adversary in the breast, but.not dangerously. M. Berges fired without advancing, and his bullet did not take effect. The weapons were re-charged, and there was a second exchange of shots, this time without result on either side, although M. Waddington again used his right of advancing, receiving as he did so his opponent’s fire. Honour was then declared to bo satisfied; Father of adored one—‘Then it comes to this, sir, you have no fortune, you have lost your appointment, you have no prospect of getting another, and you come to ask my daughter’s hand and fortune?’ —No ? Suppose we put it in this way ; I am unembarassed by wealth, and free from the cares of business, and my future is irradiated by hope ; therefore, this is the crisis when I can best devote myself to your daughter, and enjoy that affluence with which you can ciown your love.

He was speaking with great earnestness. He cried aloud : ‘ Oh-de th ! where-is-thy-stiug ? Oh-victory where-is-thy Oh, gracious ! where am I anyway ? ’