MASKELYNE AND DEVANT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9442, 12 May 1909, Page 4

MASKELYNE AND DEVANT.

One of the most important illusions (Mrs Daffodil Downey’s Seance) to figure upon the new programme which Maskelyne and Devaut will present in Marton Opera House tonight, possesses an almost historical interest, since it was*inveuted as an attack upon the very man of whom Browning wrote in “Sludge the Medium. ” This Holmes had caught thefhysterical fancy of a section of the English people, and his seances were crowded by ladies who were desirious of holding communion with tho'spirits of dead people which the obliging doctor engaged to bring to the rendezvous. Maskelyne, then a young man, set to work to invent a remarkable cabinet from which results were obtained far transcending those effected by Holmes. A public performance was given and the trickery was embodied, in a satirical playefcto “Mrs Downey’s Seance.” The success of the clever gibe and clever illusion was instantaneous for the dullest person was made to see how easily a conjuror can deceive the senses, even under stringent conditions, Just as “Patience” killed the extreme pte-liaphaelite movement, so Maskelyuo’s illusions at the Egyptian Hall chocked the truly alarming craze for supernatural shim. People who have seen the famous Pepper's ghost offer carious suggestions *h -.t the effect is produced by mirrors, but such n theory is not tenable, for the lady who materiali?PE u, \ery clearly liesh aad blood.