AN AUCKLAND MAGICIAN UNDER FIRE. SHOT IN THE LEG AT NEW CALEDONIA.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 273, 16 June 1888, Page 5

AN AUCKLAND MAGICIAN UNDER FIRE. SHOT IN THE LEG AT NEW CALEDONIA.

Fkom fi'es of "Le Neo-Calcdonien " which have como to hand by the Wainui, wa aro placed in possession of a rather sensational episode which occurred at one of Professor Herbert's sleight-of-hand performances in the capital of the Fronch colony. One of the mo.st notable tricks in the wizard's repertoire is to allow one of his audience to (ire at him with a loaded pistol and to catch or pretend to catch the bullet between his teeth, and to exhibit it to the astonished spectators. On the night in question, L'rof. Herbert was warned by his assistant (Mr Waite, jun.) that, the man who had been selected from the audience to firo the shot, and who had placed a triplo charge in the weapon, had unconsciously detached a piece of stee horn the end of the ramrod and left it in the muz/Jo. The Professor, fearing to spoil the effect of the feat by having the piece of steel dislodged, resolved to chance the hazard of tho shot, trusting to the man's likelihood of missing, which he .sought to increase by placing him at the end of the hall, a distance of about fifty feet. Unfortunately, the Frenchman wasan accurateshot,and the Profes&or confesses to a very uneasy feoling as he watched him slowly bring tho weapon down into position and care f ully sight it. As he glanced at the level barrel he saw that it pointed straight at his breast, and that the man was taking very deliberate aim. Still, he held his ground with a hardihood that savoured too much of the reckless. As the report rang through the hall ho felt a sharp pain in the calf of the left leg as if a red-hob poker had been run through it, and fearing that the appearance of blood from the wound might apprise his audience of what had really happened he ran hastily down amongst them, took the bullet from his teeth, and having exhibited it retired to the back of the stage amid thunders ot applause. Once behind the curtain, he applied a ligature to the already bleeding wound, and went on with his performance as if nothing bad happened. But a few keen-eyed persons, and amongst them the reporter of the " Neo-Caledonien," had noticed that something unusual had occurred, and inquiries having elicited the real facts they were duly placed before the public in the course of a two-column panegyric of the performance which appeared in tho next issue of the local thunderer. We felicitate Piofcssor Herbert upon his lucky escape, but at the same time we advise him to run no more risks of the kind. "Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandcllc." '